Is There Any Hope?

Someone has said that if you could convince a man there was no hope, he would curse the day he was born. Hope is an indispensable quality of life.

On Dec. 17, 1927, the S-4 was conducting routine drills just off Long Point, Provincetown, when it came to the surface and was inadvertently rammed by the U.S. Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. The ship punched a two-and-a-half-foot-long hole in the starboard side of the submarine, which quickly sank in 110 feet of water. The entire crew was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed to the scene of the disaster off the coast of Massachusetts. We don’t know what took place down in the sunken submarine, but we can be sure that the men clung bravely to life as the oxygen slowly gave out.

A diver put his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise. Someone, he learned, was tapping out a question in the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. The question came slowly: “Is … there … any … hope?” This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there any hope?”-Tan, P. L. (1996).

Is there any hope is the unanswered question of those unknowingly outside the arms of God’s grace. They may not know what they are seeking, but their lives are screaming where do I find the hope? The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:13, “If you live by your corrupt nature, you are going to die. But if you use your spiritual nature to put to death the evil activities of the body, you will live.” (GWN) Sin places those outside the arms grace into direct conflict with God and into the hopeless condition described in Isaiah 61. Those with no hope are prisoners of their sins. They are captivity to the desires of the flesh. They are bound by the chains of the guilt of their past mistakes and shortcomings. It all feels overwhelming. The good news is that Jesus comes and taps on the side of the ship and says there is hope. I have come to rescue you. I have come to set sinners free. On Calvary’s cross, Jesus came to be that sacrifice. On that cross, Jesus liberated the hopeless. Jesus set the captives free from sin and guilt. He pointed them to the hope Christians have in the cross and the empty tomb. Christ’s work on Calvary’s cross answers that question loud and clear is there any hope? The former tax collector turned Apostle Matthew writes, “He will not crush a reed under His heel or blow out a smoldering candle until He has led justice and righteousness to final victory. All the world will find its hope in His name.” Yes, there is hope, and we find that hope in the name and work of Jesus Christ.

Some wonder is this a true story. Yes, it is. If you want to know the outcome of the sailors here is the link to the story.

 http://schnorkel.blogspot.com/2006/01/remembering-us-submarine-s-4.html