Romans 5:3-4 says “We REJOICE in our suffering. For suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”
Brothers and Sisters, I wish we could read this verse as if we had never heard it before. That our eyes would be enlightened to that degree because it is such a glorious promise, especially for those who face daily chronic pain.
This passage is pure declarative. What that means is, for the Christian, these things WILL CERTAINLY happen. This is not like the verse, “flee youthful passions”---the theological term for verses such as this one is hortatory, or something that should happen, but may or may not happen. The promise of Romans 5:3-5, however, is going to happen.
We need to read Paul through the declarative and the hortatory. If it burns on our soul that there is a stark difference between declarative (gospel) and the hortatory (law) it will have a benevolent effect on our relationships, our parenting, and our ministry. In other words, if we proclaim grace, the gospel story, if one truly grasps the grace we share, the behavior will follow. If we beat people over the heads with law, we are spinning our wheels. The hortatory grows out of the declarative. Romans 5:3-4 is declarative. How cool is that? For Christians, it is a done deal.
Think about it! Suffering produces perseverance. I get that. Suffering produces character. Boy, do I get that. Suffering produces hope—hmmmm……that’s the tough one. Do you know what else is tough? That Paul has in view a perpetual relationship between suffering and the benefits of suffering. In other words, whether I be two weeks into suffering, or two decades into suffering, I always need to go back and determine whether or not my suffering is still producing character. I can’t just get stuck on hope. My character has to always be in the refiner’s fire. One needs to pray that they CONTINUALLY persevere in their suffering.
Friends, you may not EVER come out of your chronic suffering. If you don’t have chronic pain of some sort—be thankful. But if you do not ever get relief, and this is the absolute hardest part for me, at least, you need to continue to persevere. I believe this is what Jesus had in view in John 21 when he said to Thomas, “Blessed are those WHO HAVE NOT SEEN, yet have believed.” That’s us, dear friends--we haven't actually seen Christ--but we believe.
How are you suffering today? How are you persevering in that suffering? How would those closest to you say you are persevering in that suffering? How are you turning that suffering into a blessing (remember the song, Blessed Be Your Name)? How has the perseverance changed your character? Has it at all?
What’s the deal with hope? Why does Paul include hope? He could have said, “character produces peace” or “character produces love” or “character produces humility”….why hope? Every single word in Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit—the word “hope” was chosen carefully, why?
Back to the declarative--that which WILL happen--found all through Paul, and for that matter, all through the Holy Scriptures--these are the promises we sung about this past Sunday. Here's another passage that is pure declarative...hope for those in chronic pain. I Thessalonians 4:13-18:
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that...(and here comes the declarative):
We who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever! Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Parenthetically, I'd like to hear one of the brilliant political commentators ask ANY of the four people running for presidential office whether or not they believe this Pauline promise will actually happen. More importantly though, do you believe it? Do you live it? Do I?
I haven’t even scratched the surface of this passage’s exegetical meaning. Would you encourage me with your insight? It does not have to be highly educated or profound—remember Moses who upon being called by God, told God he could not speak and God gave him a spokesperson, Aaron. Perhaps you will present an idea that someone else really needs to hear, and an Aaron will swoop in and articulate out your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you.
Grace, Peace, and Mercy,
Chuck
3 comments:
I know your emphasis was on the Romans passage but what struck me was your paragraph on "The hortatory grows out of the declarative."
I was counseling someone recently who I knew was not a Christian (or at least, wasn't living it) and they were involved in a sin that would have precluded us from helping them in any way if they were a Christian. At one point a Christian brother actually said they needed to stop doing the sin if we were to continue helping them. (I am keeping this as generic as possible, for obvious reasons).
Rather than directly confront the sin initially, I decided to instead preach grace and continue to share the gospel, encouraging them to enter into a relationship with Christ where they were surrendered to his will. My thinking was, "What does the 'sin' matter if they are not a Christian?" If they do not have saving faith in Christ, is not everything they do sin? (Romans 14:23). The action that we "holy Christians" may find personally offensive is no different than anything they do apart from faith in Christ.
Many Christians may disagree with this, but this is what happened:
As a result, they responded by beginning to get into God's Word, and they keep coming back to me for spiritual counsel. I have seen a definite change in this person's attitude and their desire to follow Christ. I pray this results in a genuine conversion and a surrender to Christ as both Lord and Savior. I DID end up challenging that person on the sin issue once I saw this budding desire to be pleasing to God. But I believe had I prematurely addressed the "hortatory" before the "declarative" then he would have responded negatively. I take nothing away from the sovereignty or grace of God. But God also gave us wisdom in discerning how to handle certain situations. I think many people hide their actions (or inaction) behind God's sovereignty, but this is the topic for another blog post.
The bottom line is that I completely agree that the hortatory follows the declarative. Only a Christian seeks to be obedient to God. If someone is not a Christian, there is no sense in beating them over the head with the law. We are in essence punishing them for breaking the law when they were not even aware there was one! But God will judge those outside the church. The passive declaration of I Cor. 5:12-13 states this very fact (whereas the active declaration is that we are to judge those inside the church with regards to immorality).
I know this was not the crux of your blog, but this is what jumped out to me.
When I have truly been gripped by the reality of Christ crucified (gospel/declarative), I have automatically pursued a life of holiness (in a broken sort of way). How could I not? If my theology doesn’t give rise to a changed life, then it is questionable how well I have understood. This is why Jerry Bridges writes in his Disciplines of Grace, “preach the Gospel to yourself every day.” Paul says, “I determine NOTHING then to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” If this grips us not only cognitively but at the depths of our being, our lives will be transformed. You can hit someone over the head with the law all you want to--whether Christian or non-Christian--but if the foundation is not in the Gospel of grace, we'll be just like the Israelites who said upon receiving the 10 commandments, "we will do all that has been commanded."
Two things came to mind when I read your article.
The first is the simple truth that failure to follow Christ when there are trials (pain) results in the opposite of what was stated and brings more pain. I believe that I lost my wife because of how terribly I handled the trials of our marriage. My focus was on me. Indeed truly selfish.
But since my growth in Christ this verse and principle has yielded much fruit, especially in the raising of my children.
If you are in a trial and put your trust and faith in yourself by acting instinctively (selfishly), then you are doomed for failure and more pain. Put your faith in Christ and do not get upset with worry and just do the right thing throughout the trial and He will get you through it and it will develop your faith and bring you closer to God. The focus has to be on Christ and not on yourself when you are faced with suffering.
The second thing that popped into my mind when reading this was a passage I came across when dealing with my own sin and suffering recently:
1 Peter 4:1-3
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
Jesus defeated Sin through suffering and here we see that is the way for us as well.
It's natural to focus on yourself when you are suffering and to become selfish in remedying it. I think that is why satan causes us to suffer. He wants us to focus on ourselves and not others. But the way out of sin is to suffer with a focus on Christ.
I hope there is a blessing in here for someone!
Randy
Post a Comment