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.