Hope
An anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, fixed in the finished work of Christ.
More Than Wishful Optimism
In ordinary speech, to “hope” is to wish for something uncertain—a fair-weather optimism that may or may not come to pass. The hope of the gospel is something altogether different. It is not a vague longing but a confident, faith-born expectation: a settled assurance that the promises of God in Christ will surely be fulfilled. It is hope grounded not in human wishing, but in the unchangeable word of Him who cannot lie.
Moroni, having gathered the words of his father, recorded a definition that reaches to the very nature of this hope. He calls it an anchor—an image of something that grips fast and holds when everything visible is in motion.
“Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.”
Notice the words that surround this hope: surety, sure, steadfast. This is no fragile feeling. It is an anchor that holds the soul in place—and it “cometh of faith.” Hope does not stand alone; it is born of belief in God, and it bears the fruit of good works and glory given to Him.
The Middle Member of the Triad
Scripture binds three great virtues together—faith, hope, and charity—and hope stands at the center, the necessary link between believing and loving. Mormon, teaching the indispensable nature of each, shows that they are not three separate paths but one living chain, every link of which is fastened to Christ.
“And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? … And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.”
Mormon’s logic is unbreakable: there can be no faith without hope, and the hope itself is “through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection.” Strip away Christ, and there is nothing left to hope for. Anchor hope in Him, and it becomes a sure expectation of being “raised unto life eternal.” The same prophet, writing to his son, ties the whole to its source again—Moroni 8:14 warns that those who suppose the innocent are lost are themselves in “the gall of bitterness… neither in faith, hope, nor charity,” for to lose hope in Christ’s mercy is to fall from the whole.
Hope, then, is never an isolated emotion. It is faith looking forward, and it is the soil from which charity grows. Without it, faith has no future to reach toward, and love has no everlasting object.
What We Hope For
If hope is so sure, what exactly is its object? The scriptures answer with one voice: we hope for resurrection and for eternal life. This is the specific, named expectation toward which the soul reaches. Alma, recounting the faith of the converted Lamanites, describes a people whose hope was fixed precisely here.
“And they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it.”
Their hope robbed death of its terror. The same triumphant note rings through the New Testament. Peter declares that we have been begotten again—born anew—into this very expectation, and that it is no dead theory but a living thing, made alive by the empty tomb.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
A lively hope—a living hope—because it springs from a living Lord. Paul carries the thought further still, teaching that hope is woven into the very mechanism of our salvation. We are not yet what we shall be; the full inheritance is still unseen, and so it must be grasped by hope.
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
“We are saved by hope.” Hope is the posture of the redeemed soul that has not yet reached the resurrection but is utterly certain of it—and so waits, with patience, for what it cannot yet see.
A Perfect Brightness of Hope
Nephi, describing the strait and narrow path that leads to eternal life, does not leave hope as a dim flicker for the discouraged. He commands a fullness of it, joining it to faith and to love in a single radiant charge.
“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”
“A perfect brightness of hope.” Not a guttering candle, but a clear and unclouded light. And notice where it leads: to pressing forward, to feasting upon the word, to enduring to the end—and at the last, to eternal life. Bright hope is not passive; it propels the soul along the path.
Hope Dispels Despair
Because hope is so closely joined to faith and righteousness, its absence is not a neutral emptiness—it is despair, and despair has a moral root. Moroni, in his closing exhortation, names the enemy of hope and exposes its true cause.
“And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.”
Despair is not the inevitable lot of the faithful; it “cometh because of iniquity.” Where sin reigns and faith is abandoned, hope withers and the soul sinks. But the cure is near at hand, for the God to whom hope reaches is Himself the source of it. Paul names Him with a title of surpassing tenderness—the God of hope—and prays that this God would fill the Saints to overflowing.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Hope is not something we manufacture by force of will. It is poured into us by the God of hope, “through the power of the Holy Ghost,” until we “abound” in it. Repent of iniquity, return to faith, and the Spirit restores the brightness that despair had stolen.
The Anchor That Holds
Return, then, to the image with which we began. Moroni called hope an anchor that makes the soul “sure and steadfast.” An anchor is useless in calm water; its worth is proven in the storm. So it is with the hope of the gospel. When sorrow rises, when death draws near, when the world heaves and every visible support gives way, hope holds—not because the believer is strong, but because the anchor is fixed in something that cannot move.
And what it is fixed in is the finished work of Christ. The resurrection has already happened. The Atonement is already accomplished. The tomb is already empty. Our hope does not strain toward a possibility that might yet fail; it rests upon a victory already won. This is why the converted Lamanites could look upon death without terror, why Peter’s hope was “lively,” why Nephi could speak of a brightness that is “perfect.” The thing hoped for is unseen, but the ground of the hoping is unshakable.
Let the storms come. The soul anchored in Christ will not be carried away. Hope holds it sure and steadfast, fixed forever in the One who conquered death—and in that hope, we press forward, feasting upon His word, abounding in good works, until the unseen becomes the everlasting reality of eternal life.