Romans 5:5

and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  Romans 5:5 ESV

In verses 3 and 4 Paul talked about how severe trials ultimately produce hope - or a confident expectation - within the children of God. We can be confident, and should expect God to be faithful to His promises, and even more so to experience His glory both now through a relationship with Him and in Heaven in His presence. 

 and hope does not put us to shame
A human weakness, though, can be to question how we can be sure. How can we know, how can we be so confident that we actually live a life of expectancy that we will be in the presence of God one day - without any fear that we are wrong and will be put to shame. How can we actually live out this hope without a doubt, how do we know that these promises are true? 

One way we know is because of what Paul said in verses 3 and 4, that severe trials endured by God's children ultimately produce character, which is a proving of genuineness. When we persevere through a trial, and our faith is strengthened, we can KNOW that we are saved children of the Almighty God!



A second way we can know, that we can be confident in our expectations as children of God, is laid out by Paul here in verse 5.

because God's love has been poured into our hearts

God's love being poured into our hearts is proof of our salvation, and acceptance into His family, as adopted sons and daughters! When we realize that God has poured out His perfect, selfless, sacrificial love into our hearts, we ought to have within us hope that is a confident expectation of the awesome things to come - namely God's glory!

I think it would be wise to understand what the word "poured" indicates in the Greek language:

  to gush (pour) out, run greedily (out), shed (abroad, forth), spill.

This isn't a picture of carefully pouring water from a pitcher into a glass - no, this is like using a fire hose to fill a shot glass! 

This is how God pours out His overwhelming love into our hearts! As His children, longing for Him to reveal Himself through our lives, we must allow this love to overflow to those around us! The one thing that stands in our way of this is self.

through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us

The Holy Spirit is the "channel of the act", or the means by which the love of God is poured into our hearts. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the living proof, the actual evidence of the love of God, and the change that it has imposed on our heart. 

These two verses in Ephesians reinforce what Paul is explaining here:

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Eph 1:13,14

We see that the Holy Spirit is sealed as a guarantee, as evidence that we are God's children. 

The Holy Spirit, as proof of God's love, has been given to us - in order that we live with a confident expectation without any fear of being put to shame! It's so important that we live this life for His glory, knowing that we are safe within His promises - and that He is perfectly faithful. 

1 John 5:13 says:  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

As God's children, it should be our sincere desire that God be most glorified in our lives. This can only happen as God is most accurately revealed. From what Paul and John have said here, God is revealed when we live our lives with confidence, knowing we have eternal life and fully expecting to experience God's glory, and God's faithfulness to His promises, without any doubt or fear of being shamed. 

We cannot live this life of confidence unless we know for sure that we are God's children, and so He allows the severe trials that prove our genuineness, and pours out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit to prove we are forever His!

I think that understanding that the Holy Spirit is proof of God's love within us - and knowing that this allows us to live with confidence - makes it possible for us to step out and fulfill the Great Commission:

 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Mathew 28:18-20

We will never be able to go out into the world that is ruled by Satan if we have a fear of being disgraced, a fear that God will allow us to be shamed, that He will not be there for us to the very end, sustaining us the entire way. We must grasp this confidence that He offers, so that He may be glorified through our obedience to this great command!

Wow, thank You Father for Your amazing love, how can we ever praise you enough! Please forgive us, as we manage to conceal Your love when it should be freely flowing through us, and completely overtaking those around us. Help us, Father, to get ourselves out of the way, so that Your Perfect Love might be revealed, for Your Glory! In Your Son's Holy Name, Amen.

Romans 5:3,4

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope  Romans 5:3,4 ESV


It's been a while since I posted last, so I want to make sure the context is set. At the end of Chapter 4, Paul explained how Abraham was justified by faith, apart from works. The first two verses of Chapter 5 have laid out some of the blessings that flow from a restored relationship with God, which is through our Lord Jesus Christ (as Paul repeats twice).

Now, in verses 3 and 4, Paul reveals another blessing that we experience through this restored relationship with God.  




More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings

More than that indicates that, along with peace and grace, Paul is about to reveal something else that is attached to our being justified by faith in Jesus Christ. 

Paul says that, as believers, we rejoice in our sufferings. I think we can really gain a deep understanding of what Paul is saying here if we look at these words as they are used in the Greek. 

Rejoice: this word was used in verse 2 (Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.)
   the definition for this word rejoice: to speak boastfully, (to make) joy, boast, glory - when we rejoice, we proclaim the name of God, we boast of God and what He has done!

I would like to add something to this definition that I came across that seems to add even more depth to this word "rejoice": this word, in this biblical context, refers to living with a God-given confidence. 

Sufferings: pressure, anguish, tribulation, burdened, persecution. More specifically, this word here refers to an internal pressure, feeling hemmed in, a trial with no way of escape.

We can be confident that the suffering that Paul is referring to here is the type that is life-altering. The loss of a loved one, loss of a job, news of cancer or terminal disease - basically a situation that causes us to painfully realize that there is no way of escape - God has taken away all feeling of control.

So, we are to rejoice (have a God-given confidence, boast in our God), through these heavy trials that leave us no hope other than to rely on God...what if we don't?

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:17

If God's Word tells us to rejoice in our sufferings, and we don't, we are robbing God of the glory He deserves by hindering Him from being revealed in our lives, and that is clearly sinful. No matter how hard it is to do this, it should always be our pursuit.


  
knowing that suffering produces endurance

Paul says that we rejoice in our sufferings because we "know" something. He is going to explain what we are to "know" as children of God, and I think we should take special note that he uses this word "know." This is a clear promise from God, and it explains how and why we should rejoice in our sufferings. If we struggle to approach intense tribulation with a God-given confidence (as I think many of us probably do), then we need to spend time meditating on these next words that Paul shares, storing them in our heart so that we could move closer to glorifying God by revealing Him as we go through such trials.

We are to know that suffering (which we defined earlier as a severe persecution or trial, with no way of escape) produces, or accomplishes, endurance. What is endurance?

Endurance: steadfast, remaining.

So these trials with no earthly escape cause us to rely on God. As we know, we should always be relying on God for all things, but when God allows situations in which there is no choice but to rely on Him, we are guaranteed to experience endurance - by the power of God. He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, and as He empowers us to endure and remain through such desperate situations, we will come to know that His faithfulness is unwavering.

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." Deut. 31:6

 endurance produces character

Now we see that endurance we experience produces character.

Character: also experience, refers to proof of genuineness, tested and true.

Once we have endured and remained through such a trial, we are able to look back and know that we fully relied on God, and He carried us through. It is by His power that we are able to endure and remain, and we will emerge tested and true, the genuineness of our salvation, through faith in His Son, proven!

God wants us to rely on Him, this brings Him glory. It was said to me recently that when we ask someone for help, we are implying that they are capable of helping us. When we ask God for help, we are implying that He can help us, and this brings Him glory. We should be doing this in every area of our life, but our humanness always gets in the way, and we begin to rely on ourselves. We like to feel in control. I believe it is for this reason that God allows us to go through these trials that bring us to the point of total surrender, where there really doesn't seem to be a way out - and we are driven to totally rely on the only One who is capable of sustaining us. 



 and character produces hope

Lastly, once we have been through these types of sufferings, hope is built within us. The word "hope" refers to a confident expectation. When a child of God has experienced these things, from the suffering, through the endurance, to the proof of genuineness, the result is a confident expectation that God is Sovereign, His promises are true, and we are secure in Him.

We can then go back to what Paul said about rejoicing in our sufferings because we know...when we have a confident expectation (hope) that God is Sovereign, that He will empower us to endure and remain through any trial, and that He will continue to prove to us that we are His children, we can approach life with a God-given confidence, that reveals God working in, and changing our life  - and anytime God is revealed, He is glorified!



We must know that God doesn't allow these trials in order to use them as a stumbling block, to see if we will trip up. Their purpose is a proving ground, to prove to us He is who He says He is, that we are His children, to strengthen our faith, and to strengthen our relationship with Him.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.      1 Peter 1:6,7