3:7 hope. The Christian “hope,” centered especially in Christ and His promised return (note Titus 2:13), is not a forlorn hope, or mere wishful thinking. It is rather an anticipation of what we know is coming by faith in God’s promises. We have the “hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2). God is omnipotent, but there are three things He cannot do: “He cannot deny Himself” (II Timothy 2:13); secondly, “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13); and, most assuredly, He cannot lie! Therefore, our hope is real certainty, even though we do not see its fulfillment just yet (Romans 8:24-25). “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast” (Hebrews 6:19).