In this thought-provoking episode, we dive deep into the teachings of Romans Chapter 5, exploring the profound connection between tribulation, perseverance, and hope. The discussion highlights how adversity can forge character and instill a lasting sense of hope grounded in the unwavering love of God. Our speaker elaborates on how this journey of sanctification is intricately woven into the Christian faith, offering listeners encouragement and spiritual insight.
So we’ve learned that even tribulation we can rejoice over. Trouble, because trouble produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. In other words, according to Romans chapter 5, since God’s wrath has been, judgment has been taken by himself through his Son so that it doesn’t fall on us who believe, then the truth is that everything that happens to us is for a blessing, is for a good. Now look how the verses connect. Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Now, you notice that I hesitated or stumbled over the word perseverance there because I thought it was the word patience, which is what it is in the King James Version. But there are two meanings to the word patience in the Greek. Well, in the English as well, for that matter. In one meaning, patience means not losing your temper, not blowing off steam and so on, not being hot-headed. But the other meaning for the word patience is perseverance, and that is what we have here in this verse. Not only that, but we also glory in troubles and tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance. Now, when we were young, perhaps, we didn’t have much perseverance, did we? We would get mad, we’d give up, we’d throw in the towel. But as time goes on, it’s not just time and age that gives us this, but fellowship with God, we realize that… What is happening will not last. It will pass. This too shall pass, we say. And we also will learn through our Christian life that what is happening, though it may be negative, God’s grace is intercepting that negative situation and bringing a blessing out of it. And so we are able more easily or more readily to persevere and to keep going. And this produces character. The kind of person we are, more solid, more able to stand firm, not to constantly doubt and waver. Yes, we have our doubts and our angers and frustrations, but we bounce back, you see. I might put there, for character, bounce-back ability, resilience, in other words. And then the word hope. Hope is not what the English word hope is, which is a wistful kind of hoping that somebody will, let’s say, come to dinner when you invited him or her, but it is a certain expectancy. The hope that God gives us is a certain expectation of what is coming. The coming of Jesus Christ, for instance, the promise that Jesus will come again and make all things new, that he will take us to his kingdom, that all sorrow and tears and pain and so on will pass away. It’s sometimes difficult to believe that, isn’t it? Because it seems to have been so long. And yet we are believers in a God who keeps his promises, who will not fail us, who will, in the end, return and take us to his kingdom. That’s the hope we have. Now all of this, you see, perseverance, character and hope, is produced in us through trials and tribulations. I mean, it just seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? That trouble should produce such good in us. But that is what is happening. This is why we call this sanctification, being made more like Jesus, more holy. But that sanctification isn’t how we are saved. We are saved by Christ’s judgment on the cross on our behalf so that we are justified, declared innocent before him. And that state of justification being declared innocent is what enables us to go on to become more godly. Well, you see, Now we have this. Now hope does not disappoint us. That’s why it’s not a wistful hope like the English word. It’s a certain expectancy. Hope doesn’t disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So here comes the Holy Spirit. We have the Father, we have the Son, and the Holy Spirit is very self-effacing, very humble. He doesn’t speak of what is his own, but takes of what’s Christ and reveals that to us. The Holy Spirit is like a servant, and yet he is God. God serves the human race. How incredible. You know, the word helper applies to, I think in Scripture, occurs about 56 times. I may be wrong on that number, but it applies about 50 times to God. Can you imagine that? This is God coming to us in Jesus, taking off the towel around him and washing our feet and drying our feet. This is our God who serves. Well, the scriptures tell us that all nations will serve him finally. But you know why they will? Because he serves us. Don’t you want to serve somebody who is so sweet and kind and serves you? You feel almost humbled. Well, you do feel humbled by his or her service. And you want to pay him or her back and you serve likewise. That’s how God is. We will serve him all through eternity because he constantly, constantly serves us. But now this love of God. How odd and how strange it is to believe in the love of God coming to us through all the circumstances of our lives. We lose our job. Our marriage ends in divorce.
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We’re sick. We’re struggling with an addiction.
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All of these negatives, and yet the love of God is being poured into our hearts on a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour daily basis. Now this takes faith. Not human faith, but faith that God alone can give. You and I must come before God in complete honesty and admit, Lord, I don’t see love coming to me from you. I’m in trouble left, right, and center, and there are troubles all over. How can this be your love? And yet, dear Father, by the gift of Jesus that you have given to me, whom you have given faith to believe in, I affirm that your love is being poured into my heart through all of these circumstances. That’s almost unbelievable, isn’t it? And yet that is what we do. We go on believing this. And we praise him and give thanks to him in prayer. This is how we are receiving the love of God. We are receiving it through faith, which praises, which gives thanks, which says, even all things, Lord, work together for good to those who love God. We recall biblical passages. We recall the story of Joseph, as I recited to you the other day, and how he said to his brothers, it wasn’t you who sent me here off to Egypt. It was God for the saving of many lives. And so we come to believe Not simply in order to whistle in the dark, as it were. We come to believe because we have seen what is behind the scenes. And what is behind the scenes is the love of God, the kindness of God, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. You say, I don’t feel this love of God. Whether you feel it or not, you lift up your heart in praise, and you give thanks to him for it. The interesting thing is that when you praise and when you give thanks, gradually there is an emotion that comes into your heart. Faith produces new emotions. because faith is the guiding force of the heart, it is the guiding force of the will, and it is a gift from God. So we have quite a passage here, and I want to read it again to you, these first five verses of chapter 5. Remember, this chapter is about freedom from wrath, from the judgment of God, because God has taken that judgment himself in and through Jesus Christ. Here are these verses then. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
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And not only that,
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But we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
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Now, I want to say a little more about the Holy Spirit.
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I’m not one who has these experiences of shudders going down your back from the baptism of the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues. I don’t know anything about that, really. I leave it to each person’s experience and the Word of God and let it be. But what I know is this.
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The Holy Spirit is called, in Greek, the parakletos, the paraclete.
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And the paraclete is the comforter, the one who comforts. But literally, absolutely literally, the word means one who walks by the side of and falls down with. Isn’t that incredible? Now the Holy Spirit, we remember, was the one who convicted the prodigal son by the pigsty that his father’s home was far better than anything he had experienced in that distant land, and that even his servants, his father’s servants, ate better than he had been eating lately. You see, the Holy Spirit convicted him to go home. I will go home and I will tell my father I have sinned and I’m not worthy to be called his son and would he make me one of his hired servants. God is with you. The Holy Spirit is with you in your pigpen. Whatever your pigpen may be, he’s with you there. He’s helping you to gather yourself in Jesus Christ, and he’s leading you back to the Father. Thank you for joining me today. This is Colin Cook. You know, the things that I’ve been saying in these first five verses, particularly how God justifies the humanity and brings peace to humanity, all of that is spoken about, written about at great length in my book, God’s Unbreakable Oath, which is about the salvation of all humanity and how God brings justification to them and peace and faith and access into his grace. And so I’d like to encourage you to get a hold of my book. It’s easily available on Amazon. It’s called God’s Unbreakable Oath, and it’s available on Amazon in volumes one and two. And if you’d like to make a donation, please do so. You can make your donation at faithquestradio.com. Thank you so much for all your support. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
