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Romans 5:1-5

(Note: This is the second part of a two-part message. Click here for Part 1.)

INTRODUCTION: We began looking at this passage last week, and we saw that Paul links together four common biblical terms in these verses: faith, peace, hope and love. These are some of the most desired qualities in the whole world. And in this passage Paul shows us how they are related to each other, how one leads to the other as links in a chain, how they work together and build upon each other. So as we read these verses again this morning, pay careful attention to the words: faith, peace, hope, and love.

Romans 5:1-5 – “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Last week we looked at I. Faith and II. Peace. We saw that faith is the foundation for peace, hope and love. Paul says in verse 1: “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith in Christ leads to a relationship of peace with God which then is the basis of our hope. Hope grows out of peace and provides an environment where God’s love may flourish in our hearts. And love is the fulfillment of hope; it is the ultimate goal, the greatest thing of all. So, we begin this week by looking at hope.

III. Hope grows out of peace and provides the environment where God’s love may flourish in our hearts.

Hope grows out of peace and provides an environment where God’s love may fully flourish in our hearts. Picking up at the end of verse 2, Paul writes, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:2-4)

Let’s talk about Christian hope for a moment. Christian hope is different from worldly hope. Worldly hope may be no more than wishful thinking, marred by uncertainty and susceptible to disappointment. But Christian hope is different. Christian hope is based on the firm foundation of peace with God. And as we saw last week this peace with God is a relationship marked by grace and forgiveness where the separating wall of sin has been knocked down, where we now have access to God our Father through his Son Jesus Christ. These are all objective facts. These are all realities for the person who has been justified by faith.

And so Paul says, “We rejoice — we glory, we exult, we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” As Christians in relationship with God, we are bound for glory. We look forward to that day when we will stand by grace in the actual presence of God and behold his glory. What an amazing experience that will be! We will be overcome by God’s majesty, filled with wonder and love beyond our wildest imaginations.

The Bible tells us that we will be glorified in his presence on that day. We will have glorified bodies. We will be perfected in Christ. We will be like him in some incomprehensible way. That is what John writes in 1 John 3: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3) And so we have this purifying hope that will not be disappointed. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are destined for glory.

How do we know that Christ will one day present us perfect before the Father? How do we know the certainty of this wonderful hope, this wonderful promise of God for the future? Well, in one sense our hope is based on the past. Christ died for sinners on the cross. We have placed our faith in him and have been justified by that faith. Therefore we have peace with God, a relationship with God which extends into the future.

But in another sense, our hope also springs from the present, the present work of God in our lives. The Bible calls this process “sanctification.” God through his Holy Spirit is making us more like Jesus. And so the firstfruits of that hope are displayed in us now.

If we saw no progress in our spiritual lives, if we weren’t going anywhere spiritually, then we might doubt the goal towards which we are heading. But God is working in our lives now. He is making us more like Christ now. He is moving us forward towards glory. And how does God do that? How does he change us in the present? How does he accomplish this work in our lives? You are not going to like the answer. But when you stop to look at it, you will agree that it makes sense. The Bible tells us that God accomplishes this work of sanctification in the believer through the process of suffering.

Now I realize I probably just lost half of you there. Up to this point most of you were probably thinking, “This is a wonderful subject! This is great stuff! Give me this faith, peace, hope, love!” But suffering? Where does that enter the picture?

Well first of all, realize that everyone in this life suffers. Job 5:7 says, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” We live in a fallen world where people get hurt or sick or die. No one is exempt from suffering. It is part of the lot of this world. You can ignore it, you can deny it, you can try to explain it away, but you cannot escape it. Everyone suffers. However, you can choose whether to suffer as a Christian or as a non-Christian.

The non-Christian has no promises attached to his suffering. His suffering serves no eternal purpose. It accomplishes no eternal glory. It does him no eternal good. However, the Christian suffers quite differently. The Christian may not escape suffering in the world, but he experiences it differently. The Christian has God’s promise that God will in all things “work for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The Christian has the assurance that God will be with him in every circumstance. Jesus told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (John 16:33; Matthew 28:20) And the Christian has the promise of God’s comfort and peace in the midst of trial. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

And so Paul says, “We not only rejoice in the hope of God’s glory, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4) The word translated “sufferings” in verse 4 means “a pressing together.” It speaks of pressure, tribulation, afflictions, distress, troubles. It does not refer to minor inconveniences but real hardships. And Paul says that as Christians, when we go through these pressing, trying times we should rejoice, we should exult in our sufferings. Of course, this sounds strange to us. Some people complain when they suffer; others quietly and patiently endure. But Paul says that the Christian who understands what God is doing will actually glory in his afflictions.

Paul says we rejoice in our sufferings because we “know” that suffering produces perseverance. The verb here should really be translated, “because we have known, that is, we have seen or experienced that suffering produces perseverance.” In other words, Paul is saying that the Christian can look back on the sufferings and trials in his life and see how God has used them in the past to develop perseverance in his life, that admirable quality of steadfastness, patient waiting and endurance. Have you ever wondered why some Christians are able to remain steadfast in their faith even during the worst of trials? It is because they have already been brought through the fire before, and God has been faithful. Suffering produces perseverance.

Notice that Paul does not say we rejoice in our suffering for suffering’s sake. That would be masochism. Neither do we rejoice in our suffering for merit’s sake, as if we somehow gain some special standing before God because of our suffering. That would be works-righteousness. No, we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that God is in control and that he is working to achieve something in us through our suffering. As Christians our trials are not without purpose.

So when you go through a severe trial as a Christian, it is not a sign that God has abandoned you, but rather that God is doing a good work in you, if you will only submit to the process. Hebrews 12:7-11 says, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Suffering doesn’t automatically produce perseverance. As John Calvin wrote, suffering “provokes a great part of mankind to murmur against God, and even to curse Him.” But suffering produces perseverance when we continue to hold strong to our faith even in the midst of our trials. Suffering in faith produces perseverance.

Not only that, but perseverance develops character. God is working the character of Christ in us through our trials. The word translated “character” here is also the word for “proof.” It means that as we learn perseverance through our trials, our character is tested and approved by experience. The New English Bible translates it this way: “Suffering trains us to endure, and endurance brings proof that we have stood the test, and this proof is the ground of our hope.” I like that. It is similar to what Job said in Job 23:10: “God knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”

This proof of our character is the ground of our hope. God is working in us. He is molding us to be like Christ. He is taking the common everyday sufferings that all persons experience, and he is turning them to good for us. He is, in fact, preparing us for heaven. Which is why Paul can say, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2)

How many times have you hoped for something only to have your hopes dashed to the ground and shattered to pieces? That is the way hope in the world often goes. But Christian hope does not disappoint us. Once we have been tested, we know God’s faithfulness. Therefore we have hope: hope in the present … for future grace … based on God’s faithfulness in the past.

IV. Love is the fulfillment of hope; it is the ultimate goal, the greatest thing of all.

Finally look at verse 5 with me. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5) Love is the fulfillment of hope. Our hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The word “disappoint” here can mean “to dishonor or disgrace, to deceive or put to shame.” Psalm 25:3 says, “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.”

In other words, our hope in Christ is well-founded. Our faith is in Christ. This brings us into a relationship of peace with God which produces hope for the future even in the midst of trials. And this hope in God, even during times of suffering, releases God’s love into our hearts in a whole new way. Christian hope is the environment in which love flourishes; love is the fulfillment of Christian hope which does not disappoint.

Paul says that God has poured out his love into our hearts. This phrase “poured out” is the same word used of the Holy Spirit being poured out at Pentecost. Jesus also used this word in the parable of the wineskins when the old wineskins burst and the new wine poured out. It is a picture of something being poured out in abundance, being spilled all over the place. This is no cautious filling of a vessel. It is messy! God pours out his love into your heart with wild abandon. He floods your heart. Your cup runneth over.

And how does God do this? Paul says: “by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.” Jesus said in John 7: “‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:38-39) We read in Titus 3:5-6 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit “whom he has given us.” The Greek verb here (aorist) speaks of a single decisive act, a one-time giving of the Holy Spirit. This may refer either to the Holy Spirit given to the church at Pentecost, or to the Holy Spirit given to the believer at the new birth. Either way, the emphasis is on the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith, peace, hope and love. These precious qualities are not proudly achieved by human effort. Rather they are humbly received as a gracious gift from God through his Holy Spirit.

The final proof that our hope will not disappoint us is that God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God has not abandoned you in your time of trial. God’s love for you and friendship with you are made evident by his Holy Spirit living in you. There is no greater proof that you have been declared righteous than God’s Holy Spirit living in you. The Holy Spirit would not take up residence in a person who was unrighteous in God’s sight.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is not just a little love grudgingly given. Rather, God’s gift is poured out into our hearts, spilled all over the place. God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to us demonstrates lavish generosity on his part. It is an almost embarrassing overflow of God’s goodness and grace. God’s love is the fulfillment of hope; it is the ultimate goal, the greatest thing of all.

CONCLUSION: So, in conclusion, faith in Christ leads to peace with God which leads to hope in God (even and especially through our trials) which leads to a wondrous experience of God’s amazing love.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) Love is the greatest because love is the fulfillment of all the others. But faith is the foundation. It all begins with faith. And so I ask you this morning, is your faith firmly grounded in Jesus Christ? Have you trusted him as Lord and Savior? If not, then you are not at peace with God, which means you have no basis for hope and you are separated from God’s wonderful love for you in Christ.

I urge you, therefore, to turn from your sin which separates you from God, and to place your faith in Christ. When you do, God will justify you. He will declare you righteous in his sight. You will then have peace with God. You will have access to God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son. You will stand in God’s grace. That will give hope, meaning and purpose to your life. Even in the midst of trials you will know that God is working in your life to make you more like Christ. One day the process will be completed and you will stand glorified and perfected before your Heavenly Father. And then you will know the love beyond all loves — the abundant, extravagant, lavish love of God which he has poured out into our hearts by his Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

© Ray Fowler

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