Through the resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, God the Father offers “a living hope” in accord with His mercy (1 Peter 1:3).  This hope is described as an incorruptible inheritance that is reserved in heaven (v. 4).  It is the hope of eternal life, a sure promise of God (Titus 1:2).  Hope is a confident expectation of that favorable outcome.  Spiritually and eternally, it is the expectation of forever being with the Lord in heaven when He comes back in the end (2 Thessalonians 4:17).  The apostle Paul longed to be with Christ, stating that it is far better than living in the flesh (Philippians 1:22-23).  He did look for “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). 

                Philosophies of men attempt to suggest that there are many hopes, many different favorable outcomes in the end.  That is just not true.  Just as there is one Lord and one God and Father of all, there is “one hope” (Ephesians 4:4).  There is one solution that promises one confident expectation of an eternally favorable outcome.  The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope (1 Timothy 1:1).  Salvation is through God’s only begotten Son.  His blood justifies the believer.  The person who has been reconciled through His death will be saved by His life (Romans 5:10).  In Christ Jesus men become a new creation (Galatians 6:15).  Justified by faith, Christians have peace with God, access into grace and “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).      

                The one hope in Christ “does not disappoint because of the love of God” (Romans 5:5).  Saved in hope, Christians do not see their hope right now (Romans 8:24), but this living hope is still reliable, even when all else in the world fails.  It is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:19-20).  For that reason while in prison, Paul was able to approach his inevitable execution with a joyful hope because he knew there was waiting for him “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge” would give to him (2 Timothy 4:8).  “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on” (Revelation 14:13).  Unlike those who sorrow because they have no hope, Christians face death with an assuring comfort because of their hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 18).  “If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8:25).