The Relationship Between Faith and Hope – John Bunyan

From: [John Bunyan, Israel’s Hope Encouraged (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software) 1:578.]

1. Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17), hope by experience (Rom 5:3, 4).

2. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, hope by the credit that faith hath given to it (Rom 4:18).

3. Faith believeth the truth of the Word, hope waits for the fulfilling of it.

4. Faith lays hold of that end of the promise that is next to us, to wit, as it is in the Bible; hope lays hold of that end of the promise that is fastened to the mercy-seat; for the promise is like a mighty cable, that is fastened by one end to a ship, and by the other to the anchor: the soul is the ship where faith is, and to which the hither end of this cable is fastened; but hope is the anchor that is at the other end of this cable, and which entereth into that within the vail. Thus faith and hope getting hold of both ends of the promise, they carry it safely all away.

5. Faith looketh to Christ, as dead, buried, and ascended; and hope to his second coming (1 Cor 15:1–4). Faith looks to him for justification, hope for glory (Rom 4:1–8).

6. Faith fights for doctrine, hope for a reward (Acts 26:6, 7). Faith for what is in the bible, hope for what is in heaven (Col 1:3–5).

7. Faith purifies the heart from bad principles (1 John 5:4, 5). Hope from bad manners (2 Peter 3:11, 14; Eph 5:8; 1 John 3:3).

8. Faith sets hope on work, hope sets patience on work (Acts 28:20; 9:9). Faith says to hope, look for what is promised; hope says to faith, So I do, and will wait for it too.

9. Faith looks through the word to God in Christ; hope looks through faith beyond the world to glory (Gal 5:5).

 

 

By |January 13th, 2018|Categories: Blog|

About the Author:

David E. Prince is pastor of preaching and vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky and assistant professor of Christian preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of In the Arena and Church with Jesus as the Hero. He blogs at Prince on Preaching and frequently writes for The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, For the Church, the BGEA and Preaching Today