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What is Christian Hope?
Hope is a word that is used regularly in our language, but if you ask someone to define what they mean when they use it, their replies can be vague. That’s because hope is a non-physical entity, something that is real, but you can’t touch it. You can’t touch it, but you can share it.
The world’s dictionary definitions use the word “or” which gives options for your understanding, but also shows that hope is hard pin down. We use the word as both a verb and a noun. The verb is defined as a desire or a feeling; the noun can be the feeling or desire, or the object of our desire.
But we often use “hope” just like a wish, a desire without any real expectation that it will be fulfilled. Sometimes our hope has a reasonable level of expectation. I like the Cambridge Dictionary’s definition:
to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might
“Meaning of hope in English”, Cambridge Dictionary, Accessed 5/13/2021, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/hope
I prefer this definition because it recognizes that real hope must have a reason. That’s why Christian hope is better than the world’s hope.
Christian hope in what Jesus did
While hope is generally about something in the future, a lot of hope is based on knowledge of the past. Because something happened in the past, we can hope that similar circumstances will produce similar results. Weather prediction is a hope based on past experience. Farmers plant seeds with a confident hope that they will sprout, based on past experience.
Christian hope acknowledges what God has done in the past. His promise to Noah gives Christians hope that is superior to any global warming alarmism:
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22*
Christians realize that our hope for physical (and spiritual) healing is based on what Christ did.
…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24
This verse is a great example of hope because the phrase “by whose stripes you were healed” is a reference to Isaiah 53:5:
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
This passage in Isaiah is messianic, a prophecy about Jesus’ ministry as the Savior of our souls and the sacrifice that He paid for our sins. The English Bible versions generally translate the Hebrew in Isaiah as a present or future event (”are healed”) while they translate Peter’s Greek as a past transaction (”were healed”). I’m not enough of a scholar of the ancient languages to determine if that difference is significant, but it’s consistent across translations.
The Christian hope is based on what Jesus did and what God promised, not just on our own wishes or desires. That also goes for our hope of heaven.
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel… Colossians 1:3-5
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:13
Christian hope in what Jesus is doing
Hope is a powerful force in the present. It’s often the motivator that keeps people actively participating in an event when they have no obvious incentive to do so. Sometimes is a wishful hope, just something to grasp because there is nothing else on which to hold.
The boy doesn’t look like he believes Aragorn, and that’s valid. Aragorn did not share everything he knew. He knew Gandalf was currently working on bringing help, and that was the foundation for his hope. This scene is not in the book, where instead Aragorn has a conversation with Theoden in which he tells him not to give up hope while Gandalf is still active. In both the book and the movie, Gandalf shows up to turn the tide of battle in the morning.
That’s the danger of the world’s hope. It has no basis on anything you can count on. The hope expressed for things to get better often is just a wish that things were not what they are.
Christian hope for the present is based on the fact that God is working now.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” John 5:17
Our hope is also based on the present calling to serve Him.
…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints… Ephesians 1:18
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling…Ephesians 4:1-4
Christian hope in what Jesus is going to do
The world’s hope for the future rests on man. We expect the government to help us, or for nations to reduce wasteful emissions to preserve the planet, or for scientific discoveries to heal us or allow us to survive. But for every hope based on man’s achievements, there is more reason to despair.
All the alarmists will agree that man is his own worst enemy, and for that reason we must be controlled. But the controllers are also men. So it seems like the future is doomed.
Christian hope is based on what God has promised to do in the future. Because God has already fulfilled so many of His promises in Jesus Christ, we can have hope that our future is bright. He gave us the Bible so we can hope in something greater than what we see in the world around us.
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4
The main Christian hope is the hope of the resurrection, which was promised by the One who Created everything, and who paid the price for our sin through His Son, and who then proved it by raising Him from the dead. Those facts give us hope in His promise of a future resurrection.
having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Acts 24:15
Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! Acts 26:6-7
Paul considered the hope of eternal life part of the motivation for his ministry:
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began; Titus 1:1-2
In fact, Paul was so sure of Christ’s return and our future resurrection that he told the Thessalonians that they should not mourn for their dead like the world mourns because of that hope:
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
The Christian hope is founded on the history of everything God has done in the world, the present truth of what He is doing now, and on the future which He has promised us. It’s not a wish or a transient desire, but a sure confidence “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
By His calling, in His strength,
Dean
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