by Lisa Groen
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
What is a Living Hope and How Does This Living Hope Affect and Impact Our Relationship to God?
God Himself has caused us to be born again! It is according to God’s great mercy that He has caused our salvation. We know whatever God starts he will finish, because he is the author and perfecter of our faith, according to Hebrews 12:2. One aspect of our hope in God is that He has His hand on our faith from the beginning to the end, and this alone points to his mercy towards us and ensures our hope in Him. The word in the Greek for the English word perfecter in Hebrews 12:2 is teleiótés, which according to Biblehub’s online Greek Lexicon (found at https://biblehub.com/lexicon/hebrews/12-2.htm) can be translated as “perfecter, completer” or “finisher”. The Greek word for the word author in the same verse is archégos, (see same biblehub.com site above) which can be translated as “founder, originator, author, prince, and leader”. So, we get from Hebrews 12:2 no matter what version of the Bible you are using, that Jesus begins or originates our faith, and perfects, or completes our faith.
This is encouraging because our faith may have many challenges, and God’s goal for us is that we mature into Christlikeness. Because our hope is living, because it is from God and Jesus holds that living hope out to us, I believe He designs and provides us opportunity for how we latch onto that living hope in a way that pleases and glorifies Him. Because our hope is in God, our view of God shapes our hope and with God in mind we are motivated to hope for things that please Him. This would include not just hope for a newer vehicle, a 4 year university education, or hope to get married, or merely temporal blessings, although our hope in God can include those things. Our hope from God includes eternal hopes. And because The God of hope provides us hope in a way that would please and honor Him we have been prompted by God to hope for these eternal things because they are made available to the believer in Christ. These could include godliness, holiness, humility, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and other qualities of spiritual growth to name a few.
These things should characterize our lives as believers in times when we are tempted to rush forward not giving place to them, or when we are challenged with the needs of others around us. We are prompted by God to hope for these eternal character traits, because of our awareness that God is writing the script for these qualities to be and become evident in our lives, and bring us to maturity in Christ. These things should deepen in us from simply abiding in relationship with God over time.
Therefore, we can understand the type of things our living hope is being shaped to make room for in our lives by Christ the author of our faith. These are things that have innate spiritual virtue, spiritual weight or spiritual value and things that are on a higher spiritual plane than just temporal blessings. So being born into a living hope enables us to develop Christ-likeness.
Imagine a Hope So High In Caliber
This hope so high in caliber is spoken of by Bible book writers and Bible characters again and again that they describe their relationship and the average believer’s relationship with God to be one of hope, giving us hope, pointing to our hope, strengthening our hope and describing the nature of our hope. A few examples would be from the following scriptures:
Psalm 146:5 which says “How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God”.
Psalm 33:17-18 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant showers? Is it not You, O Lord our God? Therefore we hope in You, For You are the one who has done all these things.
Lamentations 3:21-22 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.
Micah 7:7 as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 33:22 Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in You.
1 Timothy 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers
The benefits, privileges, mercies, and blessings of hope are truly too numerous to count, and too full to fully describe! This is truly a multifaceted, enduring hope for every situation! All of these things people were hoping in were just a small facet of the living hope that is available through faith in Christ!
This Living Hope Is Given Life Through Christ’s Resurrection and Will Culminate in the Resurrection of the Dead for the Believer
Acts 24:15 having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
Romans 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Acts 23:6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Not only that, but the resurrection somehow solidifies the many promises about salvation that God has made over the centuries and gives firm evidence that God does not lie. Several passages in the Old Testament (see 1 Kings 17:17-24) point to the reality of the resurrection from the dead. We saw glimpses of it in his promises to Abraham when God promised him all the families of the earth will be blessed through him as Sarah was beyond childbearing years becoming pregnant with Isaac, and again with Abraham showing he believed Isaac could be risen from the dead by God. Christ lived out the hope of the resurrection to make it available to us!
As believers today that are being united with Christ in his death, we experience his life of hope flowing through us. Through faith in his salvation and because of the powers of salvation that were working and available in Christ to those who trusted in him and prayed to him before He died for the sins of the world, living hope was available to those of Old Testament times. Today, likewise we in New Testament times, through our faith in his work, because we are united with him in his death will surely be raised with Him as well, because we will be united with Him in His resurrection. What Jesus set out to do he accomplished, which is our salvation. This is simply another reason to rejoice in the truth that the undeniable reality that our living hope exists, and the born again condition of believers in Christ is full of living hope, and this hope has great spiritual value. Because the resurrection of Jesus Himself empowers this hope we are born into, we can experience multi-leveled hope in this life and in the next, and it is chock full of the mercy of God. LG
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