The Christian can say, "I know from the Word that the repentant, believing sinner will be saved; my conscience shows me that I repent and believe. And although I am unworthy, I can firmly hope that I shall be saved." And as forcefully as the Christan agrees with God's truth and repents, so his hope will be - strong or weak. If his assent to the truth so the promise is weak, or his evidence of faith and repentance is un-certain, his hope that is born of these will inherit its parents' infirmities.
Living godly in this present world and "looking for that blessed hope" are joined together (Titus 2:12-13). Thus a soul void of godliness must be destitute of all true hope, and the godly person who is careless in his holy walk will soon find his hope faltering.
All sin brings trembling fears and shakiness of heart to the person who tampers with it. But sins which are deliberately committed are the Christian's hope as poison is to his body, which eventually drinks it up. Sins produce lifeless Christian and make thoughts of God dreadful to him: "I remembered God, and was troubled" (Psalm 77:3). They make the man afraid to look on the God of judgment. After all, does the servant want his master to come home and find him drunk?
When Calvin's friends tried to persuade him to give up his night studies, he asked if they wanted his Lord to come and find him idle. God forbid that death should find you lying in the puddle of some sin unconfessed and unrepented of! Can your hope then carry you to eternity with joy? Can bird fly with a broken wing? Faith and a good conscience are the two wings of hope. If you have wounded your conscience by sin, renew your repentance so that you may act in faith for the forgiveness of it and redeem your hope.
- William Gurnall (The Christian in Complete Armour)
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