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.
So here we come to a key word in Romans 5:3. It’s the word “knowing.” It answers the question about how we can exult or rejoice in our tribulations. We exult in our tribulations because we know something. We will rejoice in our tribulation when we know that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope.”
This passage is parallel to a favorite verse of mine, Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.”
Again the key issue is knowing—knowing that God has a purpose for the tribulations and the trials that He brings into our lives.
Another parallel passage is James 1:2-3: Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith results in perseverance, and let perseverance have it’s perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
The problem we seem to have is remember that trials are beneficial. It seems to me that the first order of business with respect to this deficiency we have in thanking God, and rejoicing in trials would be sort of a disciplined remembrance of this very fact. We almost need to give ourselves an assignment on a daily basis to thank God for the difficulties he brings into our lives. Maybe something we can do is make a list of those struggles we are or have experienced, and get in a habit of thanking God for what He’s dong in our lives through them.
Now the fact is that everyone, believer or unbeliever, is going to experience trials and tribulations. It’s part and parcel of life. Life is difficult. However, the unique thing about someone who is a believer is that these trials do not result in futility. They are not fruitless. They have a divinely-ordained purpose. And that purpose is to make us more like Christ. That purpose is to make us far better people, far more full of faith and faithfulness.
The first thing that the Apostle Paul says that tribulations produce is perseverance. The Greek word for perseverance here is hupomeno. It literally means to remain or bear up under. In other words, we continue to follow Christ despite the troubles and pressures that might cause us not to.
Now exactly how does this work? In our experience, we’ve persevered because God has shown himself to be faithful in the trials that we have experienced. We’ve been through some harrowing experiences spiritually. But God has repeatedly demonstrated Himself to be faithful to His promises in these trying experiences. As I’ve often told fellow elder Dave, the only reason I’m still here ministering is that in the times of crisis, God has repeatedly shown up especially in supernatural ways to demonstrate that He is faithful to His Word and that His promises are true.
When the church ran out of money and couldn’t pay us, there was Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added to you.” And sure enough, when we continued to give the first part of our income to the Lord when there was little to give, God provided all that we needed, even when there seemed to be no visible means of support. When Jeanie needed a job, she happened to obtain one of the very last teaching positions offered by the Washoe County School District before a strict hiring moratorium was imposed for years. When we were broken emotionally there was Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit.” And He showed up on several occasions, supernaturally and did just that. When we needed to be rescued from spiritual attacks and the lies of the evil one, Psalm 34:7 proved to be true: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues him.” And God counter-acted those lies, and replaced those lies with His truths. When there was cancer: Psalm 41:1-2 applied: “Blessed is one who considers the helpless;
The LORD will save him on a day of trouble.
2 The LORD will protect him and keep him alive,
And he will be called blessed upon the earth.”
Over-all Psalm 91:14-15 has proven to be true in our lives: “Because he has loved Me, I will save him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. 15 He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
16 I will satisfy him with a long life, And show him My salvation.”
In other words, because God demonstrates Himself to be faithful to us, we learn to trust Him and be faithful to Him. We learn that it is through the trials and tribulations of this life that God shows Himself to be faithful to us. Therefore, because He is faithful to us, we learn to be faithful to Him. And we persevere.
And as a result, we can indeed exult in our tribulations, because God shows Himself faithful and able to deliver and save us at every turn.
And then the second effect of tribulation becomes true for us. We develop proven character. Rejoice in your trials knowing that they then produce proven character. Verse 3: “And perseverance brings about proven character.”
The key word in verse 4 here is the Greek word dokimos. It has the sense of testing something to see whether it proves reliable--Testing and proving something. Our faith is tested to see whether it proves to be reliable, whether it proves to be strong. It is tested through tribulations. Will we continue to trust in God even when things don’t seem to be going our way? Will we trust Him to provide, heal, deliver, save?
As we all know, many of the products that we use in day-to-day life are tested before they are sold to us. We’ve all seen the test tracks and the testing done on the automobiles we drive to make sure that they perform as advertised. They are tested and proven. Proverbs 17:3 indicates that it’s this very kind of process that we are subjected to. It says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts.” In other words, the Lord is purifying our hearts before Him through the testing and trials that we endure. He eliminates the dross and keeps that which is pure by putting us through the fires of life. Proven character, faithfulness to God and to others and to our commitments comes through repeated testings.
A great example of this in the Gospels is the experience of the Apostle Peter. In Luke 22:31, Jesus tells Peter on the eve of His crucifixion that Satan has demanded to sift Peter like wheat. What happens when wheat is sifted? The wheat kernel, the good part, is separated from the chaff, the worthless part.
Then Peter is with the disciples in the upper room. He hears that Jesus is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. He pridefully claims that though everyone else might abandon Jesus that he would not. Basically, he’s saying his love and devotion to Jesus is greater than everyone else’s.
Subsequently, Jesus is arrested. All the disciples fall away just as Jesus predicted. But Peter falls away in a more colossal fashion. He doesn’t merely abandon Jesus to His persecutors, before the night is over, He denies that He ever knew Jesus, and with a curse. Peter is greatly humbled.
Then, after Jesus is raised from the dead, He restores Peter on the shores of the Sea of Galilee as recorded in John 21. As he sits eating with Peter and six other disciples, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” Peter replies only, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He doesn’t reply that He loves Jesus more than the other disciples. The desire to egotistically compare his love as greater than that of other is now gone. Peter has been sifted as wheat. The kernel of love for Jesus still remains. The chaff of pride, selfish ambition and comparison of himself to others is now gone. And that humble devotion to Christ would remain throughout the rest of his life until he would finally give his life as a testimony to Christ on his own Roman cross 35 years later.
Proven character results from perseverance, which results from tribulation.
Finally, Paul says we can also be excited about tribulation, knowing that they affirm your hope.
“And proven character produces hope.”
Again, it’s important to define our terms here. Remember, that hope for the Christian is not merely wishful thinking. It is a confident expectation. Most specifically it is the confident expectation that we will be with Christ in His kingdom for ever. It is the confident expectation of eternal life, as was spoken of most recently in verse 2.
And he provides us here with an interesting spiritual truth. He says once proven character has been developed, it contributes to our assurance of eternal life. In other words, when our lives have changed, when we have become more like Christ, when God’s work has been evident in our character, that character change demonstrates that there has also been a change with regard to our eternal destiny. Life change demonstrates that we are truly followers of Christ and we are headed to heaven.
It’s even as I John 2:3 puts it. “This is how we know that we know Him, if we keep his commandments.’
And II Peter 1:10 also applies, as Peter exhorts us that the more diligent we are in living a Christ-like life, the greater assurance we have that we are saved: “Therefore, brethren, be all themore diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you: for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”
Yep a life changed by Christ is a life saved by Christ. Our confidence that we are indeed saved for eternity is buoyed by the fact that God is working in our life presently to make us more like Christ. The more we become like Christ the more self-evident it becomes that we are children of God headed to heaven.
And so when we consider all these things together—that the trials and tribulations of life actually are working for good in our lives—developing perseverance, proven character and a confident assurance that God has saved us—if we see this from God’s perspective, we can actually have good reason to exult in our tribulations!
What a concept!
A good question actually to ask is this: Where would you be today in your relationship with Christ if it weren’t for some of the tribulations you’ve experienced?
Thank God for trials and tribulations!
Don’t let trials and tribulations be a forgotten blessing in your life!
Let’s Pray!
