Transcript

In African folklore, there is a tale of a small, bright bird known as the Hope Bird. This bird doesn’t sing when the sun is shining. It doesn’t wait for clear skies or calm winds. The Hope Bird sings before the storm is over.

It’s said that you’ll hear its voice while the rain is still falling, while thunder still echoes across the plains. Long before other birds dare to chirp again, this one begins its tune.

To the people, it became a symbol—an icon of faith before sight, of believing good is on the way even while everything still looks bad.

That’s what hope in God’s promises looks like. It sings before the answer comes. It praises before the suffering is over. It trusts before the breakthrough. True hope isn’t post-victory—it’s mid-battle.

So maybe today, your skies are still gray. Maybe the downpour hasn’t let up yet. But when you have God’s promise, you can sing early.

Like the Hope Bird, your song doesn’t have to wait. Because we don’t just hope in better weather—we hope in the faithfulness of the One Who controls the skies.

Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

The word “Therefore” connects Paul’s teaching with what he has already taught and established in Romans. And the apostle has firmly established that we are justified by faith alone, without the deeds of the law, and apart from any works.

We are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). Justification is a gift of God’s grace that we receive by faith alone.

When Paul writes, “Therefore BEING justified by faith,” he is referring to the standing that you are in, to a fact that has happened, to a past completed action at one point in time.

Our justification is not gained gradually; it is granted the moment we believe the gospel of grace that Christ died for our sins and rose again, and it stands forever. “Being justified” literally means, HAVING BEEN justified by faith.

Justification is a one-time legal declaration by God. And it is a legal standing that does not change. On the basis of our sins being washed away and Christ’s righteousness being imputed to our account when we believed the gospel, God has declared the believer to be justified, to be righteous before Him and in His sight forever.

Having established the truth that we are forever justified by faith, Paul then explains the benefits, blessings, and results of justification in the believer’s life.

And the first benefit to our justification is that “we have peace with God.” We have this peace with God forever. Peace with God is established the moment a person places their trust in Christ as their Savior.

God has declared us right with Himself, AND as a result, we are at peace with Him. Justification brings us into an unbreakable, harmonious relationship with God, in which we continually and forever enjoy His favor.

We have entered an eternal state of peace with God. God is at rest with us forever. Those who stand justified never need to fear God’s wrath because the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has made peace between them and God by His death and resurrection.

This peace is not a subjective sense of calm and serenity, which we also do have through Christ. Rather, this peace is an objective reality based on the truth and authority of God’s Word. It is not a feeling, it is a fact, an assured fact.

We have a new relationship with God because of justification. The hostility between God and the believer has ceased. We have an eternal relationship with God that will never cease.

Due to our justification, we are no longer under God’s condemnation. We will never face His judgment or wrath. Justification removes the wrath of God and gives us peace with God.

This is not a peace that you work for or have to maintain. It is just something for us to enjoy and praise God for. It is an abiding state of peace between the believer and God that begins the moment we believe the gospel, and it never ends.

This peace comes “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The death of Christ, the shedding of His blood in paying for all our sins, provides this peace. As Colossians 1:20 says, “And, having made peace through the blood of His cross…”

We are at peace with God permanently because the sacrifice of Christ at the Cross rendered it permanent by facing and satisfying the wrath of God against our sins in full.

If God was not fully satisfied with the work of Christ, there could be no permanent peace. But since the Father was fully satisfied with the work of Christ, there is permanent peace.

The second benefit to our justification is that by Christ we also “have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” Access means admission, to approach, the act of bringing to.

Paul spoke of “this grace in which we stand” as the realm or sphere “INTO” which Christ, through His Cross, has given us “access by faith.”

Access carries a picture of a ship’s approach to a harbor. In this passage, grace is seen as that safe haven or harbor. And through Christ and by faith, we have full and free access and admission “into” that harbor.

The grace into which we have been given access is the grace of divine favor and acceptance by God, our relationship with God, and the presence of God.

We have this favor and relationship with God because we have been justified by faith. We are in an eternal position of favor and acceptance with God through our justification.

Thus, we have access to God by faith at all times and eternally. And the believer has unhindered and complete access to God’s presence.

As Paul wrote the Ephesians, “For through Him [or Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” It is through Christ that we have this access to God and His presence, and this is a continual and eternal privilege for the believer.

In having peace with God and access, when Christ opens the door and ushers us in to the Father, as it were, because we are justified, we are not met with condemnation, judgment, anger, or hostility. Instead, we find grace, kindness, love, and peace. Our relationship with God is based in grace today, undeserved, unmerited favor.

Having this access, at the end of this life, we know that without a doubt we will enter God’s presence in heaven one day, and eternally we will have access to the Father.

Our justification admits us into that position. Having been justified by faith, we have a standing before God in grace, which gives us access to Him. The term “stand” in verse 2 carries the idea of permanence, standing firm, immovable.

Grace is not only the way salvation comes to us, it is also a description of our present and eternal standing before God. It’s all by grace.

“This grace wherein we stand” refers to the position of favor in which we are placed by grace as justified and righteous before the throne of God.

This standing in Christ by grace is permanent, secure, and immovable. Having a standing in grace, we’re not standing on slippery ground; we’re standing on a solid rock. No ground is as solid as the grace of God. It’s all based on God and His faithfulness, not on us.

Because of this, we know that forever we are righteous before God, forever we have peace with God, and forever we have access to God. Our standing before God is eternally secure.

The third benefit to our justification is that we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God and direct access to God, and because all this is permanent and unchanging, the logical conclusion is that we have hope. And we have joy in our hope.

And we rejoice in our hope because it is a sure thing. Our hope is something about which we have confidence and know will happen. Our hope is not wishful thinking. It’s a settled fact. It is an expectation.

Before we trusted Christ, we fell short of the glory of God. But now, by God’s grace, having been justified by faith, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Romans 8:30 tells us that those whom God “justified, them He also glorified.”

This hope of the glory of God for the Gentiles, or the nations, through faith alone in the gospel of the grace of God had been a mystery, or kept secret, in time past.

It was first made known to Paul, who stated in Colossians 1:27: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Our hope of the glory of God pertains first to being in the glory of heaven. As Colossians 3:4 states, “When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall yet also appear with Him IN GLORY.” One day, either by death or the Rapture, we will enter into eternal glory, and when we dwell in God’s presence, we will experience the glory of God.

Our hope of the glory of God also pertains to our glorified body. At the Rapture, Christ will “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His GLORIOUS body” (Phil. 3:21). When our bodies are redeemed and glorified, eternally we will experience the glory of God, in all of its honor and dignity, in our new bodies.

Warren Wiersbe put it well that “‘Peace with God’ takes care of the past: He will no longer hold our sins against us. ‘Access to God’ takes care of the present: we can come to Him at any time for the help we need. ‘Hope of the glory of God’ takes care of the future: one day we shall share in His glory!” And all of this is due to our Savior.

Romans 5:3-5: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

A guy asks a girl to go to a dance. She agrees, and he decides to rent a suit. The suit rental store has a long line, so he waits and waits, and finally he gets his suit.

He decides to buy her flowers, so he goes to the flower shop. The flower shop has a long line, so he waits and waits, until he finally buys flowers. He picks up the girl, and they go to the dance. There is a long line to get into the dance, so they wait and wait.
Finally, they get into the dance, and the guy asks if she is thirsty, and he offers to get the girl something to drink. She asks for punch, so he goes to the drink table, and there is no punch line.

This guy went through some tribulations, which worked patience and experience.

The fourth benefit to our justification is that we can even “glory in tribulations.” Paul shows us the difference that justification, peace with God, access to God, and our hope can make in our lives, especially in times of trial and suffering.

In verse 3, Paul wrote, “And not only so.” Paul extended our rejoicing in hope to another level in this verse. The word “glory” in verse 3 and the word “rejoice” in verse 2 are translated from the same Greek word.

Thus, Paul is saying that we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we [rejoice] in tribulations also.” We rejoice in our future hope of glory, but before we get there, we can rejoice along the way, even in tribulations, Paul says.

We do not rejoice in the tribulations themselves, but in knowing God’s purpose through them. We rejoice because of their eventual results and how God uses them in our lives to conform us to Christ’s image and strengthen our hope. For the believer, tribulation works for us, not against us.

Paul said that we rejoice in “tribulations” which means pressure, a pressing together. The term was used of squeezing olives in a press to extract the oil and of squeezing grapes to extract the juice. It means to be in straits, or to go through a crushing experience.

In other words, tribulation is to face physical hardship, suffering, and distress. And this can come in all shapes and sizes.

We all face them: the pressures of deadlines, people’s expectations, workplace demands or disappointments, loss of health or wealth, accidents, grief, broken or strained relationships, and on and on.

Being justified by faith does not mean that the believer escapes the trials and tribulations of life. As the Lord told His disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). This is the lot of anyone who lives in this sin-cursed world.

However, Paul said that the believer can rejoice in tribulations, “knowing” something. And this knowing is a call to trust God’s Word.

First, it is “knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” When Paul wrote this, he was not speaking as a spectator but as a fellow-sufferer and from his own experience.

These verses are a snapshot of Christian maturity and sanctification. And they are like dominoes, standing on one end, with one falling and toppling the next and the next. One phase leads to another. Paul shows that there is a natural, logical connection between the four: tribulations, patience, experience, hope.

Tribulation worketh patience, Paul says. Naturally, this is not so. Tribulation typically works impatience. We want the difficulties of life to be over as soon as possible.

How tribulation worketh patience is in light of our “access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” As we depend on God in our relationship with Him, and we live in light of God’s grace and our hope of the glory of God, God can work through our tribulation and difficult times to produce patience in us.

Through the power of the grace of God at work in our lives, when we are weak, we can be made strong, and God can produce patience in us through our affliction.

Patience means to remain under difficult circumstances without giving up. It refers to perseverance, a steadfast endurance, doing so with a graceful and calm strength, through the power of God.

Joseph Thayer defines patience as, “the characteristic of a man who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith…by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”

We have these joys that stem from our justification in verses 1-2, and these joys remain joys in our tribulation, and they can comfort and strengthen us in our difficult times.

By faith, we look beyond and above and we can endure through our times of tribulation based on these certainties in Christ of peace, access, and hope, and all we have in Him.

It’s been said of patience, “It is not some romantic thing which lends us wings to fly over the difficulties and the hard places. It is a determination, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected.

“Obstacles do not daunt it and discouragements do not take its hope away. It is the steadfast endurance which carries on until in the end it gets there.”

So if something happens in your life that is hard, painful, and trying, “patience” is about looking to the Lord by faith and resting in His grace, power, sufficiency, wisdom, and love for the help and comfort you need, and you don’t give up hope, and you endure and patiently persevere and move through that trial in a God-honoring way.

Next, Paul wrote, “And patience, experience.” Experience literally means a tested or proven character. It’s a quality of character that comes from having been through trying experiences. It’s one whose character has been deepened by experience. It’s a tried integrity, a faith and character which has been proven and stood the test.

Experience refers to a person who has been proven through a fiery test. He has learned that by God’s grace he can endure through difficult times.

In Philippians 2:22 when Paul spoke about Timothy’s character, he said, “But ye know the PROOF of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.” The word “proof” is translated from the same word as “experience” here. Timothy had been tried and proven. He had a proven character.

When you depend upon the Lord in a time of trouble you find something out about yourself, but more importantly, you also find out something about the Lord that you could have not known in any other way. And you can say from experience that “I have trusted God in the middle of a storm of life and found that God is faithful!”

God is always faithful to help us thru our troubles and to help us patiently endure them.
As a result, God builds a tested and proven character in us, one that has proven His faithfulness and had one’s faith refined and deepened.

It’s been said, “Tribulation is like the fire that tempers the steel of faith…the fiery tests of trouble are meant by God to make your faith unbreakable.”

Tribulation can reveal and refine who we really are. We may not like what suffering reveals in us, but it unveils us and our need for growth and for our faith to increase.

But our character changes, our faith can grow through these times of pressure and difficulty. We are made stronger by God thru them.

God changes us from the inside out. And He works to form and develop our character through the fire of suffering. As a result, we mature spiritually in the midst of these times.

We grow to know the comfort of God in a more perfect and personal way. We grow to experience the grace of God and we see Christ’s strength in and through our weakness.

We grow to see how meaningful and important our relationship with God truly is and how much His presence means.

And all of this is about God building a Christ-like character in us. Tribulation brings us closer to the Lord and make us more like Him.

Bristlecone Pines are fascinating trees that grow in the western mountain regions of the United States. Sometimes as high as two or more miles above sea level, these evergreens may live for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The older specimens often have only one thin layer of bark on their trunks. Considering the habitat of these trees, such as rocky areas where the soil is poor and precipitation is slight, it seems almost incredible that they should live so long or even survive at all.

The environmental “adversities,” however, actually contribute to their longevity. Cells that are produced as a result of these perverse conditions are densely arranged, and many resin canals are formed within the plant. Wood that is so structured continues to live for an extremely long period of time.

One researcher said, “Bristlecone Pines in richer conditions grow faster, but die earlier and soon decay.” The harshness of their surroundings, then, is a vital factor in making them strong and sturdy.

And so it is for the believer that the harsh conditions of our tribulations can grow our character and make the believer and his faith stronger and sturdier.

Next, Paul wrote, “and experience, hope.” We find at the end of the progression of tribulation working patience, patience working experience, is experience working “hope.” Tribulation makes our hope stronger. It makes our hope more meaningful.

As our faith increases and our character is tried and proven, difficult times deepen our appreciation of our hope and the realities of our salvation with increased joy.

The benefits and blessings of justification are not diminished by suffering, they are enlarged by it. When we face tribulation with a clear understanding of justification by faith, and that we have peace with God, access to God, and certain hope of the glory of God, your joy in this grace and your hope will only deepen and mean more and more.

Suffering drives us to the one place where we find real hope: God. It deepens our confidence in Him and in the hope He gives us.

And as we go through many tribulations in life, and we go through this step-by-step process again and again, it makes our hope brighter and makes us long for it even more.

And the hope God gives “maketh not ashamed,” or it does not disappoint. Our hope and hopefulness of the glory of God will never be put to shame. We will never be disappointed by it, or ever find that we have rested on a false confidence.

It’s impossible for our hope to be false or ever be unfulfilled, because God cannot lie and He is faithful to all His promises. Our hope is genuine and real. And because we have been justified by faith, we WILL enter and experience our hope eternally.

Romans 5:1-5 begins by speaking of faith, then it moved to hope, and then it ends with love. It’s faith, hope, and love in this passage.

Another benefit of justification by faith is that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

God’s indescribable love for us has been lavishly “shed abroad” or poured out within us, and our hearts have actually been overflowed and flooded by His love. And this has been carried out by the Holy Spirit when we were justified by faith.

Justified people do not have to work for God’s love; we have His love always.

This reality and consciousness of God’s love in a believer’s heart through the Spirit gives us the assurance and guarantee that our hope in God is real. And this love gives us strength and encouragement in times of tribulation and need.

And not only has the Spirit poured God’s love into our hearts, but He Himself has been “given unto us” as a blessing of justification by faith.

The moment we believed the gospel, the Holy Spirit, by grace, was given to us as a gift. And He dwells within each believer. The Spirit’s indwelling presence is a further testimony to God’s abundant love for us.

God giving us the Holy Spirit guarantees that our hope in God is not misplaced. And the Spirit strengthens us in our hope and encourages us by the love of God.

His presence and the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts are a witness that we belong to God and that our hope is real and will be fully realized one day.

We learn from this comforting passage that having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, we have access to God, we have hope of the glory of God, we can glory in tribulations, we have the love of God in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit has been given unto us. Our many blessings in Christ give us much comfort from above.