An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 3

Rom 5:3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Rom 5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Rom 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We will look at three verses today. The focus of them is to use our suffering as a means to connect with God. Let’s walk through this looking at some Biblical definitions that are like ladder rungs which leave us with this unshrinkable connection with God through His love.

Here are the definitions that we have to fully digest in order to get to the end.

Rejoice- Other translations use the word glory. The root of the word is to pray to God. There is a sense of communication to God of your thankfulness for the suffering.
Suffering- A pressing in or pressure. In our 2009 context, it is stress, the things that cause us stress to a great degree. Also translated as anguish, affliction, distress.
Endurance- Steadfastness. In the New Testament context it means: the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.
Character- Trial approved. It is the same word that we get our word for stylus. It brings to mind a chipping away like an artist working on a sculpture.
Hope- Joyful, confident expectation.

These three verses are building on who you are in Christ that Romans 5:1-2 led us to.
What you are is justified and at peace with a God who is a righteous judge. The words
“more than that” provide us with the knowledge that we are not just justified when we stand before God, but we are also climbing a ladder that ends with suffering as a means to godliness. And, godliness is the point of this life.

All of this leads us to this unshrinkable connection to God because of His love. Shame is not an option because of love. We can use the illustration of the scale. When God’s love and the intensity of the joy and pleasure it brings to our fully satisfied souls is weighed against any pressure or anguish this world can bring; the scale is tipped in the direction of God.

This is the basis of the hope that carries the afflicted man to a place of worship in the midst of the affliction. Not in spite of the affliction, but because of it. And, we wind up seeing pain, stress or any sort of affliction as a tool in the hand of God used to make us aware of the treasure that He is.