Dr. Sproul provides an overview of the past lesson and then discusses the three benefits of justification—perseverance, character, and hope with an explanation of what each benefit provides.

I am so delighted that we have opportunity to give our attention to Paul’s epistle to the Romans, which of course was his magnum opus, in which we have the most extensive exposition of the New Testament gospel found anywhere in the Bible. It has been a pure delight and pleasure for me in these many weeks up to this point to look closely at the central motif of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

In the last couple of sermons, we looked at the beginning of Romans 5, which tells us of the consequences or benefits that derive to us from our justification. Today, we will continue looking at that in chapter five, picking it up in verse three, although I will go back to verse one and repeat it. So, I ask the congregation to stand for the Word of God, as I read Romans 5:1–5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith unto this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The Word of God for the people of God. Please be seated. Let us pray.

Again, Father, as we give our attention to the weighty matters set forth in this epistle, we plead once more for the assistance of the Holy Ghost, that He might stoop to our weakness and our frailties, and that He may illumine this text to our understanding, using these words to pierce our souls, set our feet on high places, and flood our hearts with joy unspeakable. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Justification Through Christ

As we begin, we recapitulate, remembering that the first two consequences Paul mentions of our justification is that we have peace with God and access into His presence. Before we move on to the next consequences or results, I want to backpedal for a moment and touch lightly on a few points in those first two verses that I did not have an opportunity to expound upon earlier.

I will remind you that the benefits that accrue to us as a result of our justification come to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as our justification is by faith and grace because of Christ, it is also by means of His ministry to us through His work in us that we are able to enjoy these benefits of peace with God. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the peacemaker. He has effected our reconciliation with the Father, and we receive the legacy, as we saw before, of His peace.

The access that we now have to God is also through Christ. As we mentioned before, at the time of His death, the veil of the temple was rent and torn in two dramatically and violently because of Christ’s mediatorial work on our behalf, opening up for us the gates of paradise that we might enter into the presence of God.

The only other point I want to mention before I get to the next benefit is Paul’s indication that these things are those “in which we stand”—that is, this is the standpoint of the Christian. Our standing before God is as those who have been covered with the righteousness of Christ, have been declared just in His sight, and have had our sins remitted and our guilt satisfied by Christ’s atoning death. So, we are given a standing before God which allows us access to Him and allows us to stand comfortably and confidently in the posture of peace.

That is just recapitulation of what we have already looked at. Let us now look at the next benefit that accrues to all those who have been justified.

Glorying in the Glory of God

Paul says, “. . . and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” I find this portion of the text to be a little bit difficult every time I try to deal with this clause in Romans 5. I struggle a bit because the phrasing of it is a little awkward, and the language used here is put in a kind of strange relationship. But the third point of our benefit is that we are able to rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

There are three words in this little phrase that are vitally important we properly understand. The first one is the word translated by “rejoice.” The word “rejoice” in the English text here does not quite get at it. It is more than rejoicing. The word used here is not the normal word for joy or rejoicing. Rather, it is more often translated by the English word boasting.

There is a sort of play on words in the Greek at this point, as well as the same play on words in a different language in the Latin text. Paul is saying that one of the results of our justification is that we glory now in glory. We have a sense of celebration and ecstasy beyond normal levels of joy, and the target of our joy is hope that is directed towards the manifestation of the glory of God. In the Greek we have the noun for glory, doxa, and we also have the word doxology that comes from it. When we sing the doxology, we sing praises to majesty of God. We are glorifying God. We are engaging in an activity of glorifying the One who possesses glory. That is the play on words in this text, both in the Latin and the Greek.

Paul is saying that once we are justified, one of the things that delights us and causes joy to fill our souls is to contemplate who God is. Our greatest delight is in His character, in His glory. Let me just take another minute or so to talk about the meaning of that glory.

The Weightiness of God’s Glory

The Old Testament frequently speaks about the nature of God when He manifests His glory. The word for glory in the Old Testament is the word kavod. Literally, in the original Semitic language, it means “weightiness” or “heaviness.” So, when we speak about the glory of God, we say His being is not light or insignificant, but substantive. It is heavy.

We use similar language. When someone says something that we think is profound, we might say, “That was heavy.” We do not like to be taken lightly. We like people to take us seriously.

The idea of God’s glory is tied here with God’s dignity, His gravity. There is a link in the original languages between the gravity, weightiness, or dignity of God and His august nature. I keep speaking on the whole principle of worship and that the purpose of worship when we come together is to ascribe glory to God, to honor God, to revere Him, and to adore Him in the excellence of His being.

The great Saint Augustine, when he talked about worship and music, for example, was not narrow in his selection of what kind of music is fitting in worship. You get a wide range of that which is acceptable. Augustine said that there are all different strains of music, different styles, different pipes, and so on. But no matter what style of music we use in the celebration of God’s glory, there ought to be some connection between the glory of God and what Augustine called the gravitas—the gravity or weightiness—of the means by which we worship Him. Sometimes, we get too familiar in the way we worship God, forgetting who He is and forgetting the weightiness of His very being.

Paul says that the third benefit of justification is that once you are a justified person, once faith has taken hold of your heart and you now perceive the things of God in a totally different manner than you did in your natural state, now it is your delight to glorify Him and to ascribe majesty, weightiness, and gravity to who God is.

Faith Looking Forward

The other word used in that phrase is the word “hope.” We speak of the hope of glory, which refers to the hope of the final manifestation of God’s glory when He will be all in all. Something is created in our souls the moment we come to faith, and that is this dimension of hope. So much of what I have read here deals with the subject of hope. I am just going to mention a little bit about it now, then as we go on a few verses later, Paul will unpack more about what hope means for the Christian.

Many of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13, where the triad of Christian virtues is celebrated: faith, hope, and love, and the Apostle says, “The greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). As important as love is, we know that faith is not unimportant. Paul says, “And now abide faith hope and love, these three” (1 Cor. 13:13). We have been looking closely at the significance of faith, and we understand the importance of love. But so often that third element in this triad of virtues is overlooked in Christian experience, and that is the element of hope.

If there is any word in this chapter capable of radical misunderstanding, it is the word “hope.” The English language—it is not just translators here—does not quite have a word that corresponds to the word Paul uses here in this letter, the Greek word elpis. When we use the word hope in our regular language, we typically use it to describe a wish or desire that something will take place that we are not sure is going to take place.

Let’s say that you ask me, “What are you going to do this next week?” I might respond, “I hope I’m going to do x, y, or z,” or “I hope this is going to happen.” The idea is that the things we hope for in this manner are by no means certain. They might not come to pass. There is always an element of doubt that clouds our English understanding of hope.

That is not at all the way that word functions in the New Testament and not at all the way Paul is using the term translated “hope” in this text. When we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are born anew to a hope that is the basis by which our confidence in living out the Christian life is established. The only difference between hope and faith is this: faith looks to what has already taken place, and we put out trust in it and have our confidence in it, while hope is merely faith looking forward.

Anchor of the Soul

The metaphor used in the New Testament to describe the nature of the hope created within us when we believe is the metaphor of an anchor. Hope, we are told, is the anchor of the soul. We find this nautical image frequently in the New Testament. Sometimes those who are unstable are compared to boats that have no anchor and are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They are characterized by vacillation and uncertainty. But the hope planted in the soul by God the Holy Spirit is not like that.

The hope planted by the Holy Spirit gives a foundation, gives stability, and gives assurance to us. It is our anchor that keeps us from being blown about. It is the hope that God will do in the future every single thing He has said He will do. The fruit of justification is that this kind of hope, which is the anchor for your soul, is planted in your heart. Justification, in a sense, is the down payment for all the things God promises us in His work of redemption. Hope is the creation of the Holy Ghost within us. Elsewhere Paul speaks about the Holy Spirit giving to us the earnest or down payment, the seal of the Holy Ghost that gives us total assurance for the future. It is not taking a deep breath and hoping things are going to turn out all right. It is assurance that God will do what He says He will do.

The great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge makes a contrast between the metaphor of the anchor and the metaphor of a spider web. He says that hope is not a spider web, because you can see a spider weave his web, and you might be amazed at the glory of that work of nature and see how effective the web can be to trap flies or bugs and provide meals for the spider. If you have ever seen a spider web outside and you do not like it, you can take a pebble and throw it against the spider web. It does not bounce back; it goes right through it. There is no weighty substance to a spider web. It is wispy. It is light. A little stick can destroy it completely. But you cannot do that with an anchor. Hope is not a spider web. It is the solid stability that anchors the soul.

Glorying in Tribulations

Let us see what else Paul says: “. . . and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations.” Is Paul saying that we enjoy afflictions? Is he saying that we delight in sufferings?

There is nothing more unnatural to us as human beings than to enjoy afflictions or to enjoy tribulation. Tribulation is something that we seek desperately to avoid. But Paul says that when you are a justified person, when the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart and you have been changed by the power of the Holy Ghost, you have a whole new perspective on tribulations. You have a whole new view of suffering.

When you are justified, you do not see suffering as an exercise in futility, as something that takes away your hope. Instead, once you have that anchor on your soul, the anchor holds when tribulation comes. It is not simply that you have the capacity like a Stoic to grin and bear it, to endure all kinds of afflictions and tribulations. It goes beyond endurance to rejoicing—rejoicing in tribulations.

Now, we have to be careful here. Paul is not a masochist, and he is not saying that tribulation itself is fun and a joyful, pleasant, pleasurable experience. No, he is not saying that. Rather, what happens as a result of our being justified is that even the tribulations and afflictions that we experience can be an occasion for joy. Above all, the fruit of justification is the presence of joy in the Christian life.

We have found the pearl of great price, and no matter how much pain we have to go through, no matter how much tribulation we have to endure, as bad as things may be, these things are not worthy to be compared with the joy that God has set before us in Christ. If we lose everything that the world can give us, we still possess the priceless pearl of our justification. Because God has declared us just, because God has redeemed us, no matter what life throws at us, we are able to rejoice.

Thrown Against the Wall

I had an experience years ago when I was a seminary student in a very liberal and higher critical atmosphere when I had the dubious honor of being invited during my senior year to give the annual student sermon to the whole student body, to the faculty, and to the presbytery, which would meet on this particular day at the seminary. All the ministers in the largest presbytery in the church were assembled in one place with the faculty and the students, and I had to speak.

I spoke about sin, and I spoke about the different theories of sin that we had been taught in the seminary, such as sin being existential, inauthentic existence, and things like that. I said: “We do everything in our power to destroy whatever authenticity we might have to our existence. Others say that sin is simply an experience of finitude. We can’t argue with the fact that we’re finite, but we’ll be finite in heaven when sin is abolished. So, to equate sin with finitude is a major distortion of biblical truth.” I said to this Presbyterian body, where they supposedly confess the Westminster Confession and the catechisms, “Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God, and we’re not going to be healthy as a church until we realize what our sin is.”

A strange thing happened after that sermon. I was met at the chancel steps by a host of liberal students who said to me: “That was incredible. We’ve never heard that here.” They were thanking me for telling it like it was. I thought, “I can’t believe that they are so receptive to what I’ve just said.”

I was feeling pretty good until I got to the back of the chapel, and the dean of the school was irate. He was livid, and he grabbed me and threw me against the wall. In front of all the students and all the ministers, he threw me physically against the wall, his finger was in my face, and he said: “That was terrible. You distorted everything that the Bible teaches about sin, and you totally misrepresented the Reformed faith.”

I was as white as a ghost. No professor had ever yelled at me like that publically or physically manhandled me. I did not know what to do. I mean, this was the dean! So of course I went right to Dr. Gerstner’s office, my mentor, because I knew he had been there. I said: “Dr. Gerstner, here’s what happened. The dean just threw me against the wall and said I distorted the Reformed faith. Is that true?”

A big grin came across Dr. Gerstner’s face. He said, “Oh, Roberto, this is your lucky day.” I said, “My lucky day?” He said, “How blessed you are.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said: “Doesn’t our Lord say, ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake’? Don’t you believe what your Lord taught you? This should be an occasion of great joy.”

Dr. Gerstner said: “I heard everything you said, and also that someone told you that you distorted the Reformed faith. Every Reformed theologian from John Calvin to B.B. Warfield is rejoicing in heaven this day for the sermon that was just preached in this place. You are so blessed.” And I wanted to say to him, “Are you nuts?” But Dr. Gerstner understood what Paul is saying in this text. Once we are reconciled and justified, even when people slander us, when they wound us deeply and tribulation becomes our life, we can glory in it because of Christ and our justification. We glory in tribulation because we know what tribulation does.

Perseverance, Character, and Hope

Paul understood because he believed in God and the sovereignty of God, and in the providence of God there are no accidents in the world. No matter how many injustices are heaped upon us this side of heaven, they mean nothing compared to the crown of glory that God has prepared for His people.

Paul essentially said, “Don’t you know that when you go through afflictions and tribulations, you can glory in them not because you enjoy pain but because you know what tribulation yields?” For most people, tribulation breaks their spirit, leads them to despair, causes them to abandon all hope. But not so for the Christian. Tribulation, Paul says, produces perseverance. It is tribulation that puts muscle on our souls. It is tribulation that makes it possible for the people of God to persevere, not to give up, not to collapse.

Not only that, but perseverance produces character. An easy life does nothing to produce character. Character is forged in the crucible of pain. Character is built when we have no alternative but to persevere in tribulation, because those who come out the other side are those whom God has built character into their souls.

The result of character is what? Hope. There it is again. Authentically joyful people know where their hope is. They have been through the crucible. They have been through the afflictions, persecution, rejection from their friends, the pain. They have identified with the humiliation of Christ. They have walked with Him on the Via Dolorosa. They have been crucified together with Christ and now are raised in His resurrection and participate in His exultation. That is the hope that Christian character produces.

Hope Does Not Disappoint

What about the result of that hope produced by character? Here comes the best part: “Now hope”—that is, this kind of hope that we are talking about—“does not disappoint.” Other translations read, “Hope does not make us ashamed.”

It is an embarrassing thing based on the world’s idea of hope to invest all your hope and wishes in a particular enterprise only to see that enterprise fail. When it fails, you are dashed into pieces. But the hope that we have from God never, ever will disappoint. It will never embarrass us. We will never have to be ashamed for putting our confidence and trust in Christ. If you put your trust in anything else but Christ, you are destined certainly for disappointment. Wherever else you invest your heart and hope, you will be embarrassed if it is not in Christ. That is the only hope that never shames us.

Notice what the New Testament tells us. If you are not in the faith, if you do not believe, if you are outside of Christ, if you are without Christ, you are without what? Hope. You are destined ultimately to disappointment. I want to talk about that for just a minute by way of application.

In all of our lives, we struggle with our weaknesses—the weaknesses of the flesh, our sin, and so on. One of the many things I am ashamed of in my own life where my own lack of character shows at certain points is that I still have a hard time dealing with disappointments, with unrealized expectations. When I go on a trip and travel across the country, and I finally get to my destination and am tired and just want to get to the hotel room and take a nap or something, and I go to the desk and they have mislaid my reservation, I have a hard time with that. I want to have not road rage but hotel rage.

I notice that if you watch babies or infants develop, they are quick to cry, scream, or pitch a fit, and almost every time it is because they are disappointed. They did not get what they wanted. They were looking forward to something when they were two, or five, or six years old. They were looking forward to something for a long time. And if it gets cancelled, they cannot handle it. But that never leaves us as we grow older. One of the hardest things to deal with in life is disappointment, because our hopes have been dashed into pieces.

But the hope that we have of the glory of God and the hope we have for the ultimate victory of His kingdom will never let us down. No one is going to cancel that reservation or let it fall between the cracks. We can rely absolutely on God. That is what we learn when we understand the gospel and our justification. This is just one more fruit. This hope is not going to disappoint us. It is not going to shame us.

God’s Love Poured in Our Hearts

Paul gives another reason that hope does not disappoint: “Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Let us understand what Paul is saying.

Paul is not saying that our hope is never going to disappoint us or make us ashamed because the Holy Spirit has quickened within our souls such a deep and profound affection for God that no matter what else happens in this world, that affection we have for God is going to carry us through. One of the most important fruits of salvation is that the Holy Spirit kindles within our hearts a genuine religious affection—there is no question about that. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. He is not talking about our love for God that has been shed abroad in our hearts. He is talking about God’s love for us.

If there is any concept that has been cheapened today, it is this idea of the love of God. It greatly frustrates me when I hear ministers say to people indiscriminately: “God loves you unconditionally. He loves everyone unconditionally.” That is nonsense.

There is a love of complacency, a love of affection that God only has for the redeemed. There is a special kind of love that God has for the justified. The love He gives to His justified, adopted children is not an indiscriminate love in general that everyone gets unconditionally. No, it is a love that the Holy Ghost sheds abroad. It is God’s love, but He does not just feel for us, and it is not just referring to the gifts He gives us or the benefits He pours upon us, but it is actually God’s affection that God puts inside of you.

That is what fuels this hope. That is what gives us our confidence that we are not going to be ashamed, that we are going to persevere, that we are going to continue on and endure during tribulations and afflictions. We have this hope and confidence because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts.

Paul is not simply saying that there is a little bit of divine love with which God has touched you in your soul. No, it is an outpouring of divine love that is lavished upon us by God. He pours into your soul His love for you to such a degree that if the whole rest of the world hates us, we know that He loves us, has forgiven us, and has given us a hope of which we will never be ashamed. It is one of the works of God the Holy Spirit. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. God’s love is given to you by the same Holy Ghost who is also given to you.

Gifts of Justification

Our justification is not as though when we come to the tree on Christmas, there is only one gift under it. The first package we pick up is our justification. When we open up that package, then there is another package: peace with God. When we open up that package, there is another package: access into His presence. When we open up that package, there is another where we rejoice in glorifying the glory of God. When we open up that package, then we find out that we can have joy in the midst of tribulation, no matter how things go. Then we open up that package, and it tells us that very tribulation gives us another gift: perseverance. When we open up that package and tear off the ribbon, there is another one: perseverance gives us character, and character gives us hope that will never embarrass us, that will never disappoint. Finally, there is another package under the tree, and we open it up, and it is the love of God poured profusely into our hearts by the grace of God.

All these things are part of the gift of our justification. Why do we wonder at this doxological writing of the Apostle Paul, who rejoices in these things over and over again? Because for Paul, Christmas never ends. Let us pray.

Father, again we thank You for all that is given to us in the gospel, all of the consequences and fruits of our justification. These things overwhelm us and fill our souls with joy and delight. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.