Introducing a Theology of Hope: Biblical Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer by Dr. John Frame

Introducing A Theology of Hope: A Biblical Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer

By Dr. John M. Frame

Introducing the Applied Theology Series

In this series, you’ll learn a Trinitarian theology of faith, hope, and love by understanding and applying to your life what the Bible teaches about: 1) Faith found in the Apostles’ Creed, 2) Hope found in the Lord’s Prayer, and 3) Love found in the Ten Commandments. You’ll learn from God’s Word that:

A mind that is renewed by faith and a heart that is aflame with hope results in a life that honors God by loving him and others deeply and well.

Introducing the soon-to-be-released book and course: 

Theology of Hope: A Biblical Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer

You’ll learn how to develop a strong hope rooted in the rich, biblical truths found in the Lord’s Prayer that will help you apply God’s Word to all areas of your life. You’ll be equipped to:

• Understand the purpose and value of the prayer
• Explain the meaning of honoring the Father’s name
• Pray for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done
• Learn the nature and value of prayer for daily bread
• Describe why and how we pray for our forgiveness
• Demonstrate how to pray for deliverance from evil

About the Applied Theology Project
The Applied Theology Series provides you accessible, affordable seminary-level teaching designed to help you learn how to apply theology to your life and ministry in practical ways – with the goal of helping you better know, love, serve, and honor God as LORD in all of life. Seminary professors John Frame and Steve Childers combine their almost 90 years of teaching and ministry experience to help you apply theology to life and ministry.

Read the New Introduction to a Theology of Hope by Dr. John Frame below!

Introduction to a Theology of Hope
A Biblical Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer 
Dr. John M. Frame

In this book and course we continue our project of summarizing the Christian faith in the concepts of faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13). Following the Enchiridion of St. Augustine, we are expounding faith using the Apostles’ Creed, hope using the Lord’s Prayer, and love using the Ten Commandments. So the present volume is about hope and will explain it by expounding the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4).

In Scripture, hope is not a temperamental optimism, nor is it a scientific process of analyzing our circumstances, weighing the chance of positive against the chance of negative ones. Rather, it is a sure and certain trust that all will be well, grounded in God’s own sure revelation.

Such a hope leads us to pray, not because we fear that God will not keep his word, but because we are sure that he will. That confidence authorizes us to pray, knowing that our prayer will be effective, knowing that God fully intends to answer us favorably.

So our hope is based on a conviction from Scripture that our future is governed by a loving heavenly Father who will certainly provide for us his family, forgive our iniquities, and heal all our infirmities.

The Lord’s Prayer identifies God as precisely that kind of Father, glorious in his heavenly being and in his holy name. In prayer, we trust that his kingdom will certainly come and bring to our world universal obedience to his will.

The power and love of this great father will meet all of our needs, most amazingly the need we have for forgiveness of our sins against him. And he not only forgives us; he gives us new hearts, that we may forgive others as he has forgiven us.

To be sure, there is evil in the world until the final judgment, but our Father gives us victory over it, and one day that victory will be visible: all will see the triumph of God’s kingdom in power and glory, forever.

That is the biblical theology of hope. Over the past fifty years or so, theologians have discussed a different “theology of hope,” in which hope is linked to uncertainty rather than certainty. But like so many modern theological ideas, this view turns everything upside down.

The biblical theology of hope is based on certainty—not the certainty of temperamental optimism or of scientific rationalism, but the comforting words of our Father in Heaven, found in his sure word to us.

Dr. John M. Frame
Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy
Reformed Theological Seminary

We help underserved church leaders develop churches that transform lives and communities