"REJOICE IN HOPE": HOPE IN ROMANS

There are some tender moments about the origin of Paul's letter to the Romans. It is the only letter in the New Testament corpus that was borne to its destination by a woman (Ro. 16:1-2). Paul wrote it while a guest in the home of a man he had previously baptized into Christ, which is probably a sweet little story all its own (Ro. 16:23,1 Cor. 1:14). The apostle greets far more people in this letter than any other, 29 by name plus families and churches, which gives the letter a special touch. This fact is all the more remarkable in that the apostle had not yet been to Rome. It shows how mobile the early Christians were.

And yet this letter is the most profound of any in the Bible. Indeed no less a literary genius as Samuel Coleridge described Romans as "the most profound work in existence." Its subject matter, especially its treatment of the free gift of grace and justification by faith, has made it the inspiration of every major reformation in the history of the church. It seems also to be true of individual and personal renewal, for people so often attribute their change to the discovery of the grace of God in Romans.

There are other discoveries to be made in Romans, including the subject of this series, for Paul in this letter says things about hope that are not said anywhere else. "Rejoice in hope" appears twice in Romans but nowhere else. "Believed in hope" and "believed against hope" are also unique to this letter, and provide insights into the nature of hope. Moreover, it is only in Romans that God is referred to as "the God of hope." These unique features plus the fact that the apostle refers to the hope of the believer twelve times, all in substantive ways, makes hope one of the basic ideas of the letter. We will therefore in this installment limit ourselves to the book of Romans in our study of the hope of the believer.

That the apostle would in this letter refer to God as the God of hope (Ro. 15:13) is consistent with his picture of God as sovereign and incomprehensible. God has mercy on whom he will (9:18); who knows the mind of the lord and who can serve as His counselor? (11:34); His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out (11:33). Paul is saying that we accept by faith what we cannot comprehend by sight, and this makes God the God of hope. "Hope that is seen is not hope," he says in 8:24. In God we have hope of things unseen and things that are beyond our understanding, and this is why God is the God of hope.

In 4:18 the apostle refers to "believing against hope" or "contrary to hope" and to "believing in hope," which helps us to understand the relation between hope and faith. The reference is to Abraham's faith. The patriarch's faith was "against hope" or "contrary to hope" in that there was no earthly or rational way for his hope (to have seed of his own) to be fulfilled. The circumstance of being a century old and his wife barren was against all hope of being realized. So, when he believed "contrary to hope" he showed us what belief really is - an assurance that God is able to do all that He has promised even when contrary to reason. Ro. 4:20 says of Abraham, "He did not waver at the promise of God through disbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God." He believed, contrary to what man could rationally hope for, and this is why it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.

This shows us that faith is trust in God that He can and will do anything that He promises, regardless of circumstances, even when it is contrary to all reasonable expectation. Faith that is "contrary to hope" is therefore the real faith that pleases God.

While Abraham "believed against hope" he also "believed in hope," terms that appear to move in different directions. That he believed "in hope" does not mean that he had faith in his own hope. The object of his faith is God in all His omnipotence and glory. Abraham simply believed that God would do what Re said He would do. This was both Abraham's faith and his hope. Here faith and hope are interactive as they are in 1 Cor 13:13 where faith and hope along with love are said to endure forever. We have hope because we believe, and we believe because we have hope. They both rest on the promises of God.

"Rejoice in hope," also unique to Romans, couples hope to joy as well as to faith. The first occurrence (5:2) urges us to "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," which takes us into the future to "the glory to be revealed," which he speaks of in chapter 8. We are to rejoice over the glorious things we shall someday see and be a part of, and since we believe it will be a reality we have hope, and so we rejoice in hope. An example of this is the claim by C. S. Lewis that we are personally destined to such glory that if we could now see ourselves as we will be then, we would be tempted to fall down and worship ourselves. If we believe such glory will one day be ours, then we can rejoice in hope.

The other appearance of "Rejoice in hope" (12:12) appears in a list of traits that should be true of every believer. While there are special gifts, which he enumerated in the previous verses, these are gifts that all believers are to manifest in a Christlike manner. love is to be sincere, and the believer is to hate what is evil and cling to what is good (verse 9); kindness is to be shown and mutual preference practiced (verse 10); the believer is to be diligent, fervent in spirit, always serving the Lord (verse 11).

Then in verse 12 he says, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer." If the other gifts are outward, these are inward. They are Christ-like traits of the heart and mind: joy, hope, patience, prayer. "Rejoicing in hope" means that we keep the promises of God so close to our heart and mind that we have exceeding great joy over the hope that is ours. We believe that when we leave this world we are going home to be with the lord in glory. That is our hope and that is our joy.

The apostle not only says that he rejoices in hope but also in suffering, for it is the suffering that produces hope, by way of perseverance and character, according to 5:34. Suffering (or tribulation) teaches us to persevere. Perseverance builds character, and character produces hope. Rope thus has its antecedents. If our hope appears to elude us, it might be that we have not allowed the Holy Spirit to cultivate within us the Christlike character that produces hope. According to Paul, we may not be able to rejoice in hope until we learn to rejoice in suffering.

All this leads the apostle to say a remarkable thing about hope in 5:5: "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Does this passage not make it clear that every believer receives the Holy Spirit. In 8:9 he says that if one does not have the Spirit he is not a Christian. This show that the believer does not have to seek the Spirit as some kind of "second blessing," for he receives the Spirit when he believes in Christ and is baptized into him, according to Eph. 1:13 and Acts 2:38. And when the love of God is poured out in his heart by the Holy Spirit he has the assurance of the hope that will never disappoint. It will never prove to be illusory.

Paul is saying that the believer's hope is grounded in the love of God, but that love is appropriated to us by the Holy Spirit, who pours out that love in our hearts. So, hope will never disappoint, for all that God promises through His love shall be abundantly realized.

Also unique to Romans is Paul's assertion that "we were saved in this hope" (8:24). He does not mean that we are saved by hoping or that hope saves us, but that hope is apart of all that salvation means. The salvation that is now ours, which we already have, has hope as part of it. It is a way of saying that salvation has no meaning apart from hope.

Finally, in chapter 15 the apostle says two more beautiful things about hope: In verse 4 he assures us that hope comes through "the patience and comfort of the Scriptures," and in verse 14 he tells us that it is by truly believing that we will "abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

The first passage teaches us that we strengthen our hope by studying the Scriptures. if we are weak in knowledge of the Scriptures, we are likely to be weak in hope. The second passage, which urges upon us the joy and peace of really believing, associates hope with the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to abound in hope, which means to live a life that exudes with hope rather than disillusionment, which is possible only by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

In 14:17 the apostle refers to the kingdom of God in terms of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit rather than legalistic rules about food and drink. When we modern Christians plug in to the power of the Holy Spirit and experience the joy of the Spirit's indwelling, then and only then we will understand the apostle Paul's admonition that we "rejoice in hope." — the Editor