1 Peter 1:3 NASB
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born from above INTO a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 NASB
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; [3] constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,
Through our union with the resurrected Lord Jesus we were born again, into a living hope. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 gives us even further insight into what that living hope is all about. Let’s remind ourselves what the biblical word “hope” actually means; “a joyful confident expectation and anticipation of victory,” and I want to show you something that blew my mind when I first discovered it. The literal, grammatical translation of verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians is this; “constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and the steadfast hope OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST in the presence of our God and Father.” It should not be translated “and steadfast hope IN our Lord Jesus Christ, but the proper translation is THE STEADFAST HOPE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Do you see it? It is stunning! Through our union with Christ we experience a new birth that is heavenly in origin and nature, and in our new birth WE ARE PLACED INTO THE STEADFAST LIVING HOPE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. I love what John 15:11 says, “These things I have spoken you, that MY joy may abide in you, and that your joy may be made full,” and John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; MY peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Jesus didn’t tell us that he would give us joy or give us peace; instead, he says that His joy will abide in us, and that he would give us His peace. Jesus is our peace, and he is our joy, just as He is our strength, our wisdom, our morality, etc. etc. In the same way, it’s not that Jesus gives us hope, or that simply our hope is in him, but even better, His steadfast hope is abiding in us. The last verse of 1st Corinthians 2 we are told that we have the mind of Christ, and I believe that the mind of Christ is full of steadfast hope. Jesus sees everything that is broken and dark and threatening through the eyes of hope, because he sees victory even though it may not yet be manifested. He conquered death, and so he knows there’s nothing in this fallen world that hasn’t already been overcome by Him, even though the victory may not yet be emerging so that our physical eyes can see it.
Let your imagination run wild for a minute and imagine the kind of atmosphere of hope that is experienced among the triune Godhead. If you could catch the triune God hanging out together for a moment, what kind of joy, or what kind of peace, or love or hope would be manifested in that environment. Well, verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians 1 talks about the steadfast hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. The kind of steadfast living hope that Jesus exhibited in the presence of the Father, is the kind of hope that we have been placed into in our new birth in Christ. It’s one of those magnificent ideas that is so glorious, I don’t have words to describe or explain it. I don’t know what to say that’ll help it make more sense, but my mind and my spirit is exploding in fascination just thinking about how big that living hope is, that Jesus always carries. As you abide in Christ and the temptation comes to only see things through the lens of Earth’s report, then stop and practice the presence of Jesus by asking Him, “What is your mind concerning this Lord Jesus,” and then listen to the Holy Spirit reveal to you the lens of steadfast hope through which Jesus sees every situation, person, or temptation, and then in that moment simply come into agreement with the mind of Christ and thank Him. This is how we walk out our union with Christ practically, bearing witness of what we see and hear, from how He sees and hears.