“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
Romans 8:24,25

THESE two verses are carrying on the argument of the previous verses and applying them. These verses also bring us to consider our present living in this world as Christians. The Apostle has been speaking about the future glory that we have in Christ. He has been telling us it is a great event and blessing which the whole creation is looking forward to, and that we also are looking forward to it eagerly. Now he brings us down to earth and calls us to consider our present life and living in the light of this glory.

In days gone by, Christians lived very much in the anticipation of the glory to come. They realised that this world was not their home any more. Their desires and longings were for this glory to come, and because often they suffered in this world through the hate of the world, they looked more to the glory to come. These days in affluent countries like the UK, where the things of this world and its attractions are all around us, Christian people seem to be too earth bound. There has been a movement over the last century which has decried what has been called derogatorily “pie in the sky when you die”. This was a reaction against the fact that so many were left poor by the greed of the rich, and because of a greater emphasis on the need for social justice. This attitude was also a reaction to the communist philosophy which criticised Christianity for neglecting the poor under the cloak of riches to come in another life. However the poor are still with us, and the greed of the rich also. The fact is that Christ has saved us from this world, and brought us into the kingdom of God. This heavenly kingdom is our home, and we have no continuing city in this life.

In the early church to which Paul wrote his letters, the world persecuted the church with great ferocity, and to be a follower of Christ meant the loss, often, of all things in this world. Because of this the life to come was the anchor of the soul. Paul develops this in these two verses by speaking about the Christian hope.

There are three stages which the Apostle takes us through in these two verses, and we will consider each in turn.

THE TENSES OF SALVATION.

Paul says “For in this hope we were saved”. Salvation looks forward to a hope, the hope of glory. There are tenses in the way salvation in Christ is presented to us in the Bible.

First of all there is the past tense. We are saved. When we are brought by the Spirit of God to repentance and faith in Jesus, and we trust in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we are saved. At that moment in time, salvation was bestowed upon us, and because of this we have been saved and are saved. Nothing can take this away from us, because Christ, in whom we have placed the care of our souls, has done all that is necessary to obtain this salvation for us. In Christ all our sins, past, present and future, have been forgiven and blotted out. We have been justified freely before God, which means that God declares us righteous in his sight, with no spot of sin or defilement upon us. The garment or salvation and the robe of righteousness has been put upon us and our sin is covered and blotted out, and there is now no condemnation for us. We have been raised to new life in Christ, and the old person, sinful and condemned, was crucified with Christ, and the new person, created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness was raised with Christ. We now sit in heavenly places with Christ, and are citizens of heaven. We have been once and for all brought out of the kingdom of the darkness of this world and have been translated into the kingdom of life and of heaven. Further we have been given the adoption of grace whereby we are called children of God, and God is our Father. His home is now our home. All this is ours for ever because of the perfect and complete work of Christ for us.

It is because this standing before God is on the grounds of the work of Christ for us, and in no way depends on what we do or will do, that we are safe in this eternal salvation which Christ has won for us. We do still sin because we still express our new born person through this sinful flesh and earthly body, but this does not effect our standing before Christ. We are still saved and heirs of heaven. Present sin can effect our relationship with out heavenly Father, but can not alter the fact that we are now children of God forever. God may be grieved because we are naughty, but he will never cease to be our Father. In this sense of salvation we do not hope because we have salvation. The person who says that he or she hopes to be saved, and hopes to go to heaven declares by this uncertainty that they have not understood their salvation, or at the worst have not yet been saved at all, and have still to come and place their trust in Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Then there is the present tense of salvation. This is the fact that we are being saved in our daily life. Although we have been saved through Christ, while we are still on this earth, we are still having to express ourselves through this sinful and corrupt flesh, and so we still do wrong, and our love for Christ is less than it ought to be. So we are being saved because still we have to struggle against sin and the flesh, and against Satan and the world.

We have the grace of hope which is that we are certain that we will persevere to the end, and we will be brought to the eternal glory by the promise and power of Christ, but we still struggle, and by the Spirit we are being sanctified. Because of the grace of hope, we are concerned to prepare ourselves for the time when we will enter the fulness of our salvation in the heavenly glory. So we long after holiness, and we long after fellowship with the Lord, and we seek to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. We seek to put “the old man” with its deceitful lusts, and put on “the new man” which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. What this means is that we seek to be and live as the new person we are desires to be, and we seek to live in fellowship with Christ, and in the light of the heavenly glory which is ours in Christ.

Then there is the future tense of salvation. Because we are still in this earth life, our bodies are not yet redeemed. Because of this we have still to enter into the fulness of our inheritance and salvation in Christ. We have the hope of of glory, because we have been saved in hope. This hope is not an uncertain thing. What we hope for is certain because Christ has purchased it for us. It is certain because Christ has said he has gone to prepare our place in his heavenly glory, and we believe his word, and that he has promised to come again and take us to this glory.

This hope is not what is usually the meaning of hope in earthly terms. In earthly terms, when we say we hope for something, what we mean is that there is something in the future which we long for, and which is desirable. It is also possible of being obtained, but there is still uncertainty because as we have yet to realise our hope, something may intervene to prevent the realisation of what we hope for.

The hope which Paul speaks of which is the Christian hope is not like that in any way whatsoever. It is true that our hope in Christ is still in the future, but it is not uncertain. It is certain because it is based on the work of Christ which is perfect and complete. It is certain because it is based on the sure word and promise of God and Christ. It is certain because it is Christ and his almighty power which will make its realisation happen. It is certain because it does not depend in any way upon us, or anyone else, but on the almighty power of God. However it is still hope because we still wait for it.

It is in this way that we are saved in hope. “For in this hope we were saved.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR CONDITION NOW.

Paul goes on to say “But hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has.”

Here we are brought to our present condition in our life in this world. Paul speaks of what is plain to anybody. Hope is always centred on something yet to come. If we had it now there would be no need to hope. A straight forward illustration from life can make this clear. There is someone we love very much, but who has gone away on some journey or some business. That person has promised to return at a certain date. Until that date comes, and the loved person returns, we are looking forward to the moment when we shall see the loved one again. So we are in a state of hope. The loved one has still to return. The moment that the loved one does return and we see face to face, and we touch and embrace, then the hope ends. The focus of our hope has been realised, and so there is no need to hope any more. We have what we hoped for.

We still live in this earthly life. Heaven which we long for, and the presence of Christ in visible sight which is our desire, and the joys of that heavenly realm, are still in the future. So we hope for them.

The fact is that although in Christ we have been forgiven, and God has accepted us in Christ as righteous. Although we have been made fit for heaven in our new born self created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. And although we can sit in heavenly places with Christ in the spiritual realm, and in prayer and worship enter the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. Yet we are still in this body and still in this earthly existence. Because we are still in this earthly existence we are still plagued with the temptations of the world the flesh and the devil. We still suffer. We long to be delivered from the body of this death, which is our earthly body, and this longing is our hope. We can say with the Apostle Paul that we long to depart and be with Christ, however the fact is that we are still in this life, and we have yet to be delivered from this earthly body, and instead be clothed with our new resurrection body, and so swallowed up in life in the heavenly glory.

So we still hope for the fulness of redemption which Christ has won for us and which is certain by his promise and power.

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW.

So Paul writes “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” What a tremendous statement this is. The idea is that we eagerly wait for this glory we hope for. We live for it and long for it, but because it is promised and because we submit to the perfect will of the Lord, we are patient in this life, trusting in the Lord that he will bring us to this hoped for glory in his good time and at the right time.

What does this mean in practice? Firstly it means we have a joy set before us. This is great joy that occupies our whole life and motivates all we think and do. This hoped for joy is our strength and our stimulation. This joy causes us to face all the trials and difficulties of this life in the peace of Christ. This joyful hope causes us to seek to live as citizens of this hoped for glory, and to please the king of that glory, even Jesus our Lord. This hoped for glory causes us to seek to serve our Lord and to proclaim his saving love and the glories of his kingdom, and long that others may have this glorious hope.

The Christian life is lived in the light of this hope. We are citizens of heaven. We are marching to glory. So this effects how we think and act. Paul puts it like this in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breast plate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

Then again in the letter to the Hebrews it is expressed “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us has entered on our behalf. He has become our high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:2-5).

Because of this Paul could write in Romans 5:2-5 “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

So with the Psalmist (Psalm 130:5) we say “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.”

CONCLUSION.