Holding On To Hope Series

Some time ago, George Barna polled adults: “If you could ask God one question, what would you ask?” The top response was, “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” I can’t think of anything more universal to the human experience than suffering. In fact, many people point to the problem of pain as their reason for not believing in God.

If you’re not going through a hard time right now, just wait – you will. That’s the nature of living in a fallen world. Pain is guaranteed for anyone who takes on the task of living. Some of you are in the furnace of suffering right now. Others of you have just come out of a time of affliction, and the rest of us will be there sooner or later because if you live long enough, you will suffer.

This is not just an intellectual issue to be packaged in a sermon: it’s an intensely emotional matter that can leave us with spiritual vertigo. One writer referred to the problem of pain as the “the question mark that turns like a fishhook in the human heart.”

Related to the question of why there is suffering is the question of how to process our pain. We live in a sinning, sighing, sobbing, and suffering world filled with cancer, murder, relational ruptures, dementia, grief, and genetic disorders. Write this down. When you become a Christian, all your problems aren’t removed. Actually, you inherit a new set of problems because you are now swimming against the cultural current. The Christian life is not about the subtraction of suffering, but rather the addition of grace to go through suffering.

One of the reasons Romans 8 is great is because it presents in detail the three major doctrines of the Christian life.

• Justification deals with the past – we were saved from the penalty of sin (verses 1-4).

• Sanctification deals with the present – we are saved from the power of sin (verses 5-17).

• Glorification deals with the future – we will be saved from the presence of sin (18-30).

So, how do we hold on to hope when we’re hurting? That’s exactly what’s addressed in Romans 8:18-25. Let’s stand and read together: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

We need the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and we need the presence of the Holy Spirit to enable us to persevere in suffering. Here’s our main idea: To get through your groaning, focus on the glory to come. I see three ways to hold on to hope from this passage.

1. Focus on future glory more than your present suffering. When we’re hurting, we tend to get so wrapped up in what we’re going through that we can lose perspective. Romans 8:18 gives us a corrective: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” The word “for” links us back to verse 17 where we learned how our present grief prepares us for promised glory. To “consider” means, “to reckon, to think about, to calculate.” It’s important to think biblically about suffering so we’re not surprised when it comes.

Notice the word “sufferings” is plural, meaning we will have a multiplicity of problems. The word “glory” means heavy, or weighty and refers to all of God’s presence and promises. We use the phrase, “Going to glory” to refer to dying and going to Heaven.

Compared to the weightiness of glory, our sufferings are relatively short and light. The notes in the ESV Study Bible are helpful: “The ultimate glory that Christians will receive is so stupendous that the sufferings of this present time are insignificant in comparison.” Bruce Goettsche adds: “Our suffering is minute, virtually insignificant in comparison to the glory that is established for us in Heaven…it’s a good trade to surrender what you cannot keep in order to keep what you cannot lose.”