In Hope Against Hope

The Apostle says, “We who at first hoped in Christ.” Does this mean that we no longer hope in Him? No, we continue to hope in Him. But there is a continual fulfillment of our hope as we are conformed to His image, since the death of Christ is active and we attain to that much-sought-after righteousness of Christ in this hope. Hope will not disappoint us during our walk, nor will it disappoint us on that day when hope realizes its final fulfillment and we shall be like Him and see Him as He is.

During our sojourn, hope finds an outlet in faith. We can say that, when faith comes, hope has not put us to shame. Yet to have faith while in this earthly tabernacle is in itself a hope—a hope that eagerly awaits, with full assurance, the physical embodiment of the glory that one already has in the spirit. At present our life is hidden, but one day it will become manifest for everyone.

Abraham believed in hope, against hope, that he would become the father of many nations. (Romans 4:18.) “In hope”—one hopes because of a promise. But when the promise came and was granted to us by deliverance and redemption in the blood of Christ, “this hope” disappeared and was replaced by “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

By the blood of Christ our soul is poured out unto death. Thus our human spirit is liberated from our flesh and is made living by the second Adam. In this way we come to full rest in our spirit and attain to that hope for which we hoped “in hope.” “For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness.” Galatians 5:5. The first hope makes us participants in the work of Christ for us, whereas the latter hope makes us participants in the work of Christ in us, because that which has been done for us will always, by the leading of the Spirit and the obedience of faith, be done in us. When the righteousness of faith has been attained, we still wait in our spirit for what this righteousness gives us the hope of. The greater the righteousness obtained by faith, the greater and more glorious is the hope; and hope does not put us to shame.