Hope Knows
By Jim Cofield
I’m 67. I’m much closer to my death than to my birth. I’m spending a lot more time thinking about death than I did 10 years ago. The more I reflect on my passing the more grateful I am for the reality of a “blessed hope” that is anchored in the Easter story. Let me explain …
1 Corinthians 13 says that three things will endure—faith, hope, and love. And while the greatest is love we know we need faith to live the Christian life well. We also need hope.
Faith is “the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews 11:1b). In other words, faith is the perception of things that do not necessarily appear obvious. It is the capacity to see the unseen.
This confident assurance of faith is connected to a “hope for (what) is going to happen” (Hebrews 11:1a). Faith is the capacity to see the unseen. Hope is the assurance that there actually IS something unseen to be seen.To paraphrase Romans 8:24, “If you already have seen something (by faith), you don’t need the assurance (of hope) that there is something to be seen.”
The glorious return of Jesus to this earth is our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). Jesus died, was buried, rose from the grave, and ascended to heaven. Hope says Christ will come again. Faith has the capacity to perceive (see) the unseen reality that hope says IS the reality to be seen.
As such, hope provides an “anchor for the soul” (Hebrews 6:19). It holds us firmly to the coming realities that God has promised us in Christ Jesus. Because God’s promises are true, we can confidently say that “hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5). We “rejoice in hope” (Romans 12:12). We celebrate what hope confidently says about our future.
What hope knows and says is that, when I pass from this life, I will be with Christ. That is the unseen reality that faith perceives. And because faith gives me eyes to see what is yet unseen, I find comfort and peace even though I will someday leave this life.
During the Easter season, I pray that the Spirit will give us the strength to “hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promises” (Hebrews 10:23). He promised to raise Christ from the dead. And he did. He promised to raise us from the dead. And he will. Thanks be to God!
