Vital Godliness: A Treatise on
Experimental and Practical Piety
CHAPTER 14
Hope
“And not only that, but we
also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces
endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces
hope. This hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out in
our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us,” (
With some it is common to
speak slightingly of hope. Surely such do not draw their views from the word of
God, nor from the experience of his people. These well agree in giving it a high
place, among the Christian graces, and in declaring its excellence and
usefulness. “We are saved by hope.” We are rescued from the cruel influences of
despair, we are aroused and animated in our whole course, and are finally made
victorious by the power of hope. This is one of the great bands which holds
together the
When we regard anything as
impossible, we cannot hope for it, although we may greatly wish for it. As to
the general nature of hope, there is no dispute. The hope of the Christian is a
longing expectation of all good things, both for this and the next world. It
embraces all the mercy, truth, love, and faithfulness promised in Scripture. It
lays hold of the perfections and government of God as the sure foundation of its
expectations. It has special reference to the person, offices, and exaltation of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Scripture the word not only means the sentiment
already described, but sometimes it is used for the thing hoped for. Thus Paul
speaks to the Colossians of “the hope which was laid up for them in heaven,”
where he plainly designates the good things hoped for. The hope of a Christian
relates to the whole of what is promised in God’s word. There grace is promised.
And on every child of God comes the blessing: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon those who fear him, upon those who hope in his mercy.”
In like manner hope finds
nourishment in all the divine perfections. It looks for them to be continually
exercised for its good. Thus it expects bread and water, clothing and shelter,
guidance and protection during life, with a blessed victory in death. It goes
further. Each Christian can say as Paul, “I have hope towards God that there
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.” Yes,
more, he is always “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Yes, more, the souls of believers are
sustained “in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before
the world began.”
1. The living agent, who is
at once the author and object of pious hope, is God himself. Accordingly pious
men cry out, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted
within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his
countenance.” One of the dearest names by which God is known to his people is
that of “The hope of
Vain, carnal hopes spring up
spontaneously in the human soul. But truly pious hopes have a heavenly origin.
Therefore when Paul would have the Romans abound in this grace, he prayed, “Now
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may
abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit,” (Rom. 15:13). God “has
given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,” (2 Thess. 2:16).
This is the first great difference between a true and a false hope in religion.
The former is from above; the latter is from beneath. One is God-inspired; the
other has Satan for its author.
2. The second mark of true
pious hope is, that it is no vain persuasion, no idle dream—but a sure
expectation. It rests upon an immovable foundation, God’s unchanging word and
oath and covenant. “We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith.” We shall not be disappointed. This “hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil.” His
word is pledged in every form. “I will be a God to you.” “I will never leave
you, nor forsake you.” “Because I live, you shall live also.” “Those who sleep
in Jesus, will God bring with him.” These are but samples of his word. To these
he has added his oath: “I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will
not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my
steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be
removed,” (Isa. 54:9, 10). Here we have his covenant as well as his oath. Indeed
it is a covenant established upon promises and oaths. Elsewhere God says,
““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant
that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their
husband, declares the Lord,” (Jer. 31:31, 32). Behold here are the sure mercies
of David. God bids us rest our all on him, and take his veracity for the basis
of all our hopes.
The wicked have no such
foundation for their delusive expectations. Their hopes are all like a dream
when one awakens. They vanish before the realities of life, before any right
test of truth. But the hope of the righteous endures. It is the anchor, the
sheet-anchor. It holds all steady, and enables the soul to outride the storms of
sorrow which God permits to beat upon it. Behold here the excellent use of
Scripture. “For whatever things were written beforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have
hope,” (Rom. 15:4). Therefore a favorite form of prayer is that of pleading the
promises: “Remember the word unto your servant, upon which you have caused me to
hope,” (Ps. 119:49). This blessed hope, more than most things, makes Christians
helpers of each other’s faith and joy. “Those who fear you will be glad when
they see me; because I have hoped in your word,” (Ps. 119:74).
3. A third difference between
a true and false hope is, that the former is the fruit of the mediation of
Christ, and has special regard to him as a Redeemer; while the latter quite
neglects his finished work. Many hope for impunity, and yet despise gospel
grace. But a truly good hope always has a chief reliance upon Christ. Therefore
Paul says of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he “is our hope,” (1 Tim. 1:1) If you
ever have a genuine “hope of glory,” it must spring from “Christ in you, (Col.
1:27). Legal hope is just the opposite of evangelical. The former springs from
supposed personal obedience to the law; the latter relies upon Christ’s
obedience unto death. These two cannot agree. You must look to Christ
exclusively, or not at all. If this be so, some may ask, What is the difference
between faith and hope? To this question the answer is, that though they are
distinct, yet they are similar exercises of the mind. Haldane says, “By faith we
believe the promises made to us by God; by hope we expect to receive the good
things which God has promised; so that faith has properly for its object the
promise, and hope has for its object the things promised and the execution of
the promise. Faith regards its object as present, but hope regards it as future.
Faith precedes hope, and is its foundation. We hope for eternal life, because we
believe the promises which God has made respecting it; and if we believe these
promises, we must expect their effect.”
Leighton says, “The
difference of these two graces, faith and hope, is so small, that the one is
often taken for the other in Scripture; it is but a different aspect of the same
confidence, faith apprehending the infallible truth of those divine promises of
which hope does assuredly expect the accomplishment, and that is their truth; so
that this immediately results from the other. This is the anchor fixed within
the veil which keeps the soul firm against all the tossings on these swelling
seas, and the winds and tempests that arise upon them. The firmest thing in this
inferior world is a believing soul.”
But like faith, hope admits
of degrees, varying from a faint expectation, (Ps. 42:5), to a “full assurance,”
(Heb. 6:11). Like faith, it always keeps Christ in view. Like faith, also, it
will last until death, and then give place to enjoyment; “for what a man has,
why does he yet hope for?” Let us therefore “hold fast the confidence, and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end,” (Heb. 3:6). “Therefore gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (1 Pet. 1:13).
4. A fourth difference
between a true and false hope is, that the former is operative, and produces
powerful, happy effects; while the latter is inoperative and dead. The hope of
the Christian is expressly said to be “living,” (1 Pet. 1:3). It has life in
itself, and communicates animation to the soul. It arouses, awakens, and gives
vigor to the mind. It produces the grandest effects, making the people of God
triumphant over all their foes and fears, and bearing them up when all
appearances are discouraging. But a dead hope is without any abiding effect. It
does no good in the day of trial.
5. A fifth difference between
a true and a false hope is, that the former leads to holiness, while the latter
begets carelessness. Of genuine Christian hope it is said, that “every man who
has this hope in him purifies himself, even as Christ is pure,” (1 John 3:3).
The stronger it is, the greater is the soul’s aversion to evil. But the hope of
the deluded makes him reckless. To him sin is a trifle, and holiness a thing of
naught. This indeed is the great difference between all genuine and all spurious
hopes. If any of our pious affections or mental exercises do not tend to
holiness, we may surely know that they are not of God.
6. A sixth difference is,
that a spurious hope gives no support when we most need help; but a genuine hope
bears up our souls above all our foes. Leighton says, “Hope is the great stock
of believers. It is that which upholds them under all the faintings and sorrows
of their mind in this life, and in their going ‘through the valley and shadow of
death.’ It is the ‘helmet of their salvation,’ which, while they are looking
over to eternity, beyond this present time, covers and keeps men’s heads safe
amid all the darts that fly around them.”
According to God’s word,
genuine Christian hope has many and important
Uses. It does great things for the
soul.
1. Genuine Christian hope
makes us patient in tribulation. “If we hope for that we see not, then do we
with patience wait for it.” Accordingly Paul alike commends in the Thessalonians
“the work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ,” (1 Thess. 1:3). To this happy effect of this grace Jeremiah refers when
he says, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in
silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet
be hope,” (Lam. 3:26-29)
All Scripture and all
experience show, that through much tribulation we must enter the
2. Hope also gives courage in
facing danger, and fortitude in enduring pain. “Hope makes not ashamed; because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given
unto us,” (Rom. 5:5). Unless we have “for a helmet, the hope of salvation,” (1
Thess. 5 8), we shall but play the coward in the day of battle. Here is the
great difference between the real child of God and the self-deceiver. The former
has an expectation of future glory which makes present ignominy to be esteemed
as nothing. The latter has perhaps some vague hope of future good, but he has
never relinquished his hold of present good. So when he finds he must let go
either the present or the future, he always cleaves to the present, vainly
purposing hereafter to seize upon the things to come.
Every man who knows anything
at all of his own heart, is painfully convinced of his sad timidity and wicked
shame as to all that is good, until God by his grace gives him the hope of the
gospel. Indeed, such is the fearful sway of shame over many minds, that some
people have seemed to think that almost the only hindrance to men’s salvation.
Our blessed Savior was not beating the air nor giving a vain warning when he
said, “Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed
when he comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels,” (Mark 8:38).
You will never be able to overcome your natural shame of true piety, but by a
“good hope through grace.”
3. The great animating
principle in labor is hope. This encourages the mariner, the farmer, and every
industrial class. This is no less the animating principle in labors for the
spread of the gospel, the good of men, and the glory of God. Thus Paul argued:
“It is written in the law of Moses— ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads
out the grain.’ Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely
for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in
hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop,” (1 Cor. 9:9, 10).
What would the apostles have effected—had they not had a hope that entered
within the veil? They had regard to the reward in a future life. God never puts
and keeps his people at work for him without adequate motives, without
influences suited to their nature as men.
4. Christian hope is the
great nourisher of Christian joy. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God,”
(Rom. 5:2). Our present circumstances have in them much to make us sad and
desponding. But hope looks to the future, when the glory of God shall be
revealed in us. So steadfastly does hope take hold on what is future, that both
Haldane and Hodge propose to read the first clause of Romans 8:24, “We are saved
in hope;” meaning thereby that we are saved in prospect, in expectation.
No Christian in this life, is
in full possession of all the blessings of salvation. He has indeed foretastes
and pledges of good things to come, but not the very things themselves. Yet his
title to eternal life is good, is perfect. Nothing could be more so. In due time
deliverance shall come in all its fullness. As “rejoicing in hope” is a duty,
(Rom. 12:12), so it is a great privilege. Charnock says, “‘Desired’ happiness
affects the soul; and much more does ‘expected’ happiness encourage the soul.
Joy is the natural issue of a well-grounded hope. A tottering expectation will
engender but a tottering delight; such a delight will madmen have, which is
rather to be pitied than desired. But if an imaginary hope can affect the heart
with some real joy, much more a hope settled upon a sure bottom, and raised upon
a good foundation; there may be joy in a title as well as in possession.”
5. It is Christian hope which
makes death easy and comfortable. God’s people know that their flesh shall rest
in hope. They know who it is that has said, “Your dead shall live; their bodies
shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a
dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead,” (Isa. 26:19). Job
disarmed death of all his terrors by being able to lay hold on this very truth.
So did Paul also, and so have thousands of the humble people of God.
In short, we may well unite
with Owen in saying that “hope is a glorious grace, whereunto blessed effects
are ascribed in the Scripture, and an effectual operation unto the supportment
and consolation of believers. By hope we are purified, sanctified, and saved.
Where Christ evidences his presence with us, he gives us an infallible hope of
glory; he gives us an assured pledge of it, and works our souls into an
expectation of it. Hope in general is but an uncertain expectation of a future
good which we desire. But as it is a gospel grace, all uncertainty is removed
from it which would hinder us of the advantage intended in it. It is an earnest
expectation proceeding from faith, trust, and confidence, accompanied with
longing desires of enjoyment. The height of the actings of all grace issues in a
well-grounded hope; nor can it rise any higher.” “And not only that, but we also
rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This
hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us,” (
So that if what has been said
be true, there is no force whatever in the infidel objection respecting the lack
of certainty as to eternal things. They are as certain as the existence and
perfections of God—as certain as eternal truth and justice can make them. If our
hope is weak, it is yet sure. What there is of it will never be disappointed.
Nay, its largest expectations will be infinitely more than realized. God will do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Our hope is uncertain in no
other sense than that it lays but feeble hold of things which it ought to seize
with the utmost tenacity. Therefore to say that the Christian’s hope is full of
uncertainty is an untruth, unless men simply mean to say that the virtuous
principle, even in good men, is weak. This all good men confess and bewail.
Nor do wicked angels and men
offer us anything worth our attention when they invite us to forego spiritual
for carnal hopes, to give up the hope of eternal glory, and lay fast hold of
perishing worldly hopes. For what is this mortal life—without the hope of the
gospel? Is anything more uncertain? What is more delusive than worldly hopes?
The conqueror of yesterday is the prisoner of today. The rich man of today is
the beggar of tomorrow. Pleasures bring pains. Honors provoke envy—and what is
more malicious or mischievous than that? Riches vex us while we have them, and
may leave us any moment. He who forsakes heavenly for earthly hopes, prefers the
chaff to the wheat; he labors for the wind, and delivers himself over to vanity.
Christians should therefore
labor to be rid of all sinful despondency. True, our frames change, but God’s
nature and counsels are immutable. Our salvation is made sure, not by our
strength, but by the strength of God; not by our goodness, but by the merits of
the Redeemer; not by our wisdom, but by the wisdom of God. God sometimes
withdraws—that we may learn our utter helplessness. John Newton says, “If I may
speak my own experience, I find that to keep my eye simply upon Christ as my
peace and my life, is by far the hardest part of my calling. Through mercy he
enables me to avoid what is wrong in the sight of men; but it seems easier to
deny self in a thousand instances of outward conduct, than in its ceaseless
endeavors to act as a principle of righteousness and power.” Yet to yield in
this point is ultimately to sink into despondency.
All good and lively and
enduring hope springs from the cross alone. “Let
While others grow wiser—let
us grow more holy. While they trust in the creature, and make flesh their
arm—let us set our faith and hope in God. Let us think upon his name. If we are
really his, we shall ever be with him. You cannot dwell too much on future
glory. Nor can you overestimate the value of your future inheritance. It is
worth ten thousand worlds. It is worth a thousand times more than any man ever
endured for it. Men of the world often congratulate each other on their
prospects. But Christians may well give each other joy in view of their bright
future, their sure and certain hopes. “Hope, like a star in the skies, shines
the brighter as the shadows of sorrow darken. A new view opens to us. We live in
the prospect of another and a happier world,” says John James.
How dismal are the prospects
of the poor guilty sinner! Scripture describes such as “without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of
Unconverted sinner, ask your
soul a few questions of great weight.
1.
What shall it
profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his eternal soul?
2.
Did ever any
harden himself against the Lord, and prosper?
3.
Can your hands be
strong, or your heart endure, when he shall deal with you?
4.
What will you
answer when he shall punish you?
5.
How can you
escape—if you neglect so great salvation?
