The first funeral I presided over was for my best friend, Gray Conrad. He was 26 and married. They had just recently moved into their first house and their first child was due pretty much any day. He died in an accident at work. What a terrible shock. Since he and his wife were from Raleigh (and we were living in Macon, GA), part of the planning included getting information to all those folks in Raleigh. When the plans were finalized I drafted a letter with information and directions. I signed it, In the hope of eternal life… Someone saw this and was taken aback – “Why did you only say ‘in the hope of?’ Don’t you think you should offer more certainty?”
This illustrates the difficulty English speakers often have with a wonderful and powerful biblical concept, Hope. My Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hope as “desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment; also: expectation of fulfillment or success.” But that is still too strong when compared to everyday usage. The American Heritage dictionary says, “Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.” That is closer to the way we use it today. As in, “I hope it rains this afternoon” or “I hope the weather is nice when we go to the beach.” Or, “I hope they are still open, I’m hungry.” In other words, we use hope for what we would like to see but are not sure of, or have no confidence in. Hope is contrasted with certainty: We are not sure, we have no way of knowing, so we hope it is so.
This immediately explains why the average Christian has a hard time with the phrase, in the hope of eternal life. It seems to express a complete lack of certainty and assurance, merely a hope, a strong wish. But this is not what the Bible means when it speaks of hope. Actually, the English word contains a much stronger meaning, “desire accompanied by expectation of.” And, this is cool, the very first definition is “archaic : TRUST, RELIANCE.” This means it used to have a much stronger meaning. And this is how we find it used in the Bible. The Greek word for hope means: “to make to hope, trust; that in which one confides or to which he flees for refuge; expectation; and in the Christian sense, joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.” Sometimes it is even translated trust as in And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
This is why we can say in the hope of eternal life. This speaks not of uncertainty but of our joyful and confident expectation of it. And this is explained in Romans 8
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
In 22-23 he speaks of the effects of the fall (the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now…even we groan) and of the resurrection of the body. In 24 he says we were saved in this hope. Then, in 24 and 25, he explains hope and how it works:
hope that is seen is not hope – this is the nature of hope: I’m sure and certain of a thing, but I don’t yet see it or possess it, so I hope for it; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, then do we with patience wait for it. We don’t see it yet, but we know it is coming so we wait for it. Patiently.
As I mentioned earlier, in common English usage hope is contrasted with certainty - We are not sure, we have no way of knowing, so we hope it is so. But in the Bible hope is contrasted with sight. We are confident of it we just don’t see it. Yet. So we patiently wait for it.
The New Testament speaks of the hope of the glory of God, the hope of his calling, the hope of the gospel and the hope of glory. I realize there may be different explanations of these, but the following are self-explanatory: the hope of the promise – resurrection of the flesh, as mentioned above. That’s why when we bury a believer we say, “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection, we commend to Almighty God our brother _______ and we commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Also the hope of righteousness by faith, the hope of salvation, the hope of eternal life. Amen! To speak in these terms is not to express doubt or uncertainty, merely the lack of sight.
Finally, how does hope relate to faith? This is spoken of in Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
While this is familiar, it is better understood this way: Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. They work together. God has made promises concerning eternal life, salvation and the resurrection from the dead. So I hope for them and wait for them. And because God cannot lie I have confidence and conviction!
On June 1st I ordered an item from Target. They told me it would arrive between the 7th and the 9th. I hoped it would arrive today, but alas it did not! So my hope, that is “the feeling that what is wanted can be had” was dented a little (there is still time, but I really wanted it today!). I do have confidence (faith) that Target really did send it to me and that the US Post Office will deliver as promised, but we know things can happen to delay this. The USPS is pretty good but still…. What about my friend Gray and our hope of eternal life? This is the assurance we have: Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began (Titus 1:1-2). So we can have confidence and conviction that what He has promised He will do. So we have this hope - the joyful and confident expectation - of eternal life! This is our blessed hope. Amen!
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