What’s the Difference Between Faith and Hope?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | Faith and hope.

00:00:06.540 | Well, we need them both.

00:00:08.380 | But what exactly is the difference between them,

00:00:10.320 | between faith and hope?

00:00:12.020 | It's a new question today,

00:00:14.240 | and it comes from Kelly in Chickamauga, Georgia.

00:00:17.180 | I think I said that right, Chickamauga, Georgia.

00:00:18.860 | Pastor John, I share your passion

00:00:20.900 | for the intentionality of words.

00:00:23.420 | I have a question about two words in scripture,

00:00:26.020 | namely faith and hope.

00:00:28.140 | First Peter 121 says that Christ's work

00:00:30.140 | was so that your faith and hope are in God.

00:00:33.980 | My initial understanding was that faith

00:00:35.540 | is rooted in past grace, namely the cross,

00:00:38.920 | but hope is rooted in future grace,

00:00:41.180 | specifically the revelation of Jesus in First Peter 113.

00:00:45.660 | However, Hebrews 11.1 and First Peter 121

00:00:48.740 | seem to define faith as something rooted in the future

00:00:52.580 | while also distinguishing it from hope.

00:00:55.700 | So Pastor John, can you help me understand

00:00:57.540 | the distinction then between faith and hope?

00:01:00.860 | - Well, I'm glad Kelly shares my enthusiasm

00:01:04.500 | for the intentionality of words,

00:01:05.980 | 'cause I really believe words are dumb things

00:01:09.500 | until a meaner gives them an intention.

00:01:14.100 | So that's a good way to ask the question.

00:01:16.740 | Oh my goodness, there are few things I think about

00:01:19.260 | more than the nature of faith and hope

00:01:22.140 | and how they relate to each other in the Christian life.

00:01:24.460 | So this is right in my present wheelhouse.

00:01:27.540 | I love thinking about this.

00:01:29.100 | So here's my understanding of the similarity

00:01:32.300 | and difference between biblical faith and biblical hope.

00:01:36.820 | And that's really important to say biblical

00:01:38.460 | 'cause the world has all kinds of meanings

00:01:40.620 | that they give to faith and hope.

00:01:42.780 | And I just wanna say, what does the Bible mean

00:01:44.900 | by saving faith and hope?

00:01:47.940 | Hope as it is used in the Bible

00:01:51.500 | for the distinctive experience of Christian hope

00:01:55.300 | is always a confidence concerning the future.

00:02:00.300 | It's a confidence, not a finger crossing wish.

00:02:04.620 | So that separates the word, the Christian hope

00:02:07.620 | from most other uses of hope in the English language.

00:02:11.340 | Romans 5, 5 says, "Hope does not put to shame."

00:02:18.620 | It is rock solid, sure, and you can be confident.

00:02:22.700 | That's Christian hope.

00:02:25.380 | And it's always future oriented.

00:02:28.580 | So a key text would be Romans 8, 24.

00:02:31.860 | "For in this hope, we were saved.

00:02:35.340 | Now hope that is seen is not hope

00:02:39.100 | for who hopes for what he sees.

00:02:41.460 | But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait."

00:02:45.220 | There's a keyword, "We wait for it with patience."

00:02:49.700 | So when we say that hope does not see what it hopes for,

00:02:54.700 | the reason it doesn't see it

00:02:57.140 | is because it hasn't happened yet, it's future.

00:03:00.420 | We wait for it with patience.

00:03:04.340 | So that's the distinctive mark of hope.

00:03:07.180 | It is always future oriented

00:03:11.660 | and consists in a firm confidence

00:03:15.980 | of what we are hoping for, not just a wish.

00:03:19.380 | Now, faith, on the other hand, is the bigger concept.

00:03:24.380 | It includes everything that we say biblically about hope,

00:03:31.180 | but it is more.

00:03:36.980 | Now, that probably is gonna surprise a lot of people.

00:03:41.300 | And it's a risky statement

00:03:43.620 | that faith includes everything we can say about hope

00:03:48.620 | is in faith, but that it's more.

00:03:52.900 | But I think that's a true statement.

00:03:54.420 | I think it's fair to say that biblical hope

00:03:58.260 | is biblical faith in the future tense.

00:04:04.420 | If you are focusing on faith

00:04:06.820 | as faith that something will happen in the future,

00:04:11.340 | it is virtually the same as biblical hope.

00:04:16.700 | But faith involves more than confidence

00:04:22.980 | that something which God has promised

00:04:25.500 | will happen in the future.

00:04:27.620 | It is that.

00:04:28.620 | That's why I say hope is in faith.

00:04:30.780 | It's part of what faith is.

00:04:33.420 | It's more.

00:04:36.260 | The main distinction between Christian faith

00:04:40.900 | and Christian hope is that faith is in a substantial way

00:04:45.900 | a trusting relationship with a person.

00:04:50.620 | Faith says to Christ, "I trust you."

00:04:57.140 | Not just your promises, you, person.

00:05:01.860 | You are a reliable person.

00:05:04.660 | You are a trustworthy person.

00:05:07.300 | Now that trust may sometimes, often, be future-oriented.

00:05:13.260 | We may mean in that moment,

00:05:18.180 | "I trust you to keep your word

00:05:21.020 | "about this afternoon taking care of me."

00:05:24.460 | That's faith and it's hope.

00:05:26.620 | But in a specific moment,

00:05:31.340 | that trust doesn't have to mean something future-oriented.

00:05:36.340 | It might mean that Christ has just said this,

00:05:41.180 | "I died for you 2,000 years ago.

00:05:45.140 | "I bore your sins, John Piper, 2,000 years ago.

00:05:50.940 | "I absorbed my father's wrath for you 2,000 years ago."

00:05:55.940 | And I, or you listening to that,

00:05:59.860 | look him in the eye and say, "I believe you.

00:06:03.100 | "I believe you.

00:06:04.900 | "I trust you."

00:06:07.420 | Meaning that what you have just said about the past,

00:06:11.980 | I believe.

00:06:12.900 | Hope doesn't say that.

00:06:15.140 | That's not what hope is.

00:06:16.940 | Now, of course, that has massive implications

00:06:20.500 | for future life, right?

00:06:21.820 | But faith isn't only future-oriented.

00:06:26.180 | It is person-oriented in a significant way.

00:06:31.060 | And the mark of the relationship with the person is trust,

00:06:35.940 | a receiving, treasuring trust.

00:06:40.020 | But beyond this distinction,

00:06:44.220 | the Bible presents hope in God and faith in God

00:06:49.220 | in ways that are scarcely distinguishable.

00:06:54.740 | For example, when Psalm 42 says, "Hope in God."

00:06:59.740 | I have leaned on this in my discouraged time so many times.

00:07:04.780 | "Hope in God, John Piper, for you shall again praise Him,

00:07:08.540 | "your help and your God."

00:07:10.860 | Now, that act, what the Psalm is calling me to do,

00:07:15.620 | that act of hoping in God in the midst of my trouble

00:07:21.220 | is hardly distinguishable from trusting God.

00:07:25.940 | Hope in that Psalm is virtually, I would argue,

00:07:30.460 | virtually identical to faith in God

00:07:33.860 | as it relates to the future.

00:07:35.700 | Now, Hebrews 11, one is the place where we see

00:07:41.060 | this interweaving of faith and hope

00:07:44.940 | as close as they get, perhaps.

00:07:47.620 | It says, "Now, faith is the substance

00:07:51.660 | "of things hoped for."

00:07:57.220 | And yes, I do think substance rather than assurance

00:08:02.220 | is the most helpful, accurate translation.

00:08:06.780 | And that's another podcast.

00:08:08.500 | To give a reason for why that is

00:08:10.340 | and how the word "hepastasis" is used elsewhere in Hebrew,

00:08:14.300 | that's another issue,

00:08:15.140 | but just gonna have to go with it for now.

00:08:17.100 | I think that's the right translation,

00:08:20.060 | and here's what I think it means.

00:08:21.700 | It speaks of things hoped for.

00:08:26.420 | In other words, there's a reality in the future

00:08:29.260 | that God has promised and in some measure

00:08:33.660 | has revealed to us as precious,

00:08:38.820 | worth living for, worth dying for.

00:08:42.580 | And we are hoping to obtain it.

00:08:46.500 | That is, we have strong confidence

00:08:49.500 | that God will grant us this great blessing

00:08:54.180 | of experiencing fully what we are now hoping for

00:08:58.620 | in the future.

00:08:59.780 | And now Hebrews 11, one says that the substance

00:09:04.780 | of that future thing, thing hoped for,

00:09:08.980 | that future reward or blessing,

00:09:11.780 | some substantial essential element of it

00:09:16.780 | is experienced now in what he calls faith.

00:09:22.940 | Faith is the experience, the experience of that substance,

00:09:29.700 | the substance of that future reality,

00:09:33.780 | known, believed, tasted, cherished now.

00:09:38.820 | So let me illustrate that with Hebrews 12, two.

00:09:42.100 | The writer says that Jesus,

00:09:43.860 | for the joy that was set before him,

00:09:46.620 | endured the cross, despising the shame.

00:09:49.300 | So God has assured Jesus

00:09:53.820 | that on the other side of the cross,

00:09:55.940 | on the other side of suffering and death,

00:09:58.860 | there will be for you a great joy

00:10:03.860 | that you will inherit.

00:10:06.620 | He could see it.

00:10:08.460 | Just over the horizon.

00:10:10.460 | And he hoped for it.

00:10:12.940 | And in that sense, it was one of those,

00:10:15.380 | Hebrews 11, one, things hoped for.

00:10:18.460 | And I would argue that in the garden of Gethsemane

00:10:23.060 | and even on the cross, Jesus was sustained.

00:10:27.500 | It says he endured.

00:10:29.300 | He was sustained by tasting already

00:10:34.540 | the substance of that thing hoped for.

00:10:39.540 | He tasted something of that future joy

00:10:44.660 | that was set before him.

00:10:46.580 | And Hebrews 11, one calls that experience faith.

00:10:51.580 | So I would say in Hebrews 11, one,

00:10:54.820 | it is virtually impossible

00:10:57.740 | to completely distinguish faith and hope.

00:11:03.020 | The one is part of the other.

00:11:06.620 | Maybe one last text to show how close faith and hope are

00:11:12.500 | in the New Testament.

00:11:14.380 | Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 7,

00:11:17.500 | "We know that while we are at home in the body,

00:11:22.300 | "we are away from the Lord."

00:11:25.140 | We can't see him.

00:11:25.980 | He's in heaven, we're on earth.

00:11:27.220 | "We're away from the Lord.

00:11:29.460 | "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

00:11:34.220 | So one dimension or element of faith

00:11:40.100 | is that it embraces as real things it can't see,

00:11:45.100 | like the risen Lord Jesus.

00:11:49.260 | And Paul says, "We are away from the Lord."

00:11:52.180 | He's in heaven, we're on earth.

00:11:53.780 | We can't see him, but though we can't see him,

00:11:56.980 | we love him, we trust him,

00:11:59.900 | meaning we walk by faith, not sight.

00:12:03.980 | But that does not mean that when we do see him

00:12:10.140 | face to face at the second coming,

00:12:13.540 | we won't walk by faith anymore.

00:12:15.300 | Only one dimension of faith is replaced by sight.

00:12:21.020 | Not every dimension of faith is replaced by sight.

00:12:24.540 | We will still trust him in heaven.

00:12:27.220 | We will still feed on him as the living bread in heaven.

00:12:32.220 | And the same can be said of hope.

00:12:35.700 | We walk by hope and not by sight.

00:12:37.940 | And yet when sight is finally gained,

00:12:42.660 | not all hope will disappear.

00:12:45.500 | Heaven will forever be a place of faith

00:12:49.740 | and a place of hope

00:12:50.940 | because there will always be a future in heaven.

00:12:54.860 | A future to hope for.

00:12:56.780 | And there will always be Christ to trust.

00:13:00.100 | He will always be the feast of our hearts.

00:13:04.420 | So in summary then,

00:13:07.500 | hope is faith in the future tense.

00:13:12.500 | And everything that can be said about hope biblically

00:13:16.660 | can be said of faith,

00:13:19.540 | but faith is more than hope

00:13:22.860 | because it involves trust in a person

00:13:26.740 | which may have a backward dimension

00:13:31.060 | as well as a forward dimension.

00:13:33.980 | - Thank you, Pastor John.

00:13:34.980 | And thank you for the question, Kelly.

00:13:36.620 | And thank you for joining us today.

00:13:37.700 | You can ask a question of your own.

00:13:39.700 | Search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast

00:13:42.060 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:46.100 | Well, Monday, we are back to look at 1 Peter 2.11

00:13:49.900 | and how the passions of the flesh wage war against the soul.

00:13:54.900 | How do the flesh's passions threaten the soul?

00:13:59.540 | It's a super important discussion

00:14:00.860 | with a lot of implications for, well,

00:14:03.780 | every human being on earth, quite frankly.

00:14:07.180 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:14:08.100 | We'll see you back here on Monday for that.

00:14:10.980 | Have a great weekend.

00:14:12.020 | (upbeat music)

00:14:14.620 | (upbeat music)

00:14:17.220 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What’s the Difference Between Faith and Hope?

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