What is “hope?” Some describe it as a goal, others simply as a desire; still others might consider it an illusion. In 1 Corinthians 15:19-20, the apostle Paul plainly implies that Christians HAVE it because we are “in Christ.” For Christians, hope should be a treasured possession! An Arabian proverb says, “He who has hope, has everything,” and a Russian one declares that, “In the kingdom of hope, there is no winter.”
Not all “hopes” are equal: Some are unrealistic, unlikely to be fulfilled. Those who buy lottery tickets or gamble in casinos “hope” to win a lot of money – but most are disappointed. The word “hope” appears 60 times in the KJV new testament, and that frequency emphasizes the key role hope should occupy in a Christian’s life!
Christians have a realistic hope (Hebrews 6:19) because what we hope for is secured by Jesus. We rejoice in hope (Romans 12:12), abound in hope (Romans 15:13), and our hope is “laid up in heaven” (Colossians 1:5). Biblical hope is much more than a mere “wish” — “…we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” (Romans 8:24). Ephesians 2:12 says there is NO hope without Christ, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13 adds that without hope, there is only sorrow. Indeed, without hope there’s no point to life (1 Corinthians 15:19). We remain reconciled to God, however, as long as we do not move away from the hope of the gospel, Colossians 1:22-23.
Loss of hope is a primary cause for suicide: Dr. Karl Menninger describes hope as “the major weapon against the suicide impulse.” Notice again the words of Ephesians 2:12 (“…separate from Christ, alienated…strangers… having no hope and without God in the world”) – a person without God has no expectation that things will get better! What separates people who give up and call for assisted suicide from those who maintain a cheerful disposition and think about helping others in spite of pain and disabilities? Hope!
Many are in the dangerous condition of having FALSE hope, however, and don’t recognize their danger! False hope might be based on material wealth (note 1 Timothy 6:6-10), unrealistic hopes about the future (James 4:13-14), or even a false beliefs about salvation (cf. Matthew 7:21- 23). The true blessing of hope is found only when that hope rests in Christ.
Hope in Christ is based on the truth that He is the Son of God (Matthew 16:15-16), and the key to hope is having Christ in us, Colosians 1:27! “Christ in you” means letting Him control our lives, and involves much more than “do I have to…?” (…attend worship, teach someone else, etc.). “Christ in you” goes all the way down to our deepest attitudes and aspirations, the basic desires we harbor in our hearts. Having Christ in us doesn’t happen “automatically” at baptism; Paul wrote (in Galatians 4:19), “My little children,…I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”. These words were penned for Christians who had not matured spiritually as they should have – Paul was fearful for their souls! Galatians 2:20 offers insight into “how” Christ is to be “in” us – Paul was “crucified” with Christ in the sense that he offered his own life (Philippians 3:8-14) as a free-will offering (2 Timothy 4:6) in order to obtain the better hope that is in Christ (Hebrews 7:19).
We get Christ “into” us when we adopt for ourselves the mind – the attitude, outlook, perspective – of Jesus, just as Paul counsels in Philippians 2:5-8.
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”
-Dave Rogers
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