- God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is Our Hope - The word “hope” in the Bible is used somewhat differently than the way we use the word today. The world’s definition of “hope” is “a general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled” and it is set on temporal earthly things. Where as a true Christian's “Hope” is in invisible “eternal life” which God promised before the world began(Tit 1:2). Our real need is for the salvation of our dead souls as we are bound for an inescapable confrontation with God the Judge, and certain punishment in Hell. Eze 37 is very striking indeed, it reiterates the dryness, or deadness, of the “bones”, but adds two other factors – “our hope is lost” and “we are cut off”. These three expressions have everything to do with the spiritually dead condition of God’s chosen people (the Israel of God) before they become saved. Rom 8:24-25 is a significant passage in that God is giving us an accurate definition of what true Biblical hope is and highlights that “we are saved by hope”. Only those who have been given eternal life will not have to face eternal death in Hell. The Hebrew word for “hope” (yachal:H3176) is also rendered as “wait” and “trust”. Hoping is associated with waiting on God. Please note how God is linking “full assurance of hope” with both “faith and patience” in Heb 6:11-12. In Isa 59, God describes the only hope that mankind has, His mighty arm, which is Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16 declares "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Psa 16 affirms the hope of the resurrection and the promise that God the Father made to God the Son that His soul would not be left in Hell, in which Christ rejoiced in enduring his Fathers' wrath in carrying out God’s Will through which he secured the hope of the resurrection of believer. 1 Cor 15:19 stresses the importance of a “living hope” for each believer who anticipates spending eternity – not just a few years on this earth: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
Tit 1:2 “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;”
Eze 37:11-14 “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel [typifying the Elect of God]: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel [typifying heaven]. 13And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”
Psa. 33:18-19 “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.”
Lam 3:22-26 “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
Rom 8:24-25 “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
Isa 59:16-17 “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.”
Psa 16:8-11 [Messianic Psalm] “I [Lord Jesus] have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. 10For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Acts 2:25-26 “For David speaketh concerning him [Lord Jesus], I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. [quoting Psa 16:9]”
1 Pet 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively [or living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
Tit 3:5-7 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Tit 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”
- Be Ready Always to Give an Answer for the Reason of the Hope that is in You - A “born-again” Christian finds within his soul a constant, overflowing appreciation for all that God has done for him in the past, at present, and for eternity. God’s “hope” is an absolute certainty that “all things” God says about His salvation program in His Word, the Bible, will be fulfilled. Since God’s Word is Truth, and the only Truth – it provides the only hope for escaping from our slavery to sin and the penalty we deserve, which is eternal Hell. Mankind’s only possible hope of eternal life is revealed in the Bible. An authentic Christian’s trust, hope, confidence, and faith needs to be firmly established in what God has written in His Word. As we humbly live in the fear of God, the Scriptures provide both patience and hope to be obedient to the Word of God in thought, word, and deed. Those who fear the Lord will speak of His salvation with “boldness”, “confidence”, “openly” and “plainly”. The big task for the Christian as he lives out his life in this world is to be a witness, or an “ambassador”, for Christ. This is of paramount importance to those who have become “born from above”. If one is to witness to others once God has redeemed him, he must utilize his body, pure and away from sin, as a tool in God’s service and for God’s glory.
Eph 2:12 “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. ”
Rom15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Psa 130:5 “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.”
Heb 6:16-19 “For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability [unchangeableness] of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
2 Cor 3:5-6,12 “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers [or servants] of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life… Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech [boldly].”
Php 1:20 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”
Eph 1:18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”
Heb 6:11-12 “And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises”
Rom 5:3-5 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience, And patience, experience; and experience, hope. And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
1 The 1:3-4 “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”
1 The 5:8 “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
1 Pet 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like him [Christ]; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
2 The 2:16-17 “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.”
Rom 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
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