TCO INTELLIGENCE

For Karli

Michael L Clark, News of the Gospel, September 15, 2021

It cannot be said that hope is the instrument or condition of salvation. Most people  understand hope as meaning that we have yet to attain salvation only in hope; that could not be further from the truth. But the word “saved” means here simply, we are kept  with Him, preserved by Him, and sustained in our trials by Him, by the faith we have in Him. Our trials are sometimes so great that nothing but the promise of a future salvation can uphold us to our hope in Christ; and the promise is sufficient that it enables us to bear those trials with patience, forbearance, and our faith in Him.
Hope is always a necessity to our faith and our faith is always a necessity our hope: seeing then that we believe those things which we are not yet in possession of, and hope does not refer to the thing that is present, we must therefore hope and patiently wait for that which we believe will come to pass.
If a person already possesses something, how can they look forward to gaining it with anticipation? What a person possesses they have no need for.
Hope, which, according to the nature of it, is of things not yet enjoyed, for possession puts an end to hope; no man hopes for what he sees and enjoys. 
Hope is a complex emotion, made up of an earnest desire, and an expectation of obtaining an object. It has reference, therefore, to what is at present unseen. But when the object is seen, and is in our possession, it cannot be said to be an object of hope. The Word hope here means the object of hope, the thing hoped for.
Though we certianly believe there is such a redemption or salvation belonging to us, according to the promise of God, yet for the present we have no possession of it; all the salvation we have at present is in our hope in Christ. And that comes through our faith in God and understanding true repentance by an honest resolve.

Now, faith must stand in the experience of the power God, not in the words spoken by men or women. The power of God is promised to separate us from our sins, which is salvation. We are saved through faith, and by faith our hearts are purified. We must contend for the faith, grow in the faith, build up our faith, increase in faith, perfect what is lacking in our faith, fight the good fight of faith, until victory,  when our faith is finished by the Finisher. These things are what the scriptures teach us.
Faith is a process and a journey of works of repentance and love, the end of which is to see Christ bring our salvation, through the obedience, found in our faith.

Amen?