Extending Hope: God’s Part (Part I)

Obviously, when one hopes for something, there has to be effort on the part of the giver to extend that hope to the one who receives it. This is no less true in the hope that God has extended toward mankind. God made (and continues to make) an effort to extend that hope to a lost and dying world. The next few posts will examine how God extends hope. We will follow that up with an examination of man’s part in laying hold of that hope.

Love:
This is the motivation for God extending the hope of salvation to mankind. The beauty and humbling factor in God’s love is that it was not expressed as a result of man first showing his love to God. In fact, God extended His love toward man even though man had made himself the enemy of God: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). John tells us much the same thing in 1 John 4:10: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

How is true love manifested? It is not manifested through words alone. Consider what James said in regard to faith: “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:15-17). He tells us that true faith can only be manifested in action. The same can be said of true love . . . it, too, can only be manifested in action. It was through the actions of God that His love was manifested to mankind.

What action did God take to manifest His love to mankind?

Who Needs Hope?

Now that I understand what hope is, I must decide “Do I need to have hope?” To a person who lives in a nation where there is an abundance, this an especially important question. In an “instant gratification” society where we have our needs met and our wants fulfilled so easily, it is easy to forget that this world is not all there is. It is easy to forget that we have a need (and should have a want) for hope.

In Titus chapters 2 and 3, Paul instructs Titus to encourage Christians to live righteously before God. Why?

• Because they had been “redeemed from every lawless deed” and purified by Jesus Christ so that they might be “His own special people” (Titus 2:11-14)
• Because before they had known Christ, they had been “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:1-3)
• Because those who engage in such things (i.e. SIN) cannot be “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7)

So Paul reveals that those who have not been saved through “the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5) cannot be partakers in this hope.

Who are these outcasts Paul is talking about? He is talking about those who are lost in sin. Who is included in this? Paul said that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This means that every single individual from Adam to me has sinned . . . except One, Jesus Christ. Paul also tells us that through sin, man lost all hope of eternal life: “Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

This does not mean that every person after Adam “inherited” Adam’s sin. To say so is to contradict the teachings of the Scriptures. For example, consider what God says in Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel, speaking for God, says that if a man commits all manner of sin and yet has a son who walks in the statutes and commandments of God, the son shall not be held accountable for the sins of his father. Note especially verse 20 (emphasis mone): “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” I am no more responsible for or guilty of the sin of Adam than my son is for the sins that I commit.

No, Paul says death spread to all men because all sinned. I lost my hope and was separated from God when I committed my first sin. We do not inherit the sin of Adam, but we do suffer the same consequences of sin that Adam suffered . . . spiritual death, which is the opposite of “the hope of eternal life.”

Paul goes on to reveal in Romans 5:17-19 how the hope of eternal life was restored (emphasis mine):

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

So, who needs hope? Each and every individual on this earth . . . past, present, and future. We have all sinned, so we have all lost the hope of eternal life. Yet how wonderful it is that God Almighty has provided a Way that our hope might be restored: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

What Is Hope?

Some variant of the word “hope” (hope, hoping, hoped) occurs approximately 70 times in the course of the entire New Testament. This would lead one to believe that hope is quite an important topic in the life of the Christian.

Peter admonishes us to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). However, before I can defend the hope that is in me, I need to define hope.

The standard definition of hope that I have always heard is that it is “desire plus expectation.” It seems that this differs somewhat from our modern usage of the word. Today we often use “hope” just as an expression of desire without much expectation (e.g. “I hope to be rich someday”). Yet the usage of “hope” in a Scriptural context should always carry with it both the idea of desire AND expectation. Why? Because a Christian’s hope is tied to the Promises of God.

If you search the Scriptures diligently, you will find that God has made many promises to man over the years. Here are but a few examples:

• He made a three-fold promise to Abraham: to make of him a great nation; to give his people a land of their own possession; and to bless all nations of the earth through the seed of Abraham. (Genesis 12:1-3)
• He promised to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land (Exodus 3:7-10)
• He promised to preserve a remnant of His people when they were led into captivity due to the sins of the nation (Isaiah 10:21-23)
• He promised to offer salvation to those of all nations who will hear His voice (Isaiah 2:1-3)

The beauty of these promises is that God kept each and every one of them. He kept His promises to Abraham, to the Israelites, to the remnant of Judah, and to all of mankind. So, we learn that when God makes a promise, we can be assured that He will keep it. God has promised a home in Heaven to those who will put on the name of Christ, work to please Him, and strive to bring others to Christ. God kept all of these promises because God cannot and will not lie (Titus 1:1-3).

Who would not have the desire to spend an eternity where there are no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death (Revelation 21:4)? Not only can we have the sincere desire for such a place, but we can have the expectation to receive that reward if we serve the God who cannot lie.

Hope for the Christian encompasses both the desire and the earnest expectation to receive the blessings of a merciful, gracious, loving, and just God.