Hope in the Bible often starts where it has run out. Job says there is hope for a tree that is cut down, since at the scent of water it buds again, but a man dies and is laid low. In the valley of bones the people say, “Our hope has perished; we are cut off.” In a ruined city the writer of Lamentations calls one thing to mind: the Lord’s mercies are new every morning, so “therefore I will hope in Him.” The psalmist argues with his own downcast soul, and Abraham, against all hope, in hope believed. What they hope in is not an outcome but a person: “My hope is in You.” Blessed is the one whose hope is in the Lord his God, who remains faithful forever, and to exiles facing seventy years in Babylon he promises “a future and a hope.” The people in the valley said they were cut off; Proverbs says this hope “will not be cut off.” The New Testament fastens that hope to an event. God has given new birth “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” so believers do not grieve like the rest, who are without hope, and Paul stands on trial for it. It is hope for what is not yet seen, and so it waits patiently. It also changes the one who holds it. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, is joyful in hope, wears it like a helmet, and sets it fully on the grace to come; even the Scriptures were written so that we might have hope. Faith, hope, and love remain, and the hope has a name: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Hope in the Bible often starts where it has run out. Job says there is hope for a tree that is cut down, since at the scent of water it buds again, but a man dies and is laid low. In the valley of bones the people say, “Our hope has perished; we are cut off.” In a ruined city the writer of Lamentations calls one thing to mind: the Lord’s mercies are new every morning, so “therefore I will hope in Him.” The psalmist argues with his own downcast soul, and Abraham, against all hope, in hope believed. What they hope in is not an outcome but a person: “My hope is in You.” Blessed is the one whose hope is in the Lord his God, who remains faithful forever, and to exiles facing seventy years in Babylon he promises “a future and a hope.” The people in the valley said they were cut off; Proverbs says this hope “will not be cut off.” The New Testament fastens that hope to an event. God has given new birth “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” so believers do not grieve like the rest, who are without hope, and Paul stands on trial for it. It is hope for what is not yet seen, and so it waits patiently. It also changes the one who holds it. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, is joyful in hope, wears it like a helmet, and sets it fully on the grace to come; even the Scriptures were written so that we might have hope. Faith, hope, and love remain, and the hope has a name: Christ in you, the hope of glory.