2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us… Faith, hope, and love — the three master principles of the true believer — are principles acted on in worldly things, by every man, every day. You need, then, no definition of the chief term in our text — "a good hope through grace." My theme is the best of hopes, a heavenly hope, a hope which cannot fail nor disappoint you — hope from God and in God, "good hope through grace." Such a hope was enjoyed by the Thessalonian saints. And this, in connection with their other gospel blessings, is here set forth in awful contrast with an opposite class of characters and destiny — the character and destiny of those who "received not the love of truth" to their soul's salvation, "but had pleasure in unrighteousness." The gospel hope, then, is a "good hope." Why "good"? It is good, I observe — I. In its OBJECTS. These are set forth to us in Scripture with much variety of phraseology. In ver. 14, just cited, they are designated in one comprehensive phrase, "the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, as in Ephesians 6:17, "The hope of salvation"; Romans 5:2, "And rejoice in hope of the glory of God"; Colossians 1:5, "The hope laid up for you in heaven"; Titus 1:2, "Hope of eternal life"; Hebrews 6:19, a hope "which entereth into that within the vail"; 1 Peter 1:3, 4, the hope of "an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you"; and ver. 13, "Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." In this last-cited passage, as in Titus 2:13 and 1 John 3:2, the realization of this hope is connected with the glorious advent of the returning Saviour: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ": "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Other passages might be adduced to set forth the nature of the believer's hope, and to prove it "good," from the goodness of its objects. It were much indeed, it were a "good hope" for man — a sorrower in a sorrowing world — to have before him a heaven, where sorrow and sighing shall have fled away. It were much, it were a good hope, for man, a sinner, with corruption within and conflict without, to have before him an inheritance undefiled; the victor's palm and the victor's song. And these, all these, the believer's hope embraces. Yet, not these only. His eternity is to be spent not alone within reach of God, or near God; but in God's very presence, with God. His glory is to come not only from God; in a yet loftier and more wondrous sense, it is "the glory of God." II. But the hope which is engaging us is "good" by reason not only of its object, but, of its SECURITY. It shall assuredly be realized: it shall not confound nor make ashamed. Consider its foundation: "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2); which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:17, etc.). If "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," hope confounded maketh it desolate. In the "good hope" of the Christian, uncertainty is no element. It is a deferred hope, a waiting hope, a tried hope; but not an uncertain hope, not a speculative hope. It rests not upon probability. Its security is the word, the character, the nature of the unchanging and unchangeable Jehovah. III. The hope of which we speak is a "good hope" IN ITS EFFECTS. Man's need is two-fold. He is a sinner, and, as a sinner, a sufferer. This hope meets alike his sin and his sorrow. 1. For, observe, it is a sanctifying hope. "Every man," writes St. John, "that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Thus, like the faith on which it rests, hope is a principle of no secondary influence in furthering the great work of holiness in the believer's soul, and in his growth in grace. The heir of glory must grow in grace. 2. But this hope is, further, a sustaining hope. It sustains under trial. It sustains, too, in the spiritual conflict. And this good hope sustains in death. IV. But it is further characterized as "a good hope THROUGH GRACE." It is "through grace" in a two-fold sense, as resting on grace, conveyed, that is, through a covenant of grace, even "the gospel of the grace of God"; and as imparted by grace to the individual believer. It is based on this: that for man, for me an undone sinner, powerless for my own recovery, with no ransom to atone, no escape from hell, God, in the richness of His unbought, unasked, undesired mercy, has provided a free and full salvation; that a propitiation has been made by Jesus the Lamb of God, which is of infinite efficacy for my pardon and reconciliation and peace. They are short and simple words — "good hope through grace." They bespeak the truth received, the gospel tasted in its power and sweetness, Christ known and won, Christ dwelling in the sinner, the sinner dwelling in Christ. The words of the same apostle to the Ephesians present the gloomy contrast, "having no hope." Such was the state of the Ephesians and Thessalonians in their heathen darkness. Why? They were "without Christ." (J. C. Miller, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, |
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