10. A Letter of Hope
The Book of Romans is Paul's epistle of hope … Hope is directly mentioned in the New Testament a total of over 50 times, and many of these instances are found in the writings of the apostle Paul. But Paul's letter to the believers in Rome stands out because this epistle alone contains over one-third of all the New Testament's references to hope. Romans is truly a focal point for what the Bible has to say about this spiritual quality, and it is understandable that this letter has sometimes been called "the epistle of hope."
Paul himself is often called the apostle of faith, of course, but what we find in Romans shows us that he could also be called the apostle of hope. In fact, he often relates faith and hope in the letter, and the side-by-side nature of the two qualities helps us to see more clearly the sense of expectation or total confidence that is the primary meaning of true hope.
So it is no coincidence that Paul begins speaking of hope in his epistle by making reference to Abraham, the "father of all who believe" (Romans 4:11): "Against all hope," he tells us, "Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him …" (Romans 4:18). Paul then widens his scope to include all believers in Christ who "… boast in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).
Next, after discussing hope as expectation, Paul traces the connection between perseverance and hope. "…we also glory in our sufferings," he writes, "because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3-4). This is something we also saw in Romans 8:23-25 in our previous chapter, and it is a point that Paul drives home repeatedly.
In the second half of his letter, Paul stresses the joyful aspect of our hope: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality" (Romans 12:12-13 – and notice all three of the "faith, hope and love" qualities in this verse in its listing of hope, faithfulness and giving hospitality). We also see this aspect of joy in "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace …" (Romans 15:13).
So we see that in the course of the epistle Paul works through all three qualities that we have seen are aspects of hope. In fact, if you read through Romans you will see that most of Paul's mentions of hope fit one of the three meanings we have looked at.
One verse that might not seem to fit how the apostle uses hope in Romans – and that looks more like the modern idea of hope – is found in Romans 11: "… in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them" (Romans 11:14 NIV). But the Greek word for hope does not actually appear in this verse, and it should be translated more literally "in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them" (Romans 11:14 ESV).
But when we apply our understanding of the three major aspects of hope to what Paul says about it in most instances throughout this letter, we find that he continually returns to the quality of hope and turns it around like a precious stone so that we see different facets of its value from different directions. And in the final section of his letter to the Romans, Paul ties all these facets together by relating the various aspects of hope to God himself. It is a fitting high point to a concept he has developed throughout his epistle of hope and one we will look at next.