1 Corinthians 13:12-13 “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
We cannot see the future, but on this side of Heaven, the Christian stands solidly upon faith, hope and love with the joyful and confident expectation of God’s promises for future good and glory to come. The Apostle John states that because of the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, sin and death entered the physical world and the spirit within us died, breaking our union with our Creator, but God made a Plan of Salvation and restoration in “born-again” reconciliation by a Substitute to atone for our sins as a redemption that that is explained by the Savior of the world Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in John 3:5, 16-17, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
The Apostle proclaims in John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”, then confirms it in 1 John 5:12-14 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
The Apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 2:1-10, “You He [Creator God] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [the devil], the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
The repentant of sin, “born-again Believer in God’s Plan of Salvation through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross in their place receives eternal life in transformational conversion and regeneration of the spirit in their innermost being by the Holy Ghost unto eternal life in Heaven. It is immediate, yet unseen, therefore the great hope until this moral life is over. The Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When this earthly existence has come to an ultimate conclusion and we live eternally in the Kingdom of God with our Lord Jesus Christ, that which we had faith in and had hoped for have come to fruition, so love remains and abides forever on both sides.
The Greek word for “hope” is “elpis“, meaning the expectation of good. In the Christian sense, joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary was written by Noah Webster to assist Americans understand the meaning of words in the Holy Bible so that they could better know the context of Scripture and apply that knowledge in their Christian life because the United Stated was Founded as a Christian Nation. The word “hope” is defined as (1) A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety. (2) Confidence in a future event; the highest degree of well-founded expectation of good; as a hope founded on God's gracious promises; a scriptural sense. A well founded scriptural hope is in our religion, the source of ineffable happiness. (3) That which gives hope; he or that which furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good. The hope of Israel is the Messiah. The Lord will be the hope of his people. (4) An opinion or belief not amounting to certainty, but grounded on substantial evidence. The Christian indulges a hope, that his sins are pardoned.
In theology, a Believer is defined as: one who gives credit to the truth of the scriptures, as a revelation from God. In a more restricted sense, a professor of Christianity; one who receives the gospel, as unfolding the true way of salvation, and Christ, as his Savior. Belief is faith. The world need hope because we live in a fallen world; sin and unbelief abound.
Hope in Christ, Brian
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