A Fresh Touch

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:1-5 – ESV)

In this text we see that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you, that even when what happens to you seems bad God uses it for your spiritual good. Through Christ we have been justified by faith, forgiven by God, who has made a lasting peace with us and we can be at peace towards Him. Having been introduced to the grace of God we will stand forever righteous in His sight and can glory in the fact that we have a hope of eternal life in heaven with Him. We now have access to the grace of God and we know that the bad times produce good results, as we stay under God’s hand during the trial and testing it produces patience, which produces proven character, which produces hopeful confidence, which does not disappoint us because once again the Holy Spirit pours the love of God and love for God into our hearts afresh. We see the eternal hope of verse two made manifest as a timely hope in verse four.

This is that initial realization about us having been made at peace with God and having hope for eternity being brought into the temporal circumstances of today. This is the more than that the text speaks of. We know we are children of God in our heads but God brings it home to our hearts in the most trying of circumstances. This is how we once again know in our experience, and not just in our minds, that God is our Father, Jesus our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter. This is made real again by a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the difference between staying locked into the tragedy and shining forth in triumph; it is that in the midst of tragedy triumph can come forth in our character.

When the text says we rejoice in trials it doesn’t mean we should say, “Hooray, look at my scars, yes, I am so glad to have this open wound!” No, it means we can still rejoice in God because we know something. We can still exult in God, despite the trials, because we know that whatever happens, we are the children of God, with ultimate hope. We may not understand all of what is going on or all the reasons for our trials, especially when they are “not our fault”, but we can still be “knowing something” about how God is going to mold us into the image of Christ through these situations. The text says “knowing that”; we know something about what is going on. God is redeeming our suffering to His glory, and giving us a fresh touch of hope through the power of the Holy Spirit which we feel in our hearts. This is not theory; this is experience, our justification made sure in our hearts. Can you feel it?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©