Title: The Blessings of Justification 3: Hope

Text: Rom 5:1-

Date: 10-21-07.am

Passage:

Introduction:

This morning we want to talk about hope. We have been looking at the blessings we enjoy as a result of being justified by faith. First Paul wrote we have peace with God, the hostility caused by sin has been taken away that separation between God and may that came about because of sin has been bridged. We are no longer objects of God’s wrath, our relationship as children has been restored. Secondly we have been introduced through Christ into grace by which we have direct and continual access to God. This morning we see a third blessing resulting from justification, hope. Paul wrote, we exult in hope of the glory of God. NASB or we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That word exult means we are to have "an abundance of joy." It is the idea or picture of a person who is overflowing or bursting with joy. So much joy in fact that it causes them to shout.

We rejoice as a result of these blessings in our lives as a result of being justified

(1) We have peace with God.

(2) We have direct and continual access to him.

(3) We have the prospect of still higher and richer blessings in the fulness of his glory in the future.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago. Of the 141 times the word hope occurs in The English translation of the Bible, excluding the Psalms, only 21 times is the word hope used as a verb.

Here hope is a noun. That means, for the person who has been justified by faith hope is not just something you do it is something you have, something you possess!

If you look in the dictionary you see hope defined basically in three ways:

1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.

2. Something that is hoped for or desired: Success is our hope, prosperity is our hope.

3. It is the source of or reason for hope: the team's only hope for victory.

Most of the time when we use the word hope it refers to something we want or something want to happen, a particular outcome in a situation. I hope I’m younger next year, I hope Jeff Gordon wins the NASCAR Championship, I hope the Huskers win the National Championship, the volleyball team of course. That kind of hope might also be termed wishful thinking. The thing hoped for may or may not come to be. As believers as people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ we possess a hope that is certain and secure. It’s not a hope based on wishful thinking but our hope is built on Jesus Christ. Like the Edward Mote hymn: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweets frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.” Hope, as it is used here is a resounding certainty, based upon the promises of Jesus himself.

"Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19). "If I go to my Father, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also," (John 14:3).

Peter wrote in 1 Peter we have a living hope in a living Savior a hope that is secure or guaranteed through His resurrection. When we talk about the cross we have to understand it never stands alone, it is always side by side with the empty tomb. The cross on Friday brought cleansing from sin. The empty tomb on Monday brought hope.

Hope always points towards the future, but it is a present possession and reality now.

Peter, like Paul and the other apostles knew this hope in their lives and because of it they were able to go forward hand in hand with a living Lord and face their own destinies. This is the kind of hope that should be evident in your life? If you have placed your faith in Christ your life should be marked with hope and it should be and can be lived out in hope as well.

Every person who has been justified by faith possesses this hope. We may not recognize it sometimes. We may not utilize it, but we possess it, regardless of what our conditions here on earth may be. For some believers life is very hard. There are some Christians today who know nothing of the freedom we experience. The singing group at the State Convention This Hope mentioned a man they encountered on trip to a communist country. He was imprisoned for 10 years for writing Christian songs, yet while in prison he managed to write more than 350 additional songs.

There are believers in this world who live constantly under persecution, they live in danger, they wake up every morning knowing they are going to have to live under the watchful eyes of people who are openly hostile towards them and their faith. Many of them lose their jobs, their families and even their lives because of their faith, but they stay on course they remain faithful because of hope. Life may be cold and hard, it may be filled with pain and sorrow, but the promise to all who are justified by faith is that there is a glory beyond this life that is absolutely certain.

The Bible uses a couple of different pictures to describe our hope. It is described in Heb 6:19 as an anchor of the soul. It is an anchor which holds life steady when the storms or trials and the sea of circumstances beyond out control become rough, dangerous and unpredictable. In human experience we know the anchor rope of chain reaches down into the depths of the water to where the anchor holds fast at the bottom, giving security to the ship from stormy winds and rough seas.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Heb 6:19-20 NASB

Using the pattern of the tabernacle for structuring his thought, the writer of Hebrews pictures Christ as having passed through the inner veil of the tabernacle by His ascension so that He is now in the presence of God. The biblical picture of hope is that the living resurrected Christ has entered the realm eternity proceeding us to heaven and there He himself is our hope, both sure and steadfast explained in the terms of His high-priestly ministry. Our spiritual anchor is upward rather downward. We are anchored in Christ and He holds us secure.

The Bible also uses the helmet as a symbol of hope in 1 Th 5:8: But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. NASB

In Ephesians 6 Paul wrote of our present conflict with the powers of darkness in the spiritual realm and also talks about putting on spiritual armor. Though he doesn’t specifically mention hope in Ephesians the same idea is there. Hope is linked with the consummation or completion of our salvation. The helmet is a defensive piece of armor, it provides protection. Hope has that protective quality that how-ever strong the foe, the Christian need not fear, since the hope of completed salvation provides a sure defense against all attacks of our adversary the devil.

Having our sins forgiven, and being adopted into God’s family, we have become children and joint heirs with Jesus and the glory of God has now become our inheritance. Because of our justification we are to have overflowing joy which is rooted in the expectation that in the future God will fulfill his promise to manifest His glory in us.

Our world literally screams at us to find our joy, our hope here, in this life. We easily buy into this because, in a material sense, things are good here for the present. If succumb to a value system that tells us that we should be getting our greatest joy from what the world now offers, then we will not be rejoicing in the future hope of the glory of God. To the degree we are looking for joy in the things of this world and what it has to offer, we are allowing one of the greatest joys of the Christian life to be stolen from us.

What is the ground of this hope? What specifically was Paul talking about in referring to "the glory of God?"

That phrase "in hope of the glory of God" is a little confusing in English. The TEV tries to make the meaning a little more clear saying: in the hope we have of sharing God's glory. Other Bible translators such as Edgar GoodSpeed and JB Phillips have translated it in a similar way; Goodspeed said "in our hope of sharing the glory of God"; and Phillips "the glorious things he has for us in the future." In the present passage, when Paul speaks of sharing God's glory, what he means is that the believer will share in the likeness of God himself. Paul isn’t talking about a physical likeness. He’s is talking about character. 1 Jn 3:2-3 says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. NASB This is simply another way of speaking of the fulfillment of the salvation experience.

The New Testament concept of salvation is that of a process, not just an event. In Paul’s writings we discover that we have been saved, we are being saved and WILL BE saved. The future part of our salvation is when we will ultimately be free of the sin nature and will be complete. This is called "glorification.” When we are glorified, we will share in the glory of God. And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Co 15:49 NASB

Salvation is a miracle. It is also an amazing process. When we are born into this world, we are dead in trespasses and sins and our hearts perfectly match the description Paul gave of the sinner in chapter 1 and chapter3.

In Romans 3, verse 13-18, Paul wrote 13 "Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving," "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness"; 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood,

16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace have they not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." NASB

That's is a completely accurate description of what was in our hearts up until the very moment Jesus saved us.

That’s what God starts with. He takes vile creatures and makes them a new creation, He gives each of us a new heart. But the heart of flesh which shares all those evil characteristics still beats within us. As we grow in faith and mature more of the light of God's character shines in and through us. We are being transformed as the Bible says from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). Even the most sanctified, pious person in the world can’t claim perfection, not even for a few moments. That's how deeply the curse of sin affects us.

However, we live with the hope that one day we will be like Him. We won’t be little god’s we won’t posses a divine nature but the sinful nature we possess from birth will fully and finally transformed into the likeness of our Lord. That is a sure and certain hope.

That future hope of the glory of God, that certainty, is a major motivator for joyfully with gladness serving the Lord and should be a major part of every believer's life. When we look at the spiritual heros in Hebrews 11 we have to ask what was it that made those people tick--what motivated them to such radical obedience? Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. NASB Their motivation

was that certain sure hope in the future fulfillment of the promises of God. When you read the account of those people, people whom the Bible says the world was not worthy of (11:38) you find that what made them a success in the kingdom was their faith which was anchored in their certain hope. That should lead us to ask the question, do I have this hope as a motivator in my life? Without this hope, we will lack the spiritual energy and drive to follow and obey God as we should in this world. We read in verse

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. NASB

What kind of hope do you have this morning? Is it a uncertain hope built on the things of this world this life, or a certain hope built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness? We invite and challenge you this morning to make sure of your hope is the solid rock of Jesus Christ.