Hope is the confident expectation of things to come. We have a living hope because it is based on a living Savior! Paul wrote of his experience regarding this hope: “Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!” (Acts 23:6). The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, but he made his defense of it, and of the hope, of which the resurrection of Christ was the guarantee (24:14–16). In Romans, Paul gives further details of the character of this hope. It is the hope of “the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23–25); and the “hope of the glory of God” (5:2), in that order. First, we await the adoption, that is, the redemption of our bodies; for the Lord Jesus Christ “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:21). Then, the Church will be displayed as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife … the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:9–11). This hope is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus” (Heb. 6:18–20). If the hope is the anchor of the soul, faith is the cable attaching the soul to Christ where He is within the veil.

This hope is in relation to the future. God has taken care of our past, for He “has blessed us”; is providing for the present, for He “comforts us”; and has given us a living hope for the future: “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (Rom. 8:24–25).