21. The Christian Hope

"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we will be, but we know that when he appears, we will be like him — for we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure." "God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son." "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." "He has given us new birth into a living hope; to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading." So testify three Apostles — John, Paul, and Peter. The entire hope of the Christian can indeed be summed up in one sentence: "If children, then heirs — heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ." Immortality, eternal life, the riches of Christ, the glory, honor, wealth, and joy of God's only begotten Son are to be equally shared with all his saints.

The remedial system is, therefore, a moral creation in progress — a new creation of people for good works, still advancing; but its completion will be the permanent establishment of individual moral excellence by an instantaneous physical new creation of people at the resurrection of the righteous: or a manifestation of the sons of God in full redemption from the entire burden of sin; raised, refined, immortalized, glorified, and given eternal life.

Hope differs from faith in that it looks only forward to future things. It does not look back, nor does it focus on the present: "for," says Paul, "if what a person sees, why does he still hope for?" Nor does it look at all the future; but only on future good. It desires and expects good and nothing else. There is not one dark cloud, not one dark spot, in all the skies of Christian hope. Everything seen in its vast domain, in the unlimited prospect still before us, is bright, encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting. It is all desirable and desired. It is all expected. It is all "earnest expectation;" not a doubtful, but a "confident expectation of things" desirable, and to be "hoped for."

It is not what some in this age call "the hope," i.e., the desirable expectation of pardon for their past sins: for only those who are actually pardoned are the subjects of this hope. "If our heart condemns us, then indeed, we have no confidence;" so no confident expectation, no hope of eternal life. The mere possibility of an event is no foundation for hope. Hope does not deal in possibilities, nor indeed much in probabilities — unless they are very strong probabilities. Guesses, maybe’s, possibilities, probabilities, are not the essence of Christian hope. It rests on covenants, charters, promises, oaths, offered by the Eternal Source of almighty truth and love. These are good securities; and produce assurance. Hence, hope is the assurance of future good in expectation.

There are, indeed, various degrees of hope; but in the least degree of it there is desire combined with expectation. Things expected are not always desirable, nor are things desirable always to be expected: but hope embraces promises that are desirable, and also expects to enjoy them. Hence, hope, like faith and love, may grow greatly. When based on the promises of God, and on a habitual patient conformity to his will, it will keep pace with our growing understanding of the character of God; of the fullness and richness of the promises, and in the conviction of our actual devotion to the manifestations of that will.

But the things hoped for by the Christian are beyond description. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, the human heart has not conceived the glories of the resurrection of the righteous; — the new bodies, the new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem, the new society, the new pleasures: for according to his promise we look for (expect) new heavens and a new earth in which only righteous people will live. Thus the remedial system ends for all its happy subjects. "It lifts the beggar from the dust, and the wretched from the garbage heap, and sets them among princes, among the nobles of the universe;" the thrones, hierarchies, and lordships of the skies; in the presence of God, too, "where there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand, where there are pleasures forevermore." Such are the things to be done for those for whom such things have already been done that make up the remedial system: for with Paul we must say: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; how will he not also with him freely give us all things?" "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."