Hope

Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It is the confident expectation of what God has promised, grounded in his character and the reliability of his word. When Scripture speaks of hope, it speaks of certainty about a future that has not yet arrived: the resurrection of the dead, the return of Christ, the renewal of all things. The ground of hope is not human optimism but the faithfulness of the God who has spoken.

The Old Testament is sustained by hope in a way that is often under-acknowledged. Israel in exile does not have circumstances that support optimism; Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon is not encouraging about the near term. But Yahweh tells them to build houses and plant gardens, because he has plans for them: “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” The hope is real, but it is a hope for what Yahweh will do, not for what the exiles can achieve.

Paul writes in Romans 5 that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” The Spirit is the guarantee of what is coming: the deposit, the first fruits, the assurance that the resurrection and the new creation are as certain as the present experience of his working. The articles below trace the theme of hope through several of its key passages.