Hope is the expectation of faith in our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1). Faith is the substance of hope. Without faith, there is no hope. Christians believe, and therefore we must hope in Jesus Christ. “[T]he Lord Jesus Christ is our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1). Every breath we breathe and every thought we think, we live in the hope of Christ. This hope endures while the hope of the world does not. We know and we expect that only the best can come through Jesus Christ. We know that every good and perfect gift comes from God (Jas. 1:17). This is our hope. We don’t hope for the same things or worse. We hope for better things. People who hope for another car do not hope for the same kind of car with the dents and the same mileage. They don’t hope for the same car, but that it does not run or that it does not have tires. People hope for better. Look at the world. There is nothing better than Jesus Christ! We cannot hope in this world. Hebrews 8:6 says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”

When we find ourselves not praying, not reading, and caught up in some sin, our hope is not alive. When we leave God and Christ, our hope is dead. Depression is a life without hope. Job said in Job 17:15, “Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?” Yet, Christians are born again for a living hope by Jesus’ resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3, 21). This hope rests grace (1 Pet. 1:13). How? “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” (1 Pet. 1:22-23). We are born again in obeying our faith in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ by which we die to our sins, are buried by baptism into Jesus’ death, and we are raised in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-7, Col. 2:11-12, cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4).

This world is passing away. We have no hope in the world! What do you hope for? We hope for a better life, a pure life in Christ and an eternal life in heaven. We can’t hope in the religious traditions invented by people, but only in the life and the words of Jesus Christ. We can hope in no other churches than the Church that Christ built (Matt. 16:18, cf. Acts 20:28). We cannot hope in Christ without His Church. We have a confident expectation in Christ when we assemble and pray with others rather than neglect the people Jesus bought with His blood. What hope can we have if we don’t stir one another up to love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25)?! What hope can we have in anything else?!

Where is our hope? When we believe in Christ, then our hope is in Christ. Do we really believe? If we believe, then we will believe His words, place those words on our hearts, and live by them. By Christ, we eagerly await the redemption of our bodies. As the creation, we groan for this. “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). We are saved by hope, because we are compelled to live by faith, to be obedient to the faith (Rom. 1:5). “[H]ope being seen is not hope”. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). Abraham “contrary to hope, in hope believed” (Rom. 4:18).

What hope of salvation do you have for your family? Don’t delude yourself. Do you really put your faith in Christ or do you hope in a false comfort? Are you pretending to have confidence in your souls and the souls of your loved ones? Looking at tomorrow and not knowing if you are saved is a life without hope. You can see your hope in your life by how you live. There is something better.