HOPE

May God touch your heart through His word recorded here, as He has done for me throughout this entire process. May you practice allowing the Lord to lead you to the thoughts, actions, and places He has planned for you. Step back, take second chair; be a vessel for His use. Sample 1 “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?” Romans 8:24, NRSV The Apostle Paul, in this 8th Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, tells us that we are free from indwelling sin, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (v 1) and “what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (v 3). So that if we turn from the desires and demands of the flesh toward the Spirit and rest in Christ Jesus though sin will have physical penalties, it no longer holds the ultimate penalty of death. Thus, we were saved in this hope. Paul goes on to say that hope that is seen is no longer hope, since once we realize something we were hoping for, we no longer hope for it since it has been given to us or achieved. Moreover, we will not see the result of what our hope is, our release through Christ Jesus from the ultimate penalty of sin, which is death, during our earthly lives. However, when we turn from living in the flesh to living in the Spirit, “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (v 11). In addition, our hope is multifaceted in that by living through the Spirit we claim the hope of God’s many promises pertaining to our lives today, tomorrow, and then through eternity. Jesus told the disciples, regarding today and tomorrow, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10, WEB). Then for eternity: “This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believes in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day” (John 6:40, NRSV). For it is God’s will that through faith in Jesus Christ we should be justified to enter into eternal life with Him. What Jesus Said "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30, WEB Sample 2 “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 The Apostle Paul closes the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians with the above verse. He opens it stating attributes one might have, but if we do not have love, there is no value: If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers ... and if I have all faith ... but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions ... but do not have love, I gain nothing (v 1-3, NRSV). So that without love, there is nothing, as love is the greatest, most essential substance, as it is love that leads to faith and to hope. For it was through God’s great love for us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It is because of God’s great love that He sent the Lord Jesus to bear our sins in His body on the cross, “and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 1:14, KJB). Consequently, “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10). It was God who performed these acts in order to redeem us and justify us to His righteousness, which we were unable to do for ourselves through the Law. It is through our faith in God who sent Jesus to both die and rise again after His death, “that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, WEB). If we believe in our heart that God was able to perform these things for our reconciliation, then we may live in that hope. As Paul and Peter put it, “for we were saved in this hope”, (Romans 8:24) the hope that is “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3) which leads to the hope of our salvation of a life lived out with Him in eternity, thus we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2), the glory that is for believers in eternal life. What Jesus Said “After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:1-3, NRSV