Romans 5.5-Confidence in the Lord is Never Disappointed Because the Holy Spirit Reassures the Believer That He is Loved By God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 30, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:5-Confidence in the Lord is Never Disappointed Because the Holy Spirit Reassures the Believer That He is Loved By God
Lesson # 147
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:1.
This morning we will note Romans 5:5, in which Paul teaches that the believer’s confidence in the Lord is never disappointed because God the Holy Spirit reassures the believer that he is the object of God’s love.
Romans 5:1-5, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 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 Romans 5:5, “and” is the “intensifying” or “emphatic” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that is not new in relation to the previous statement in Romans 5:4 but rather is connected to it and in fact explains further this statement and completes the idea.
The statement being introduced by de develops further the idea that tested character produces confidence in that it give us more information about the concept of confidence.
“Hope” is the noun elpis (e)lpi$) (el-pece), which refers to the believer’s “confidence” in the Lord’s ability to sustain and prosper in the midst of adversity.
In Romans 5:4-5, the noun elpis refers to the believer’s “confidence” in the Lord’s ability to not only deliver the believer out of adversity but also to sustain and even prosper him in the midst of adversity as well.
Also, the word refers to the believer’s “confidence” that he will be rewarded for enduring undeserved suffering and the testing of his faith in the Lord and his obedience to the Lord as well as his love for the Lord.
It also denotes the believer’s “confidence” that God is indeed transforming him into the image of Jesus Christ through various trials and tribulations.
“Does not disappoint” means that the believer’s confidence in the Lord’s ability to deliver him out of and sustain him in the midst of adversity and that he will be rewarded for enduring undeserved suffering and that God is indeed transforming him into the image of Jesus Christ is “never disappointed.”
God the Holy Spirit assures the believer that God indeed loves him and gives the believer the guarantee that his confidence in the Lord is not misplaced and will in fact be rewarded.
Romans 5:5, “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
“Because” presents the reason why the believer’s confidence in the Lord is never disappointed.
“The love of God” is composed of the noun agape (a)gavph), “the love” and the noun theos (qeov$), “of God.”
Agape is an attribute of God and thus originates with Him.
1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
God would continue to love even though there were no sinners because His attribute of love is a part of His divine essence.
Love is one of God’s intrinsic or absolute attributes but when His love is directed towards sinners, it becomes grace and mercy and compassion.
The love of God was manifested to the human race through the Father’s sacrifice of His Son at the cross of Calvary.
John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
1 John 4:9-10, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Before salvation, the believer was the object of God’s “impersonal” love meaning that he was obnoxious and unattractive to God since he was enslaved to the cosmic system of Satan and his old Adamic sin nature and under real spiritual death.
At salvation, the believer became the object of God’s “personal” love meaning that the believer is attractive to God since God imputed His righteousness to the believer at the moment he exercised faith alone in Christ alone and is now a child of God and a partaker of the divine nature.
1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
The fact that we are beneficiaries of God’s divine-love before salvation and objects of His personal love after salvation will serve to encourage us when we go through adversity in life and also serves to challenge us to advance to maturity and execute the plan of God.
The believer who comprehends and acknowledges that he is the object of God’s love will receive the capacity to love others, even the obnoxious.
The Holy Spirit reveals to the believer the extent to which God has loved him and he does this through prayer and the study of the Word.
The Spirit enlightens the believer regarding the love that has been directed toward him.
Romans 5:5, “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.”
“Has been poured out” is the verb ekchuno (e)kxuvnw) (ek-kheh-o), which is used in a figurative sense of God the Holy Spirit “pouring out” God’s love into the hearts of those sinners who have been declared justified by God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word speaks of a particular ministry of the Holy Spirit, which began the moment the sinner was declared justified by God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This ministry involves communicating to the sinner who has been justified through faith in Jesus Christ that he was the object of God’s impersonal love before being declared justified and is now the object of God’s personal love now that he has been declared justified.
The Holy Spirit performs this ministry on behalf of Christians through the communication of the Word of God and in prayer.
The verb ekchuno speaks of an abundant or lavish outpouring of God’s love into the soul of the believer in Jesus Christ and not in measured drops or a trickle.
Thus, the Holy Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God communicates to the believer in Jesus Christ the infinite love that God has for him.
He communicates to the believer the manner and extent to which God love him.
The Holy Spirit is the resident teacher or mentor whom the Father has sent through the Son to indwell every New Testament believer as God’s special anointing to teach and make the truths of the Word understood and real to the heart or mind of believers.
John 14:16-17, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
John 15:26-27, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
John 16:13-15, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
The Holy Spirit testifies with our human spirit that we are indeed, children of God and an heir of God.
Romans 8:14-25, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
Notice that in Romans 5:1-5, the first three manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit are said to be experienced by the sinner who has been declared justified by God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, love (Romans 5:5), joy (Romans 5:2) and peace (Romans 5:1).
Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Romans 5:5, “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.”
“Within our hearts” signifies that the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul of the believer in Jesus Christ that he is the object of God’s love and in particular that aspect of the soul that involves the believer’s thinking or intellect or mental activity.
“Through the Holy Spirit” indicates that the Spirit is the personal intermediate agent who pours out the love of God into the heart of the sinner who has been declared justified by God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Spirit pours out God’s love into the heart of the sinner who has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ in the sense that through the teaching of the Word of God and prayer, He communicates to the heart of the one justified by faith in Jesus Christ that he is now the object of God’s love.
God the Holy Spirit is a separate and distinct Person in the Godhead.
He is called “Lord” in 2 Cor. 3:17 just as God the Father and God the Son are.
The Holy Spirit has the attributes of personality: (1) Intellect (1 C. 2:10-13; R. 8:27). (2) Emotion (Eph. 4:30; He. 10:29; Ja. 4:5). (3) Will (1 C. 12:11; Acts 16:6-11). (4) He has a mind, and therefore He thinks, searches and teaches.
The Spirit Performs The Actions Of Personality: (1) Teaches (Jo. 14:26; 16:13-15). (2) Testifies or bears witness (Jo. 15:26). (3) Guides and Leads (R. 8:14). (4) Performs miracles (Acts 8:39). (5) Convinces (Jo. 16:7-8). (6) Restrains (Ge. 6:3; 2 Th. 2:6-7). (7) Commands (Acts 8:29). (8) Intercedes in prayer (R. 8:26). (9) He receives ascriptions of personality. (10) He can be obeyed (Acts 16:6-7). (11) He can be lied to (Acts 5:3). (12) He can be resisted (Acts 7:51). (13) He can be blasphemed (Mt. 12:31). (14) He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30). (15) He can be insulted (He. 10:29).
God the Holy Spirit is the divine author of the Word of God (2 Pet. 1:20-21).
2 Peter 1:20-21, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
The Spirit speaks to the church through the communication of the Word of God.
Revelation 2:11, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Romans 5:5, “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.”
“Who was given” is the verb didomi (divdwmi) (did-o-mee), which refers to the gift of the permanent indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that the sinner receives the moment he is declared justified by God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“To us” is the personal pronoun hemeis (h(mei$), which refers to those sinners including the apostle Paul who have been declared justified by God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.