There Is A Hope

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
In You I hope all the day.
Psalms 25:5

During a business trip a couple of years ago, I met up with a retired coworker whom I had not see in some time. It was good to catch up and share work stories. We both noticed how the other had aged in the twenty years since we first met. Then, rather unexpectedly he expressed his fear of death. The moment of silence that followed spoke a fact we each intrinsically knew; "Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow" (Psalms 144:4). Life is indeed brief, and the certainty of death.

In that moment was his palpable sense of hopelessness. For both of us, the number of years behind far outnumbered the years ahead -- and those remaining years could likely be counted on two hands. For my friend, fear is an ever present reality with no explanation for the inevitable.

After this pause, as we again picked up the conversation, I spoke of having no such fear, because I have a sure hope. Then, pointing him to the place where the only solid answer can be found, I handed him a copy of the gospel of John portion of the Bible that our Creator provided us. I challenged him to read it to see that what I was telling him was true, that within the pages of that little book, he could find hope.

Wish Upon A Star?

Words have meaning. How a word is defined is germane to a proper understanding. During that conversation with my friend, as I spoke of hope, was the awareness that his understanding of that word was very likely different than mine. The context and meaning of the word "hope" which I spoke of, is very different to that of most people. The understanding of the word "hope" that came to his mind, likely offered no assurance of anything, and only served to increase his fear. The typical American dictionary gives a good example of the average definition of hope:

Example 1: The Merriam Webster dictionary provides a concise definition:

To cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true.

Example 2: Cambridge dictionary expands the definition:

To want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might.

Something good that you want to happen in the future, or a confident feeling about what will happen in the future.

Notice a common element in these definitions, the "want" of something. Wanting something good, wanting something to be true, wanting something to happen in the future. The source of these definitions emanates from the individual person . A "want" feeling is the product of a person's wish. It is a conjured up kind of hope -- like wishing upon a star.

Empty Hope

What is missing? A foundation of certainty. There is nothing to support this hope. Not even a "confident feeling" provides certainty. There is nothing to lay hold of. Nothing provides assurance that such hope will come to pass, it is a kind of handwringing hope. These definitions limit hope to a mere feeling, to "cherish a desire." In other words, this kind of hope is empty.

But is that all there is to hope?

Replete Hope

Noah Webster 1828 dictionary provides a clue to a very different definition:

[Biblical] hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.

Webster continues: "A well founded scriptural hope is, in our religion, the source of ineffable happiness." He rightly points us to Scripture, because Biblical hope is to be understood very differently from the common dictionary definition.

Webster points out a simple contrast, "ineffable happiness" and that of "pain and anxiety." He points to a great difference in understanding of the word hope. One is a "well founded" hope that brings joy. It rests upon a fixed foundation. The other is a mere wish or desire, it's like aimless shifting sand. There is nothing firm on which to anchor such hope, so thus produces fear.

Looking to the Bible. we will discover there is a quality and a substance to hope. It is beyond a simple feeling from within ourselves. It is a hope that is sure.

Lord of Hope

The Bible speaks of hope as having a foundation, a soundness, containing integrity and probity. In order to have these qualities, hope then, by necessity, comes from a source that can provide surety -- that the thing hoped for will indeed come to pass.

For this to be true, that source requires and must have, power and ability. The Bible points to such a source. It points directly to a person. "And now, Lord, what do I hope in? My hope is in You" (Psalms 39:7). Who is the "Lord" the object of hope? If we look to the first page and the first four words of the Bible we will find the answer: "In the beginning God." And, the name of God is "Yahweh, the Everlasting God" (Genesis 21:33).

Sure Hope

The Bible points us to Yahweh, who "created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Yahweh God is the surety of hope. As Creator of all things, He possesses not only the power but the ability that makes His hope certain.

He is also the giver of hope; "for I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares Yahweh . . . to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11). Therefore, such hope does not come from within man, rather from the person of Yahweh, hope's creator. What He gives comes with the means to satisfy, thus making hope sure.

Why Fear?

At this point it is necessary to trace back to the why. Why does my friend fear? He knows, he is certainly aware of his march to death and that it is unstoppable. This knowing carries with it the sense that death is not merely a period at the end of the sentence of one's life.

"He has . . . set eternity in their heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Here, the Bible reveals that Yahweh God created man with a certain awareness. He has imprinted into the heart of every person a sense of continuance, an existence beyond the temporal.

My friend's fear is the result of this eternity within his heart. An internal realization that death is not a haphazard or meaningless end to life, nor does it mark an end of his existence. Therefore, he continues to exist beyond the grave and there is something more to come, but what?

But What?

Death, then, is a point of progression in a person's existence. But progressing to what? What comes next? Here the Bible gives a blunt answer:

Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

Death is the doorway that leads to this moment:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Fixed indelibly within the heart of every man is the understanding that when his temporal life ends in death, he will appear before his Creator to give an account. He will be recompensed according to his life lived before death "whether good or bad." In other words, death progresses to "judgment."

Jesus Christ will judge every person who has lived and died and is brought to stand before Him.

Life Lived Before Death

At this point, a harsh reality needs to be faced: The reality of sin. Looking again to the Bible as it speaks in plain language:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. (Romans 1:18-19)

Every man knows Yahweh is their God. He made it "evident within them" and "evident to them". Yet men willfully still reject their Creator God.

This is ungodly and sinful, and there is no excuse (cf. Romans 1:22). When a person rejects Yahweh as God, as my friend has, fear is all that is left. All the wishing he can muster will not displace the "terrifying expectation of judgment" (Hebrews 10:27).

Every living person who turns their back to Yahweh as their God, by living selfishly as if He does not exist, for this reason lives in fear. This fear only intensifies with age -- the fear of the coming death which is followed by that moment when "He [Yahweh] pays a man according to his work" (Job 34:11).

Condemnation is coming for my friend and his fear is the evidence.

No Fear

Returning to our conversation, I spoke to him of having no such fear, because I have a sure hope. How so? In handing my friend the gospel (the good news) of John, he was given all the answers. In his hands he held a written account that reveals why his life now matters, why he must die, and that beyond the grave awaits his judgment.

Within that book he can find these simple words: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Here on these pages is found how to live with no fear.

"Whoever believes in Him" will find his fear displaced by hope. Hope found only in "His only begotten Son" Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the answer to fear of death and condemnation; "He who believes in Him is not judged" (John 3:18). Believing in Jesus means life beyond death; "whoever believes in Him shall not perish." Believing in Jesus, "His only begotten Son", you will "have eternal life."

Clarity

So here we have clarity. Hope is not a wish. Hope is a person. The Bible provides clear answers to life, death and the recompense to come. To overcome his fear, my friend needs to believe in Jesus, confess his sin, turn from his sinful rejection of God, then, when faced with judgment at the end of this life, he will be handed "eternal life."

Instead of living the rest of his life in fear of death and judgment, the words of 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 can become his own:

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts.

This is hope with a firm foundation, a certain hope found only in and given by "Jesus Christ, who according to His [Yahweh's] great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus" (1 Peter 1:3).

As my friend and I parted ways, I prayed he would read and soon believe. For him the remaining days of his life are few, but those days can be lived with joy because there is a sure hope.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of Yahweh
In the land of the living. Hope in Yahweh; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Hope in Yahweh. Psalms 27:13-14