Answer: Those who are saved, those who believe and obey God's commands and are justified--made right--in His sight have the hope of eternal life, (verse 7).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
This "hope" is not a vague and wishful longing for something out of reach. "Hope" comes from the Greek word elpis. It means, "favorable and confident expectation." When the saved have the "hope of eternal life," they have a firm and confident expectation of the certainty and the reality of that life in eternity with God, which they now already possess here on earth as servants and children of God.
Jesus says that whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life:
John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
Believers live in eternal life NOW, having crossed over from death to life:
John 5:24: [Jesus said,] "I tell you the Truth, whoever hears My Word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."
Jesus says that the Father's Will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall HAVE eternal life, and that they will be raised up by Christ at the last day:
John 6:40: "For My Father's Will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
And there it is--that "hope of eternal life."
God has given believers eternal life, and that life is IN His Son. We can KNOW that we have this eternal life. It is not wishful thinking or a vague longing for something we think we cannot have:
1 John 5:11-13: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life."
If we are IN Christ, then we are IN eternal life:
1 John 5:20: "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him Who is true. And we are in Him Who is True--even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the True God and Eternal Life."
