(upbeat music) Faith and hope. Well, we need them both. But what exactly is the difference between them, between faith and hope? It's a new question today, and it comes from Kelly in Chickamauga, Georgia. I think I said that right, Chickamauga, Georgia. Pastor John, I share your passion for the intentionality of words.

I have a question about two words in scripture, namely faith and hope. First Peter 121 says that Christ's work was so that your faith and hope are in God. My initial understanding was that faith is rooted in past grace, namely the cross, but hope is rooted in future grace, specifically the revelation of Jesus in First Peter 113.

However, Hebrews 11.1 and First Peter 121 seem to define faith as something rooted in the future while also distinguishing it from hope. So Pastor John, can you help me understand the distinction then between faith and hope? - Well, I'm glad Kelly shares my enthusiasm for the intentionality of words, 'cause I really believe words are dumb things until a meaner gives them an intention.

So that's a good way to ask the question. Oh my goodness, there are few things I think about more than the nature of faith and hope and how they relate to each other in the Christian life. So this is right in my present wheelhouse. I love thinking about this.

So here's my understanding of the similarity and difference between biblical faith and biblical hope. And that's really important to say biblical 'cause the world has all kinds of meanings that they give to faith and hope. And I just wanna say, what does the Bible mean by saving faith and hope?

Hope as it is used in the Bible for the distinctive experience of Christian hope is always a confidence concerning the future. It's a confidence, not a finger crossing wish. So that separates the word, the Christian hope from most other uses of hope in the English language. Romans 5, 5 says, "Hope does not put to shame." It is rock solid, sure, and you can be confident.

That's Christian hope. And it's always future oriented. So a key text would be Romans 8, 24. "For in this hope, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait." There's a keyword, "We wait for it with patience." So when we say that hope does not see what it hopes for, the reason it doesn't see it is because it hasn't happened yet, it's future.

We wait for it with patience. So that's the distinctive mark of hope. It is always future oriented and consists in a firm confidence of what we are hoping for, not just a wish. Now, faith, on the other hand, is the bigger concept. It includes everything that we say biblically about hope, but it is more.

Now, that probably is gonna surprise a lot of people. And it's a risky statement that faith includes everything we can say about hope is in faith, but that it's more. But I think that's a true statement. I think it's fair to say that biblical hope is biblical faith in the future tense.

If you are focusing on faith as faith that something will happen in the future, it is virtually the same as biblical hope. But faith involves more than confidence that something which God has promised will happen in the future. It is that. That's why I say hope is in faith.

It's part of what faith is. It's more. The main distinction between Christian faith and Christian hope is that faith is in a substantial way a trusting relationship with a person. Faith says to Christ, "I trust you." Not just your promises, you, person. You are a reliable person. You are a trustworthy person.

Now that trust may sometimes, often, be future-oriented. We may mean in that moment, "I trust you to keep your word "about this afternoon taking care of me." That's faith and it's hope. But in a specific moment, that trust doesn't have to mean something future-oriented. It might mean that Christ has just said this, "I died for you 2,000 years ago.

"I bore your sins, John Piper, 2,000 years ago. "I absorbed my father's wrath for you 2,000 years ago." And I, or you listening to that, look him in the eye and say, "I believe you. "I believe you. "I trust you." Meaning that what you have just said about the past, I believe.

Hope doesn't say that. That's not what hope is. Now, of course, that has massive implications for future life, right? But faith isn't only future-oriented. It is person-oriented in a significant way. And the mark of the relationship with the person is trust, a receiving, treasuring trust. But beyond this distinction, the Bible presents hope in God and faith in God in ways that are scarcely distinguishable.

For example, when Psalm 42 says, "Hope in God." I have leaned on this in my discouraged time so many times. "Hope in God, John Piper, for you shall again praise Him, "your help and your God." Now, that act, what the Psalm is calling me to do, that act of hoping in God in the midst of my trouble is hardly distinguishable from trusting God.

Hope in that Psalm is virtually, I would argue, virtually identical to faith in God as it relates to the future. Now, Hebrews 11, one is the place where we see this interweaving of faith and hope as close as they get, perhaps. It says, "Now, faith is the substance "of things hoped for." And yes, I do think substance rather than assurance is the most helpful, accurate translation.

And that's another podcast. To give a reason for why that is and how the word "hepastasis" is used elsewhere in Hebrew, that's another issue, but just gonna have to go with it for now. I think that's the right translation, and here's what I think it means. It speaks of things hoped for.

In other words, there's a reality in the future that God has promised and in some measure has revealed to us as precious, worth living for, worth dying for. And we are hoping to obtain it. That is, we have strong confidence that God will grant us this great blessing of experiencing fully what we are now hoping for in the future.

And now Hebrews 11, one says that the substance of that future thing, thing hoped for, that future reward or blessing, some substantial essential element of it is experienced now in what he calls faith. Faith is the experience, the experience of that substance, the substance of that future reality, known, believed, tasted, cherished now.

So let me illustrate that with Hebrews 12, two. The writer says that Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. So God has assured Jesus that on the other side of the cross, on the other side of suffering and death, there will be for you a great joy that you will inherit.

He could see it. Just over the horizon. And he hoped for it. And in that sense, it was one of those, Hebrews 11, one, things hoped for. And I would argue that in the garden of Gethsemane and even on the cross, Jesus was sustained. It says he endured. He was sustained by tasting already the substance of that thing hoped for.

He tasted something of that future joy that was set before him. And Hebrews 11, one calls that experience faith. So I would say in Hebrews 11, one, it is virtually impossible to completely distinguish faith and hope. The one is part of the other. Maybe one last text to show how close faith and hope are in the New Testament.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, "We know that while we are at home in the body, "we are away from the Lord." We can't see him. He's in heaven, we're on earth. "We're away from the Lord. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." So one dimension or element of faith is that it embraces as real things it can't see, like the risen Lord Jesus.

And Paul says, "We are away from the Lord." He's in heaven, we're on earth. We can't see him, but though we can't see him, we love him, we trust him, meaning we walk by faith, not sight. But that does not mean that when we do see him face to face at the second coming, we won't walk by faith anymore.

Only one dimension of faith is replaced by sight. Not every dimension of faith is replaced by sight. We will still trust him in heaven. We will still feed on him as the living bread in heaven. And the same can be said of hope. We walk by hope and not by sight.

And yet when sight is finally gained, not all hope will disappear. Heaven will forever be a place of faith and a place of hope because there will always be a future in heaven. A future to hope for. And there will always be Christ to trust. He will always be the feast of our hearts.

So in summary then, hope is faith in the future tense. And everything that can be said about hope biblically can be said of faith, but faith is more than hope because it involves trust in a person which may have a backward dimension as well as a forward dimension. - Thank you, Pastor John.

And thank you for the question, Kelly. And thank you for joining us today. You can ask a question of your own. Search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, Monday, we are back to look at 1 Peter 2.11 and how the passions of the flesh wage war against the soul.

How do the flesh's passions threaten the soul? It's a super important discussion with a lot of implications for, well, every human being on earth, quite frankly. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday for that. Have a great weekend. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)