The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness

The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness

Romans 1:18

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
"There Is None Righteous"

Today we take a major turn in the letter of Paul to the Romans. Romans 1:16-17 is the theme of the letter: the gospel is the power of God to save believers from the wrath to come. And this gospel - this good news of Jesus' death and resurrection - has that power to save believers from God's wrath, because in the gospel, day by day, week after week, year after year, God keeps on revealing his righteousness as a gift to be received by faith and for faith, so that those who have their righteousness from God (and not themselves) will not perish but have everlasting life.

Now having described the greatness of his theme, which he will come back to and unpack in wonderful and profound ways in future chapters, Paul enters on a description of human sin and God's wrath in Romans 1:18-3:19. In Romans 1:18 to 32 Paul speaks of the condition of the gentile world apart from the gospel and apart from saving grace. Then in Romans 2:1-3:8 Paul deals more or less directly with the Jewish condition. Then in Romans 3:9-10 he draws his summary conclusion like this: "What then? Are we [Jews] better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, 'THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.'" That is the point of Romans 1:18-3:10. Then Paul piles Scripture upon Scripture in Romans 3:10-19 to support his point of universal sinfulness and guilt and rebellion against God in every human heart.

He wraps up the section with this summary in Romans 3:19, "Now we know that whatever the Law [the Old Testament Word of God] says, it speaks to those who are under the Law [the Jewish people], so that every mouth [all the nations, all the Gentiles] may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God." We will talk later in this series about why God chose to silence the world by dealing mainly with the Jews. But that is the truth. Paul seems to mean if the Jews, with all their advantages of divine revelation, have not been righteous before God, but only sinful and guilty (3:9), how much less will the Gentiles be able to open their mouths and protest that they have been righteous before God.

Then Paul explains in verse 20: no matter how beneficial the Law of God should have been, when it is misused the way many in Israel misused it, it only compounds the problem of sin. He says, "[Jews and all the world are under silence in their guilt] because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." Neither Jewish Law nor Gentile idolatry gets anybody right with God.

Then in Romans 3:21 Paul returns to the theme of 1:17, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested." You see how similar this is to Romans 1:17 - in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And from here on Paul is unpacking the greatness of the gospel of God's gift of righteousness.

So what we have in Romans 1:18 to 3:20 is a demonstration of sin and guilt in the heart and life of every human being, both Jew and Gentile. The beginning of that section is what we are taking up this morning at Romans 1:18.

Why Several Sermons on Sin?

Now what should I respond if someone were to say, "Oh no! We are going to be slogging our way through sin and guilt for months. This is going to be really oppressive"? To that person I want to say three things:

1. Superficial diagnoses lead to false remedies.

Superficial diagnoses lead to false remedies and no cures. If you want to find true remedies for a disease, and if you want to bring a lasting cure to the people who are diseased, then you need more than a superficial grasp of the disease itself. Those who care most about a cure for AIDS or cancer, spend almost all their time studying the disease.

2. Understanding sin and wrath will make you wiser.

Profound understanding of sin and wrath will make you a far wiser person about human nature - your own and others. And if you are wiser about the nature of the human soul, you will be able to fight your own sin more successfully, and you will be able to bless others more deeply with your insight and counsel. I have pled with women and men in this church in recent months that what we need to nurture and cultivate here at Bethlehem over the next decades is sages -men and women who ripen with years into deeply sagacious people: wise, discerning, penetrating, deep lovers of people and deep knowers of human nature and God's nature, who can see deeply into the tangle of sin and sacredness that perplexes the saints and threatens to undo us. If you run away from the study of sinful human nature - if you say, I don't like to think about sin - then you run away from yourself, and you run away from wisdom, and, worst of all, you run away from the deepest kinds of love.

3. Knowing the nature of sin and wrath will cause you to cherish the gospel.

Probably the most important thing I would say, and the most firmly rooted in Romans 1:18, is that knowing the true condition of your heart and the nature of sin and the magnitude and justice of the wrath of God will cause you to understand the mighty gospel, and love it, and cherish it, and feast on it, and share it as never before. And this is crucial because this is the way the gospel saves believers. If you don't understand the gospel, if you don't cherish it and look to it and feed on it day after day, it won't save you (see 1 Cor. 15:1-3; Col. 1:23). Knowing sin and wrath will help you do that.

"For . . . "

Which brings now to the beginning of Romans 1:18. Look at the connection between verses 17 and 18 (which the NIV inexcusably omits), namely, "for" or "because" - Verse 17: "[In the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Why does Paul introduce verse 18 with the word "for" or "because"?

He does this in order to show that everything he is going to say about sin is meant to support the gospel of verse 17. He does not mention the gospel for the sake of sin. He deals with sin for the sake of the gospel. Understanding sin is the foundation that upholds the preciousness of the gospel, not vice versa. His main aim is not to lead us from gospel to sin, but from sin to gospel. If you have been caught in a crime and are facing trial, and I say to you, "I have a letter here from the Hennepin County Court that they have dropped the charges against you, because you were guilty and liable to severe punishment," what's the point? The point of saying that you were guilty is to help you understand and cherish the good news that the charges are dropped. That's the point of "for" at the beginning of verse 18.

So the way I hope to deal with all the sin in Romans 1:18-3:20 is to let it point us back again and again to the preciousness and the glory and the necessity and the freeness and the joy of the gospel of the gift of God's righteousness. My prayer is that we would escape superficial diagnoses, and that we would cultivate a profound understanding of fallen human nature (which we all struggle with), and that we would come back again and again to the necessity and beauty and freeness of the gospel of justification by faith alone. If these three things can happen, I don't think our time in these chapters will be oppressive, but rather gospel-exalting, hope-giving, and love-producing, as we grow to know ourselves and our God and our gospel more and more deeply.

We Need the Gospel Because the Wrath of God Is Being Revealed

Now how does Paul begin this section in verse 18? He begins it by giving the reason that gospel and a gift of God's righteousness is necessary. It's necessary "because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." We need the gospel of Romans 1:16-17, we need the gift of God's righteousness, because God's wrath is right now being poured out on the whole world of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Notice the double use of the word "unrighteousness" in verse 18. God's wrath is being revealed against "unrighteousness" and the truth is being held down in "unrighteousness." Surely Paul means for us to see that in relation to the revelation of the righteousness in verse 17.

In other words, the reason we need God to reveal HIS righteousness to us in the gospel and give it to us as a gift through faith is because we are unrighteous and resist the truth in unrighteousness and, therefore, God's wrath is against us. We need righteousness. We don't have it. God's wrath is being poured out on us in our unrighteousness. Is there any hope? Yes, the gospel is the power of God to save because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. We can have a righteousness that is not our own, namely, God's.

Three Ways the Wrath of God Is Being Revealed

Now we should ask, "How is the wrath of God being revealed?" The first thing to notice is that the word "is revealed" is the very same word and tense as in verse 17. There "the righteousness of God is being revealed." Here "the wrath of God is being revealed." In both cases it is a present tense, continuous action. In other words it is happening now, not just in the future. There is a day of wrath coming (Romans 2:5, 8-9; 5:9). But in advance of that final outpouring of wrath, God's wrath is also present.

How? In three ways at least that we learn about in Romans.

1. Universal human death is revealing the wrath of God.

From Romans 5 we see that universal human death is a revealing or a manifestation of the wrath of God. Death is the judgement of God on the ungodliness and unrighteousness of the human race rooted in Adam. In the middle of Romans 5:15 we read, "by the transgression of the one [namely Adam] the many died." Then in the middle of verse 16 death is called a judgment and a condemnation: "For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation." So you can see that death is seen as a judgment and a condemnation, that is, as an expression of God's wrath against sin. Then in the middle of verse 18 you see it again: "Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men." So the first answer is that the wrath of God is being revealed against human sin in universal human death.

2. Universal futility and misery are evidence of God's wrath.

From Romans 8 we see that universal futility and misery are evidence of God's wrath against human sin. Start at Romans 8:18: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (19) For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subjected to futility." Stop there and consider what that means before we read on.

I think it means that the sufferings he speaks of in verse 18 are inevitable in this fallen world. And specifically it means that you may plan well for retirement, and the year before you plan to enjoy it you have a stroke, and all the planning seems futile. You work with your own hands for years to build a simple home, and the week before you move in, lightning strikes, and it burns to the ground. You labor all during the spring to plant your crops and when the grain is just ready to sprout, a flood takes it all away. The creation was subjected to futility. In verse 21 it's called "slavery to corruption."

Now read on in Romans 8:20 to see where that subjection to futility came from: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." This means that God subjected the creation to futility. Satan and Adam could not be the one who did this, because Paul said it was done "in hope." Neither Satan nor Adam in the Garden of Eden was planning for the hope of the human race. They simply sinned. But God showed his wrath against sin and subjected creation to futility, not as the last word, but in hope. There would come a day when the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). But the misery and futility of the world we live in is owing to God's subjecting creation to futility, and is a testimony to his wrath against sin.

3. The sinking degradation of human behavior reveals the wrath of God.

So the first way God's wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness is in universal human death. The second way is in the futility and misery and suffering of creation. The third is the one most immediately in Paul's mind here in Romans 1, namely, the sinking degradation of human thinking and behavior. You see this three times in Romans 1:24-28.

After describing the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man in Romans 1:19-23 Paul says in verse 24, "Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." In other words, God reveals his wrath against sin by giving people up to be more sinful. Again in verse 26: "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions." And again in verse 28: "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."

So these are three of the ways that the wrath of God is being revealed now in this age against the universal (3:9) ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. He has consigned all to death, he has subjected all to futility, and he has given many over to the degradation of their own minds and hearts.

Wrath Mingled with Mercy

There remains time perhaps for one burning question: Is that God's only response to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? The answer to that question is No - neither in the case of unbelievers or believers.

Take the case of unbelievers. Wrath is always mingled with mercy in this age of hope. Look at Romans 2:4-5. Here he speaks to those who are missing this great truth: "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (5) But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

Yes there is kindness in the midst of wrath. God is always doing more than one thing. Jesus said, "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Paul said to the pagans of Lystra, "[God] did not leave Himself without a witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). He said this to people who were dying and suffering and sinning under the wrath of God.

God warns with his wrath and he woos with his kindness. He speaks both languages: severity and tenderness. Do you recall how Jesus interpreted the coming of John the Baptist as a severe, leather-girded, locus-eating, desert-living, adultery-condemning prophet, on the one hand, and his own coming as a party-going, wine-making, child-healing, sin-forgiving savior, on the other hand? He said, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn." Instead, you said, "John has a demon and Jesus is a glutton" (Matthew 11:17). The gospel came with both languages, but they would not hear.

O, unbeliever, God is speaking to you in your pain to warn you, and God is speaking to you in your pleasure to woo you. Don't misread the voice of God.

Death and Suffering and Sin in the Life of a Believer

And to believers, what is our case? According to Romans 1:17 we have the gift of God's righteousness by faith. God's punishment of us was poured out on Jesus who died in our place (Romans 8:3). Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, "God has not destined us for wrath." What then are our death and our suffering and our sin? Are they still the wrath of God against us? If not what are they?

The answer is that death and suffering and sin are not the wrath and condemnation and punishment of our heavenly Father. Each one is fundamentally altered by the gospel of Christ crucified in our place.

1. Death is a gateway into paradise.

For believers, the sting and victory of death have been removed. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). For believers, death is not the wrath of God toward them; it is the last gasp of a defeated enemy who unwittingly opens a door to paradise.

2. Futility and suffering are pathways to holiness.

For believers, futility is removed from suffering. For those who love God and are called according to his purpose "all things work together for our good" (Romans 8:28). Punishment is transformed into purification. Destructive forces become disciplinary forces. And the seeming chaos and futility of life's calamities become the severe, but loving, hand of our Father in heaven, as we learned last year from Hebrews 12.

3. The power of sin is replaced with a love of righteousness.

Finally, not only is the sting of death replaced with hope; and the futility of suffering replaced with meaning; but the dominion and degrading power of sin is replaced with a love of righteousness (the point of Romans 6). God does not give us over to a depraved mind, he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore let us awaken to the truth of Romans 1:18 that the wrath of God is being revealed now in this age against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We can't understand the world or the gospel without that truth. But let us also awaken to the truth that God is revealing something else at the same time. He is revealing the gift of righteousness for all who will believe on Christ. And with that righteousness there is no wrath or condemnation on us any more. For you (whoever you are!), who believe, death becomes a gateway to paradise; suffering becomes a pathway to holiness; and sin becomes a dethroned enemy that we fight by the power of God's Spirit.

So let us flee the wrath of God, and take refuge in the precious power of the gospel of God. Amen.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Reasons Why People Are Afraid To Trust God

Synonyms

Trust, faith, and belief are synonyms that we interchange frequently in our Christian conversations.

Webster’s Dictionary Definition

From a technical perspective, the dictionary definitions are:

Faith

believing without proof; trust;
unquestioning belief, specif. in God, religion
complete trust or confidence
Trust

firm belief in the honesty, reliability, etc. of another;faith
Belief

state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
something believed; especially :a tenet or body of tenets held by a group
conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
Faith in God:

unquestioning acceptance as true or real, without proof, in the honesty and reliability of God
If you trust in God, then you must also believe and or have faith that God is able to accomplish whatever it is you trust him to do.

Proverbs 3: 5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all you heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

Hebrews 11:1

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Trust – To trust God is to act on what you believe. Faith is trust in action. You can have faith, and you can trust God,but you can’t say you have “Faith in God” without being faithful and trusting God.

Think of “Faith in God” as water.

Faith is oxygen.

Trust is hydrogen.

You can have each element separately, but you can’t have water without both together!

Faith In Action

Anyone can believe God is capable of doing something. But believing God is capable of doing something and putting yourself in a position so that you must trust God to do something you can’t do for yourself, is more than just believing in God.

Sometimes there is a price or risk with trust. It may be danger or some other potential for loss. How you react is an indicator of your level of trust. Your reaction may be fear, on one extreme or calm assurance on the other.

To trust in the Lord means we need to let go of our own abilities and surrender our thoughts and actions to be guided by Him.

A good example of complete trust and confidence in God is portrayed in 1 Samuel 17 as David is facing off with Goliath, the Philistine champion.

1Samuel 17:45-7


45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORDS, and he will give all of you into our hands."

In this story David is completely outmatched in size and experience. From an external perspective, there is no chance of victory for David. But David had an immeasurable faith in his Lord, and he put that faith in action as he charged forward into victory against the giant.

We can have faith in our own abilities, belief in ourselves to be able to accomplish certain tasks. But faith in God should stretch beyond anything we have of ourselves.

Peter Walks on Water

Matt. 14: 28-32

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

This is such a beautiful illustration of simple faith in action. “Lord, if it is You, command me to come…” Peter immediately climbs out of the boat and begins to walk towards Jesus. Now do you suppose he slowly climbed out of the boat testing the water to make sure it would support him? No! I don’t think so. Peter was a little impulsive. I would be more inclined to believe once Jesus called to him he leaped over the side with both feet and started walking towards Him. However, once the reality of what he had done hit him, he became afraid and began to sink. The point I would like to make is that Peter put his faith in action. As long a Peter kept his focus on Jesus, and what He could do for him, he was able to walk on the water. Once he became distracted and began to doubt Jesus’ ability to keep him safe is when his faith was weak, and he began to sink.

This same principle is true with any of the promises of the Bible. Believing we can have any of the promises, and living your life so that you trust God to deliver those promises is more than just believing he is capable.

I can say I trust God, but unless I am actively involved in “trusting” God, I might better say “I would like to trust God.”

Anyone can say: “Yes, I trust God to be true to his word.”

But to make that statement and actually putting trust in God to keep His word are two totally different things.

Do you "trust" God?

Have you gotten out of the boat?

Have you faced insurmountable odds, overcome the nay Sayers and thrown the stone anyway?

Our action, the measure of faith that we demonstrate by trusting God when all outward signs say it is impossible to accomplish are a testimony to those who witness our behavior.

Especially now in a world of such uncertain times, our trust and or faith in God is one of our strongest witnesses. We need to demonstrate to people that trusting God is more than just believing that he exists or going to church, it’s a state of mind that displays a sense of peace in the worst of times, and or humility in great success. It’s a behavior that proclaims that we are living in the world, but not controlled by the influences of the Evil One who roams about causing havoc and misery in every ones life.

Peace and contentment is not found in material prosperity or for that matter in perfect health. True peace is found when we realize that we are on this earth for only a short time, just a single grain of sand in a beach of eternity; When we are convinced that Satan is a defeated foe, and that Jesus has prepared a place for us to spend eternity that is far greater than our wildest imagination could ever picture; It’s when we realize that by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior and have committed to repenting from our sinful nature, that even though we may stumble, there is still a place reserved for us in that beautiful, glorious place called Heaven.

It’s when we accept the simple fact that while we are on this earth, life will be filled with ups and downs, good times and bad, sickness and health, and that how we deal with each of these cycles is part of our training that makes us better servants for God. He knows the weaknesses of all our hearts. He knows exactly what we need to learn to overcome those weaknesses. He will provide us with various trials to teach us what we need to know. Trials can come in the form of great blessings or in tragedy. How we respond to each of these trials is the path that we choose to follow that forms our lives. We can choose to live with anxiety and stress or with peace and tranquility as we trust that God is in control.

Every person is precious to God. Every action or word we speak plays a role in the fulfillment of time. Each action has the potential to affect the life of another individual and or create a ripple effect that could impact as many as hundreds or even thousands of people over time. So no matter how insignificant you think your part is it may be the seed that grows into tremendous accomplishment in the life of someone else. Therefore, demonstrate your trust in God. Turn your ear to hear his voice and respond in such a way that gives glory to Him. Surrender your talents to God. Let them be instruments for His glory.

If you find yourself desperate – faced with unbeatable odds, with the appearance of no chance of success, or despondent – void of any hope, call upon God.

Remember, God is never early or late, he arrives precisely when He means to. He is omniscient. He knows exactly when and where He needs to make His presence known. Even though we may not be able to see beyond our own struggles, God knows what is best. The burden is heaviest when we try to carry it alone. Trust God! Put it in His hands and let it go. Letting go is not giving up, it’s more a change of leadership. It is trusting God at a level beyond what is visible or within our own understanding.

Let go! Let God!


What I'm talking about today is not just for those of you who are seekers but for those of you who have been Christians 20, 30, 40 years. You've never really given everything in your life to God. You've held back your finances. Or you've held back your career. Or some other area. Your sexuality. "I know better than God in this area. I can't afford to do what God says." On the day when you jump into His arms and say, "One hundred percent God, I'm going to do whatever You say. You tell me the truth and You love me. I don't care if it's popular. I don't care if it's hard. I don't care if I don't understand it. I don't care if it's difficult or there's problems with it. I'm going to do what You say in my finances, in my relationships, in my time, with my life, with my dreams. And God, I give it all to You. I give You all the things I'm ashamed of in my past. And I give You all my hopes and aspirations for the future. I'm jumping into Your arms." It will be a rush you've never known.

Hubpages.com

Divinedestinyministries.com
Brandonewb.com

We Exult in Our Tribulations

Romans 5:1–5

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Faith in God
What happens to make a person a Christian - a child of God? First, the gospel is made known to him - the historical fact that God sent his Son into the world to die for sinners and to rise from the dead triumphant over death and hell for all who believe in him. The Holy Spirit opens the heart to see in this gospel that Christ is trustworthy and more to be desired than all human treasures. And so the heart trusts in Christ for all that God promises to be for us in him. When that faith happens, we are justified before God. In other words, by that faith the Spirit of God unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death, and his life becomes our life. God laid on him the iniquities that we performed, and God laid on us the righteousness that he performed. He takes our sin, though he didn't perform it. And we take his righteousness, though we didn't perform it. And so by the faith that unites us to Christ we stand before God forgiven for all our sins and righteous with the imputed righteousness of Christ.

On the basis of that great foundation that makes us Christians, Paul says in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God - and calls us to enjoy that peace (best manuscript tradition says, "let us have peace with God") - and says that we now stand in grace (verse 2), and says that we exult (and ought to exult) in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God and our exulting enjoyment of it, is the goal of justification by faith. This is where all of Christian life is moving. Justification by faith is designed to help us exult in the hope of the glory of God. We are reckoned right before God so that we can finally be with God and see him and enjoy him as the infinitely satisfying Reality forever and ever.

Tests to Your Faith
But before that eternal day, something else comes in the Christian life, namely, tribulations. This is what verses 3-5 are about. How shall we understand them and respond to them? Paul's answer is that they have a gracious and purposeful place in the Christian life and that we should therefore exult in them.

Now I don't take this lightly or say it easily. Today, as God would have it, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. One brief look at the brochure in our worship folder will take away all flippancy and levity and superficiality from our talk about afflictions. At the bottom of the first page it says,

Christians who aren't killed are often subjected to brutal torture and brainwashing - attempts to force them to recant their faith. In some parts of the world, Christian women are brutally raped to break their allegiance to Christ, while children are sold into slavery for as little as $15. Thousands more languish year after year in prisons or hard labor camps.

When Paul says in Romans 5:3, "And not only this (that is, not only do we exult in the hope of the glory of God), but we also exult in our tribulations" - when he says this, he is not speaking as a spectator but a fellow-sufferer. Paul's sufferings were long and hard. But in 2 Corinthians 12:9, he said, "[Christ] has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.'" Notice, just as it says, "We exult in tribulations" here in Romans 5:3, he says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that he "most gladly" boasts or "exults" (same word) over his weaknesses. Paul practiced what he preached.

And what he means by "weaknesses" in 2 Corinthians 12:9 he shows us in the next verse: "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." The whole array of distresses and weaknesses and sicknesses and difficulties are meant by these afflictions in Romans 5:3, not just persecutions. And Paul says he exults in them, instead of murmuring and complaining about them.

So as we look at the role of afflictions in the Christian life, keep in mind that they are any tests to your faith. They could be tribulations from loss of health, or tribulations in broken or strained relationships, or tribulations in vocational hardships and disappointments, or tribulations in accidents or natural disasters, or tribulations in verbal or physical assaults, or simply everyday inconveniences from traffic jams to plumbing problems. Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in the goodness and power and wisdom of God is tribulation.

These are normal, not abnormal. It would be abnormal for a Christian not to have them, because Paul taught all the churches, according to Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."

"Exult in Tribulation"
Now he says in Romans 5:3 the astonishing thing: "Exult in them." This is what he does. This is what he calls us to do. How can this be? The answer from verse 2 is that we are standing in grace. This is God's omnipotent power to help us though we don't deserve it. You don't hold the key to this wonderful, supernatural way of life that should set Christians off from the world, God does. The power to rejoice and exult in tribulation comes from omnipotent grace that we receive by trusting in God's promises.

Here's an illustration of it from 2 Corinthians 8:1-2. Paul is talking about the way the Macedonian Christians rejoiced in their afflictions even in great poverty. Notice the key: "Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." Do you see the key: "the grace of God" was given to them. And that produced an indomitable joy in a great ordeal (or test) of affliction. And that joy in affliction overflowed in love.

How are we doing today when things go bad for us? Do we rest in the grace of God and experience joy in God and keep on loving people? Or do we forget the grace of God, overflow with complaining and become self-absorbed and critical instead of loving? So omnipotent power of grace is the key. We stand in this grace, Paul says in verse 2.

But grace does not work like magic. It works through truth. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32) - from complaining and from paralyzing frustration and from a critical spirit. Grace opens the eyes of the heart to truth and inclines the heart to embrace it and live by it.

Grace Works through Truth
What truth? That is what the rest of this text is about. There are four truths that Paul wants us to know and meditate on. That is how grace will change us into peaceful, joyful people who exult in our afflictions.

1. Tribulation brings about perseverance.

Romans 5:3 says, "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing [that is, because we know] that tribulation brings about perseverance." Another word for "perseverance" is "endurance." In other words, if something happens in your life that is hard and painful and frustrating and disappointing, and, by grace, your faith looks to Christ and to his power and his sufficiency and his fellowship and his wisdom and his love, and you don't give in to bitterness and resentment and complaining, then your faith endures and perseveres. It becomes stronger. How is it stronger? It's stronger the way tempered steel is stronger: it takes more to break it. Tribulation is like the fire that tempers the steel of faith. So when Paul says, "Tribulation brings about perseverance," he means that the fiery tests of trouble are meant by God to make your faith unbreakable.

That's the first truth that grace uses to make us into joyful people who exult in tribulations and love others. The second truth is this:

2. Perseverance brings about proven character.

Romans 5:3-4a, "We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance [brings about] proven character." The focus here is on this word "proven" (dokimen). The idea is that when you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is "proven" or "authentic" or "genuine." That's the sense here. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it perseveres, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. It has been tested. It has stood the test with perseverance. And it is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine.

That's the second truth that God's grace uses to make us into the kind of people who exult in tribulation. The third follows from it:

3. Proven character brings about hope.

Romans 5:3-4, "We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; (4) and perseverance [brings about] proven character; and proven character [brings about] hope." Now how is that? How does "proven character" bring about hope?

Isn't the answer that when your faith has been tried in affliction, and persevered, and thus proven genuine and authentic you know you are real and not a fake Christian and that gives you hope that you really are a child of God and will inherit his glory. In other words, one of the great obstacles to a full and strong hope in the glory of God is the fear that we are hypocrites - that our faith is not real and that we just inherited it from our parents and have been motivated by things that are not honoring to God. One of the purposes of afflictions in our lives is to give us victory over those fears and make us full of hope and confidence as the children of God.

So God takes us through hard times to temper the steel of our faith and show us that we are real, authentic, genuine, proven, and in that way give us hope that we really will inherit the glory of God and not come into judgment.

Now there remains one more truth that the grace of God uses to make us into the kind of people who exult in tribulations. Actually it's not just a truth but an experience:

4. The hope that is inspired by proven character will not disappoint us, because God gives us the experience of his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5, "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Now what shall we say about this? Well, we should say a lot more than we have time to say this morning. So what I am going to do is say something and then continue with this verse and fold verses 6-8 into the answer the week after Thanksgiving.

God Means for Christians to Have Assurance
But this morning I will say only this: If you are a Christian, God really means for you to have assurance that you are going to inherit the glory of God. You are going to go to heaven when you die, not hell; and you are going be a part of Christ's future kingdom, and live forever in the new heavens and the new earth with unbroken joy and no affliction. The truth of verse 5 is that God gives assurance to us through the Holy Spirit.

Paul knows that there is more than one enemy to our assurance. One is the fear that we might be hypocrites. We might be fake Christians, no Christians at all, even though we are religious and belong to the Church. He teaches us here that affliction is God's great proving ground for the genuineness of faith. And he graciously takes us through trials so that our faith will be seen as genuine and we will have hope because we are not hypocrites.

But there is another enemy to our assurance. What if the object of our faith is false? Not just our faith, but what we put our faith in. What if we make it through tribulation with proven faith and growing hope, and in the end that hope proves to have been built on sand? We thought God loved us, but it turns out he didn't. He may not even exist. That too is a great obstacle to our assurance.

And Paul's answer here to it is not an argument, but an experience. There are arguments, and Paul is willing to use them. But here he simply says, your hope, rooted in the genuineness of your proven faith, will not disappoint you. And you can know this because the Holy Spirit has come into your life and has begun to pour the love of God experientially into your heart. This is not mainly an argument. This is mainly a personal experience of God's love flooding the heart with an immediate sense of God's reality and love.

You can see how big and wonderful this is, and why I feel the need to linger on it longer. So in two weeks I am going to pick it up here. Then in the meantime, would you join me in praying that God increase this experience in our lives. That he make it unmistakable. That there be a great movement of the Spirit in us and among us to give not only the assurance that our faith is genuine, but that it is well founded in the love of God for us.

And as you pray, don't count it strange when the afflictions come. They will come. But rejoice and exult in the love of God to use them to temper the steel of your faith and confirm in your heart that you are indeed the child of God through faith.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org