Romans 5:3-5 "The Glory of Justification" pt.2

I. Our Joyful Suffering (3-5).

Because of what it produces in us (3-5).

Suffering produces endurance.

Endurance produces character.

Because endurance in suffering is were God most often has are undivided attention. When I am at this point, this is where I usually tell myself: “Now Brett pay attention and learn from this so you don’t have to repeat this opportunity at a life lesson.”

Learning those truths that God has in store for us changes us, it sanctifies us and those changes bear out in our character. We are no longer the same.

Character produces hope.

Character produces hope because suffering has produced endurance. And endurance has produced character by sanctifying the worldliness out of us; which in turn has us focusing our lives on something else. We live for something else outside of the world.

We have come to know that this world holds no hope for us. We have set our sights on something incorruptible and unfading.

Such a hope is shameless. Why is it shameless? The shame I believe that Paul is talking about is the shame someone may experience when Christ returns and the dead are raised or when someone dies and stands before God.

I think he is talking about the shame someone may feel in that moment when the realize they lived ultimately for the world and not for Christ.

But God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the agency of the Holy Spirit (5a).

This “love” is not merely an emotion that God has for us. But it is a displayed action in Christ coming into the world to die and to ransom us for God.

God’s love has come to us in the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the One who is working all that the gospel produces in us. It is all a work of sovereign grace.

(Grace fueled joy in God’s glorification (vs.1-2) is realized as it connects to Holy Spirit gifting.)