SEPTEMBER 19, 2005

A LIVING HOPE
by Pastor George Van Alstine
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

In Peter’s beautiful benediction, there is a profound connection between these three ideas: “new birth,” “living hope,” “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Without the new birth, hope would not be “living.” The most hope we might experience would be a struggle between good and bad possibilities, between life and death. This kind of hope amounts to a wish for the better outcome.

But because of our new birth, and the resultant spiritual life-force within us, any outcome is a positive outcome. Our hope is “living” because there is no death-option on the horizon.

And the reason for this is found in “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” His resurrection is a guarantee of our resurrection, both at the end of our earthly life and in every situation in which we have the impulse to express hope. What in others might be a hope for the good outcome, as opposed to the bad, in a believer is a hope for the best among good possible outcomes.

In our daily walk, we still use the word “hope” in the old unbelieving way, as a pitiful wish against the odds—”I hope so.” But as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, we will find our hope to be less and less an expression of doubt and more and more an expression of absolute confidence.

In reading Biblical promises using the word “hope,” we will not understand them if we still have the old “I hope so” concept in mind. If we read them that way, they will probably inspire doubt, not faith. But if we have in mind the living hope, which is a by-product of our new birth and is fueled by Jesus Christ’s own resurrection, the hope-passages of the Bible will become among our greatest sources of comfort.

Some hope-passages for you to reflect on are: Job 11:18, 27:8-10; Psalms 33:18, 42:11, 71:5, 146:5, 147:11; Proverbs 11:7; Acts 26:6; Romans 5:2, 5:5, 15:4, 15:13; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 2:12; Colossians 1:5, 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Timothy 1:1; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 6:18-19; 1 Peter 1:13, 1:21, 3:15; 1 John 3:3.