Rejoicing in our Sufferings (Rom 5.3-5)

In verses 1 and 2 of Romans 5, Paul gave us peace, grace, and hope — three glorious consequences of being justified through faith. But now comes the surprise. "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings." That is very unexpected. Sufferings — all kinds of different hardships and trials that cause pain and distress. And Paul does not say we just endure them stoically with gritted teeth. He says we rejoice. It sounds like some bizarre masochistic cult. What kind of person rejoices in suffering?

Know, Don't Just Feel

Paul says we rejoice in sufferings "because we know" something — not because of how we feel, but because of what we know. This is one of the most important truths you can grasp in the Christian life. Suffering makes us feel miserable, but Paul says that is not the whole story. In Romans 1:17 he wrote that "the righteous live by faith." We walk by faith, not by sight. We trust what we know, not what we feel.

Too many Christians today live by their feelings rather than truth from Scripture. If something makes me feel bad, it must be bad; if it makes me feel good, it must be good. You can see how dangerous that thinking is. People make decisions based on how they feel rather than what they know. This is one reason why divorce is so common — even in churches. People do not feel in love any more, so they conclude they must not be in love. They are living by feelings, and feelings are unreliable — up and down and all over the place.

This is why teaching is such a fundamental part of church life. The early church in Acts 2:42 "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching." You need truth stored up in your mind and heart so that you can hold on to it when your feelings are in turmoil — which is exactly what happens when you are suffering.

There is a phenomenon called spatial disorientation that pilots experience when flying in bad weather with no visible horizon and no ground below — nothing but clouds all around them. They have no points of reference to guide their senses. They do not know which way is up and which way is down. It is very common for pilots, especially new pilots, to fly out of the cloud and discover they have been flying upside down. They were sure "that" was up and "that" was down, but it was exactly the opposite of how they felt. The only way to overcome spatial disorientation is to trust the instruments in the cockpit. Ignore your feelings and trust your instruments, because they give you objective truth. That is exactly what Paul is saying here. Trust your instruments — the truth from God's word — not your feelings, especially in a crisis.

Suffering Produces Perseverance

"We know that suffering produces perseverance." The word Paul uses for "produces" is an intensive form — emphasising that suffering is productive, not destructive. It is constructive for the Christian who walks by faith. We rejoice not because suffering is pleasant, but because of what it brings about. God is using suffering to develop qualities in us that we cannot get any other way.

It is a little like labour pains. The mother rejoices when the pains begin — not because she loves the sensations tearing up her insides, but because they mean a baby is coming. Those pains are necessary to produce something wonderful.

If we were pampered like a prince or princess every day of our lives, we would learn nothing about perseverance. You would not wake up in your golden bed, waited on hand and foot by flocks of servants, and say, "Oh no, here we go again — I have to endure another day of everyone giving me everything I want." That is not how you learn perseverance. Anyone can keep trusting God when things are easy. Suffering teaches us to keep trusting him when things are hard.

Remember the accusation the devil made against Job: "Of course Job loves you — look at his life! Everything he touches turns to gold." So God allowed everything to be taken away, and Job still trusted and praised him. He loved God for himself, not just for the blessings. Suffering produces perseverance — it forces us to keep depending on God and not ourselves.

Perseverance Produces Character

A better translation of the Greek word here might be "tested proof." It describes someone who has gone through a testing situation and passed the test. One commentator calls it "the mature character of the experienced, seasoned veteran rather than the raw recruit." Think of the difference between sending untested soldiers to fight — so many raw recruits go to pieces, panic, and run in the heat of battle — compared to battle-hardened troops who know what they are doing. They have been tested, stretched, and proved.

One of the proofs of true faith is perseverance in trial. Jesus says in the parable of the soils (Matthew 13:21) that the seed in rocky soil "lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away." True Christians do not throw in the towel when things are tough. Perseverance produces people who have been tested and shown to be the real thing.

Character Produces Hope

The result of being tested by sufferings and coming through them is that your hope of the glory of God becomes all the more solid.

Here is an illustration. Aaron and Sam are due to get married on the 23rd of April, and they hope their marriage will be a success — that they will stay together for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. It is easy to be hopeful when you are starry-eyed and caught up in all the excitement of wedding plans. But after a few years, hard times come — sickness, depression, miscarriage, financial pressure. Those sufferings develop perseverance in the marriage. They test the couple and prove that they really are committed to one another. And that means their hope of a successful marriage is all the more solid because of the trials. Their marriage is stronger because they have come through suffering which produced perseverance, which produced proven character, which increased their hope.

Far from destroying hope, sufferings strengthen hope. That is what they do for Christians who have been justified by faith. That is what we know. And that is why we can rejoice in our sufferings.

Hope Does Not Disappoint

But how do we know this hope is not just wishful thinking? There is plenty of false hope in the world. You hear it at funerals all the time — fanciful ideas people tell one another to ease the pain. A little boy, the best friend of Matthieu Little (son of our pastor in Nantes, Andrew and Heather Little), his friend Matisse died suddenly at just eight years old. At the funeral, the wind carried some feathers into the cemetery, and somebody said, "Oh look — feathers! Matisse is sending us a message." Utter nonsense. Wishful thinking. Empty hope.

One of the most popular funeral poems begins: "Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep." Beautiful words, but baseless comfort — plucked out of the air, invented by human beings. Is that what Paul is giving us here? Not according to verse 5: "Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." This hope is anchored in something God has done — something we will explore further in the next sermon on Romans 5:5–11.

Listen to the full sermon above or explore more from the Romans series.

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