Real Hope
Signposts for Heaven
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4).
What strikes me about this verse is the constituent parts that make up the “hope” that is the conclusion. The first element is the writings: “everything written in the past.” We have much to learn from those who came before us. The Bible tells us about people who acted as God instructed them to behave, and about those who did not live that way.
It describes the consequences of obeying God’s will and the consequences of ignoring his instructions. When God makes a covenant with people, that agreement becomes the basis for evaluating the success or failure of those people for living according to the relationship with God. The written record is a statement of what God expects and what the people have agreed to do.
When Israel camped at Mt. Sinai, God descended on the top of the mountain and gave Moses the specifics of his covenant with the nation. When Moses told them what God expected, he wrote down everything the Lord had said (Ex 24:4). The people said, “We will do everything the Lord has said” (Ex 19:8). They even repeated the same promise after the completion of God’s revelation (Ex 24:3, 7; Dt 5:27). God approved of their words and expressed his wish for them: “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” (Dt 5:29).
We know, however, that they did not keep their promise, nor hold up their end of the covenant. Due to their failures, they suffered repeatedly under God’s punishment. But even then, God’s mercy lightened their punishment. In reading “everything that was written” we learn of God’s forgiveness in response to genuine repentance. We learn of his patience with his faithless people. We learn the truth of his self-description: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex 34:6-7).
Those lessons are so important for us to learn, and that is what Paul means by “endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures. “Hope” masquerades in different forms, but if it is not grounded in the God who “cares for [us]” (1 Pet 5:7) and who never changes (Jas 1:17), then it is not a sure thing. Hope only lives in future events, and only God’s promises are certain to come about. People may mean well, but when they over-promise and their words don’t happen, our hope can come to nothing. Not so with God’s promises.
How do we know that he cares for us, that we can give him all our anxieties and know that he will accept them, and he will actually help us with those things that worry us? Try this: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:31-32)
Only the Bible reveals the nature of our Creator. Nowhere but in the Bible can we read that God loved (and loves) the people in the world so much that he gave his only son to overcome our guilt, sin, and death. No other world religion contains such a story of divine love and generous grace, the God and Creator of all things sacrificing his son by his own initiative. Only in God do we find true HOPE. His book is filled with it.