What is Christian hope?
Hope is the resting of the heart on God, with full trust that he ever cares for our salvation, and that he will give us the blessedness he has promised and which we desire: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psa 37:4); “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him… Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us” (Psa 62:5–8).
The foundation of Christian hope is the person of Jesus Christ, who accomplished the whole economy of our salvation. As the Apostle exclaims: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1Pe 1:3; see Q366); “I have a hope in God… that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous” (Act 24:15). Christian hope rests on the faith that “nothing is impossible with God” (Luk 1:37; see Q006, Q087), and that the heavenly God is a Father who loves his children, as the Lord teaches: “the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and believed that I came forth from God” (Joh 16:27).
It is from the Holy Spirit that our hope is born, as the Apostle testifies: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13; see Q353).
The Holy Trinity is thus glorified in our hope and in its fulfillment in the age to come, according to the apostolic blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you” (2Co 13:13; see Q402).
The same Apostle teaches that hope is among God’s greatest gifts, in which we are saved: “For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope! Indeed, why does one still hope for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:24–25); “now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face… And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1Co 13:12–13; see Q121, Q378).
Faith, hope, and love are thus joined together in our salvation by the sovereign counsel of the Holy Trinity: “mentioning you in our prayers, always remembering your work of faith, your labor of love and your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Th 1:2–3); “since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1Th 5:8–10; see Q353).
