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Hope doesn’t disappoint

Rom 5: 1 – 4

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 31 Dec, 2006

DO YOU understand the difference between faith and hope? When I was younger, I didn’t find it very easy to work out the difference. Maybe it was just that no one ever explained it.

I’m at the age when doctors keep cutting bits off me. I had that tumour removed from my neck recently, and a cyst off my cheek a month before that. The doctor also cut a suspicious looking lump from my arm a year back. It turned out to be only a warty thing, but it had to be checked, because it looked like a basal cell carcinoma, which is not such good news.

The GP is a kind chap, who gave me some xylocaine shots before he started. He said it might still hurt a bit, but it had to be done.

It did hurt, but I trusted him to do a good job, and only to cut things out if he really had to.

That’s what faith is like. Whether the outcome is good or not, you believe that Jesus is in control, you believe that he knows what he is doing, and you believe that he will do the best for you.

But the doctor also told me something else. He said it wouldn’t hurt much, and would heal up pretty quickly. Anyway it would be much better for me with it off than with it still there.

That is hope. Based on what the doctor told me, I was convinced that the outcome would be good.

Faith is trust in a person, regardless of what happens, and hope is trust in events, that they will turn out well.

As Christians, we go further. For us, faith is trust in Jesus, and hope is trust in events that God will make sure that they turn out well, for the sake of Jesus.

So let’s look at some key points in our passage. We see faith that justifies, we see hope that doesn’t disappoint, and we see love manifested through the Holy Spirit. Does that sound sort of familiar?

Now remain faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Familiar words? Paul's famous closing words from I Corinthians 13. Among Paul’s favourite expressions are faith, hope and love. Everything he taught or expressed seemed to revolve around faith, hope and love.

And that makes sense. Isn’t that what Jesus was on about, too?

Faith that justifies

^{ROM 5:1} Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

We have been justified through faith, and we have gained access to grace by faith.

The faith that saves us is a faith which trusts in Jesus despite all appearances and regardless of our own feelings of worth or merit.

If Jesus is Lord, then we are duty bound to trustingly give ourselves to him. That means that Jesus has the right to ask anything of you and me, and we are responsible to do it. If he says, ”You must obey me without question. You will die young, you will not go to heaven,” that makes no difference. He is your owner and mine by right of creation, and he is your owner and mine by right of redemption, and he has the right to use us as he sees fit.

Imagine a man and woman getting married. The minister says, “Will you, Fred Nurk, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Fred replies, “Um, well, I will take her to be my cook and washerwoman.” The girl might have some doubt that this was precisely what she had had in mind when they got engaged.

Jesus calls us to himself as our Lord, and he throws salvation into the package! That’s grace! But if we come saying, “I want salvation, but I won’t do what you say,” he might just say, “I’m not all that interested.”

It‘s when we come to him as Lord, trusting that it will somehow be the right thing, that he adds all the rest to us. That’s when we are truly seeking first the kingdom of God, because that is when we allow God’s rightful King to reign in our lives. Jesus is King!

Put your trust in Jesus. Have that kind of faith in him. You’ll be justified, you’ll have peace with God!

You remember that I explained a couple of weeks ago that to be justified is to not have a case to answer before God.

It means more than, “I am just as if I had never sinned.” That’s not quite correct. God knows you are a sinner; you know you are a sinner. God never denies reality. He knows the facts, but Jesus has paid the penalty in full, so the requirements of the law are satisfied, and

...there is therefore now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.

You have sinned, but you have also been judged and condemned and executed, there on Calvary, when...

Christ died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.

We need to be clear on what role faith plays in this. New Age teaching is very prevalent these days, and it distorts the idea of faith.

Paul says we are justified through faith. That through is important.

It is Jesus who saves us. Never forget that.

There are many people who think that faith is the main thing, and it doesn’t matter if your faith is in Jesus or some guru or even yourself.

Christian faith is like a conversation: you are at one end, Jesus is at the other. He died for us. He rose again. He is the Coming One, who will take his own to be with him forever.

Faith in Jesus allows us to receive his salvation. Nothing else counts. Good theology doesn’t save you. Creationism doesn’t save you, some version of the Second Coming doesn’t save you. Jesus alone saves us.

But I can’t experience that salvation yet. It is future. All I can do is trust that it is mine. There is absolutely nothing else which can do that.

Faith is the channel. It brings the benefits of Jesus’ finished work to you and to me.

And, if I no longer have a case to answer, because I exercise faith in Jesus, I am no longer God’s enemy. I have peace with him, and all that flows from that peace.

Faith links me to what Jesus has done for me, and it gains me access to God’s grace.

The fact is that we are not merely at peace with God, but we are in the place of his blessing. This is not so much material blessing as spiritual blessing. What that means is that we not only have our old rebellion and sin done away with on the cross, but we continue in God’s care and salvation.

When I fear my faith will fail,

he will hold me fast;

when the Tempter would prevail,

he will hold me fast.

That’s grace.

Sometimes I have had material blessing, sometimes I haven’t. Sometimes I am up, sometimes I am down. But I have been on the edge of great temptations, and have been rescued out of them. I have been close to giving up, and have been lifted back onto the rock. Never think that spiritual blessings are meaningless. Once you have experienced them, you know how great they are.

Hope that doesn’t disappoint.

The second great thing that Paul focuses on is hope.

I explained that hope is the assurance that what we look forward to will occur.

It is different from knowledge. I know that Halley’s Comet will be visible again in the year 2062. I don’t think I will wait around for it. I know it because that is what has been calculated from what we know about the periodic return of that comet.

I say, “I know that Jesus will come back and that the world we experience then will have everything good we have ever had in this world, and then some.” In fact, I don’t know that — not in the way I know that Halle’s Comet will be back. But I know it in the sense that I am so sure that my hope will not disappoint me that I have full expectation that what I hope for will actually occur.

Back in the year 2000, we had a really bad year. Who had major hospitalisations that year? Chris, George, John, Divina, who else? And that was just by mid year.

I was totally ready to pack my bags and go.

But something stopped me, and that was hope. I wasn’t going to let the devil defeat me, because I had hope in you lot. I am convinced that we will get there. I don’t quite know where “There” is, but I believe that God has shows us too much of his care and provision over the past quarter century for him to have given up on us, so I was not going to give up either.

That is not some weak “hoping to goodness.” I hope to goodness that our plane will fly on 1 April, but I have no assurance one way or another. Thai Airlines doesn’t have the regularity of Halley’s Comet, and it is not backed by the assurances of God’s word. Poor Thai Airlines — it’s out on its own! I’m pretty sure it will fly, because Thai doesn’t have a bad reputation. But my hope for a flight on the day I’m booked for is really just hoping to goodness.

But, when it comes to my future in Christ, that is an assured future. That is backed by the promises of God. Jesus himself said that he was going to prepare a place for me and would come back and take me to be with him.

That is a truth that every child of God can hold onto with confidence.

Paul says,

...we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us

There is no way that hope can be defeated, not in the long run. If we suffer for Christ, we learn to hold on until the end. If we hold on, it builds character. And, as character grows, so does hope, because the two exist together. Positive people are people with hope.

I am a pessimist. My glass is never better than half empty. But I still have hope. In fact, I need hope, because, without it, life would be horribly bleak.

Some of us start closer to the finishing line than others do. Maybe I started behind the pack when it comes to my basic outlook on life. But I gain no less benefit from my certaintly of God’s final victory through Jesus our Lord than the most positive person in the universe does.

And don’t think that I am complaining about having a sometimes bleak outlook. It enables me to see things going on, and to have, in some respects, a prophetic view of life. And that gives me hope, too; but I’ll explain that in a moment.

Meanwhile I just want to repeat that hope will never turn out to be false and unfounded; it will never be driven away by a competing vision. God says it will turn out right, and who am I to disagree?

Love through the Spirit.

Paul has an intriguing explanation of why hope does not disappoint us. He says,

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

It might sound a little strange, a little disconnected from what has gone before, but, in fact, Paul has a consistent theme, that the Holy Spirit is the down payment or the guarantee of the things we hope for.

I have learnt something while I have reflected on this passage, because I have always focused on spiritual gifts as the way the Spirit reassures us of his presence.

And that is certainly a Biblical position, because the writer to the Hebrews says,

^2:3b This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴ God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The evidence of salvation is in signs, wonders and various miracles and in gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But Paul, as usual, goes back to the heart of things.

Some people would lose hope if it all depended on the things mentioned in Hebrews. They would say, “I don’t have any spiritual gifts, I have never seen signs, wonders or miracles. I am obviously outside God’s will and outside his salvation, and I have no reason to hope for anything.”

The one thing we have in common is God’s love. If you have any experience of salvation, any touch of Christ on your life, any knowledge of your acceptance by God, then you will have some concept of the love of God in your heart by the Holy Spirit. There’s an old song,

...When he save my soul

Touched, and made me whole,

It took a miracle of love and grace.

That is a miracle we have all experienced: the miracle of love, the miracle of grace.

I am glad I know what some of my spiritual gifts are. I am never shaken by people who speak in tongues, because I know how important that can be to some of us, to have something done in our lives which does not come from our capabilities, but from an encounter with the Spirit.

I am thankful for every gift every one of us has. They are all confirmation of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who reveals to us that our hope is truly secure.

Hope will never disappoint us, because the Holy Spirit has come!

Summary and conclusions

Hope grows out of faith and is confirmed by the Spirit — who is truly the Spirit of love.

If you trust in Jesus and have received his salvation, then you have every reason for assurance that he will see you through until the end.

Just —

Keep your hand on the plough

Hold on!

And that assurance is reflexive, it comes back to you from the other direction, from the Spirit himself, as he dwells within you and reassures you by the love of God shed abroad in your heart. Hope stands in the middle, between the faith which looks to Christ and the love which comes to us by the Spirit.

Do you have hope for the future? Are you reassured that you have that home in glory land that outshines the sun? Are you living in the knowledge that, when Jesus returns, no matter how dark the night, no matter how bleak the outlook, he will raise you up to share in his glory, that you will be with him in answer to the trumpet blast? Do you know that you will pass through the judgment and the fires will not touch a hair on your head?

You can know it. You can be sure of it. You can have Jesus and all that is in him.

Come to him right now: he will save you right now.

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2006. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)