I think many people have been in situations where they hoped for something, but then it didn’t work out. Then came frustration and disappointment, like: “God has turned away from me”, “God has forgotten me”, “He probably doesn’t love me” and so on. I want to say that we should not judge God’s love for us by the circumstances in our life. God’s love is shown not in outward circumstances, but in the truth — in Christ Jesus, or more precisely, on the cross. The Word of God says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Rom.5:8] If some difficulties in your life have made you doubt Daddy’s love for you, remember the cross. Remember that there our Daddy did not spare His only Son, in order to save us. See it like this: Daddy gave His Son not for the whole of mankind — although that is true — but for you personally. Even if you were the only sinner on this planet, Daddy would still have given His Son for you!!! And God’s love will calm and strengthen your heart.

God’s Love Is the Strength of Our Hope

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
–Romans 5:5

You see how hope is directly connected with God’s love for us. The more we come to know the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, the more our heart is strengthened in the hope that never disappoints. Worldly hope relies on chance: “I hope we’ll go on holiday this summer, God willing.” That is not biblical hope, not God’s hope. God’s hope always relies on God’s love, which has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit: “I know for sure that we will go on holiday this summer, because my Daddy loves me and He wants only good things in my life.”

Jesus said: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” [Mat.7:11] If imperfect parents want only good things for their children, how much more our heavenly Daddy, who is the Perfection of Goodness and Love!! His heart overflows with love for us, and it brings Him great joy when we receive from Him.

The most important thing in Christianity is salvation. I don’t think any Christian will argue with that. And how is a person saved? He receives the perfect gift — God’s Son Jesus Christ, whom God sent. And is the rest of the Christian life any different from the moment when we received the perfect gift? The Word of God says: “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,” [Col.2:6] and also: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” [1 Cor.2:12] Notice the word received. Our love relationship with our heavenly Daddy lies precisely in this word.

Hope in Christ

When I was thinking about the word hope, I looked at where it first appears in the Bible. There is an interesting Bible principle: when a word appears in Scripture for the first time, wonderful and powerful truths revealing the true meaning of that word are hidden in that verse. In Hebrew hope is tikvah, whose root is the word qavah, which means to wait for, to hope. The word qavah first appears in the following verse: “Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together (qavah, H6960) into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so.” [Gen.1:9] “And what does this verse have to do with hope at all?” I thought.

A great mass of water in Scripture usually symbolises God’s judgment and punishment — remember the story of the flood, how all flesh was destroyed by water. The seas also symbolise the nations of the earth. [Rev.17:15; Isa.17:12-13] So into what place did God gather all the condemnation of the earth and all the nations? The Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus’ words: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” [Jhn.12:32]

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;” [2 Cor.5:14] Notice the words because we judge thus. Judge how? “If One died, then all died.” And what does this mean? It means that there on the cross, in the body of Jesus Christ, we died to sin [Rom.6:11], to the basic principles of this world [Col.2:20], to the law [Rom.7:4], and to everything carnal or having anything to do with the flesh. Someone may say: “How can I have died, when I walk and breathe?” You reason like that, precious brother or sister, because you think that a person’s life lies in his flesh and in what he does — walks, breathes and so on. In fact life is not in our flesh, but in God and in the Spirit. Christ is our life. When Jesus Christ walked the earth, life really was in the flesh — in His flesh — but when He died and rose again, there is no longer any life in the flesh. Life is only in the Spirit — in the risen Christ Jesus.

So there is no point in hoping in the flesh, because it can produce nothing but dead works, which are of no use anyway. It is better to hope in Life — in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our true hope. [1 Tim.1:1]

The Confident Expectation of Good

In chapter 10 of the letter to the Hebrews there is a horror story about willful sin that many people know. It says there that if we sin willfully, there is “a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” [Heb.10:27] For those who like to think and reason about sin rather than about Christ, I will say that willful, or conscious, sin is not some fornication or drunkenness or anything like that. From a human point of view all sins are conscious or willful, because if a person is unconscious, he doesn’t sin. But God has put all the sins of mankind into the category of unwilling or unconscious sins. Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” [Luk.23:34] They don’t know? The chief priests and elders knew perfectly well what they were doing — killing an innocent Man who healed people and raised them from the dead. The only sin that is called insulting the Spirit of grace is unbelief and rejecting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came to testify of the Son of God, and if a person does not accept the testimony of the Holy Spirit, he insults Him and commits willful sin. [Heb.10:29] You can read more about this in the article “Willful Sin, or the Iniquity of Eli’s House”.

So if a person trusts in his flesh, in which there is no longer any life, then of course he lives in constant expectation of God’s judgment and wrath, which already ended on the cross, when God poured out all His wrath on all flesh. But if we trust and hope in the Spirit and the life of Christ, who lives in us, we will always expect only good, and such hope never disappoints. Even if outward circumstances say otherwise, the Word of God says: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” [Rom.8:28] All things, absolutely all things, God turns to good for those who love God and are called by Him. And who are the called? His church, those who believe in His name. And who are those who love God? Those who are loved by God Himself, for it is written: “We love Him because He first loved us.” [1 Jhn.4:19]

God’s Rest Is the Place of Hope

And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
–Genesis 1:10

The word gathering in Hebrew is miqveh (H4723), and the first meaning of this word is hope, confidence. So the gathering together of the waters is the hope of the nations, or the Gentiles. And what, or rather Who, is the hope of the nations? Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.” [Rom.15:12] It is interesting that if you look up this passage of Scripture in the book of Isaiah, it is a little different there: “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” [Isa.11:10] Notice that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, put the Gentiles shall hope where Isaiah speaks of His resting place.

We have talked about the waters that the Lord gathered into one place, which is the place where the Son of Man was lifted up. But these verses of the first book, Genesis, also speak of the dry land that appeared. So what is this dry land?

When the Lord brought the flood on the earth and all flesh was destroyed, Noah with his wife, children and the animals floated in the ark above the waters. When the water began to go down and the tops of the mountains appeared, Noah first sent out a raven, which did not return, and then a dove. About the dove, which is a type of the Holy Spirit, it is written: “But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself.” [Gen.8:9] The dry land is the place of rest, and until Jesus died on the cross and drew all the waters to Himself, the Holy Spirit abode only in the ark, which is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.” [Gen.8:10-11] Interesting words, in the evening. It was at the time of the evening sacrifice that Jesus said: “It is finished!” and gave up His spirit. What was finished? God’s judgment on all human flesh was finished, and now the dry land appeared — the place of God’s rest. Jesus gave up His spirit and entered God’s rest. Notice that Noah waited 7 days. It was on the 7th day that God entered His rest, “For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’” [Heb.4:4]

A person can cease from his works, abide in rest and live in the confident expectation of only good when he knows and believes that all of God’s wrath and punishment ended on the cross. There is no need to do anything to please God, or the voice of our parents that keeps ringing in our mind: “If you don’t behave, you won’t get anything good and you’ll be punished.” The punishment ended on the cross, and now we receive good things not according to our actions, but because we are now in Christ Jesus. And in Christ Jesus there are no punishments, no wrath or reproaches from God, but righteousness, peace and joy, which the Holy Spirit came to give us.

What is Jesus, who is our life, hoping for now? He is waiting for the Father to make all His enemies His footstool. What is Jesus doing to get all His enemies under His feet? He is simply sitting at the right hand of His Father, in the place of rest, righteousness, God’s never-ending love and His favour. And this is exactly the place where we are. Paul writes: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” [Col.3:1-3] Our life is not in the flesh on earth, but in God in heaven, and our hope is not in the flesh, our feelings or earthly circumstances. Our hope is in Christ Jesus!!

The Helmet of the Hope of Salvation

The only place where the enemy can attack us is in our mind. He knows that if our mind is caught up in works rather than in rest, storms will also happen in our life. That is why Paul writes to the Ephesians about the armour of God, and one piece of it is the helmet of salvation. [Eph.6:17] What does a helmet protect against? Against the enemy’s fiery darts of condemnation, accusation and conviction. The Holy Spirit does not convict a believer of anything. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. [Jhn.16:8] And believers in Christ are not of the world! [Jhn.15:19] The Holy Spirit comforts believers, which is why Jesus called Him the Helper, the Comforter. [Jhn.14:16]

So what is this helmet of salvation? Paul writes to the Thessalonians: “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” [1 Ths.5:8] It is the helmet of the hope of salvation. Even if the enemy attacks your mind with the words: “Everything will go wrong because of your sin”, our helmet says: “Jesus bore all the punishment, and the curses and disasters of the world have nothing to do with me, because I died to the basic principles of this world, and my life is Christ; and just as Christ abides in rest, waiting for the Father to put all His enemies at His feet, so I abide in God’s love and rest, with the confident expectation that all present negative circumstances will end up at my feet, because Jesus is my salvation and Christ is my hope!!”

Look at what Paul writes in the next verse, after talking about the helmet of the hope of salvation: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” [1 Ths.5:9] Why can we have a confident expectation of only good? Because God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. And salvation here is not only from hell, but also from any negative circumstances of this world.

Paul writes to the Corinthians: “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,” [2 Cor.1:8-10] Wonderful words: not to trust in ourselves — not in our obedience, our right behaviour, the strength of our faith, our persistence and our steadfastness — but to trust IN GOD, who raises the dead, who has delivered and will still deliver us from any adversity! To Him be glory, dominion and power for ever and ever. Amen!

I pray, beloved brothers and sisters, that the God of hope may fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. [Rom.15:13]