hope

The OT prophets taught that any hope for a satisfactory future depended on the nation's faithfulness to God. Otherwise there would only be chaos and disaster. Amos warned that they should not imagine that God could intervene for them in the day of the Lord (Amos 5:18). In Jeremiah, however, there is expressed an ultimate hope in a new covenant (Jer. 31:31–4). In the NT the eschatological hope of Israel is said to be fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:26) and the concept is much developed by Paul. In 2 Cor. 5:5 Paul assures believers that their faith in what God has already done for them in Christ is a guarantee that their hope of the salvation of fellow Christians and a recreation of the whole universe is not misplaced (Rom. 8:19–21; Rom. 11:22; 1 Cor. 15:2). In this present life the Christian has in baptism embarked upon a road that will end in sharing the glory of God (Rom. 5:1–3). Abraham is cited as the great OT exemplar of authentic hope (Rom. 4). 1 Pet. also encourages the persecuted recipients of the letter to be strong in hope.