Where There’s Life There’s Hope
Read Romans 5:1-5
Hope is one of the great words of the Christian faith. It is one word the unsaved man simply cannot use, for the unsaved do not have any hope (Eph. 2:11-13). But the Christian has hope because he has life in Christ.
We have hope because of salvation. We have been justified by faith (which means we have a right standing before God through Christ), and we have access into the grace of God, and we “rejoice in hope.” We have a joyful hope in Christ! This “hope” is not a vague dream, a “hope so” feeling; it is a divine certainty. In fact, Paul says that Jesus Christ is our hope (1 Ti 1:1).
But we also have hope through suffering. He says, “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Ro 5:3-4). Suffering makes the unsaved man give up all hope; but when a Christian suffers, he rejoices in hope because He knows that God is in control. The darker the night, the brighter gleam the stars of God’s promises. Romans 8:17 informs us that to suffer with Christ means we shall also be glorified with Him!
The Christian also has hope because of the Scriptures: “That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Ro 15:4). No book inspires hope and encouragement like the Bible. Whether you read of God’s dealings with Abraham or His blessings on Paul, you find your hope getting stronger. This is because the Holy Spirit uses the Word to increase your hope. As Paul prays in Romans 15:13, “…that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Where there’s life (salvation), suffering, the Scriptures, and the Spirit, there’s hope!
(Copyright, Warren W. Wiersbe. First appeared in Thoughts for Men on the Move. May not be copied or reproduced without express written permission of the author.)
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
