ICEA – “Church at Study”
The word “hope” is often associated with a person’s expectation of God’s final deliverance or salvation. In the Old Testament, God was the object of the righteous. They waited for His salvation. Many of the Old Testament saints also hoped for the final deliverer (Messiah), who would establish His kingdom on earth. We, (the church), look (or hope) for Him, also. He is the risen One: the “first-born” from the dead, and our hope is that we will (like He did) rise; and we will meet the Lord in the air. Hope, in large part (for the church) has to do with our trust that God will one day physically deliver the righteous from earth to heaven. It is a hope in a final deliverance or resurrection. New Testament scriptures are mainly used IN THE HANDOUT BELOW, to attempt to define the word hope. The object of hope in a number of the scriptures from the handout refer to either God the Father, or the Lord Jesus Christ. Hope, therefore, is often in expectation of the Person, Jesus, who God has made both Lord and Christ (Messiah). Hope (not always, but in large part) speaks of something more eternal than faith. This means, for example, that the word “hope” is rarely defined as someone believing that God will heal them of a condition. Faith, many times, is a word better used for our belief in “temporal” healings and believing God for His temporal “blessings.” Our faith in temporal things can waiver. For example…let’s say someone had faith to believe God to “fix” some condition. Years went by and the condition remained. Over those years, they had highs and lows. There were times they believed God with great faith and other times doubts crept in. The point is, again, our faith often waivers and we can become of “little faith” (Matt. 8:26). Here is another example: we have faith that God will heal a sick loved one. They die. We question why. What went wrong? Did we have enough faith? We often wrestle with our inability to have faith in God for temporal healings. But, we should never lose HOPE in the person of Jesus; the One who controls death and life. That’s why we are at peace when we have prayed and had faith that God would heal a loved one…only to watch them pass away. It does not take away from…nor diminish…our hope in the existence of the person of Christ or God. Faith waivers, but hope in God should never waiver. Examine this scripture: “Lord, I believe [in order words, I have faith], but help my unbelief.” We see from the verse that this man’s faith waivered, but not his hope in the existence of God. It is possible to have little faith to believe for something and yet have hope in the Eternal One. Here is how Hebrews 6:18-20 reads: 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; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus…. This verse reminds us that hope is more eternal. (This doesn’t mean that the word hope is in all instances defined as eternal, neither is faith always considered temporal.) The hope we have in Jesus should never waiver, because the hope we have in the person of Jesus ANCHORS our souls and hope is not volatile like our faith can be. We can sometimes lose our faith, but we must not ever lose our hope. We see an instance where the disciple Peter and the other disciples lost their HOPE. The angels told the women that Christ was risen, the bible states that the men did not believe them. In other words, the Son of God had died, and their was no HOPE in His resurrection. This would have been the saddest occurrence in the bible had Jesus not have shown Himself alive to his hopeless followers. Explore the handout below to view scriptures explaining the difference between faith and hope.
PCAFI Christian Ed. Aux. (ICEA) Articles 