I was reading Romans 5 and it helped me understand why I’ve gone through certain things. We all do. This is for everyone who believes. Verses 1 and 2 are about being right with God. Romans 5:1-2 (KJV) 1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Many times, we don’t understand why we go through hard times. The abuse has overtaken the majority of my life. I was either experiencing it or healing from it. While reading the Scriptures in Romans 5, I felt like God enabled me to understand the process a bit better. I doubt if any of us will fully understand some things we’ve endured, but these Scriptures helped me. This is not going into any great depths, but I looked up the original meaning of some of these words and again, it gave me a better understanding.
In verses 1 and 2, I feel like it is giving us hope and peace with God as we are made right with Him. And that is the truth. But then verse 3 came up. Romans 5:3-5 (KJV) 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 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.
Tribulation: a pressing, pressing together, pressure; metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
Patience: steadfastness, constancy, endurance; in the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings; a patient, steadfast waiting for; a patient enduring, sustaining, perseverance
Experience: proving, trial; approved, tried character; a proof, a specimen of tried worth
Hope: expectation of good, hope; in the Christian sense, joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; on hope, in hope, having hope; the author of hope, or he who is its foundation; the thing hoped for
Do you see the progress? John 15:16 (KJV) “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you”…God chose us. Jesus died for us and in order to make us right with Him, we have to go through a process to get rid of the sin in our life. The hardest lesson for me was learning that God is more interested in our character and making us to be in His image, then He seems to care for our pain and hurt. Don’t get me wrong, He does care. But He knows more than we do. He sees the whole picture. Looking at the original meanings in Strongs Concordance helped me see the progression of these Scriptures in Romans 5.
To break it down, God allows trials in our life. I don’t believe that everything in our life comes from God. God is sovereign but He is not in control of this world. The Bible says the devil is. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
God gives us free will to choose what we believe and what we choose to do. There are some things that God allows in order to grow and mature us in Him. These trials come to work patience in us. I like the original meanings; steadfastness, constancy, endurance, and in the New Testament, the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.
Patience brings experience, a specimen of tried worth. It brings wisdom whereby we can maybe help someone else avoid the pitfalls we have gone through. And experience gives us hope. Joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. Joyful. Confident. Because we have not quit, and God has remained faithful to who He is, bringing us through the storm. So, that when the next one comes, we can remember what He has done for us before.
I know that God is using what I went through to help others, but that doesn’t mean I completely understand why I had to go through so much. What I do know, is that God has remained faithful to who He is. It isn’t about me or my wishes and desires or how I thought He should do things. That is what got me in the most trouble. He still brought me through it all, and now I do have hope, and assurance that He will not forsake me next time. He will still do it His way, and not mine.
Romans 5 continues telling us what He did for us. Romans 5:6-11 (KJV) 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Now we “joy” in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Joy in the original meaning is; to glory (whether with reason or without); to glory on account of a thing; to glory in a thing.
Atonement: adjustment of a difference, reconciliation, restoration to favour; in the NT of the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ
Some of the things we go through make us wonder why. We don’t feel like we are strong enough to go through our trial. When we cry out to God, that is where our strength comes from. Philippians 4:13 (KJV) “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” I chose the image to go with this blog as I thought it was very fitting. No matter how strong a soldier is, he still needs Jesus.
One of the things God told me was before getting too deep into the breaking process, “now is the time to be learning My ways before the furnace starts heating up. If I learn His Word and His Ways now, then as the furnace heats up, the only thing in me that should be heating up is my praise for God! If I wait until I’m in the furnace, the harder that it will be to praise God and the easier it will be for satan to pull me away from God.” We need to remember to put on our armor listed in Ephesians 6:10-18, and throughout the Word of God.
I pray this helps somebody going through a trial right now. Please feel free to comment or reach out to me at Barbara@ehfm.org.
Romans 5: Tribulation
