Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Five
CHRISTIAN ASSETS
Scripture Reading: verses 2-6
WE REJOICE IN HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD. 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. FOR WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY.
Paul is still before the bar of justice of the court of the universe presenting the case for the defense of the criminal, and his divinely inspired words seem to increase in eloquence as he drives home the truths concerning justification of those who have been proven guilty.
He takes the liabilities that stood against the lawbreaker, the sinner, and places them on the assets side of the ledger, demonstrating the magnificence of God’s grace that has come in to rescue the sinner from perdition. So the first verse of chapter five indicates that through the death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus the distance separating the criminal from God his Creator is entirely gone. It is as though we again stood in the great court where God is on the bench and the criminal, represented by Jew and Gentile, is in the prisoner’s dock. Then the One who has paid the debt – the Lord Jesus – has made His appearance in the courtroom. He has died and risen, and Paul the lawyer for the defense comes over, as it were, and takes hold of the criminal’s hand, uniting him with the risen Savior. Then they all march out of the prisoner’s dock, and together they are brought to the judge's bench, there to stand under the benign coun-tenance of the God who was offended by the sins of the ungodly, but to whom now the sinner has been reconciled. Peace has been made. Instead of standing in the dock condemned, the prisoner now stands in a place of favor, close by the side of One who at one time was his Judge.
That is the picture we find in the fifth chapter of Romans, and Paul the defense attorney is speaking on behalf of the criminal. His lawyer's address now becomes a series of boasts. He is glorying in one thing after another; in all truths of the magnificent grace of God through the work of Christ on the Cross. Every liability becomes an asset.
Paul begins to mount the ladder of truth when he says, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” Let us not think that salvation from eternal doom is the whole story of this magnificent plan of divine grace. It is only the beginning. Paul is reminding the universal courtroom that this sinner, who has suddenly been transferred from the prisoner's dock to begin a new pathway, taking his place under the sunshine of God’s love by the side of the Savior who died for him and rose again. This new pathway will be pursued in the same world where sin was formerly the sinner’s rule of life.
Because sin is still in the world, we will find the just pathway a difficult one, and the first element encountered will be tribulation. As pardoned sinner’s, will we therefore be discouraged because of those trials? No indeed. Paul makes his boast in tribulations because tribulation works patience. Patience is one of the first things we have to learn when first coming to the Savior. By nature we are impatient, impulsive, and inclined to be intolerant of one another. God desires to teach us patience. He does this by tribulation. Many of us wonder why trials come our way. Especially since many people who make no profession of godliness seem to be sailing along on seas of quietness. This becomes an impelling question mark to some Christians. Why should we be so tried? God is teaching us patience. This is a much needed lesson for everyone of us.
Patience is produced by trials. There is nothing new about this, it shins again and again in the patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible. Think of Moses. He stepped forth as a young man and seeing the oppression of his brethren in Egypt he drew his sword on their behalf. When young Moses drew that sword he would have slain every cruel taskmaster in Egypt. God had to teach him that such was not the way in which God’s people were going to be delivered. Moses was not going to deliver them by helping them to trample underfoot all their enemies. He was going to take them in a way in which their own spiritual mettle would be tested, from which they would learn many lessons. So He allowed Moses to be driven to the back part of the desert, where he might be tried in order to learn patience. He obviously learned it because God later called him “the meekest man in all the earth,” and although he did lose his temper on one occasion, for forty long years he put up with a stiff-necked, grumbling, and rebellious people. Surely he was a patient man.
In like manner the Lord teaches us patience and endurance by allowing trial to come our way. Paul here says, “we glory in tribulations.”
Then the apostle says, “Patience works experience.” Patience is a must if we are to have normal Christian experiences. By waiting on God, allowing Him to subdue our natural impatience, we have many experiences under His hand that are exceedingly profitable spiritually, and in which we can glory. Then “experience works hope.” The most hopeful person in the world is the experienced one. This is not true of all people, but it is or should be true of Christians. The believer who has had experience under the hand of God knows that out of every shadow he comes into sunshine that is better than he has yet enjoyed. So experience teaches us to be hopeful, knowing in the end we will be triumphant, and so “hope makes not ashamed.” The reason is that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” The love of God in human life is the great key to successful Christian living.
