The Object and Basis of our Hope

Intro

Hope is best understood in the context of its relationship to the promises of God, because hope is a response to the promises of God (Acts 26:6; Tit 1:2; Heb 10:23). The act of hoping involves waiting with a keen sense of anticipation for the fulfilment of those promises.

With regard to the Scriptural triad of faith, hope and love, we might say that:

Faith receives the promises

Hope waits for the promises

Love delights in the promises

So, faith is the act of receiving and accepting God’s promises. Hope is the act of waiting with expectation for the fulfilment of those promises. And, love is the act of delighting in and living out and sharing those promises with others.

But in the NT, ‘hope’ describes not only:

the act of waiting and expecting; but also

the object or outcome expected (Col 1:5; Tit 2:13); and

the basis of that expectation (Col 1:27; 1 Thess 2:19).

Our ‘hope’ (in the second of these senses) is the outcome for which we’re waiting, the thing that has been promised. And in the NT, we discover that the receiving of our ‘hope’ is both a present and future reality.

The things promised are seen and welcomed from afar but, in Christ, the fulfilment of God’s promises is not that distant. Indeed, the things promised are already being received, already tasted in part. Yet, at the same time, they are still keenly anticipated and patiently awaited; we have not yet received them in full.

In a previous video, Steve McCabe has already considered the present aspect of our hope; my responsibility, now, is to help us consider what lies ahead of us. It’s said that:

Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview

The object and basis of hope determine the strength and certainty of the act of hoping.

So, I want us to look at the object and basis of our hope and, by doing so, to increase the certainty of our anticipation and the strength of our delight in the promises. And, I want to anchor what we say into the Scriptures.

Read 1 John 3:1-3

In this short passage, I want us to see the object of our hope. I suggest it has three elements and they are all found in 1 John 3:2:

when he appears

we shall be like him

we shall see him as he is

1. When he appears - the coming of the Lord

Lk 12:36; 1 Cor 1:7; Phil 3:20; Col 3:4; 2 Tim 4:1, 8; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Pt 1:13; 2 Pt 3:12-14; Jude 21

“When he appears....” - The first element of our hope is Christ’s appearing, that is his coming again.

We know that John means the coming of the Lord in 1 John 3:2 because, just a few verses earlier, in 1 John 2:28 he links his appearing (phanerōsis) with his coming (parousia) (using two of the four Greek words associated with the Lord’s return in the NT). ‘Coming’ (parousia) literally means ‘presence’ so that these two words - ‘appearing’ and ‘coming’ - taken together, signify that the Lord’s return will involve the personal presence of one from whom we are now absent and the visible appearing of one currently unseen!

Parousia was the word usually employed for the visit or arrival of a king or emperor. And the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we eagerly await, is the coming of the King and the consummation of his kingdom.

The gospel that the Lord Jesus proclaimed was the gospel of the kingdom: not just the good news of personal salvation, but the good news of the restoration of God’s kingly rule on the earth. Our hope, then, is in the return of the King, in the peace and justice of his reign and of our inheritance in his kingdom.

Those of us who have acknowledged the kingly authority of the Lord, by being baptised and added to a church of God, are living in the ‘already’ of God’s kingdom - an unshakeable kingdom which was said to be ‘near’ during the earthly life of the Lord (Mk 1:15) and which we are said to be ‘receiving’ even now (Heb 12:28). It’s a present, inaugurated reality for disciples in churches of God and yet one which will reach its final consummation only when the King returns.

It’s in that respect that I belive we can pray as the Lord taught his disciples: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). We’re praying for the final consummation of God’s kingdom, for the appearing of the King, when God’s will surely will be done on earth, just as it is in heaven.

Now, we know that there will be two stages to his coming:

first to the air for his bride, the church;

then to the earth to judge the living nations and take up his throne.

His appearance to us will be greeted with joy; his coming to the world will bring mourning (Rev 1:7).

In his letter to Titus, Paul uses another of the four Greek words used in connection with the coming or appearing (epiphaneia) of the Lord, describing it as: “the blessed hope — the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13). The hope of our God and Saviour returning in the royal splendour of his kingship is, indeed, a happy hope - filled with joy for us who know him.

Part of the reason for that joy lies in the hope that when the King comes, in his Father’s glory, his reward will be with him (Rev 22:12). Listen to how Peter exhorts exiled Christians in his first letter. He says:

1 Peter 1:13 NIV

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

What is this grace that we’re to expect at the revelation (apokalupsis) - the last of the four Greek works I mentioned - of Jesus Christ at his coming?

Peter tells us that the testing of our faith will result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Pet 1:7). And Paul tells Timothy that, for those of us who have longed for his appearing, there will be a crown of righteousness, awarded by the righteous Judge (2 Tim 4:8).

Perhaps above all, though, we might see the link between the Lord’s coming and our entrance into the promised land. I suggest that the hope of his coming is the hope of home.

Hebrews 11 is sometimes referred to as a gallery of faith, but I suggest that it is just as much a gallery of hope. The chapter is full of words that describe the expectant waiting and diligent seeking that are comprised in the act of hope. And what was the object of their hope?

We read that the patriarchs were diligently seeking a country of their own, a homeland (literally, a fatherland) (Heb 11:14). And not just a land but a city, one with foundations, whose architect and builder is God himself. And not only were they seeking it, but they looked forward to it, they thought about it, they saw it, they welcomed it from a distance, and they longed for it (Heb 11:10-16).

The hope of his coming is, for us, the hope of home: a place of prosperity, security and rest. It’s a place which, even now, he is busy preparing for us.

John 14:3 NIV

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

In fact, John 14:3 gives us the basis for this object of our hope - the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. Since he has told us that his going away is to prepare a place for us we can have absolute confidence that, if he has risen and ascended as he said he would, he will come again in the same way as we have seen him go. When he appears, he will bring us home. Blessed hope indeed!

2. We shall be like him - the redemption of our bodies

Acts 23:6; 26:7; Rom 8:19-25; 1 Cor 15:35-54; 2 Cor 5:1-10; Gal 5:5; Phil 3:21

“We shall be like him...” - the second element of our hope is our glorification, our being conformed to the likeness of Christ, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:23–24 NIV

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

“For in this hope we were saved”. Paul is speaking of the hope of our adoption to sonship, namely the redemption of our bodies.

He says that this is the hope of those “who have the firstfruits of the Spirit”. He’s giving us the basis for this element of our hope and he’s making a similar point to the one that John makes in 1 John 3:2. John says: “now we are children of God”.

You see, it’s the Spirit of God, who bears witness with our own spirit that we are God’s children now (Rom 8:16)! He assures us that it is so, that we’ve been born again - not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:13). We have the divine nature; we are descendants of the King. Dear friends, now we are children of God! And, if children, then we are also heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17).

I find it intriguing that there is such an interest in the British royal family - and not just in the country but around the world. And there’s a special interest when a baby is born into that family, with people eager to guess the name or catch first sight of the baby.

From Romans 8, we understand that God has built into creation a similar eager anticipation of the revealing of the sons of the true King. You see, the glory of who we now are, by new birth, hasn’t yet been made know to the world. John says, “the world does not know us” (1 John 3:1), by which I think he means that the world does not yet recognise our true identity, our royal status. The sons of God are yet to be revealed.

Indeed, “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Ro 8:19 - ESV). Nor should we be surprised that it is so, because John reminds us that the world “did not know him” (1 John 3:1). The King, himself, came into the world that his hands had made and the world did not recognise him.

What that means is that this time of waiting is also a time of groaning. Two things have been built into creation - futility and the hope of liberation from that futility. What we hope for is for our lowly bodies to become like his glorious body - it’s the end of all our groaning and all our frustration. And not only ours, for all creations groans in longing for the freedom of that day.

We haven’t time to explore the full implications of this, but here’s a few things involved in this hope that we shall be like him.

1. The absence of physical decay

The redemption of our bodies will bring liberation from bondage to decay. And that includes natural, physical decay. We will no longer be subject to disability, disease, illness, suffering, pain and death.

We’re surrounded by suffering and by death all the time aren’t we. And 2020, in particular, has been a year in which the futility of the created order has brought into sharp focus by the ever-rising toll of the current pandemic.

We’ve all been touched by the pain of physical decay haven’t we? At whatever point we sense that decay, we groan. And for some, that groaning comes with tears. And we don’t need to hold back the tears. Let them flow! But let them flow as those who have been saved in this hope:

Revelation 21:4 NIV

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Let every tear you shed now renew your hope in the promise of God. It’s a promise of consolation. God is going to wipe away each and every tear from our eyes, when the glory of the children of God is revealed!

2. The absence of moral decay / sin

Presently, even we who have the Spirit, we know the frustration of sin taking the body as a base for its operations. So often, we end up doing the things we don’t want to do and not following through on the tasks we do want to do.

How much more glory will God get from our bodies when, without hindrance, we can offer the parts of our bodies to him as instruments of righteousness.

3. But not the absence of the body - a bodily future

Doesn’t your heart leap at the fact that the freedom of the glory of the children of God is a bodily freedom. God has a bodily future in store for. Far from regarding the body as something evil (in and of itself), God has ordained to receive glory from our bodies and to redeem and renew those bodies as the means by which he will receive glory from us through eternity.

Now, we must exercise extreme caution in what we say about that bodily future because, as John says, “what we will be has not yet been made known” (1 John 3:2). But, it seems to me, that we must banish any thought of a monotous, ethereal experience (floating on clouds) and look forward to a bodily future in which, no longer subject to decay or to sin, we’ll be able to fully enjoy many of the good things we’ve tasted in this life, and so much more besides.

One of the deepest longings, through the restrictions of this past 9 months, has been for the freedom to hug our loved ones, our families, our brothers and sisters in the Lord. As grateful as we have been for the technology to meet virtually, I feel confident that we won’t be meeting by Zoom in the glory. I love the picture of the Father’s compassion in Luke 15: the father who runs to his son, throws his arms around him and kisses. Surely, the freedom to embrace and be embraced is part of the bodily freedom for which we hope.

Similarly, haven’t we groaned with frustration under recent restrictions on our expression of joy and hope in God. One of the distinguishing features of Christian service, down the centuries, has been the service of song. And we await a day in which our singing (maybe also our dancing) will be not be fettered, either by government restriction or by any bodily limitation. We’ll be free to praise the Lord with all our might.

For me, eating is one of life’s great pleasures and, in particular, the fellowship of family and friends around a table of good food and drink. I’ve come to see it as another little foretaste of the eternal pleasures that will be revealed to us at the redemption of our bodies. I sometimes wonder what will be on the menu at the marriage feast of the Lamb or when the Almighty prepares a feast of rich food for the nations he will gather to his holy mountain - the best of meats and the finest of wines!

Oh, how we long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, for mortality to be swallowed up by immortality. We long for him to appear; we long to be like him....

3. We shall see him as he is - eternal life

Tit 1:2; 3:7

“We shall see him as he is”. The third element of our hope is the King himself. Indeed, I suggest to you that this is the hope of hopes, the supreme object of our hope.

Paul spoke to Titus of the “hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Tit 1:2). I believe that the hope of eternal life is the hope of seeing him as he is, since John tells us in his gospel that eternal life consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3). And what he talks about in the third chapter of 1 John is a knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, which is quite unlike anything that we have already seen or known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

In my first year at university, I shared halls with a sincere Christian man called Luke. He was once asked what was his ambition in life, and his answer made a real impression on me at the time and has stuck with me since. He said: “to see God”.

Moses had the same hope. David too.

What about us? Are our hearts gripped by the prospect of seeing God? I suggest to you that it is only this hope in God, in Christ, that prevents the other objects of our hope from becoming idolatrous. We can long for the better country, we can eagerly anticipate our new, glorious bodies - indeed Scripture assures us that these are legitimate parts of our hope - but only insofar as they express our essential hope in God and in Christ (2 Cor 1:10; 1 Tim 4:10; 1 Cor 15:19; 1 Thess 1:3).

The basis for this hope is his first appearing. John tells us, right here in chapter 3, that “he appeared so that he might take away our sins” (1 John 3:5) and that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). It’s this first revelation of the Son of God, which gives us confident hope in our seeing him as he is.

We live between the first and second appearings of the Lord. As Paul explained to Titus, his first appearing was an appearing of the grace of God, offering salvation (Tit 2:11). His second appearing will be an appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour (Tit 2:13). No eye has yet seen that glory, which will be made known to us and to the world in a coming day. Even Peter, James and John, who were eyewitnesses of his majesty on the sacred mountain, caught only a proleptic glimpse of the honour and glory and power in which he will be revealed to us at his coming.

So our confidence in looking forward to seeing him as he is, all glorious, rests in our ability to look back to his appearing in grace, in the form of a servant, in human likeness. Not only that, but the writer to the Hebrews tells us that between those two appearings, Christ now appears for us in the presence of God - securing a present opportunity to see him in the holies, even as we wait for the full clarity of vision which will come when he appears to bring salvation to us (Heb 9:24-28).

This hope in seeing him as he is, in the fulness of his glory that is yet to be revealed, is the hope of vindication. And it’s the hope of satisfaction.

Psalm 17:15 NIV

As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from his sight. Indeed, everything is uncovered and laid before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. To be exposed, naked before those eyes, and not be consumed means we’ve been vindicated. Fully seen, fully known, and not consumed, means that we are fully loved. That’s the hope that ignites the soul. It’s also the hope of complete satisfaction, to which all our God-given desires and appetites point.

That’s why we fix our eyes not on the transient, visible things of this world, which may gratify some of our desires for a short period of time. No! We fix our eyes on the unseen, eternal God, hoping in him who has promised to satisfy all of our desires with good things. He’s the one who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Tim 6:17) and he will do that fully and eternally by the revelation of the glory of his Son. We will see him as he is, that he might be endlessly glorified by our eternal enjoyment and satisfaction in him.

Conclusion

We said that the object and basis of hope determine the strength and certainty of the act of hoping. And the object and basis of our hope is such that even to want the things we’ve been speaking of has a purifying effect on us now.

1 John 3:3 NIV

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

We long for his appearing and our entrance into the land of promise; we eagerly anticipate him transforming our lowly bodies so that they become like his glorious body; but above all, we hope to see him and to know him fully, even as we ourselves are fully known by him.

And so, at the close of our virtual conference on this profoundly precious theme of our hope, I close with the benediction of Romans 15:13:

Romans 15:13 NIV

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.