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 tribulations produces perserverance; (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.  (6) For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  (7) For scarcely for a righteous man one will die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  (8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul and our verses today tell us about the blessings that flow from the doctrine of justification by faith – we are at peace with God on His terms.  The caveat here is we have this peace by faith in Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross. His resurrection is the sign that His was the perfect and acceptable sacrifice to God and we are given standing in Christ – our sins are covered.  Believers have a certain future.

God demonstrated His love for us by giving His Son to die for us and He gives the Holy Spirit to the reborn as a continuation of the blessings of justification by faith in Christ.  Human love will always disappoint because of our imperfect nature but God’s love is perfect. We live in a shadow world of what is to come.  We had no hope and we were doomed until Christ came as our substitute. Alone we have no merit, no righteousness and can do no works worthy of forgiveness.  Salvation through faith in Christ is true and Jesus alone gave us this gift. We can’t comprehend the enormity of this but the faithful know that salvation is certain if we are called.

Paul urges us to exult in our trials.  This is not an automatic response and the faithful have to consciously live this way.  Exulting in trials does not mean denying the pain but to know everything in this world passes and only God alone remains.  Humans are frail, faulty but God does not forget His promises  and our future hope is certain.  We don’t develop endurance unless we have trials.  The result of perseverance in trials is character – acceptance and peserverance result in joyful living not for this world but the next.  The faithful have a certain future and Paul calls it hope only  because we aren’t home yet.  So rejoice; it’s all true