Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #55 - Abounding in Hope

As we pass from the Book of Acts into the Epistles of the New Testament we find that the subject of the believer's hope is greatly expanded.  While in the Gospels "hope" is primarily centered in the promise of the Messiah (the Messianic Hope), and in the Acts "hope" is plainly linked with the promise of the resurrection (of Christ and of the believer in Christ), in the Epistles we find a plenitude of expressions which serve to reveal the fullness of the believer's hope in Christ.  We have defined "hope" as "the happy anticipation and confident expectation of future good."  And of course we must further define our "Christian hope" as being centered in those "good things" that God has promised to us in His Word.  It is in studying the New Testament Epistles that we come to find out just how plentiful and bountiful the hope we have been given in Christ Jesus really is:  "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope ... Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:4,13).  There is an abounding fullness of hope given by the God of hope to those who will believe all that He has written in the Holy Scriptures.  This abounding in hope is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer as He illuminates the promises of God to us and impresses the truth of the Word into our hearts and lives, filling us with hope, patience, comfort, joy and peace!  What are some of the elements of this abundance of hope that we find in the New Testament Scriptures?  We may find them in the descriptive phrases the New Testament writers attach to the word "hope".  We have already seen in the Book of Acts such phrases as: "the hope of the promise" and "the hope of Israel" both expressing the truth of "the hope of the resurrection" (Acts 23:6; 26:6; 28:20).  We may add to these the following from the epistles:

1) Romans 5:2 - "By whom (Christ) also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

2) Galatians 5:5 - "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."

3) Ephesians 1:18 - "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his (God's) calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

4) Ephesians 4:4  - "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling."

5) Colossians 1:23 - "If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not move away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard ...."

6) Colossians 1:27 - "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you the hope of glory."

7) I Thessalonians 5:8 - "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation."

8) Titus 1:2 - "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."

9) Titus 3:7 - "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

All of these prepositional phrases help to define what all is included in the believer's hope.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the descriptions of hope found in the New Testament, but it is a start.  We plan to consider some of these passages in more detail as we go along, but for now a reading of them should give us a sense of the overflowing abundance of hope imparted to the believer in Christ.