HOPE

Things Scripture Teaches about: HOPE

Romans 15:4 tells us that “whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (NASB 2020)

The Bible is a book designed to give us hope. But for many, it seems to do the opposite. We can be sure that Father is not sending us mixed messages. He has one plan, one purpose. He wants an eternal loving relationship with His children.

Let’s look at some things the Bible teaches about hope.

At the outset, we might do well to ask, “what is hope?” According to Oxford Languages, “hope” when used as a noun means, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” The entry goes on to mention that the archaic use means “a feeling of trust.” As a verb, hope means to “want something to happen or be the case.” These are useful definitions to be sure, but there is more to hope.

The Bible is filled with the idea of hope. The word itself is used about 143 times, and when it is not speaking simply of someone wanting a certain outcome, there is an object in view. In such cases it refers to hoping in someone or something. This is akin to what Oxford Languages calls archaic usage.

The primary object is the Lord Jesus Christ, and for good reason as we will discover.

Judaism, as depicted in the Old Testament, was a religion of hope. The Hebrew people hoped for a savior who would rescue them from bondage and give them a permanent home.

Jeremiah 17:13–14 speaks of this, saying, “LORD, the hope of Israel, All who abandon You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, that is the LORD. Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise.” (NASB 2020)

Jeremiah 29:10–11 provides an example of the promise God made to Israel. It reads, “For this is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (NASB 2020)

This hope was not realized, however. It was hope that looked forward to a time that had not yet arrived and a savior who had not yet come. A better hope was needed.

Hebrews 7:18–19 points this out with clarity. There, we read, “For, on the one hand, there is the nullification of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, there is the introduction of a better hope, through which we come near to God.” (NASB 2020)

The law handed down by Moses was instituted to teach the people that they could not make themselves righteous (and thus acceptable to and compatible with God) by anything they could do. It was, as we read in Galatians 3:24–25, a guardian or schoolmaster for them. The passage says, “Therefore the Law has become our guardian (or schoolmaster) to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” (NASB 2020)

We find further insight in Romans 3:19–20, which reads, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin. (NASB 2020)

So, we see that the Law is designed to silence everyone who claims to be able to achieve righteousness by the purity of their attitudes and actions. The Law makes clear that no one can achieve righteousness. It points out the imperfection of people’s conduct by comparing it to the ordinances of God as summarized in ten unchangeable commandments engraved on unbending stone. In so doing, the Law anticipates and requires another, better, solution.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that hope. Indeed, He is that better hope.

For the Hebrew people, this speaks very clearly—though many, even now, do not accept it.

We who are Gentiles were never included in the Law Moses gave to Israel, however. Ephesians 2:11–12 is crystal clear about this. It says, “Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (NASB 2020)

We who are not Hebrews were not included in that covenant. We were not given the promises it contained; promises which gave the Israelites hope. In fact, as this passage points out with great clarity, we were without hope.

It is this dark hopelessness in which the people of the world still live. The world and its system of doing more to be better, is the domain of darkness ruled by the evil one who is god of this world.

Job tasted what it is like to lose hope. As terribly afflicted as he was however, he clung to his hope in God. Job saw clearly what the alternative was. Here is the way he put it in Job 27:8 “For what is the hope of the godless when he makes an end of life, When God requires his life?” (NASB 2020)

Proverbs 10:28 strikes a similar tone saying, “The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.” (NASB 2020)

We need only observe the increasingly complex problems in the world or listen to the news of catastrophe and wickedness abounding to find ourselves tempted to give up hope.

Jesus predicted all of this tribulation and turmoil. In Mark 13:7–8 He says, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are only the beginning of birth pains.” (NASB 2020)

I love that Jesus doesn’t simply prophesy all these things and leave it at that. Instead, He comforts us by saying “do not be alarmed.” Hundreds of times in scripture people are told not to fear. The perfect love God shares with us is our ticket out of fear. Since we are so incredibly loved, we have confidence that Father will deliver us just as He has promised. That’s great hope properly placed in a Great Object.

We are given assurances about this. 1 John 4:18 tells us that, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” (NASB 2020) Those in whom the Spirit of God lives, are perfected in love. His love is poured into their soft and loving new hearts. In fact, it is this outpouring and perfecting of love within us that establishes the reliability of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:5 encourages us in this, saying, “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NASB 2020)

The verses that precede the Apostle’s statement about love driving out fear add more credence to our hope in God. Here’s what they tell us, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world.” 1 John 4:15–17 (NASB 2020)

We are safely immersed into Christ Jesus and kept with Him in God (see Colossians 3:3). We cannot be taken out of Him (see John 10:28-29) and because we remain in the One who is Love, we can look forward with confidence to the day of judgement. Judgement is not a source of dread for us. On the contrary, we can look forward to it because being in Him, we have been made like Him even in this world.

This does not mean that we have been made gods. Rather, it refers to the righteousness and holiness of our spirit. It is this amazing change of which 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks in saying, “if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (NASB 2020) Verse 21 goes on to tell us the amazing reality of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Listen to this, “He [God the Father] made Him who knew no sin [the Lord Jesus Christ] to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB 2020) He literally gave us His own righteousness. This is not something to which we could ever attain no matter how morally upright we might behave.

This is cause for hope, and in this world, we need hope we can count on.

The travail found on the earth is not unexpected. The world is suffering the natural effects of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than from the Tree of Life. In doing that, they find only death. They remain separated from relationship with God and the Life that brings.

Everything evil and ungodly that takes place serves as a warning to the inhabitants of earth that this realm is destined to fall. The world system will let everyone down. It is only in the Lord Jesus Christ that stability, life, and peace can be found.

Knowing this, we wait expectantly. Titus 2:11–13 lays this truth out well in saying, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” (NASB 2020)

Jesus is the grace of God expressed in a person with whom we can identify (and who can identify with us) and He came to bring the promised salvation, the hope of the Hebrew people and the only way for to God for both the nation of Israel and we who are Gentiles. Knowing His indescribable love, we are naturally drawn to godly living. More than that, as we saw in 1 John, we look forward to the judgement. We watch expectantly for the return of our Lovely Lord Jesus, our great God and Savior.

Psalm 130:6 puts it this way, “My soul waits in hope for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Yes, more than the watchmen for the morning.” (NASB 2020)

I’m sure we have all felt that intense waiting in hope for daylight at one time or another. Restless nights when sleep seems elusive. Nights of illness or distress. In intense discomfort it seems as if daylight will never come. This is the way we live in this dark kingdom clouded by the shadow of death.

2 Corinthians 5:1–5 paints the picture for us this way, “For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked. For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.” (NASB 2020)

We are reminded that we are in this world but not of it, that our inheritance is secure, and that come what may, we will live forever in the presence of the One we love and Who loves us beyond measure.

Notice this beautiful clause Jesus prayed before He ascended back to heaven, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” John 17:14–16 (NASB 2020)

Like Jesus, we are not of this world. That explains a lot, doesn’t it? It provides reassurance when we feel like we are always going against the flow of society. We often find ourselves disinterested in the things many around us find fascinating. We may feel like misfits—peculiar people.

It’s interesting that Jesus was specific that we were not to be taken out of the world. If He had taken us out of the world, so many others would be hopelessly lost. The body of Christ would not be here to tell people the good news about Jesus Christ. Consequently, many would be eternally lost, and the love of God could not tolerate that. He is unwilling that any should remain separated from Him.

Jesus asked the Father to protect us from the evil one, so we can know beyond doubt that the Apostle John was correct in 1 John 5:18 when he wrote that the evil one does not touch those who are in Christ. We who are in Christ do not need to live in fear of the enemy, seek deliverance from him, or worry that we might somehow take his mark and be condemned. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, according to Romans 8:1.

All this shows us that our hope is well placed because God cannot lie and, as if we needed further assurance, He has given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge, a downpayment if you will. A guarantee that His promise that our new Life in Him will never expire and that one day we will walk with Him in The Kingdom. That we will live completely free of the limitations of our current physical bodies and untouched by wickedness or evil of any kind.

This is the reason the Apostle could write in Romans 5:3-5, “And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

We all face harshness, suffering, and difficulties in life. When we come out the other side, we may notice that by the Spirit of God living in us we remembered Christ in us more often or more fully. We may reflect and notice that we responded to the circumstances we faced in more godly ways than we used to.

This proves that we are maturing in Christ and growing in character. It demonstrates that these positive changes haven’t come about through anything we did. We were too busy suffering to work on character development. Seeing this growth and change, gives us hope that does not disappoint. It does not, cannot, disappoint because it is obvious that it is all from God. Consequently, we become more certain that the hope we have in Him is well placed and that is cause for celebrating—even in our tribulations.

Because of the faithfulness of God, we know that our hope is far more than a wish that things will turn out well in the end. Our hope is placed in the unchangeable almighty God who is Love. It cannot fail.

Therefore, we can say with the Psalmist,

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Do not trust in noblemen, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; On that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God,
Who made heaven and earth, The sea and everything that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever;
Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD frees the prisoners.
The LORD opens the eyes of those who are blind;
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
The LORD will reign forever, Your God, Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!
Psalm 146:1–10 (NASB 2020)