Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (3) And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; (4) and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (5) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome. In our verses today, Paul is writing of the effect of being made right with God through the perfect and acceptable sacrifice of Christ Jesus – that peace with God is particular to justification by faith; if we had to rely on our works we would never be at peace because our efforts would never be enough. Our reconciliation with God depends only on Christ Jesus.
In adversity the faithful are comforted and consoled in our certain hope of eternal salvation. Patience is not the natural effect of affliction – the natural state of man without the Spirit is discontent, anger and despair. The strange teaching of the Bible tells us to exhult in trials – and this teaching is uniform throughout the New Testament. God’s Book stands reason on its head as this is not a standard human response to trials – this is God’s perspective, not ours and needs a deliberate focus. We are to be lights to the world and it doesn’t happen automatically – being sustained by hope doesn’t mean the denial of pain. God uses trials to shape us and we called to His purpose.
I was struck by todays verses compared to how alcoholics anonymous adresses the successful work of recovery from alcoholic drinking. In what is called the Big Book of AA, the alcoholic is told aboutworking the steps: “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”
Ponder the wisdom of Pauls words: “tribulation produces perserverance; and perserverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint”.