Is there real hope for humankind? Not if philosophers such as Bertrand Russell are to be believed. He argues that since everything in the cosmos is destined to extinction before the inexorable march of blind, pitiless, omnipotent matter, and all human achievement will be buried beneath the ruins, the only philosophy that can hope to stand is one built upon "unyielding despair."1 This fits contemporary science, which has concluded that the universe will end either in a fireball resulting from gravity that produces an implosion of all things, or in a state of icy separation of everything due to the accelerating and endless expansion of space (the newly preferred view).

Where can we turn in face of so dismal a picture? Scientists today are seeking a theory that comprehends as a unity all properties and processes in the universe. To arrive there would be, as Steven Hawking expressed it, to know the mind of God. But, if we knew that mind, would it be one mindful of us? This is the question that famed physicist Steven Weinberg, raises in his Dreams of a Final Theory. In the course of his discussion, Weinberg introduces the question of God and wonders if we will find any answer to our deepest questions and any sign of an interested God in the final laws of nature. He thinks not, for scientific discovery has tended rather toward "a chilling impersonality in the laws of nature," and no special place for life or intelligence, values or morality, or "any hint of a God who cares about such things. We may find these things elsewhere, but not in the laws of nature" (emphasis mine).2

If science and philosophy cannot lead us to a God who cares, what, if anything, can? I can hear the apostle Paul saying, "What does the Scripture say?" (Rom. 4:3), or, "For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:15). The Bible comes to us not as reason (though it appeals to reason), but as revelation. The reality and knowledge of God is not a human inference from the world—"the world did not know God through wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:21)—but a message from God to the world. The Bible calls us to place our hope in God, "who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Ps .146:5-6), and in his word (Ps. 119:114), which, expressed in the words of men, is really the word of God (1 Thess. 1:13). Indeed, it is through the encouragement of the Scriptures, which enshrine this word, that we are to have hope (Rom.15:4).

What is it about the God of Scripture that generates hope? Precisely because he is what Weinberg says the laws of nature cannot reveal—a caring God. When everything looked utterly bleak for rebellious, idolatrous Israel, and judgment threatened to break (Hos. 2:2–13), God unbelievably made Israel’s sin the very reason why he would "now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her…and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope" (2:14–15). There can be no hope without God’s caring love.

In his book Love, Medicine, and Miracles, Bernie Siegel of Yale University contends that when the physician shows love, love turns on hope in the patient, and hope enlivens the immune system so that the miracle of healing may take place. It is that way with God. To realize his love is to have hope regenerated and new life created. This life is found in the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1, 4) but became flesh and dwelt among us (1:14). In him, we see that God "so loved the world" (3:16).

The interconnection between God, love, and hope is beautifully exhibited in Ephesians 2. Here the Gentiles are described as "having no hope and without God in the world" (2:12). It is obvious that the arousal of hope is connected with God, of whom it is earlier said: "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.…" (2:5; compare Col. 2:13).

In addition to forgiveness of sin and spiritual life in Christ, there are two other realities that flow from God, who, through love, begets hope. One is the assurance of final salvation. Can the justified Christian make it all the way through the final judgment and be saved? Many have been worried that, though the smile of God is upon them at the beginning of their Christian lives, their sense of imperfection in the present promises only the frown of God at the end. Romans 5 speaks to this fear. Arising from justification by faith, believers gain the hope of one day sharing God’s glory (5:1–2). This hope of future glorification will not, verse 5 declares, disappoint us, let us down. How can we be sure? "Because God’s love has been poured out into hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (5:5; emphasis mine). The experience of God’s love in the present is the guarantee of the future.

But what is the content of this love that makes our hope certain? It is no less than the fact of Christ’s death for the morally weak and ungodly (5:6), for sinners (5:8) and enemies toward God (5:10). This unconditional, divine sacrifice for the unrighteous "proves" God’s love (5:8).

The bulls-eye toward which the arrow of Paul’s logic flies is found in the parallel verses 9 and 10. The argument goes like this: If God gave his son to die for the unrighteous, as verses 6-8 aver, "how much more" will he complete the salvation of those he has justified and reconciled through that death. He will save them from the final day of wrath (5:9) through the risen life of Christ (5:10). That is, if he has done the hardest thing, die for his enemies, he will more surely do the easier thing, live for his friends. This is why we can rejoice in our present reconciliation, for it is the promise of ultimate salvation (5:11).

The assurance of salvation involves the hope of resurrection. If hope in Christ did not extend beyond the borders of this life, argues Paul, hopers would be in the most pitiable condition (1 Cor. 15:19). As it is, the resurrection of Christ, which carries with it the resurrection of all (1 Cor. 15:20), is of first importance for faith (1 Cor. 15:3). Because of it, believers are not to grieve over their dead in the manner of pagans who, not knowing God (1 Thess. 4:5), have no hope (4:13). Rather, reposing their faith upon the fact that Jesus died and rose again (4:14) and on the word that the risen Christ gives (4:15), they are to understand that Christ will come again and will, with a cry of command, release death’s captives and bring both the dead and the living to be with himself and each other forever (5:15–17). This is the time of the transformation of all from mortality to immortality (1 Cor. 15:51–53) and into the image of Christ (15:48–49). To be with Christ and like Christ is the goal of Christian hope. In the light of it, we are to comfort one another (1 Thess. 4:18).

From the early Christian centuries, we possess a pagan letter from a certain Irene to a couple who had lost their son. Irene identifies with them by saying that she weeps over the loss of their son as she did over her own. But, since "against death we can do nothing, comfort one another."

How like and unlike this is to Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Irene and Paul both encourage comfort as an answer to death, but Irene’s comfort is based on resignation to the irrevocability of death, whereas Paul’s is founded upon Christ’s victory over death. Irene has no good news, whereas Paul’s good news is Jesus. Because of him, we can say, as did a gravestone:

Go home dear friends
dry your tears.
We must wait here
till Christ appears.

Notes and References

1. Why I Am Not a Christian (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1957), 106–7, 115–16.
2. Dreams of a Final Theory (New York: Random House, 1992), 245, 250.

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