HOPE OF THE GOSPEL

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15.HPGO 5.1

WE should most certainly conclude from reading the above language that the Christian’s hope is a subject which can, and should, be understood, and that there are also ample evidences and proofs in which the true gospel hope is set before us; else how could we “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh”? To do this, we must know what our hope is, when, and in what manner, it is to be realized, and upon these points we assert that the Scriptures do thoroughly furnish us.HPGO 5.2

Paul says: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:13-18.HPGO 5.3

If there is strong consolation for them that lay hold of the hope, then, surely, it is important that we understand the hope, that our faith may lay hold of the evidence from which this consolation is to be derived.HPGO 6.1

Hope is defined as expectation and desire. Neither of these alone constitutes a hope. A man may desire what he has no reasonable expectation of receiving. Again, a man may expect to receive what he by no means desires. A man may desire eternal life, and all the glories of the kingdom of God, yet he cannot expect to receive them unless he complies with the conditions on which eternal life is promised. The sinner may expect, on the authority of the word of God, that, if he does not turn and serve the Lord, he will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power (2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9,), yet he does not desire it. So we may conclude that the hope is a combination of expectation and desire, based upon what God has promised, and upon the assurance that we ourselves are complying with the conditions of the promise.HPGO 6.2