A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"
Study #58 - The Hope of Our Calling
We have been attempting to look at the various descriptions of the believer's hope in Christ. We have considered "the hope of the glory of God" and "the hope of righteousness". We now come to a third descriptive phrase, one that is found in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians in two similar but distinct forms:
Ephesians 1:18 - "... that ye may know what is the hope of his calling ..."; and,
Ephesians 4:4 - "... even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;".
Right away we might notice that while both verses refer to the hope of the believer's calling, the first verse refers to it as His (i.e. God's) calling, while the second verse refers to our (i.e.the individual's)calling. The Bible presents the calling of the believer unto salvation from two different vantage points: 1) God's perspective from eternity; and 2) Man's perspective in time. We may note the combination of these two perspectives in II Thessalonians 2:13,14 which states: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." God's calling becomes our own calling when we respond in repentance and faith to the invitation of the Gospel of God's saving grace extended to us in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of these perspectives are a source of hope for the Christian. They do not refer to the prospective "hope" that we might one day be called by God, but to the present possession of hope that we have because we have been called by God unto salvation in Christ. In the first passage, this hope forms a part of the Apostle Paul's extensive prayer for the Ephesian believers that they would come to a fuller understanding of the spiritual riches they possessed in Christ. The prayer takes up seven verses (1:17-23) and forms an example to us of the spiritual desires we should be expressing in our own prayers to God. We need to come to a greater awareness and appreciation for the hope that is ours because God has called us by His grace! The greatness of that hope is expressed in verse 18 - "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in (or among) the saints". This is a recurring aspect of our hope in Christ: our eternal reward in heaven. The guarantee of this hope is given in verses 19 and 20 - "the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places ...". God works in us with the same power by which He has exalted the Risen Christ! Richard Lenski commented: "When we know the excessive greatness of this power, nothing will ever disturb our hope." Amen! In the second passage Paul refers to the hope of the believer's calling in Christ as one of the nine elements that form the basis of Christian unity. Seven times he writes of the oneness we possess with other believers described in three groups of three items in each group, all centered in the Unity of the Holy Trinity:
1) "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:4).
2) "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (vs.5).
3) "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (vs.6).
All believer's possess this one hope, that is, the hope given to one believer is given to all believers. We share the same hope because we share the same calling. Our calling is from the same God who summons us by the same Spirit to believe in the same Christ. We are baptized into that same body as a testimony to our same faith in the same Lord. And the same God who calls us and is infinitely above us becomes our Heavenly Father, indwells us, and exercises His power and grace in us and through us!
Yes, our calling is a tremendous source of hope once it is fully understood and comprehended. The greater our understanding and comprehension of our calling becomes, the greater our hope will be. And the more our hope is shared with other Christians, the greater our oneness will be experienced within the Body of Christ.
