Hope That Doesn't Disappoint
Hope is a funny word. It can be a noun: the belief that what we want, we can have. It can also a verb, which is how it is often used. We hope it doesn’t rain. We hope our children sleep through the night. We hope this quarantine will end soon.
We use the word hope to talk about the future. Will something good or bad happen? We hope something good will happen. We want to have confidence everything will be ok. Only, we don’t really know, do we?
How do we maintain hope when life has let us down again and again? The answer is found in Romans 5:1–5.
THE PROMISE IS THE FOUNDATION (ROM. 4:20–25)
Biblical hope is rooted in the promises and character of God. The hope we see in the Bible is a confident expectation that God will come through. As Christians, we can have confidence that everything will be ok.
Before hope we need salvation. Abraham was “fully convinced” (ESV) that God would come through for him. Did he have proof that he would have a son? No. All Abraham had was a promise.
What did Abraham do with this promise? He didn’t hope it would come true, he believed. Abraham trusted God’s promise.
If we are to find hope in our lives, faith in God is crucial. Abraham believed in who God was, and he believed God would do what he said he would do.
In Romans 4:23-25 Paul says that this, Abraham’s testimony, was written for us. It was recorded to remind us to lean into the faith of God’s promise. That’s where hope begins.
PEACE COMES BEFORE HOPE (ROM. 5:1)
In our Christian life it is easy to think that if we had more hope, peace would follow. But it’s actually the opposite. Peace is a fact of the Christian life. The faith by which we are justified brings peace. Jesus Christ has brought peace because he has paid the price for our justification.
On the cross, Christ died for our sins. God’s wrath needed a payment. Our sin had caused such a division between God and man that nothing but a blood sacrifice would be able to restore our hope. We could not save ourselves, so God said he would make peace with us.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
Paul doesn’t say we can have peace, but that we do have peace. Not just peace in a sense of freedom from strife with man, but a freedom from conflict with God. Peace with God means we are no longer under his wrath. Our sin created in us a division, a separation from God. We had no hope until Jesus came. Now, our hope is bound up in the fact that we have peace with God.
CHRIST GRANTS ACCESS TO GOD (ROM. 5:2)
Christ’s death and resurrection not only granted us a right standing with God but gave us the right to come before God in prayer. In 2 Chronicles 6, King Solomon rhetorically asked the question, “Does God indeed dwell with man?” The answer is a resounding yes!
Only in Solomon’s time, the dwelling of God was wrapped around the temple. We are now the temple for the Holy Spirit, God within us. Jesus’ payment for our sin allowed us access to the inner chambers of God, our Maker. In this secret place (Ps. 91:1) we find God’s presence. Access to God causes our hearts to rejoice!
“Through him [Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).
Our hope is not wrapped up in an uncertain future, no matter what is going on in this world. Our hope is wrapped around the glory of God and his sovereign hand over all the earth. We can have hope because God’s glory will not be thwarted. God’s plan is still intact. We might not understand, but we don’t need to understand to have hope. We need faith.
HOPE DOESN’T NEGATE SUFFERING (ROM. 5:3)
Faith in the God of the future doesn’t negate suffering. Paul did not say to the church in Rome, “if you happen to suffer.” The question is not if we will have suffering, or even how the suffering will come. The question is how will we respond when suffering comes? Paul’s answer is to respond to suffering with joy.
In the previous verse (Rom. 5:2), Paul says we will rejoice in the glory of God. All of God’s character—his justice, love, mercy, and holiness—are reasons to glory. If we truly believe God’s character is righteous and free of corruption, we can trust his sovereign hand even in suffering.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings…” (Rom. 5:3a).
Joy? Let’s be honest. Joy is not the first emotion we feel when our life is turned upside down by grief, loss, or depression. Joy doesn’t naturally come from suffering. That’s why James says we must “count it all joy.”
We must choose joy, not because we have hope that the suffering will end, but because we have hope in the One who patiently teaches us endurance during our suffering. Something good will come from this hardship, God says. Once again, we don’t need to understand to have hope. We need faith. Suffering might come, but something better will emerge.
HOPE REQUIRES ENDURANCE (ROM. 5:3–4)
So why should we rejoice? We rejoice because our hearts and minds are learning endurance. Like an athlete running a race, he does not wake up one morning and decide to run ten miles. If he did his muscles would scream in protest and he would probably injure himself.
Instead, the athlete trains his muscles. Our endurance muscles are being trained during suffering. They are learning they can endure more and more. Through suffering our hearts are strengthened and we are changed to look more like Christ.
The athlete’s goal is to run the ten miles. Our goal is to become more like Christ.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom. 5:3b–4).
What was Christ’s hope? Looking at Philippians 2:1–11 we see Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient . . . even to the point of death.” As Christ-followers, we are to obey what God has asked us to do. Every day we are to get up and endure suffering with patience, knowing that God is working.
HOPE CAN LIVE IN YOUR HEART (ROM. 5:5)
Do you want to be like Christ? Endure the suffering, allow God to work in your life, and let hope be poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit.
Day after day we can have hope because it resides in our hearts. Hope is not something we search for; it is something we already own if we are in Christ. This hope will not put us to shame. Why?
The hope we have is based on faith and the promises of God. Like Abraham, we can trust that God will do what he says he will do. We can have not a wavering hope, but a sure and steadfast hope based on the character of God.
Allow the Spirit to encourage your heart. Hope is available today through a relationship with Christ Jesus. Do you know him? If not, come to him today and find a hope that doesn’t disappoint.
Sarah Frazer is a writer and Bible study mentor at sarahefrazer.com. She is the wife of Jason and mother of five. Although she serves in her local church, holds in-home Bible studies, and is preparing to be a full-time missionary to Honduras, her passion is to encourage women to get in the Bible. Sarah is also an author of three self-published Bible studies for women. She shares tools for deep-rooted Bible study at sarahefrazer.com. Download her free prayer challenge at sarahefrazer.com/prayer.