We know that we gain salvation through faith. This daily devotional looks at how hope and faith grow in tandem in disciples of Christ.
Nuggets
- As our faith grows, hope grows in tandem.
- Hoping for the future takes a lot of faith.
- A major element of hope is waiting.
Devotions in the What Is Hope? series
An element of salvation is hope. We put our hope in Jesus that He can and will save us. Let’s look at this.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Hope is where we desire for something pleasant in the future that we believe is obtainable.
Our foundation is built on the blessings of faith, hope, peace, joy, comfort, and glory. It is only through Jesus’ love that we have hope.
If Jesus is not Lord of our lives, we do not have hope. If Jesus didn’t justify us, we wouldn’t have hope.
We show God’s merit when we give Him reverence. When we respond in humility, we show that we agree that He is higher than us. Our trust, love, and hope show how much we believe in His love and provision.
Because we have the hope, we believe in the ultimate triumph of Truth. That will be Jesus’ second coming.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it — in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8: 19-23 CSB).
The earth was cursed when God was handing out punishments from the original sin. “… The ground is cursed because of you …” (Gen. 3: 17 CSB). It, too, is in bondage of sin.
Glossary
Boyd contended that the ground meant all of the earth and everything in it. Animals also suffer.
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The world is waiting for it to be released from the results of mankind’s sin. The heavens, earth, and sea are biding time until God will be revealed.
We may think it strange that earth is waiting, but it really isn’t. At times, we tend to think that earth is an inanimate object. In reality, it is a living thing. Creation is waiting with a restlessness for salvation.
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Mankind should, likewise, be restless for this salvation. It is our greatest need.
Are We Saved by Faith or Hope?
“For in this hope we were saved …” (Rom. 8: 24 NIV).
Okay, so this is why Scriptures get a bad rep. We look at this verse and say it is telling us something totally different than other verses.
This says saved by hope. What happened to being saved by faith? “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 ESV).
Let’s look at faith. Faith is the belief that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
Haldane explained it this way. He wrote, “By faith we believe the promises made to us by God; by hope we expect to receive the good things which God has promised: so that faith hath properly for its object the promise, and hope for its object the thing promised, and the execution of the promise. Faith regards its object as present, but hope regards it as future. Faith precedes hope, and is its foundation.”
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Even if we don’t understand everything (which we won’t), we have to believe it is true. We have to earnestly expect God’s Word to be true.
That is where the hope comes into the equation. We gave the equation in the first devotion of this series.
In order to have hope, we need to be justified. In order to be justified, we have to have faith. We get faith through grace.
Spurgeon felt faith and hope went more in tandem. He wrote, “Believers are saved by faith and in hope.” In a way, it is the chicken and egg deal. Which comes first?
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Or is the chicken and egg deal more the past, present, and future deal? There has to be an element of hope in faith at conversion. Otherwise, we are being saved on knowledge and understanding.
As disciples, we are called to grow our faith in God. That is one of the things that happens as we navigate the Sanctification Road. As our faith grows, hope grows in tandem.
Salvation by the Unseen
“… But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” (Rom. 8: 24 NIV).
Hoping for the future takes a lot of faith. We are expecting Someone we have never seen before to come in and take us to a wonderful place we have never seen before. Faith and hope holding hands in the process.
We can only hope because God has said it will happen this way. We have to believe that Jesus was born, died, and rose again for the express purpose of saving our sins so that we could be restored to our purified state.
The word confidence is coming up again. It isn’t a wish-washy expectation. It is a take-it-to-the-bank, bet-the-farm expectation.
Why do we have this confidence? The Word of God tells us we can. God has promised certain things. We can be confident that He will do what He says.
Horton brought up a good point. He wrote, “The present salvation of a Christian lies not so much in possession as it does in expectation.”
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We’ve been talking about the expectations from our end. But what about the expectations from God’s end?
“And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (I Jn. 3: 3 ESV).
If we have the hope — and the faith — we need to be acting on them. We need to be navigating the Sanctification Road. We should be heading toward being steak adults.
Vaughan reminded us that the foundation of hope is solely God. It is dependent on His holiness, His power, and His mercy.
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Getting to this point, I tweaked our definition of hope. It now reads, hope is where we desire for something pleasant in the future that we believe is obtainable.
Beecher cautioned that this isn’t just any run-of-the-mill expectation. We are putting our hope in Sovereign God, the Creator of the universe.
It isn’t that we are hoping to find our soul mate or perfect job. It isn’t even that we are hoping to win the lottery.
We are putting our faith and hope in the Sovereign Lord’s promises that Jesus’ death paid the penalty for our sins. We are expecting His rewards in the end.
Hope Is Based on Waiting
“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Rom. 8: 25 NIV)
A major element of hope is waiting. It is about earnestly expecting what has been promised will come to be exactly as promised regardless how long it takes.
Neil noted what we learn from waiting. He wrote, “It tends to produce and develop the active qualities of endurance and fortitude, and the passive qualities of patience and resignation; and it also fits us to appreciate and form a right estimate of the blessings in prospect.”
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Waiting helps us refocus from this world to God’s spiritual world. It puts the impact of daily struggles into perspective. It fosters courage and patience.
Waiting for hope does not put limits on it. God’s love and power knows no limits. Neither does the Hope we have in Him.
Making the Connections
How many times have we heard the saying, I’ll believe it when I see it? Isn’t that the way the world is going? They need scientific evidence to believe God is real.
The problem with wanting scientific evidence is twofold. If we have evidence, then we don’t have belief. We have knowledge.
God doesn’t want our knowledge. He wants our belief.
Science really doesn’t prove or disprove anything related to God. It is just our understanding of how we think God did — or didn’t do — something. God told us two things about that.
- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3: 5-6 CSB).
- “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB).
We are not going to totally figure out God’s ways. We have to accept that.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
One word. Unseen. Faith of the unseen. Hope of the unseen. Oh, yes. Self-discipline will be needed as we seek God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
How Do We Apply This?
• We grow our faith.
• We grow our hope.
• We wait patiently.
Gracious Heavenly Father. We can’t see You. Many of Your promises are based on things unseen. Yet, You call us to believe. We believe, Lord. Help us in our unbelief. Amen.
What do you think?
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