Thank you Father God for this time that we can spend reading and studying your word. In Jesus's name we pray, amen.
Romans 5:2-5
In previous studies (https://gracelivingstudies.blogspot.com/2023/11/justified-by-faith-womens-rightly.html?m=1)
we discussed verse 1 of Romans chapter 5.
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
The Apostle Paul then goes on to say,
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
"By whom" of course is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the finished work of the cross, after we have simply believed the Gospel, we now have peace with God AND we can now "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We have a blessed hope. The word "hope" in the King James Bible is actually a sure thing; it means having a confident expectation. Our blessed hope includes:
• Eternal life in Christ and we can never loose our salvation. This eternal life begins the very moment that we believe the gospel, with God's Spirit living in our spirit, making us spiritually alive in Him.
• The pre-tribulation rapture of the Church the Body of Christ. Believers in the dispensation of grace will NOT have to go through the coming 7 year tribulation period on the earth.
• Having a glorified body like unto Jesus's glorified body at the rapture. No more sin, sickness, pain, emotional turmoil or death.
• Eternal rewards in heaven for believers who chose to allow Christ and His word to live in and through them. Receiving our eternal careers in God's heavenly kingdom.
• The Lord Jesus Christ presenting the church the Body of Christ to the Father.
• Ruling and reigning with and in Christ in the Heavenly places for eternity. Spending eternity with God and with fellow saints and the Holy Angels.
• The dispensation of the fulness of times when the Lord Jesus Christ creates a whole new heaven and a new earth.
All of this is also God's glory plan. It brings glory to the entire Godhead. We participate in this glory plan by being saved and then coming unto the knowledge of the truth and allowing Christ and His word to live in and through us.
That being said, the next three verses then says,
3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
We can glory in tribulations because we know without a doubt now that we are eternally secure in Christ and we are accepted in the beloved. Because of this hope (in the KJB the word "hope" here actually means "confident expectation") we can then endure the sufferings of this present evil world and the sufferings of Christ. Tribulation, or suffering, actually produces patience, experience, and hope. We learn to patiently wait for the Lord to gather up all believers at the rapture. We also learn to be patient with ourselves as we get sound doctrine built up in our inner man and learn to obey it. We then can be more patient with others as well, not forcing or tricking people into believing or to rightly divide, but gently sharing the Gospel and teaching and admonishing others. This then gives us experience and each time that we have to face sufferings of various kinds, we are more equipped with God's word working in and through us. This leads also to greater confidence (hope) in the many wonderful things to come. We put less and less confidence in our own flesh and the things of this world, trusting and having more confidence in God and His word rightly divided to work in and through us in all our tribulations as well.
Contrary to what a lot of people in Christendom believe and teach, as believers we will experience sufferings in this life. We experience various kinds of sufferings. We experience some of the same sufferings as unbelievers like illnesses, accidents, and other stressful situations in life. Some of these are a result of our own actions or mistakes, while others are just beyond our control. When I was in the newage movement, they would use positive affirmations not just to try to get through difficult things in life but to try and prevent them. They believed that if you just think positively, you can avoid stress and difficult things but this is simply not true and is spiritually dangerous. But in Christendom this same kind of thinking is also prevalent. They might say different kinds of prayers, but it's still along the same lines, just different wording. Nobody wants difficult things in life, and in heaven we won't have all of these difficulties, but while we are here on earth we will experience sufferings of various kinds. Of course we should do our best to live peaceably with others, take care of our health and take care of our families etc and do our best to make healthy decisions in life, but sufferings will still sometimes happen. We cannot magically prevent all suffering in life with prayers and affirmations! As believers, and especially if we continue to allow Christ and His word to live in and through us, our sufferings are not for nothing.
The sufferings of this present time includes:
• Living in a fallen, sin cursed world
• Making mistakes or bad decisions even as believers and suffering the consequences of them
• Accidents and illnesses of various kinds
• Sin and Satan's course for this world which grieves us and can be seductive to our flesh
• Having fleshly bodies that get sick, old and die (if the rapture doesn't happen first)
But we also have the sufferings of Christ, which unbelievers do not experience. We actually CHOOSE to suffer in these ways because it brings glory to God.
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
The Apostle Paul then goes on to say,
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
"By whom" of course is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the finished work of the cross, after we have simply believed the Gospel, we now have peace with God AND we can now "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We have a blessed hope. The word "hope" in the King James Bible is actually a sure thing; it means having a confident expectation. Our blessed hope includes:
• Eternal life in Christ and we can never loose our salvation. This eternal life begins the very moment that we believe the gospel, with God's Spirit living in our spirit, making us spiritually alive in Him.
• The pre-tribulation rapture of the Church the Body of Christ. Believers in the dispensation of grace will NOT have to go through the coming 7 year tribulation period on the earth.
• Having a glorified body like unto Jesus's glorified body at the rapture. No more sin, sickness, pain, emotional turmoil or death.
• Eternal rewards in heaven for believers who chose to allow Christ and His word to live in and through them. Receiving our eternal careers in God's heavenly kingdom.
• The Lord Jesus Christ presenting the church the Body of Christ to the Father.
• Ruling and reigning with and in Christ in the Heavenly places for eternity. Spending eternity with God and with fellow saints and the Holy Angels.
• The dispensation of the fulness of times when the Lord Jesus Christ creates a whole new heaven and a new earth.
All of this is also God's glory plan. It brings glory to the entire Godhead. We participate in this glory plan by being saved and then coming unto the knowledge of the truth and allowing Christ and His word to live in and through us.
That being said, the next three verses then says,
3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
We can glory in tribulations because we know without a doubt now that we are eternally secure in Christ and we are accepted in the beloved. Because of this hope (in the KJB the word "hope" here actually means "confident expectation") we can then endure the sufferings of this present evil world and the sufferings of Christ. Tribulation, or suffering, actually produces patience, experience, and hope. We learn to patiently wait for the Lord to gather up all believers at the rapture. We also learn to be patient with ourselves as we get sound doctrine built up in our inner man and learn to obey it. We then can be more patient with others as well, not forcing or tricking people into believing or to rightly divide, but gently sharing the Gospel and teaching and admonishing others. This then gives us experience and each time that we have to face sufferings of various kinds, we are more equipped with God's word working in and through us. This leads also to greater confidence (hope) in the many wonderful things to come. We put less and less confidence in our own flesh and the things of this world, trusting and having more confidence in God and His word rightly divided to work in and through us in all our tribulations as well.
Contrary to what a lot of people in Christendom believe and teach, as believers we will experience sufferings in this life. We experience various kinds of sufferings. We experience some of the same sufferings as unbelievers like illnesses, accidents, and other stressful situations in life. Some of these are a result of our own actions or mistakes, while others are just beyond our control. When I was in the newage movement, they would use positive affirmations not just to try to get through difficult things in life but to try and prevent them. They believed that if you just think positively, you can avoid stress and difficult things but this is simply not true and is spiritually dangerous. But in Christendom this same kind of thinking is also prevalent. They might say different kinds of prayers, but it's still along the same lines, just different wording. Nobody wants difficult things in life, and in heaven we won't have all of these difficulties, but while we are here on earth we will experience sufferings of various kinds. Of course we should do our best to live peaceably with others, take care of our health and take care of our families etc and do our best to make healthy decisions in life, but sufferings will still sometimes happen. We cannot magically prevent all suffering in life with prayers and affirmations! As believers, and especially if we continue to allow Christ and His word to live in and through us, our sufferings are not for nothing.
The sufferings of this present time includes:
• Living in a fallen, sin cursed world
• Making mistakes or bad decisions even as believers and suffering the consequences of them
• Accidents and illnesses of various kinds
• Sin and Satan's course for this world which grieves us and can be seductive to our flesh
• Having fleshly bodies that get sick, old and die (if the rapture doesn't happen first)
But we also have the sufferings of Christ, which unbelievers do not experience. We actually CHOOSE to suffer in these ways because it brings glory to God.
The sufferings of Christ includes:
• Sharing the Gospel with others. This can be difficult and some people reject it (it's especially difficult for us if it's our own family and friends who reject it), and some will even laugh at us, mock us, or become enraged and contentious with us about it.
• Satan's policy of evil against us which includes various kinds of persecutions against us for sharing a clear gospel message and teaching others sound grace doctrine rightly divided. We are to keep sharing the Gospel regardless of Satan’s attacks.
• Seeing Christendom filled with carnally-minded believers, false teachings and false teachers of all kinds (apostasy); even being tempted by these teachings at times or being victim of them (this can include experiencing spiritual abuse etc). This causes us suffering. The more that you understand sound grace doctrine, the more you will suffer when you see how far off track most Christians are in their understanding and application of scripture.
• Not having very many grace believers to talk with, fellowship with etc if you don't have a good grace church in your area which many don't.
Verse 5 says,
5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
We have God's love in our very own hearts. Jeremiah 17:9-10 talks about the hearts of UNBELIEVERS when it says, "The heart [of an unbeliever] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
But a believer has God's very own love and spirit in their heart. We need to keep in mind however that we also still have carnal, fleshly bodies too! So we must allow Christ and His word to live in and through us as believers, and NOT rely on our own efforts. Our FLESH is deceptive, but we also have Christ's Spirit in our spirit and His love in our hearts. We are to reckon our old man to be dead, and then choose to walk in the Spirit instead. This allows God's love in our hearts to shine out to others. We can only do this by getting God's word rightly divided built up in our inner man, believing it and obeying it.
The Holy Ghost is the 3rd person of the triune Godhead. His ministry today is to teach the believer God's word. So, the Holy Ghost teaches us about God's love for us and in us, by us reading and studying the word of God rightly divided. Unbelievers can read the Bible, but because they don't have God's Spirit in them, they cannot fully grasp the meaning of it. They need to first believe the gospel of the grace of God unto justification, and then with the Holy Ghost in them to teach them God's word they will come to truly understand it.
• Sharing the Gospel with others. This can be difficult and some people reject it (it's especially difficult for us if it's our own family and friends who reject it), and some will even laugh at us, mock us, or become enraged and contentious with us about it.
• Satan's policy of evil against us which includes various kinds of persecutions against us for sharing a clear gospel message and teaching others sound grace doctrine rightly divided. We are to keep sharing the Gospel regardless of Satan’s attacks.
• Seeing Christendom filled with carnally-minded believers, false teachings and false teachers of all kinds (apostasy); even being tempted by these teachings at times or being victim of them (this can include experiencing spiritual abuse etc). This causes us suffering. The more that you understand sound grace doctrine, the more you will suffer when you see how far off track most Christians are in their understanding and application of scripture.
• Not having very many grace believers to talk with, fellowship with etc if you don't have a good grace church in your area which many don't.
Verse 5 says,
5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
We have God's love in our very own hearts. Jeremiah 17:9-10 talks about the hearts of UNBELIEVERS when it says, "The heart [of an unbeliever] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
But a believer has God's very own love and spirit in their heart. We need to keep in mind however that we also still have carnal, fleshly bodies too! So we must allow Christ and His word to live in and through us as believers, and NOT rely on our own efforts. Our FLESH is deceptive, but we also have Christ's Spirit in our spirit and His love in our hearts. We are to reckon our old man to be dead, and then choose to walk in the Spirit instead. This allows God's love in our hearts to shine out to others. We can only do this by getting God's word rightly divided built up in our inner man, believing it and obeying it.
The Holy Ghost is the 3rd person of the triune Godhead. His ministry today is to teach the believer God's word. So, the Holy Ghost teaches us about God's love for us and in us, by us reading and studying the word of God rightly divided. Unbelievers can read the Bible, but because they don't have God's Spirit in them, they cannot fully grasp the meaning of it. They need to first believe the gospel of the grace of God unto justification, and then with the Holy Ghost in them to teach them God's word they will come to truly understand it.
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