Peace with God Provides Hope in the Midst of Troubles and Trials...

Yesterday we saw the Apostle Paul reveal for us a timeless truth that occurs when we respond to God’s activity in our lives through the message of the gospel in a way that results in us being rescued from our selfishness and sin. And that timeless truth is that our rescue results in peace with God. In Romans 5:1-2, we discover that all humanity has the opportunity to experience rescue, relationship, and peace with God by placing one’s confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

And as the Apostle writes to the church at Rome, we see him reveal the reality that the peace that we have as a result of our rescue provides two important results. We see the first result that the peace with God provides in Romans 5:3-5. Let’s look at it together:

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In these verses, we see Paul reveal for us the first of two results that the peace with God that we have as a result of our rescue provides. And that first result is that peace with God provides hope in the midst of troubles and trials. Paul explains that not only can followers of Jesus take pride in experiencing the eternal relationship with God that they were created for in Heaven as a result of believing, trusting, and following Jesus; they can also take pride in their tribulations here on earth. When Paul uses the word tribulations here, he is referring to the trials and troubles that we experience as we live life on earth that cause us distress.

Now a natural question that arises here is “why in the world would Paul say that we are to take pride in the troubles and trials of life on earth? Because I sure don’t take pride in the trials and trouble I experience”.

Paul answers this question by introducing a well known and generally accepted fact that the readers of this letter would be aware of. And that well known and generally accepted fact was that tribulation brings about perseverance. Now perseverance, simply put, is the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty. Paul’s point here is that the trials and troubles that we experience in life causes us and produces in us the ability to be able to hold out and bear up under the weight of those trials and troubles.

In verse 4, Paul then reminds the readers of his letter of the well known and generally accepted fact that perseverance brings about proven character. You see, character is like toothpaste; you never know what is inside until it is squeezed. You never really know what is inside someone; you never really know the character of a person until the troubles and trials of life squeeze them. Paul’s timeless point here is that proven character is revealed as the toothpaste that is squeezed out of us as we go through the troubles and trials of life here on earth.

Paul then states the well known and generally accepted fact that proven character brings about hope. Hope, as we saw earlier is to look forward to something with a confident expectation. As we hold up and bear up under the troubles and trials that we experience as we live here on earth, we begin the reveal and display that character that is within us. And as follower of Jesus respond to the troubles and trials of life in a way that produces and bring outs the Christ like character within, the result is a confident expectation to the future, when they will being able to experience the eternal relationship with God that they were created for in Heaven as a result of believing, trusting, and following Jesus.

That is why, in verse 5, Paul states that hope does not disappoint. The disappointment that Paul is referring to here is the shame and disappointment that comes to someone whose faith or hope is shown to be in vain. Paul’s point is that for the follower of Jesus, the trouble and trials of life do not produce shame or the thought that their faith is in vain. While the troubles and trials of life may produce hurt, pain, grief and sorrow, for the follower of Jesus, the troubles and trials of life produces and reveals the Christ like character that proves their faith instead of producing a sense of shame and angst that leaves them feeling that they have leveraged their life into something that was meaningless and futile.

Paul then explains that the reason why our hope, or our confident expectation of the future does not disappoint is “because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” We can have a confident expectation for the future as followers of Jesus in the midst of troubles and trials because God has caused us, at the core of our beings, to experience the affection that He has for us through the Holy Spirit. One of the roles that the Holy Spirit has in our lives is to enable us to experience that love that God has for us. God’s love is poured out; God’s love is fully experienced through the Holy Spirit’s ongoing transformational activity in the lives of followers of Jesus.

The timeless truth is that our rescue that results in peace with God provides hope in the midst of our troubles and trials as we bear up and reflect Christ’s character in the midst of those trials, because we have fully experienced God’s love through the Holy Spirit. And it is this experience of God’s love produces a second of two results that peace with God provides. We will look at that result tomorrow.