A Forgotten Blessing Series

In Psalm 103:12 David exhorts himself in this way: “Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget none of his benefits.”

It’s an interesting sentiment. The great King David finds it necessary to instruct himself, or remind himself, not to forget any of the Lord’s blessings or benefits.

If David had to do this, it makes you wonder if we need to do this.

And I suspect that we do. That’s because as we come to the next verse in our journey through the Book of Romans, we encounter a blessing that is often forgotten or ignored. It’s a blessing that many of us do not count as a blessing, and yet the Word of God assures us over and over again that it is indeed a blessing. It’s the blessing of “tribulation.”

As we look at Romans 5:3-5 it’s important for us to remember where we are, and from whence we have come in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. First remember, that the subject of Paul’s letter is the Good News of Jesus Christ. So far, he has explained to us this: That the good news is that a righteousness from God, or a right-standing with God, comes not through good works, but through faith in Christ. Specifically it comes through faith in Christ and His good work on our behalf—His substitutionary atoning death for our sins on the cross.

In chapters 1-4 Paul has thoroughly explained how that right-standing with God has come. In chapter 5 he summarizes his conclusions and begins now to enumerate the benefits of this right-standing with God that we believers already have. He has mentioned two great benefits in verses one and two already: Peace with God and the assurance of glory, or heaven. Now in verse three he tells us there is also this third blessing. It’s tribulation--troubles of all kinds that we will have in this world. Not exactly something we are so inclined to count as a blessing. But He assures us it is, because these things are intended by God to produce several good results in our lives. So he exhorts us to rejoice, even to exult in tribulations because they produce endurance, proven character and great hope.

The message of verses 3-5 this morning is that we ought to count tribulations as blessings. We ought not to forget that they are blessings. In fact, we ought to exult or rejoice, or glory in the fact that God uses tribulations and trials in this life to produce endurance, proven character and great hope.

And his first point in verse 3 this morning is this: Exult in your tribulations knowing they produce perseverance. Exult in your tribulations, knowing that they produce perseverance.

Paul has just talked about how we can and should exult in the hope of heaven. Then he adds something else we should be excited about. Of all things, it’s tribulations! Verse 3 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.”

Now as we mentioned last week, the word exult here means to rejoice in, to glory in, to be all excited about something. And here Paul is saying that the regular experience for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ ought to be that we exult, rejoice or glory in the troubles we experience in this life.

Now if you’re like me, maybe you find it a bit strange that being right with God and having peace with God doesn’t result in peace in this life. Wouldn’t you think that if we have come to this place in which we have peace with God, that we would experience peace in this life, rather than tribulation? So what gives.

Well, it’s important for us to know that from the beginning Jesus indicated to his disciples that peace with God doesn’t automatically translate to the experience peace in this world. In 16:33 He told His disciples on the eve of His crucifixion, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” So clearly, though we have peace with God through Jesus, and peace with Jesus, Jesus has explicitly taught that we should not expect peace in this world. In fact, here He promises that we will have tribulation in this world. It’s one of those promises that we don’t want to claim, but it’s a reality nevertheless.

But what is perhaps shocking to us here is that we can count these tribulations as blessings. Now if you’re like me, I suspect that this is a challenge for you. I’ve never been too good at thanking God for the trials and tribulations of life. But does God intend for us to thank him for the trials and tribulations of life just simply because we have the opportunity to suffer? How is it that we can not only thank him for these tribulations, but even exult in them? It’s by looking beyond these trials to what they produce in our lives. It’s by knowing that they produce the good things God wants us to experience within our character.