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

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. One of the central themes of this   stupendous letter is that no one is righteous before God except through faith alone in Christ alone and that faith is not a single event but a way of life.  One of the blessings of faith is peace with God. We are justified in Christ and this is not just a feeling but a fact.  No good works, penance or philanthropy will do – the entire system of works means nothing.  Peace with God means holding Christ Jesus as our Redeemer.

Paul moves on to commend the faithful to exult in trials – not to get by just by enduring trials but to rejoice in them. This is not a normal response to tribulation but an act of will – not a denial of pain or suffering but an acknowledgment of our knowledge of the truth of the gospel. Grace and that sure knowledge allows us to see the bigger picture – this world is temporal and we are meant for a better place; the earth is not our home. In faith, in Christ, “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” which is certain.

In Christ we have hope in what we know to be true – as our outer man is decaying our inner man/woman is being renewed. C.S. Lewis in the Weight of Glory describes our motivation for endurance in joy as a “desire for our own far off county which we find in ourselves even now”.  Later in the same piece Lewis writes that “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.  We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.  But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.  Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”