35 | Romans | Romans 5:3–5 | Rejoice in Suffering

INTRODUCTION

Last week we began this next section of Romans, at the beginning of chapter 5.

We learned last week that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ secures our life of worship.

Justification by faith alone gives us peace with God and access to the grace in which we stand.

So, we rejoice in hope!

What comes next is unexpected.

Not only does our justification cause us to rejoice in hope.

The hope of glory is accompanied by another rejoicing …

v3 — Not only that!

We rejoice in our sufferings!

PRAY

3:00

We will begin by considering the role of suffering in the world.

Then we will consider the progression from suffering to endurance to character to hope and then finally love.

SUFFERING IS A COMMON REALITY

There is no part of life that has not been touched by suffering.

Now, it has not always been like this.

And it will not always be like this.

The Lord created all things good and perfect.

And all things worked and flourished in this good design.

The Lord will again restore all things to this state of perfection.

But, we live in an age of suffering between perfection and restoration.

So, how is the Lord working in this age?

It turns out that for the one who believes in his promise and is justified …

… even in face of suffering, this is an age of grace.

5:00

Let’s go back to the beginning:

How did suffering first enter creation?

Genesis 3: The disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, introduced sin into creation.

Their sin is met by God’s righteous judgement—bringing suffering and death.

It is this same idea that is referenced in …

Romans 1:18 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 2:2 ESV

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

So, is that it? All have sinned and joined in the rebellion of our first parents …

… so suffering is simply the work of God’s righteous judgement?

When we suffer is even the believer to feel the displeasure and wrath of God toward him?

8:00

For the Believer, Suffering is No Longer Judgement

There is no clearer statement on this than …

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Lord hates sin. Even the sin of the believer.

The Lord does not pretend that the sin simply does not exist.

Nor does the Lord simply turn a blind eye toward our sin.

All of his justice. All of his righteous judgement and wrath has been poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ on his cross.

So, all that remains for the believer is what we find at the end of our passage:

God’s love has been poured into our hearts

Suffering is no longer God’s judgement …

… but has become a means of God’s preservation.

So, suffering is not our enemy.

10:00

It’s a bit beyond our study today to consider in much depth, but quite the opposite is true.

Ease and idleness are Far Greater Dangers for our Soul

In our present age and circumstance of relative peace and prosperity …

… we imagine that the natural state of the world, even in this age, is personal comfort, not suffering.

But this is an illusion created by our prosperity.

We think we can buy our way out of suffering.

We think we can science and technology our way out of suffering.

But the scriptures our clear.

The only way out of our greatest suffering—

—the wrath of God on our sin

—is faith in the grace of Jesus to suffer in our place.

So, any hardship that remains is there to strengthen our faith as we await the restoration of all things …

… when the Lord himself will wipe away ever tear from our eyes and make all things new.

Consider the kingdom of David as he has increasing success in battle and an increased sense of peace and prosperity at home in Jerusalem.

2 Sam 11:1 — When kings go to war, David stayed home.

And in his idleness and ease, he is not strengthened in faith …

… but wanders quickly off into the sin of adultery.

You never see a chain in Scripture that begins with ease and ends with hope.

Instead: suffering ➝ endurance ➝ character ➝ hope ➝ love.

15:00

APPLY

What we have, then, in our passage is the clear reality that suffering is not only to be expected, but is to be rejoiced in!

Suffering is a more common part of the normal course of this life than we imagine in this age.

We spend a great deal of time in the removal of suffering.

What would it look like if our initial response to suffering was rejoicing?

What if with patient expectation we proceed …

… to step two of suffering, which is endurance.

This would require faith!

And that’s the whole point.

16:00

ENDURANCE

The one who rejoices in the face of suffering …

… does so because it is by suffering that he learns endurance.

Endurance is the ability to continue on, even in the face of further suffering.

James 1:2–4 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

What is steadfastness?

It is to stand strong.

It is to not be moved from the grace in which we stand.

We have been granted access by faith into this grace.

What shall separate us from the love of God?

No, we will not be moved, even in the face of suffering.

Romans 8:22—creation groans under the weight of suffering.

Suffering is still suffering.

But the groaning is not toward escape, but toward redemption.

Romans 8:25 ESV

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The believer, when confronted by suffering takes a posture of patient, faith-filled endurance.

21:00

What does this endurance look like?

What we we do in the meantime?

Ongoing faithfulness—especially in doing good for others.

Consider:

Galatians 6:9 ESV

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

We who rejoice in suffering, persist in doing good …

… because so often the way of escape is often the way of defeat.

So often the suffering we endure in this world would so easily be removed if we only stopped pressing forward in doing good.

But by pressing forward in faithfulness …

… we endure right through the suffering

… to discover the sweet faithfulness and love of God on the other side that we never would have known if we had taken the way of escape.

23:00

Here is an example:

2 Corinthians 8:1–2 ESV

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

Suffering didn’t stall their love—it stirred it.

APPLY

I have to tell you that as a pastor this is one of the things that has most grieved my heart over the years.

Someone comes to me with a concern that about a relationship or a circumstance …

… and because I am at least partially removed from the suffering itself I can see how this hardship is good for the person to endure.

And so I counsel to persist.

Yes, it is uncomfortable to be in a social circumstance in which you feel demographically isolated.

Yes, it is uncomfortable when the way the leader of the ministry doesn’t do things the way you would.

But, you will learn to endure in love and good works if you will persist.

You will only learn the pattern of escape if you flee for comfort.

Suffering produces endurance.

25:00

CHARACTER

This is an essential center for understanding this passage.

The purpose of suffering is the testing of faith.

Please consider these for continued study, reflection and prayer this week.

1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV

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.

We can rejoice in suffering because we endure only for “a little while.”

But the result is not temporary, but precious and results in praise and glory and honor.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We can rejoice in suffering because suffering reveals our weakness and vulnerabilities.

But it is precisely at these points that the power of God is at work to preserve and strengthen us.

This is what character is:

He is creating strength were there was once weakness.

And the strength he creates there, is the very power of God at work in you.

28:00

The word for character in Romans is the same for “tested genuineness” in 1 Peter 1:7.

The result of suffering is to give a sense of validation or dependability.

The faith has been tested and has been made strong.

The word can also be translated “proven worth” (Philippians 2:22 - in reference to Timothy service to Paul)

Suffering gives our faith proven worth.

David Helm A simple bar of iron ore, pulled from the earth, might be worth $5.00. However, that same bar, when made into horseshoes, would be worth $10.50. If the owner decided to make the bar into needles for sewing, it could be worth as much as $3,285. And if he turned it into springs for watches, its value could jump as high as $250,000. What made the difference? Simply the amount of heat by which the iron bar was tempered and honed.

We who rejoice in hope of the glory of God:

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

How? Standing by faith rooted in grace

… through suffering we endure.

And in endurance we are changed.

31:00

APPLY

When you are faced with suffering do you enter with a sense of expectation?

If it is the Lord’s will to remove this suffering, I will rejoice.

But if it is the Lord’s will that the suffering remain, I will endure.

And in endurance, the Lord will strengthen me so that by his grace I will become strong.

32:00

HOPE

Why does tested genuineness produce hope?

We see that we really are being saved!

We are being changed right through suffering into a new person.

On the other side of suffering we can say:

“I do believe because I remember that time when I did believe, even in the face of great hardship.”

APPLY

In justification we despair of saving ourselves and turn to Jesus, our only hope in life and death.

Suffering helps us to learn to despair not only of saving ourselves, but also to despair that there is any hope in this world by which we might be saved.

In this world there is no real lasting comfort or peace.

And so, we hope in God, we persist in faith …

… and press on, standing in his promise of redemption by grace alone.

Not by comfort through escape.

But by grace through faith.

35:00

LOVE

The God who first loved us, pours his love into our heart in the midst of suffering.

We who despair of comfort that comes from personal peace and prosperity in this world …

… find a a personal peace that surpasses understanding.

It is the love of God poured into our hearts by the holy Spirit.

I will be honest, I can’t explain it.

Neither does Paul really try to explain it.

It is simply true.

And any believer who has endured hardship will tell you that it is true.

THE GOSPEL

We we can explain is that

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

test

38:00

The Catechism

Q35: What benefits in this life accompany and flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

A35. The benefits are assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, perseverance in it to the end.

Assurance of God’s love and the means of our perseverance comes through suffering.

APPLY

I will end where we begin.

Believer, suffering is not a sign that the Lord does not love you.

It is in the circumstance of affliction that the Lord is sure and has promised to pour his love into our hearts.

41:00

APPLY

Encourage the Weary

Perhaps, this morning, you are well acquainted with suffering.

Why is this passage here in scripture?

So that you will remember that we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

Not even suffering can remove you from the grace of God in which you stand.

Weary soul, be strengthen in grace.

Yes, pray that the Lord would rescue you from your suffering.

But also rejoice, weary sufferer.

You may surely pray that the Spirit would pour his love into your heart.

Your rejoicing in hope and in suffering will not put us to shame.

43:00

Challenge the Comfortable

Perhaps, this morning, you feel stagnant in your faith.

There are many in our day that have little sense of the love of God in their hearts.

I would contend that this is because, with so much choice, opportunity and prosperity at our disposal …

… we are quick find an easy escape from so much of our hardship.

For you, the counsel is not that you would not become weary of doing good …

… but that you would not so quickly shrink away from that hardship, that affliction, that difficult circumstance

… but that you would endure and discover a proven character, a tested genuineness of your faith.

You who have so often fled to the comforts of this world in the face of affliction and trials …

… if you will turn in faith in the face of suffering

… you will discover a love poured into your heart that for more than you had ever imaged.

45:00

Rejoice in Suffering

We see this in the life of Paul.

Sometimes he flees a city that is seeking to kill him.

He called upon the Lord to remove his thorn.

But we also see Paul press forward toward Jerusalem where he saw that suffering clearly awaited him.

When faced with suffering our immediate response is often to search for how to at least mitigate, if not remove the suffering.

Even Jesus says that if you find an animal in a ditch, help it out, even on the Sabbath!

If you find yourself in a ditch, maybe get out of there!

But then I think of some of the circumstances of suffering:

If we are having a hard time with our boss, we change jobs.

If we are uncomfortable with some relationship in our Community Group, we just change groups.

We feel stressed out, so we escape by bingeing a few episodes of Netflix at night.

At the heart of each of these scenarios is that our initial response to suffering is escape.

What if the Lord has some good to work in our soul and some love to pour into our heart if we would seek him by faith and rejoice in our suffering?

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