Hope Does Not Disappoint

Romans 5:1-11
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also 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. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone dies for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through this life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

A few weeks ago TG spoke on Sunday evening and asked “if you are discouraged, what is it that you are putting your hope in?” To put this into a statement: what discourages/disappoints you shows what you are putting hope in. The cause of disappointment is hoping in what can and does not deliver what’s expected. But Romans 5:5 says, “hope does not disappoint, (why?) because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” If my hope were in God, I would not be disappointed. That I am discouraged/disappointed reveals the truth that my heart hopes in things other than God.

Disappointment comes when I hope in something that cannot and has not promised to hold the weight of my hope; it is because I have put my hope in things that cannot deliver, cannot withstand that hope. MD often reminds us that Christians must lean the whole weight of their lives, all their hope, into Jesus. He is able and willing to support that weight, and proved it by bearing it on the cross and then rising from the grave, reigning victorious over that weight. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… we have now been justified by his blood…saved from God’s wrath through him!”If you are a Christian, your hope is not just a wish or an ideal that you want to come true. No, the Christian’s hope is secure, it is a promise – Christ has died for you, you are justified by his blood, saved from God’s wrath. The Christian’s hope is a sure thing, hope does not disappoint.

Psalm 42:5 “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.