The High Call of Hope

People have a tendency to interchange the phrase “I wish…” with “I hope…”.    Those who do this have no idea what hope means.  And yet, even as I make this statement, I simultaneously confess, that I don’t fully understand what ‘hope’ means.  It used to be so easy to say, “I hope in this or that…”, but then I learned that this little word speaks of a positive expectation.  If I’m hoping in something, then I fully expect it to come to pass.  This is not an issue of ‘positive confession’.  If you hold to doctrines of ‘positive confession’ and you are starting to identify those ideas with mine, please stop.  Hope is an issue of character, specifically, God’s character, and our understanding and expectation of His Character.  Those things in which I hope are consistent to His nature and are revealed in His Word.

With this understanding, I really thought I had a good grip on hope.  Recently, my confidence was shattered.

It started in Hebrews 6:11,12 where it says: “we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit (literally, ‘are inheriting’) the promises.”

Hope requires effort and commitment.  Hope overcomes sluggishness.  Hope will get us to the place where we able to persevere through faith and patience, to inherit God’s promises.  Apparently, there’s more to this hope thing than I previously thought.  The true nature of this kind of hope didn’t become clear to me until I read Romans 5:1-5.  It’s been over two weeks since I first read this passage.  I have been wrecked by it ever since.

This is the famous passage that says, “hope does not disappoint” or as my Bible translates it, “hope does not put us to shame”.

When I read statements like this, I’m willing to make an honest confession.  I said, “but hope does disappoint.”    If my understanding of hope sometimes brings disappointment, then I need to reconcile the difference.  Obviously, I’ve yet to understand hope.  Obviously, I am misapplying it .  Obviously, there is a kind of ‘hope’ that fits the Biblical definition, and it’s in conflict with the kind of ‘hope’ that I subscribe to.  Further study revealed to me, that Romans 5:1-5 is laying forth a progression.

Verse one speaks of our salvation.  We are justified and have gained peace with God through Jesus.

Verse two speaks of our access to God.  Now that we are at peace with Him, we also have continual access to His throne.  The lines of communication are open and God is hearing our prayers.  Fellowship is under way.

Verse two continues  to define this fellowship.  As those at peace with God, we now stand in grace.  His undeserved favor is ours and it is our reason and motivation to rejoice.  What do we rejoice in?  Here it is… we rejoice in hope.  What kind of hope is it?  It’s the hope, that serves as a positive expectation, that God will be glorified.

Verse three brings it into context.  Our rejoicing should also be in our suffering.  Why?  Because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.  What kind of hope is it again?  It’s the hope… the positive expectation, that no matter what happens, both good and bad, our sights are set upon God being glorified.

This is why it doesn’t disappoint.  We might hope in health.  If so, we will eventually become disappointed.  We might hope in riches.  Again, disappointment.  In this world of death and destruction, there will disappointment…  UNLESS, we are hoping in and looking forward to something completely different than our own benefit.  If our hope is established in the fact that GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED…  then I won’t be disappointed, even if my own personal world has crumbled into despair.

I am wrecked by this.  Right now, my mind interprets this recognition of hope as being both; liberating and unattainable.  I can’t wrap my mind around it and I’m left feeling like a useless worm.  At the same time, it’s becoming for me, a high calling.  I look up to it.  It calls me to it.  It challenges and offends my intellect.  If ever I thought the end-road of learning and understanding had come into view, hope has knocked it into oblivion.  This is not, however, my despair.  This is, again, another area where God has scratched out my intellectual conclusion, and replaced it with the word, ‘mystery’, and it’s His mystery, that leaves me in awe.  Fortunately, this is the place where I need to be.