Hope That Is Seen Is Not Hope
18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. 19For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 23Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. 24For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? 25But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. 26In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. 27He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
Paul’s confession, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us,” must be the heart of everyone who loves God deeply and hopes in him. When Paul says that the sufferings he is enduring are no suffering at all, he is saying something only a person born again, with their hope in heaven, could say. He declared that because we have become children of God and can inherit God’s glory and inheritance, we must share in suffering as well. By saying that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed toward us, he showed how astonishing a blessing the glory of Christ is. Yet people want to enjoy the glory while refusing the suffering. This, it seems, is why so many Christians hold a faith bent on earthly blessing.
People call it suffering when life falls short of the standard they have set for themselves. But the real suffering is this: that people made in the image of God are born into this world as slaves of Satan because of Adam’s sin. It is suffering, too, to give up one’s own righteousness for the Christ one has met along the way. To fight the evil spirits that drive God’s children toward death, and to stay faithful while hoping for the eternal kingdom, is suffering; yet we must persevere. If imperfect sinners like us have received glory through Christ, we must share in suffering too. Those who know this will bear their suffering and will one day enjoy rest in a kingdom exceedingly great and eternal. Job is the very man who endured present suffering for the sake of an unseen hope and waited for the mercy of God.
Job 21:22-27
22“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high? 23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. 24His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened. 25Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good. 26They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them. 27“Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
When Satan came before God after roaming the earth, God praised Job with confidence: “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” Let us consider why Job, whom God had praised so confidently before Satan, had to suffer. Job knew that life holds both suffering and ease. He knew that suffering is simply what those who live in the flesh go through, and that the one who lived in misery and the one who lived in comfort lie down alike in the dust in the end, and the worm covers them. He knew, then, that the suffering he was enduring was not a curse from God but part of what anyone meets in life, and he was enduring this season by faith until God restored him. Job’s friends, however, had the ordinary faith of people who pride themselves on knowing God, and they could not understand Job’s mature faith. They held the mistaken belief that when a person suffers, it must be because of sin. Satan had disputed God’s love for Job, claiming that Job believed in God only because he had been blessed; in the same way, the friends failed to grasp the depth of Job’s faith. Mature as he was, Job did not complain, because he took suffering in life as a matter of course, and he believed that anyone who enjoys the grace of God may well suffer too.
In Job 34, Elihu asks Job whether he has ever confessed to God that he has sinned and will sin no more. He meant that Job was suffering because of some sin he had not recognized, and that he must repent before God. But Job answered that, being human, he must have wronged God in some way, yet he had lived doing all that a person ought to do, and they had no reason to rebuke him like this. Such a reply could perhaps be mistaken for pride. Yet Job 30 shows that when Job says he did all that a person ought, he is confessing that he could do it only because God’s grace was with him. When his life of plenty was gone and people laughed at him, Job realized all the more how precious the grace of God he had enjoyed had been. People spat in his face without a second thought, and enemies hemmed in his path while no one came to help; seeing this, he confessed to his friends that it was not by his own strength that he had lived in abundance until then. Job’s lament over his plight was not resentment toward God but a confession in which he reproached himself for being so insignificant a man. He did not resent God, because he knew the greatness of the grace given him without condition and had set his hope on the eternal kingdom.
Not knowing what God’s absolute grace is, the three friends could not understand the words of Job, who was spiritually mature. Just as the disciples did not understand Jesus when he proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven, it is hard to bring a spiritual word to people of the flesh. After hearing Job’s confession, Elihu said something absurd: that Job was ignorant and without wisdom, and that therefore he wished Job might be tried to the end. The friends rebuked Job for being cursed because of his sin, but rather than refute them, Job said that only through suffering had he realized how much love the great God had poured out on someone as insignificant as he.
In Job 28 we read, “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore. As for the earth, out of it comes bread; underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? God understands its way, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky. He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure. To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’” I cannot convey all the depth of Job’s faith, but this is the measure of his understanding of the God who created heaven and earth.
We know Job was not suffering for his sin, because he had the wisdom of fearing God and the understanding of departing from evil. The friends could not understand the faith of Job, a man born again, and they told him to repent; but God, who had trusted Job, was angry with the friends who had mocked his plight.
Job 38:1-4
1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, 2“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me! 4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
God rebuked the ignorance of the friends who had mocked Job as though they knew God well, and his wrath was kindled against them. Then he told them of the lofty work of creation, far beyond anything the human mind can conceive. It was he, the Creator, who laid the foundations of the earth, he said, and he who shut up the sea with doors when it broke out of the womb. Seeing friends who took a spiritual word in a fleshly way, Job could understand why God went so far as to say these things. Before the goodness of God, who spoke of the work of creation, Job said that he was of small account; what could he answer the Lord? He had known that God can do all things and that no purpose of his can be restrained, but now, he confessed, God was no longer one he had only heard of with his ears; now his eyes saw him, and he repented, knowing how great a sinner he was. This confession also means that no human being can ever exalt the glory of God.
Job 42:7
7It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.
If you do not forget God’s first words, when he vouched for Job’s faith before Satan, you can see how wrong these three friends were. Reading the book of Job, we tend to think the friends are right because what they say sounds so human, but it is Job, spiritually mature, who is right. Those who judge in a fleshly way may find it hard to understand someone whose spiritual life has given them a deep faith. Even Job, born again as he was, could not take in God’s astonishing wisdom when God spoke of creating heaven and earth, and he fell silent. God told Job to offer a burnt offering for his friends’ sin, set him above them, and gave him a double blessing for standing firm in his faith. Job’s hope was set on the eternal world; whether rich or suffering, he held the same faith, which is why nothing could shake him. Though he suffered in this world, he knew the glory of God he would one day enjoy, and that knowledge carried him through both his wife’s scorn and his friends’ persecution.
God wants his people to have a faith like Job’s. Do you believe that the sufferings you are going through now are trifling, not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us? Here is the question put to you: for the sake of an unseen hope, are you letting go of what is seen today and persevering for the sake of eternal glory?
Romans 8:21-22
21that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
God blessed the people he had created in his image and commanded them to rule over every living thing that moves on the earth. But through Adam’s sin the whole creation fell under God’s curse, and human beings, returning to dust in bodily death, were stripped of all freedom. Together with humankind, all creation was cursed to vanity and decay, unable any longer to fulfill the purpose for which God made it. Yet creation was not marred like this by its own will. It happened because those who were meant to rule the world fell completely and could no longer fulfill the task God had given them. Its restoration will come when Jesus Christ comes again; until then it waits for the day of its deliverance. Groaning under earthquakes and droughts, floods and wars brought on by human sin, creation will go on being destroyed until the last day. For it to be restored, Christ must return.
Like Job, you must believe that even if our earthly tent is torn down, we have an eternal house in heaven, because however hard things may be now, Christ has prepared a place for us, and on the day he comes we can share in his glory with him. Job relied on God and persevered through hard surroundings and circumstances. He could answer the mockery of his three friends wisely because the Holy Spirit, who caused all this to come to pass and guaranteed it, was helping him. We have become God’s adopted children, but because we are still in the world in the flesh, our salvation is not yet complete, and so we must not let go of our faith until we enter heaven.
Galatians 5:5
5For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
Colossians 1:26-27
26the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, 27to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
The hope we long for is Jesus Christ himself, who is in us. We receive that hope through a faith that is ours because the Holy Spirit has kept us. That astonishing mystery, hidden for ages and generations, God has revealed to his saints and given freely to us Gentiles. If people who have received such love chase only after the world they can see, they will not receive God’s inheritance as heirs, and they will not even have a chance to make excuses. God’s people know that Christ, the mystery of God, will come on the day appointed, and if they persevere to the end and wait for that day, they will meet the Lord. Think, for example, of a mother who has carefully wrapped Christmas presents for her children. She tells them that the presents are for Christmas and that they must wait. The children are tempted to tear them open, but they must be patient, because their mother has told them they may have them only on Christmas. They know that what she has prepared is what they need most, so all they have to do is go about their own business until the promised day. They can wait because their mother has never once broken a promise and they know for certain that the gift will be theirs. While waiting for Christmas, a child may fall while playing, be scolded by their mother, cry over hard homework, or go on a trip. The gift does not vanish because the child goes through hard times; it simply means that many things can happen during the waiting. Some children, eager for the gift, cannot wait and throw tantrums, while others, knowing their mother will surely give it, busy themselves with other things.
Let us enlarge this picture and think of it as our own lives. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, and he has promised that if we persevere well, he will give us the precious gift of salvation. So we know that when the time comes Christ will return, and that we will share God’s wondrous glory with all the saints forever. Before that time comes, though, there are moments when we weep under the sufferings the world brings and the weight of sin, and moments when we are badly shaken. We groan under physical, emotional, and spiritual weakness, but we must believe that the Holy Spirit is helping us to overcome such sufferings. The mother who has fixed Christmas as the day gives her child other gifts they need along the way, to help them hold out. God will give the gift of salvation on the day he has set, and until then the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith so that we can endure. Some cannot wait for the appointed day. They set their own date for receiving the gift, or deceive others as though they themselves were the gift, and they end in eternal judgment. These are the heretics and the false prophets. Jesus Christ, who will come at the time God has set, is the great gift we will receive, and he is the King of kings.
Romans 8:26
26In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
For the Holy Spirit to help our weaknesses means that he holds us by the hand so that we can live without leaving the truth until our salvation is complete. He does not wait for us to get up on our own; he lightens our heavy burdens, lifts us to our feet, and holds us fast. The Holy Spirit groans even over our worries and our pain and prays for us in our place; without him, we would have found it hard to walk the way of truth. The Spirit is with us; he gives us wisdom to stand and fight against this harsh world; he gives us understanding to escape the attacks of the evil one and of evil spirits. What a great comfort that is to God’s people!
Romans 8:27
27He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
It is a deep comfort to hear that God knows what is on the Spirit’s mind. God knows fully that the Spirit carries out his will completely and works for the salvation of his people; from where we stand, then, we are under the protection of both the Spirit and God. The three persons of the triune God act together and bring salvation to completion according to the vast plan of God the Father. If we know that we are protected at the very center of it all, we cannot grumble over suffering that lasts only a little while, nor sin for the sake of the world we can see. When we do not know God’s will and cannot tell how to judge or what to decide, if we rely on God the Holy Spirit and pray, the Spirit will show us God’s will and give us wisdom so that our prayers may agree with it. If we, who are loved like this, rely on the Spirit and serve Christ more faithfully, God will open the gates of heaven and restore our faith. Knowing this, we must take all the more care not to sin.
We must first show our faith so that the Holy Spirit can work. When we first pray and praise, fight the spiritual battle by faith, and call on the name of God, the Holy Spirit will work with greater grace so that we can live according to God’s will. Even those who hope for the Kingdom of God have hard times; they meet sufferings too heavy to bear and fall into despair. Such suffering, like Job’s, is something no one can escape in this life; as long as they do not leave the way of truth, they will receive the salvation of their souls. Our faith may be weak, so that we cannot run fast, and at times we may stand still, but the Holy Spirit will teach us the truth and encourage us on our way to heaven. Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is helping you? Though you meet suffering in the world, do you give thanks that Christ has become a great wall of protection around you? And do you believe that God is accomplishing his whole plan for you, one single person, through heaven and earth, through the world and through your life? If you believe this, you are a child of God, filled with the Holy Spirit; you belong to God’s holy people and do not put the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to shame.
Watching Ukraine crumble under the Russian invasion, we have learned that unwanted suffering can come upon us at any time, and so we must pray for our nation and our people. We must pray for the vulnerable who suffer through the decisions of evil people, and pray for the gracious hand of God, who will grant peace. We were told that in the last days we would hear news of distress, and we have been hearing of wars and droughts, earthquakes and plagues for a long time now; these are the last days. When we see Ukrainians fleeing over land, we realize that our own country, with the sea on three sides, is in an even more precarious place. Knowing that the peace we have enjoyed until now is the grace of God, we must pray for our nation and our people.
As we wait for the return of Jesus Christ, we must not be afraid when we look at the world. Knowing that the time God has appointed is near, we are to hold fast to our faith and set an even greater hope on heaven. Since hope that is seen is not hope, we must set our hope in heaven and rejoice in the sufferings that come from staying faithful on this earth. My prayer is that you will be God’s treasured people, steadfast and unchanging, following the leading of the Holy Spirit and laboring to accomplish the will of God.