Good Hope

"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." (II Thessalonians 2: 16, 17 KJV)

"Good hope through grace"! What a rich, pregnant, and powerful message in those words! God help us to believe them! To trust and have confidence in them! To be strengthened, comforted, and encouraged by them! God help us to live the message in these words of hope!

What is a "good" hope as opposed to a bad hope? Why is the source of this hope only in God, in his grace and mercy?

First, Lord God, the only one true and living God, the God of Abraham, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to be the sole object and ground of hope. Anything else will fail and be judged as an idol.

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is...O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters." (Jeremiah 17: 7, 13 KJV)

If this one Creator God, the God of Israel, is a man's sole hope for this life, and also for the life to come, then he will truly and forever be saved. However, for the man who has stubbornly refused to make God the object of his hope and expectation for good, then such will be forever denied any and all good.

"Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (I Peter 1: 21 KJV)

"For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Galatians 5: 5 KJV)

A good hope not only has God as its only object, but also has him for its author. No man truly believes or hopes in God and in Christ apart from Lord God graciously giving to him that very hope he needs. It is through the mercy of God that he extends and actually gives hope, through his Holy Spirit, and through his word of gospel and promise, and through his grace, and through his power.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (I Peter 1: 3 KJV)

Some translate the verse as saying - "a hope living through the resurrection..." The life of the hope is in the resurrection of Christ. A "dead hope" would be one that is not grounded in the resurrection of Christ. The Christian hope is also the immediate effect of being spiritually "begotten" of the Lord, of becoming spiritually alive from the dead.

"O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD." (Psalm 31: 23, 24 KJV)

"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." (Psalm 33: 18, 19 KJV)

"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God..." (Psalm 146: 5 KJV)

Blessed results indeed for those who can say that they have made God the sole object of their hope and expectations!

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." (Psalm 42: 5,11; 43:5 KJV)

Yet, those who are lost, unsaved, and unforgiven, are such that have refused to place full hope, trust, and confidence in the Lord and in his promise of salvation in Christ. When they are depressed and troubled in soul, in life, they do not do as did David in the above Psalm. Rather, they either give up on having any hope at all, for salvation from death and misery, or else place their hopes in things other than in the Lord.

"And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart." (Jeremiah 18: 12 KJV)

"Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel." (Jeremiah 3: 23 KJV)

So, some were believers in "no hope" while others placed hope in worthless things. Some, in the coming Day of Judgment and Tribulation, will try to find refuge in bunkers, and in caves deep, and in large mountains, but such places will prove to be a vain thing in which to hope and trust. (See Revelation 6: 16) Some hope that the Bible is wrong, and hope that Christ is false, for they realize, that if the Bible is true, and if Christ is real, then they are doomed. Are they not hoping foolishly?

Hope is not mere "wish" in Bible terminology and definition. It is more akin to "expectation," for the hope is founded upon promise, and faith in it.

"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..." (Ephesians 2: 12 KJV)

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." (I Thessalonians 4: 13 KJV)

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (I Corinthians 15: 19 KJV)

All who are sinners, and who are unbelievers in Christ, and in the gospel, are such as are truly "hopeless." They may have their many and varied "hopes," but they will all be one day demonstated to be nothing but "vain hopes," and "false expectations," and shown to be all based upon "empty promises" made by false prophets and heretical religious "guides," for both, the blind and their followers, shall indeed "fall into the ditch."(Matthew 15: 14 KJV)

"When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth." (Proverbs 11: 7 KJV)

"So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web." (Job 8: 13, 14 KJV)

"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?" (Job 27: 8 KJV)

The warning is clear. Make sure you have made the God of heaven your hope. Make sure too that he is not merely your hope as regard your external stated confession, what you affirm as so with your lips, but makes sure he is really and truly so in your heart and life. Do your works demonstrate that God is your hope for life, for the here and for the hereafter?

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word (of promise) through preaching...That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 1: 2, 3; 3: 7 KJV)

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ..." (Titus 2: 13 KJV)

"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability 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..." (Hebrews 6: 17-19 KJV)

It is a great hope that has been given to the believer in Jesus, to those who become his faithful disciples! They possess a hope that acts like a mighty anchor to their souls, that keeps them safe from becoming lost by the winds and waves of trial and times of testing. The Christian hope has nothing but strength and firm expectation associated with it, and far surpasses the vain hopes and wishes of the wicked.

The Christian has hope of eternal life, and "...the hope and resurrection of the dead." (Acts 23: 6 KJV)

"And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24: 15 KJV)

The hope of immortality and a spiritual body! Glorious things upon which to hope! Glad ought we to be for the proofs and evidences that God has given to us to assure us that his promises of such things are indeed real! Praise God!

"Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil." (Proverbs 17: 17 KJV)

"The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel 3: 16 KJV)

"The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy." (Psalm 147: 11 KJV)

"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." (Romans 8: 24, 25 KJV)

Saved, kept, or preserved by means of this hope that is in Christ! No wonder John said - "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (I John 3: 3 KJV) Such a hope gained initially will guarantee radical and continuous transformation and purification. Such a hope begats great rejoicing, even in times of great trial. (Romans 12: 12 KJV)

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope...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." (Romans 15: 4, 13 KJV)

"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1: 27 KJV)

"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." (I Thessalonians 5: 8 KJV)

Christ, the reason and ground, and the lone object of faith and hope! The very life of hope! What a spiritual helmet to protect the thoughts of the heart and mind!

"But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Hebrews 3: 6 KJV)

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." (I Peter 1: 13 KJV)

"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..." (I Peter 3: 15 KJV)

"The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death." (Proverbs 14: 23 KJV)

"Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope." (Psalm 119: 116 KJV)

Friend, if your hope is in God, the Almighty, and in his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in his resurrection, then you indeed have reason to rejoice greatly, and have no reason to fear. Will you make him your hope today?