HOPE

Romans 4:18 Finding Hope when things seem Hopeless

18 In hope against hope, that he should become the father of many nations,

The Situation of hopelessness against hope There was not hope whatsoever for this thing to happen, speaking in a natural sense; everything was against it, the course of nature, the course of life, everything. It was impossible. It was a completely hopeless situation, there was no glimmer of hope in and respect “against hope” (Lloyd Jones). When there was no probable reason, yes, when all things were against him, he yet continued to believe. And, doubtless, there is nothing more injurious to faith than to fasten our minds to our eyes, that we may from what we see, seek a reason for our hope (Rom 8:24,2 Cor 4:18,Heb 11:1) (Haldane). Here is an oxymoron, opposite ideas to convey a thought. He hoped that when there was no hope, and what it means is that against all human capability and all human capacity, he believed God. Now, hope and faith are different. Hope is the desire for something to happen. Faith is the confidence that it will happen. Now he hoped when there was no hope. I mean, it didn't make any sense to hope when he hoped (Mc Arthur). Faith is trust in God and His promises despite our circumstances and the evidence to the contrary. Don’t those two little phrases sort of go in the opposite direction. In hope against hope. Really, they don’t contradict one another. Abraham is simply doing this at the same time. In his thoughts he contemplates his human condition. And though there was no reason for him to hope at the human level against hope, yet he hoped in God, he believed in God and in His promise. So in hope against hope, he believed. There’s no reason for him at the human level to expect not only a son, but to be the father of many nations. He’s almost a hundred years old. He’s childless by his wife. Sarah is long past childbearing years. There’s no human reason for him to think that God’s promise is going to be fulfilled against hope. But in hope he still believed (Duncan) He kept on in hope, believing contrary to all human hopes! There were many trials to his faith, the essence of the difficulty, however, always being to "look unto the promise of God" not to circumstances, or to the impossibility, according to the flesh, of the promise's being fulfilled. Against hope, against reason, against feeling, against opinions of others, against all human possibilities whatever, we are to keep believing. (Newell)

The Substance of hope In hope Gk Elpis to anticipate with pleasure, joyful confidence But Paul uses the word hope twice in this verse: in the first instance, he means a probable evidence for hoping, such as can be derived from nature and carnal reason; in the second he refers to faith given by God; for when he had no ground for hoping he yet in hope relied on the promise of

God; and he thought it a sufficient reason for hoping, that the Lord had promised, however incredible the thing was in itself. (Calvin) The word hope is used here in two different senses, the one subjective: hope as a feeling (in the phrase: in hope), the other objective: hope to denote the motive for hoping (in the phrase: against hope). It is nearly the same in Romans 8:24, with this difference, that hope in the latter passage, taken objectively, does not denote the ground of hoping, but the object of hope (Col 1:5). The apostle therefore means: without finding in the domain of sense or reason the least ground for hoping, he nevertheless believed, and that by an effort of hope proceeding from a fact which the eye did not see nor the reason comprehend, God and His promise. This is the realization of the notion of faith expressed Hebrews 11:1, he hoped on (the foundation of) his faith. His faith burst forth in the form of hope, and that in a situation which presented no ground for hope. (Godet) Abraham’s faith described, is both contrary to hope (as far as nature could give hope) and rested on hope (that God could do what nature could not). (Robertson)

The Source of hope as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." Brunner's definition of true faith is thus: The existence of faith in God's promise is completely clear only where God's promise runs counter to human expectation and calculation. Whether one really relies on God's word alone becomes manifest only where God's word is not supported by any rational basis, but where, on the contrary, it is opposed to what one must consider probable on the basis of reason (Brunner). He believed in what was promised to excite his hope. Hope here is put for the object of his hope - what was promised. (Barnes) Abraham’s expectation rested solely on the Divine promise. He had no ground to hope for so numerous a posterity, or any posterity at all, except on the warrant of the promise of God. This he received in its true and obvious meaning, and did not, like many, explain away, modify, or fritter it down into something less wonderful. He hoped for the very thing which the words of the promise intimated, and to the very utmost extent of the meaning of these words, (Haldane) Abraham believed the promise of God, being assisted by a supernatural aid: "in hope"; of the fulfilment of it by the grace and power of God: "against hope": against all visible, rational grounds of hope; Sarah's womb and his own body being dead, but inasmuch as God had said it, he believed: (Gill) It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his bare word; and that against sense in things invisible, against reason in things incredible: sense corrects imagination, reason corrects sense, but faith corrects both. It will not be, says sense; it cannot be, says reason; it both can and will be, says faith, for I have a promise for it. (Trapp) Abraham’s hope rested solely on God’s promise. He had no hope of obtaining descendants naturally. His faith was not a condition for the reception of the promise, but he believed with the intention of receiving it. (Constable) Abraham’s faith (and thus his hope) was faith in God’s promise. It was based on the bare word of God and on nothing else whatsoever. Abraham had nothing to go on when he believed this except the mere statement of God. There was nothing but the bare word of God So faith (and the hope that springs from it) has this naked element, It does not need proofs, it does not seek them, it does not need them. Faith is content with the bare word of God, because He is God. So a poor view of God leads to a poor faith in God (Lloyd Jones)

The Securing of Hope he believed The faith of Abraham bore an exact correspondence to the power and never-failing faithfulness of God; for though, in the ordinary course of things, he had not the best foundation of hope, yet he believed that he should be the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken; namely, that his posterity should be like the stars of heaven for multitude, and like the dust of the earth. (Clarke) Abraham believe when there really was no human reason to believe and all the odds were stacked against him. So we meet the man who was the father of nobody on the way to nowhere. And all he basically knows is that God told him to do it. And beyond that he knows nothing, except that God's going to fulfill His promise. And he believes that, for some reason he believes it. The only reason we can ascribe to it is that God planted within his heart that confidence, he hoped against hope, God had told him he would be the father of many nations and Abraham believed it, “So shall thy seed be.’" (Gen 15:1-6) And that was the statement of God relative to the sand of the sea and the stars of the heaven. You're going to have a multitude come from your loins, Abraham. And even when it looked impossible, and the whole idea ridiculous, God says that's what it's going to be and Abraham believed. (Mac Arthur) Paul in these words was showing the quality of Abraham's faith, which consisted in this, that he truly believed God, even though God's words were contrary to all natural and human expectations. Abraham was old, and Sarah's womb was dead, but he believed God, believing that, indeed, he would become the father of many nations. This quality of believing in "things not seen as yet" (Heb 11:1) is to be concluded that genuine faith accepts what God has said, no matter what considerations of human wisdom and experience seem to nullify it. Such is Abrahamic faith. (Coffman) He had a strong hope, a firm faith and trust in the promise and power of God, against all-natural grounds of hope; namely, that he should certainly have a son, and a seed like the stars of heaven for multitude. What was the ground of Abraham's faith; namely, the special promise, yes, the absolute promise of God, that he should have a son. (Burkitt) Abraham specifically believes God’s promises, despite their audacity and impossibility. I want you to think about that for a moment, because the sinner is in precisely the situation that Abraham is in. The sinner has no human hope of forgiveness. You may have failed in some relationship, and the result of your failure in that relationship has been unmitigated condemnation by the person whom you offended. And they show no signs of ever wanting to forgive you, and you can’t even imagine that what you’ve done in the past could ever be forgiven by God, because you haven’t even experienced it at the human level. And yet the sinner’s hope must be in God, and in His divine and gracious forgiveness, even as Abraham had to believe something that seemed beyond possibility. And also, the sinner says, "Well, you know this message that you’re preaching, it’s wonderful, but, you know, it’s too good to be true. I just can’t believe in all this heaven stuff, this forgiveness stuff. It’s just beyond comprehension. Just let me remind you again that today there are more than two billion people who profess to be the spiritual seed of Abraham, worshiping the one who is the divine seed of Abraham (Jesus). Now this man was childless 4,000 years ago. More than two billion people call on God and claim him to be their spiritual Father. You think God can’t deliver? If you’re a sinner, and you doubt God’s ability to deliver, you remember what He promised to Abraham and you look around you today. Look around at believers, who have no blood relationship to Abraham, but who are his children by faith, and by God’s grace. God is able to fulfill what He promises. (Duncan)

Against all hope, It means that from a human perspective the situation was hopeless. But since God had spoken, Abraham was willing to believe God despite the adverse physical evidence. There was no external support for Abraham to believer this wild promise. There was no such support. From the point of view of human experience, the situation was not promising. So, if Abraham believed God, As he did, it was only because it was God who made the promise. Human beings can deceive us and often do. But God’s word is his bond and he never changes his mind. (Josh 21:45, 2 Cor 1:20, Heb 10:23; Num 23:19). Therefore, although we do not have external support for believing him, we do not need it. In fact, it would be and insult of the character of God to maintain that we believe God only because of the word of experience of some human being. How could anything human ever support the Eternal? It is rather the other way around. (Boice)