Romans 5:5 “Logical?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵And this hope is not shaming [us], because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through [the] Holy Spirit, the One given to us.

This passage has taken some considerable pondering before my soul finally tasted the milk of its sweetness. On the surface, it is certainly a very nice verse. One can read it quickly and certainly say, “Praise God!” We have been reading in Romans 5 how, being justified by faith, we enjoy tremendous benefits, of which the most recent, in v. 4, was that we can even have hope in what others would call the worst of trials.

Verse 5 would have us know, too, that this hope will not shame us. It won’t leave us ashamed for having owned it. The NIV translates it “does not disappoint us,” and I suppose that is okay, except that the verb definitely includes the idea of disgrace, dishonor, marring – words that all communicate more of an “outside/in” than “disappoint.” It strikes me that to say I’m “disappointed” is more of something that happens entirely in my own mind. It wouldn’t necessarily involve anyone else, which then doesn’t quite communicate what I find is the meaning of the word. That is why, in my translation above I say this hope is not “shaming” us.  I want to make sure I leave the verse with the sense that my “disappointment” is more than my own internal struggle. On the other hand, I think today the word “disappoint” somehow is a more natural way to express the problem, so I will use it going forward, unless I think that sense of shame makes some important contribution to the passage’s flow of logic.

It is then further a great blessing to know that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. Then it is an even greater blessing to know that love is poured out not through any effort or merit on my part but rather because God’s very Holy Spirit has been given to me. It is great to know God’s hope won’t disappoint me, that His love is poured out in my heart, and that it is all owing to His Holy Spirit which He has given.

My struggle has been the “because” in the middle. I couldn’t seem to see how it is true that God’s hope “doesn’t disappoint” because “His love is poured out in our hearts.” My problem is that “because” calls for a clear logical connection. That seems like it would be true if it said, “This hope does not disappoint us, because God is faithful,” or “because He is greater than our troubles,” or even “because God love us.” But why is it “because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts”?

Here is what I think. I hope this makes sense. Purely on the face of it, the statement as it stands is not logical. If all we had was the bare statement itself, it really wouldn’t make sense. As is often the case in the Bible, the gold doesn’t lie on the surface for any casual passerby to pick it up. God’s truth is, in fact, surprisingly simple, yet it often has to be mined. In other words, although it is simple, it can only be understood by those who would enter into this personal relationship with God, people who are looking for something much more than bare logical facts. Even on a human level, relationships are not about facts. A relationship between living things is itself a living thing. To “know” someone is far more than simply knowing facts about them. It is knowing them, knowing the person, or, in our present case, the Person.

If we would know this Person, what do we soon discover? God is love. This truth is itself far bigger than mere logical facts. We soon find out it isn’t just true that He loves us. He is love. This God whom we would know, “made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6). What do we find in the face of Jesus Christ? We find a love so large, it is something far greater than we could have ever imagined. It isn’t just true that Jesus loves us. We find out He is love. The love that you and I receive from His heart is like getting a cup of water at the foot of the Hoover Dam. It’s like pulling teaspoons of water from the ocean. It’s why Paul could say, “The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). In this statement, Paul isn’t simply referring to the fact of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement on the Cross. For those of us who have known Christ, like Paul we know this love of Jesus is way, way, way bigger than a fact on a page. It is a living reality that fills every corner of our very existence, until we too can say it is our life.

Now go back and read the statement, “because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts.” How does that (logically) insure that our hope in Him won’t disappoint us? Can we all say it together, “Of course our hope in Him won’t disappoint us, because He loves us.” Only now, do you see that the bare statement means so much more than the mere facts would portray? When you or I say “He loves us,” it means far, far, far more than mere facts. It is an enormity of our existence. We could even say, “His love has been poured out in our hearts.”

Hmmmm. So then it is logical. It’s just something way bigger than mere facts. It is a relationship. What has happened? Because He is love, because love is the very essence of His infinite Divine glory, when He steps into our lives, that love can do no less than fill every corner of our very hearts. It’s like holding a cup and having someone pour the ocean into it. His love floods our hearts. And, if I am the object of that kind of love, then, no matter what I can be quite assured He won’t disappoint me. He won’t shame me for having owned my relationship with Him.

Actually, this is a very good point to insert a reality check. Sometimes He does allow things that seem to disappoint me or even shame me. I have had several things in the last few years where I prayed for something, even expressed my confidence in the Lord to other people that He would answer me, only to have it seem He did not. I honestly do feel a sense of shame. I trusted Him. I told other people I was trusting Him. Then it seems He didn’t answer. Frankly, there is a part of me right now that is baffled by it all. I’m not 100% sure what to do with it. However, and this brings us back to our verse, one thing I know is that His love has been poured out into every corner of my very existence. He has been speaking His love to me, showering me with His love for over 40 years. Knowing that love, I can step back and say, “I guess there is just something here I don’t understand.” Then I can drop it and go on trusting Him. He doesn’t always have to make sense to me. He loves me. As the song says, “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand.” I know Him.

We’re told this love is poured out “by the Holy Spirit, the One given to us.” This is one clue that the verse is calling us to dig deeper than just what we read on the surface. What I mean is that, at first glance, that wouldn’t seem like it needs to said here. It’s nice to know, certainly, but if we are just being straightforwardly logical, it wouldn’t need to be added. You would think the Lord did add it because He actually wants us to stop and ponder and ask, “What’s that got to do with our not being disappointed?” I think that is precisely why He added it. That is exactly what He wants us to do. Stop and ponder. The truth presented here is way, way, way beyond anything you or I will grasp as we rush by. Love needs to be pondered!

It is good news to be reminded that we have the love of God flooding our existence, not because of any merit on our part, but because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit (the third Person of the Trinity mind you!) and that Holy Spirit’s presence bears His fruit. And what is that? The fruit of the Spirit is …love! His love poured out in our hearts is just more of His infinite love to us.

So, is it all logical? As a simple statement of fact, I will be so bold as to suggest no it is not. The verse in and of itself is not logical. The “because” doesn’t make sense. However, knowing Him, truly knowing Him, swimming in the ocean of His love, yes, it does make perfect sense. To be loved this much, by a God this wise and powerful, is assurance enough that somehow, in the end, there can be no room for disappointment and shame. “It is well with my soul” and always will be!

Romans 5:3-4 “Hope”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³But not only [this] but also we are reveling in the afflictions, knowing that the affliction is working out endurance, ⁴and endurance provedness, and provedness hope.

Here in Romans 5, we are rehearsing and enjoying the benefits we enjoy having been justified by faith. At the end of verse 2, we’re reveling in the hope of the glory of God. As we saw there, that is not just a “hope so” for the far-off future when we see God. It is a very present hope to encourage us every day that the Lord’s presence and purpose in our lives is to grant us and to restore to us the glory we were created to enjoy. To grasp that truth is to own amazing hope.

However, if we would be realists, we can stop and ask, “But what about all the trouble? Yes, we were created for glory, but right now, in this world, we suffer one misery after another after another. Does being justified by faith offer us any very immediate hope in such a world of endless misery?”

The answer of course is an enormous “Yes!” Consider the following quote by Godet:

“Tribulation gives rise to patience, coming from a verb which signifies ‘to keep good under’ (a burden, blows, etc.), and might be rendered ‘endurance.’ Endurance, in its turn, worketh experience--the state of a force or virtue which has stood trials. This force, issuing victorious from the conflict, is undoubtedly the faith of the Christian, the worth of which he has now proved by experience. It is a weapon of which henceforth he knows the value. The word frequently denotes the proved Christian, the man who has shown what he is…When, finally, the believer has thus experienced the Divine force with which faith fills him in the midst of suffering, he feels his hope rise. Nothing which can happen to him in the future any longer affrights him.”

In a sense, I don’t even need to comment further. Godet hits the nail on the head. However, what he says is nothing new or surprising to anyone who has walked with God for more than the last ten minutes! What these verses rehearse is what all Christ-followers experience – the outworking of God’s refining, redeeming presence in our lives. I do want to spend a few minutes rehearsing it, not because any real Christian doesn’t know it, but just because it is such a blessing to ponder on it.

“Not only this,” Paul begins. We revel not only in the hope of God’s glory, but we also revel in afflictions. The “revel” is the same word in both verse 2 and 3. In verse 2 we were reveling in the glory of God, now in verse 3 we’re reveling in afflictions! Again, note it’s the same “revel.” Can we all agree that “afflictions” are not the first thing that would come to my mind as something to be happy about?

The word translated afflictions could be literally translated “squeezings.” Probably our most modern word for it would be “stress.” It is anything that we feel pinches our life, that closes us in, anything that creates that unpleasant sensation of being crushed. It is “suffering” in all its horrid, undesirable dread. None of us is unfamiliar with any of this. It is the world we live in.

But the very next word is what makes the difference for us: “knowing.” I want to pause and say, for me, this is one of the great advantages of faith itself: knowing. If we are all just a bunch of over-developed amoebas living in a world totally controlled by blind chance, then the truth is you can’t know anything for sure. The only thing you can hope you know is that you exist and then your only real truth is whatever it takes to further and improve your own existence. If you’re honest, your very life is nothing but “hope-so” and guessing.

Faith offers something far better: knowing. And here we see, that knowing speaks directly to the very thing we all dread: suffering. Now, to “know” anything means there is Truth (which can be known) and that Truth is something outside of ourselves. In other words, if there is Truth that can be known, I exist within that Truth. It doesn’t come from me. I was born into it. It surrounds my very existence. That means there is something out there I can grab hold of and, in doing so, I find it to be a rock I can build on.

There is, of course, Truth because there is God. Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” For us to lay hold of Truth is to lay hold of God Himself. The particularly good news about that is that we intersect God in the love of our Savior Jesus. Hell is a very real place and outside of Jesus, what there is to know is not good! However, in Jesus, we are now “dearly loved children,” and so, to know has to be something good!

That is what we all find. Faith in Jesus turns out to mean we even have hope in the very reality of our suffering. We have hope because we know something. And what is it we know? We know that suffering develops endurance, endurance provedness, and provedness hope. This is the outworking of James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face troubles of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When we face suffering but try to believe that in fact the Lord is in some way doing us good, the first thing we develop is this “endurance.” It also gets translated “patience,” but the Greek word speaks of perseverance, of staying under, of sticking with it. What we all find then is time after time after time, as we persevere, the Lord proves Himself to us. That leads to the second word, which I’ve translated “provedness.” I personally think it applies to both the Lord and also to us. Of course we find the Lord is faithful, but wonder of wonders, when we’ve persevered, there is a sense in which we’ve proven our own faithfulness. “I did it.” Even being the worm that I am, I actually did trust God. And what do I find? The troubles He allowed have actually made me stronger. Some way or another, I am a better person for what He brought me through. He is redeeming me. He is working out in my heart that very glory we saw in verse 2.

And where does all of that lead us to? Hope! Isn’t it interesting how it all goes full circle? We revel in the hope of the glory of God, then we face the reality of suffering and where do we end up? Hope.

Later in the book, Paul will write, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (15:13).

This all leads me back, once again, to what I learned from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – that every single day of our lives, even the day we’re supposed to die, we believers can literally run into our future, knowing our very good God is in control of it all and will work it all out for good.

Now that’s hope!

Romans 5:1-2 “Glory”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Therefore, being justified out of faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we also have gained access by faith into this grace in which we have taken a stand, and we revel on [the] hope of the glory of God.

“We revel in the hope of the glory of God.”

I think it is easy to read those words and say, “Hallelujah. Amen!” However, if I pause and ask myself, “But what exactly does it mean?” I realize I don’t know. How do we “hope in the glory of God?” and why use this wording anyway? Shouldn’t it say something like, “And we revel in the hope of one day seeing God’s glory”? It seems like that would immediately make sense. However, why is it just “the hope of the glory of God?” What glory? In what way? What exactly is Paul thinking of when he sees us “reveling in the glory of God?”

As I pondered this question, I was reminded of Rom. 3:23, where it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I’ve had the same problem there. I’ve asked myself, “What does that really mean?” and, as I mentioned in the last post, I ask myself why it didn’t say something like, “For all have sinned and fall short of God’s holy standard.”

As I pondered here on Romans 5:2, I realized there is perhaps something here I’m totally missing, so I decided to peruse through the Bible and see what else it says about “the glory of God.” I got out my Strong’s Concordance and turned to “glory.” Of course, one also has to look at “gloried, glorying, glorify, glorious” and all those many grammatical variations of the concept of glory. However, as I did peruse down through the verses, looked up the ones that seemed instructive, and wrote out those I found particularly meaningful, I actually think I did strike on something momentous.

I’m going to try to put it into words and hope it is helpful to anyone else who might stumble across these thoughts. Here’s the deal: First of all, the Bible would teach us that God is glorious. The whole earth is filled with His glory. The heavens declare the glory of God. God is glorious in every possible way! It is a fractal of His very being that He is glorious. Everything He does is glorious. Everything He is is glorious. Now, can I suggest, it goes without saying this is the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation?

Of course that “glory” extends to the Lord Jesus. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory…” (Heb. 1:3). In order to be our Savior, He “set aside the free exercise of His divine attributes” to be born a helpless baby and to live as one of us here on earth. Even in that, His great Kenosis, His “taking the very nature of a servant” and “being made in human likeness,” what did the angels say? “Glory to God in the highest!” John says “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). Because He came, the Bible can say, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor. 4:6). We understand the glory of God “in the face of Christ!”

All of that is great, of course, but it still doesn’t explain to me how I “revel in the hope of the glory of God.” Where I began to see the hope is when I started seeing the passages where all this glory actually extends to us. Of course, God is glorious. Of course, Jesus is glorious, but we’re just created beings, lowly creatures, right? What does the Bible say, “What is man that You are mindful of Him? You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4,5). “Crowned him with glory and honor.” When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in “glory and honor.” I would almost suggest that is inevitable. The fractal of God’s glory fills the universe so that, when He creates man, man cannot be anything less than glorious. Our glory flows from His. Our glory is because He is.

You and I were born to be glorious.  How could we be less if we were created by a glorious God? The whole earth is filled with His glory and that includes us. We’re filled with it. Think about II Cor. 3:18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” We “reflect” His glory. It “comes from the Lord,” but we do reflect it.

Our problem, of course, is that sin entered the picture. Instead of “glorious,” now God describes us as “Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil” (Isa. 1:5,6). “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities” (Isa. 66:6,7).

Sin degraded us. Here is where I believe I begin to see the “hope.” The glory of God is our proper place. It is where we belong. We were created to share in God’s glory, to be ourselves glorious because He is. Certainly, like the image of God itself, man still exhibits that glory in many ways, but in our fallen world, that glory is horrifically marred. Instead of “glory,” ours is a world filled with cruelty, misery, disease, and oppression. We destroy ourselves and waste the very lives we were given. On a personal level, we destroy our relationships, and on the larger plane we fight wars and murder each other’s sons and daughters.

I was once in a place and suddenly someone pushed in a young man in a wheel chair. The young man must have had severe cerebral palsy. He was twisted, distorted, and pitiful. He obviously could not speak and probably had little recognition of even what was happening around him. As I looked at him, it struck me how in a sense, that is not him. That is not who that young man was meant to be. In the short second I observed it all, I could see that, in reality, he was a very intelligent, very talented, handsome young man, who should stand up straight and dive straight ahead into the glorious life he was intended for. But look what the curse of sin did to him. It utterly robbed him of all but a glimpse of the glory that should have been his. What will death mean for him? Will it not mean to wake up in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to stand up straight, to be gloriously handsome, and ready to face an eternity of the glory he was born for?

However, are you and I really any different? Has not the curse of sin also twisted and disfigured us? Has it not robbed us of the glory that should have been ours? Seeing all of this, it begins to make sense to me why “we revel in the hope of the glory of God!” What does it say, “Whom He justified, them he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we wait for the Savior…who shall change or lowly body that it may be fashioned like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20,21). “Our body is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory” (I Cor. 15:43). Like that young man, we have hope precisely because God created us for glory. That is our eternal future in Christ! “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).

Our hope goes far beyond that, though, because that glory reaches down to touch us even here. As we read above in II Cor. 3:18, as we behold His image, we are even now being changed into that image “with ever-increasing glory.” To be “conformed to the image of Christ” is actually to have our very lives redeemed, to see ourselves restored to the glory for which we were created. We were created in the image of God and that is where we belong. This too is part of what Paul meant when he talked about, “urging you to live lives worthy of God who calls you into His kingdom and glory” (I Thes. 2:12). Sin makes us live lives of shame and disgrace. To live for Christ and His kingdom lifts you and me to actually live lives of honor.

I believe all of this is exactly why Paul calls it simply “the glory of God.” Glory is because God is. However, that glory is very real and encompasses us!

As I said to begin with, I think this is momentous truth. It actually explains a LOT about our world. It explains why we humans are so enamored with “greatness.” We all love to be honored. We like to be “decked out” and, as soon as we have the money, most of us will surround ourselves with beautiful clothes, a mansion of a house, the most expensive car(s), and any and every other possible indication of “greatness.” Why is that? Because that is what we were born for: glory.

However, it turns ugly when we forget that we are only reflecting God’s glory, that it all comes from Him, and that without Him we are nothing. When we leave out the Lord, we invariably become arrogant. Too often the rich and powerful actually become animals in their cruelty and greed. How often is it true that the very rich and famous in our world actually live pathetic lives of drug and alcohol addiction, of multiple divorces, of badly estranged relationships within their families, and so forth? An honest survey of human history will expose that many of them actually die in abject misery, though their very bed may be plated with gold.

This also explains why we should not accept shameful behavior in our lives. Perhaps certain habits are comfortable to us, but if they are dishonorable, then our desire should be that the Lord should redeem us from them, that He should help us to, in effect, stand up straight and step ahead into the honorable, the glorious person He made us to be.

This too would change how we see each other. Yes, everyone around us has been twisted by sin, but that doesn’t efface the fact we were created in glory and for glory. As we look at others, may we look to see that glory. May we look to see the beauties, the strengths, the talents the Lord has invested into each and every human being.

There is no doubt much more that could be said, but I can confidently state now it makes perfect sense to me why, being justified by faith, we can now “revel in the hope of the glory of God.” It makes perfect sense to me why Paul describes our problem as falling short of “the glory of God.” And may we all be the more moved to love and praise Jesus whose death and resurrection has rescued us from the shame and dishonor of sin, and purchased for us the restoration of glory!