OUR HOPE

As The Spirit opens new insights into His infinite truth, we begin to appreciate His eternal plan, thank Him for His grace, adapt to His ways, experience His Spirit in our lives, and yield to His control. Close attention to the Scriptures is highly recommended in this development process. We need to practice like an athlete preparing for the race. Our attention to His details helps us to gain the sensitivity we need to grasp the hope God has made available for us. Every athlete knows that pain is proportional to the lesson being taught. We need to spend the time and trouble searching His word for the lessons He has made available to us.

Jesus’ Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him [Ephesians 1:14 The Living Bible]. Notice the phrase “first to trust,” which is “first to hope” in the NIV, is an accurate translation of the Greek, epainos doxa, tells us that there is something different here from having a saving faith. This kind of trust or hope, as indicated by all of these phrases, comes after the giving of grace, which transmits to us His saving faith [Ephesians 2:8, 9]. This aspect of a growing hope is part of the sanctification process. We should not jump to the conclusion that saving faith is the primary theme; rather, this faith is the means through which praise and glory is given to Him, the developer of our hope. God’s purpose is to grow the saved child to a point where there is a natural praise and an acknowledgement that it is all for God’s glory. This growth in the life of God’s child begins to be seen in all who have been given grace. The reference here to The Spirit is to emphases The Spirit’s work in this sanctification process. We are to look upon this advancement of hope as our assurance that God is working in our lives, and this hope encourages us to thank Him for all that He is doing.

“Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance” [Ephesians 1:15-18 Living Bible] .

There is “confident hope” in the middle of any helpless condition. Our inherent old nature’s condition with all if its discontentment is not our destiny because God has arranged to alter this old nature, actually resurrect a new nature from the death of the old nature, and to make us alive, as God did with His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul is making here a very personal prayer, directed towards those who have been given grace. This knowledge of Him is the foundation of our growing hope.

This new life with its growing hope starts in the presence of Christ. His given faith, His encouraging hope, and His love demonstrated by His grace is contained in this new life. This life is located where Christ is and those with this maturing hope are sharing this life with Christ. God has a purpose for this life, which will require a lot of His merciful and patience care before the holder of this life can become conformed into the image of the master template [Romans 8:29]. This is all done because of something the Bible calls grace. It appears this grace is a combination of His love, His work, and His plan. The giving of this grace is the beginning of a life of hope. There are no adequate synonyms for this gift of grace, and God bestows this grace on anyone He chooses. This grace is the source of all hope.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do [Ephesians 2:1-10]