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!
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