Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #54 - The Hope of the Promise

We have been tracing the Apostle Paul's defense of the hope of the resurrection as recorded in the Book of Acts.  First, he reminded his Jewish accusers that his message of the Risen Christ was in keeping with the historical faith of the Jewish people.  This was not some novel doctrine of recent origin but was a part of the faith of the fathers and the very hope of Israel which all of the Jewish people believed except for the radical sect of the Sadducees.  Second, he linked his faith in the resurrection with his faith in God since it was God Himself who had made this promise to His people and had confirmed it in His own Word.  To deny the resurrection, therefore, amounts to a denial of God's Promise or a doubting of God's Power to perform what He has promised.  This was the same two-pronged apologetical argument that the Lord Jesus Christ had used against the unbelieving Sadducees when they questioned Him about the nature and feasibility of a resurrection.  Christ's reply to them was, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God ... have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matthew 22:29-32).  To this statement the account in Mark's Gospel adds, "ye therefore do greatly err" (Mark 12:27).  It was the contention of both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul that the hope of the resurrection was clearly taught in the Old Testament Scriptures!  We may note once again that Paul confessed that his worship of God included "believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets" and that this included having "hope toward God ... that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:14,15).  Thus he viewed the Scriptures that spoke of the resurrection as God's promise to His people:  "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.  For which hope's sake ... I am accused of the Jews" (Acts 26:6,7).  It is clear from Paul's earlier preaching what he considered to be the elements of God's Promise:  1) The coming of the Messiah from the lineage of David:  "Of this man's seed hath God according to His promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus" (Acts 13:23); 2) The Resurrection the Messiah from the dead:  "And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again ... that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption ..." (Acts 13:32-34); and 3) Forgiveness of sins through faith in the Risen Savior:  "But He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.  Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:37-39).  Yes, God has promised these things to us in His Holy Word.  We should note that the Scriptures cited by Paul in this great message included Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 55:3; and Psalm 16:10 among others.  We might also note other Old Testament references to the doctrine of the resurrection (Job 19:25-27; Daniel 12:2; etc).  To these Old Testament verses we should add our Savior's own words of promise concerning His Resurrection as given in the Gospel accounts:  Matthew 16:21; 17:22,23; 20:18,19; 26:32; etc., as well as His words of promise regarding our own resurrection to everlasting life with Him:  John 5:24-29; 6:39,40; 11:25,26; etc.  And yes, what God has promised He has the power to perform:  "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8).  "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power" (I Corinthians 6:14).  God's promise is clear;  God's power is unquestionable;  But the hope of the promise is certain only to those who believe in His Son.  The event of the resurrection will include all men (both just and unjust), but only the believer in Christ can have hope toward God in that day.  There will be a resurrection to everlasting life for the Christian, but a resurrection unto everlasting death (separation from God in hell) for the unbeliever (Daniel 12:2; John 5:28,29).  Are you claiming the hope of the promise through faith in the risen Savior?

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #53 - Hope Toward God

As we work our way through the message of hope in the Book of Acts we are constantly reminded that the believer's hope is the hope of the resurrection.  This was the great Apostolic message:  that the atoning death, burial, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole basis of man's salvation, and that this salvation includes not only the full and free forgiveness of all our sins but the gift of everlasting life through faith in the Person and Saving Work of Christ, and that this gift of everlasting life includes the physical resurrection of the believer's body from the grave so that we may live in a glorified state, perfected in body and soul to live for all eternity in the Presence of our God and Savior.  As the Apostle Paul preached this Gospel of the Risen Christ he began to be persecuted by those who refused to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, largely because they refused to believe that He was indeed the promised Messiah.  This placed Paul in a position to defend his preaching of the Risen Savior before both Jewish and Roman authorities.  And the more he was attacked for proclaiming the Resurrection of Christ the more he defended his message by appealing to the Old Testament Scriptures that prophesied the future resurrection of the dead which even his persecutors claimed to believe.  We may trace his defense of this great doctrine as follows:  First, before the Jewish Sanhedrin he divided his accusers by proclaiming that the doctrine of the future resurrection of the dead was at the very core of his message:  "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren ... of the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question" (Acts 23:6).  This produced an immediate division between the sect of the Pharisees who believed in the doctrine of a resurrection and the sect of the Sadducees who did not (vs. 7-9).  It is clear that Paul was appealing to the historical belief of the more conservative Jews while exposing the radical departure from that belief among the liberal and unbelieving among them.  It is a grave error of modern so-called "scholars" who deny that the Jewish people had any concept of a resurrection or of life beyond death.  So much so that Paul could later declare before the Jewish elders of Rome that the very doctrine of the resurrection was the ancient "hope of Israel" (Acts 28:20).  Secondly, Paul not only appealed to the ancient faith of Israel in his defense of the resurrection, he attached that doctrine to his faith in God:  "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets: and have hope toward God, which they also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:14,15).  In this great defense before the Roman Governor Felix, the Apostle Paul made it clear that to deny the resurrection  would amount to a denial of his faith in the God of the Bible!  This would be so for at least two reasons:  1) To deny the resurrection would be a denial of the Word of God, that is, all that is written in the Old Testament Scriptures (the law and the prophets); and 2) To deny the resurrection would amount to denying the Power of God, that is, that God is able to perform what He had in fact promised!  These two arguments are laid out before King Agrippa by the Apostle Paul in Acts 26 where he first speaks of the resurrection as "the hope of the promise" (vs.6,7) and then challenges Agrippa's unbelief by asking, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" (vs.8).  In other words, to assume that belief in the resurrection of the dead is unreasonable or to dismiss it as an impossibility is paramount to doubting God's veracity on the one hand and denying God's ability on the other!  When our hope is fixed upon God, the hope of the resurrection is not only believable, it is inevitable, for God cannot and will not deny Himself or fail to perform everything He has promised!

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #52 - Resting in Hope

Last time we began looking at the hope of the resurrection as mentioned in five passages in the Book of Acts and ended with a list of Scriptural claims we may glean from them, the first of which is: "The hope of the believer's resurrection is anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of Christ".  There is no doubt that the proclamation of Christ's Resurrection was the central doctrine of the apostolic message: (Acts 2:31,32; 3:14,14; 4:10-12; 5:30,31; etc.).  In fact, it was the central doctrine of their gospel message: (I Cor. 15:1-4; II Timothy 2:8; etc.).  There is no salvation apart from the Resurrection of Christ:  "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (I Cor. 15:17-19).  R. A. Torrey wrote:  "Gospel preachers nowadays preach the gospel of the Crucifixion, the Apostles preached the gospel of the Resurrection as well .... The Crucifixion looses its meaning without the Resurrection.  Without the Resurrection the death of Christ was only the heroic death of a noble martyr; With the Resurrection it is the atoning death of the Son of God.  It shows that death to be of sufficient value to cover our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God."  One of the great Old Testament passages the Apostles loved to quote was Psalm 16:8-11.  Here they found Scriptural proof that the Messiah was indeed to be raised from the dead.  This was the passage the Apostle Peter quoted in his great message on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28) and the passage the Apostle Paul quoted in the synagogue of Antioch in defense of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (Acts 13:34-37).  We looked at this Messianic prophecy briefly in our study of the Hebrew word betah (see study #35, Sept.29, 2013).  Both the Hebrew of Psalm 16 and the Greek quotation by Peter in Acts 2 speak of the believer's flesh (body) resting in hope because of the assurance that God would not abandon his soul to hell (Sheol / Hades) because of the fact that the Holy One (Messiah) would not experience the corruption of His body after death.  And this is interpreted by the Apostles to both predict and require the Messiah's bodily Resurrection from the dead as the basis of hope for the believer's own eternal salvation and future resurrection.  David's soul could rest in hope knowing that His Savior would one day conquer death by the power of His own Resurrection:  "For David speaketh concerning him ... my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption .... He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ ... This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:25-32).  There is a beautiful word picture in the phrase "my soul shall rest in hope."  The Greek word here for "rest" is kataskanao which literally means "to pitch one's tent" (Thayer's Greek Lexicon). Lenski comments:  "The verb means 'to put down a tent,' 'to camp in order to rest,' and thus simply 'to rest awhile.' This verb implies only a transient sojourn; a tent is not a permanent structure .... The temporary tenting comprises both the bodily life of David and the stay of his body in the grave.  In both conditions his flesh makes its tent and camp 'on hope,' on this as the ground .... What that hope contains follows in the next line."

Likewise, Vincent commented:  "It is a beautiful metaphor.  My flesh shall encamp on hope; pitch its tent there to rest through the night of death, until the morning of resurrection" (emphasis his).  Yes, the Savior's Resurrection is the ground of the believer's hope and rest, both in this life and for eternity.  We do not trust in a dead Christ but in the Living Christ who has conquered death, hell and the grave by the power of His own Resurrection.  Because He lives, we also live and  shall live forever with Him in glory!  There is no greater rest than this, no greater assurance, no greater peace!  "Here let me wait with patience, Wait till the night is o'er, Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore ... There, by His love o'er-shaded, Sweetly my soul shall rest" (Crosby).

Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #51 - The Hope of the Resurrection

In our last study we found that the Messianic Hope was confirmed by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Our Lord's bodily resurrection was irrefutable evidence that He was indeed the Promised Messiah.  The Apostle Paul wrote that the Lord Jesus was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4).  And so as we pass from the Gospels into the Book of the Acts we find that the word "hope" is almost always associated with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In fact, seven out of ten times the word "hope" occurs in the Acts it is used in connection with the Resurrection of Christ and/or of those who believe in Him as their Savior.  We may list these occurrences as follows:

Acts 2:26,27 - "Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."  (The Messianic prophecy of Psalm 16 foretelling the Resurrection of the Christ.)

Acts 23:6 - "... of the hope and resurrection of the dead  I am called in question."  (The defense of the Apostle Paul before the Sanhedrin.)

Acts 24:14,15 - "... so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."  (Paul's defense before Felix.)

Acts 26:6,7,8 - "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come.  For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?"  (Paul's defense before Agrippa.)

Acts 28:20 - "For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain."  (Paul's defense before the Jewish elders of Rome, the "hope" of which he spake being clearly defined by the previous references to it.)

We want to look at these passages in more detail in future posts, but for now even a casual reading of these verses reveals some very clear Scriptural claims regarding the hope of the resurrection:

1.  The hope of the believer's resurrection is anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of Christ.

2.  The hope of the believer is the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

3.  The hope of the resurrection was clearly taught in the Old Testament Scriptures (Law and Prophets).

4.  The event of the resurrection will include all men (both just and unjust), but only the believer can have hope toward God in that day.

5.  The hope of the resurrection is firmly established upon the promise and power of God and is therefore neither impossible nor unreasonable.

6.  The hope of the resurrection was a part of the ancient faith of Israel (believed by all the Jews except for the liberal sect of the Sadducees).  

It is certain that the central message of the Apostles and of the Early Church was the Hope of the Resurrection and that this hope was anchored in the fact of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.  All men will face death one day.  Whether we will approach that day with hope or with no hope all depends upon whether or not we believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the means of our soul's eternal salvation.  "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation ... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:9,10,13).