OUTLINE:

Why Is Our Hope So Certain?
Do we carry a certain, definite, unwavering hope within us on a regular basis? The Lord wants us to continue to seek Him, so that our personal confidence in His salvation is ever on the increase within us.

Sanctification In A Nutshell
The ONLY perspective we CAN have that delivers us unto "His peace" is to fully apprehend "His salvation". (Is 26:3; Jn 16:33; 1Th 5:16-24; 2Th 3:16)

Why Is Our Hope So Certain?
Our Lord always did, and always does, what is right. He lived in perfect righteousness. His perfect obedience made Him the perfect Son, and the perfect sacrifice. (Heb 10:10-14, 12:11)

Why Is Our Hope So Certain?
Do we carry a certain, definite, unwavering hope within us on a regular basis? The Lord wants us to continue to seek Him, so that our personal confidence in His salvation is ever on the increase within us.

Why Is Our Hope So Certain?
Our Lord always did, and always does, what is right. He lived in perfect righteousness. His perfect obedience made Him the perfect Son, and the perfect sacrifice. (Heb 10:10-14, 12:11)

Some things cannot be possessed by themselves, lest they be counterfeits.

We have a hope "both sure and steadfast”. Heb 6:19

Ps 43:5 [Amplified Classic]
Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my [sad] countenance, and my God.

Ps 62:7 [Amplified Classic]
With God rests my salvation and my glory; He is my Rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness, and my refuge is in God! …

Ps 62:8 [Amplified Classic]
Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

Ps 146:8 [Amplified Classic]
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright in heart and in right standing with Him).

Ro 5:1 [Amplified Classic]
Therefore, since we are justified ([a]acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to [b]enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Ro 5:2 [Amplified Classic]
Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God.

Ro 5:3 [Amplified Classic]
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

Ro 5:4 [Amplified Classic]
And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.

Ro 5:5 [Amplified Classic]
Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

Ro 5:6 [Amplified Classic]
While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.

1Pe 3:15 [Amplified Classic]
But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

1Pe 3:16 [Amplified Classic]
[And see to it that] your conscience is entirely clear (unimpaired), so that, when you are falsely accused as evildoers, those who threaten you abusively and revile your right behavior in Christ may come to be ashamed [of slandering your good lives].

Jesus is our anchor.

Peaceful Fruit
Our access to divine peace is not a function of fruit, strictly speaking, but rather a function of being in Christ, in God, in the sphere of peace, itself. Peace is a transcendent estate of being, of living, of abiding, experientially. When we received Christ in us, we were given access to His peace (Jn 14:27).

Earthly Righteousness
No matter how earnestly it is practiced, or even achieved, earthly righteousness has no part in God's peace. We believers receive His peace as a function of bearing “fruit of righteousness”.

Heb 12:11 [Amplified]
For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems sad and painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [right standing with God and a lifestyle and attitude that seeks conformity to God’s will and purpose].

“the peaceful fruit of righteousness”
Peace is a function of righteousness. Righteousness is a function of obedience of faith (both at salvation, when it is imputed, and experientially, when it is imparted). Peace reigns in the heart and soul of God.

“To Him be dominion…”
"…forever and ever. Amen" Peter reminds us that God is sovereign, and there is no other like Him (though that is Satan's great desire "I will make myself like the Most High" - Isa 14:14). The "sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2) share the same objective as their "father the devil" (Jn 8:44)!

The Underlying Truth
Perversions to grace, mercy, love, repentance, salvation, etc. are symptoms of a much deeper, more insidious issue. That issue is arrogance, which usurps God's sovereign right to BE who He is.