Romans 4: 16-25; 5: 1-5; 8: 18-25; 15: 8-13
I have selected these passages from Paul’s epistle to the Romans to say a few words on hope. It seems to permeate Paul’s writings to the Romans, the thought of hope. We know that according to what he says to the Corinthians, “now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love”, 1 Cor 13: 13. Love is eternal; it is the nature of God and that will abide eternally. But here in this scene, faith and hope are essential matters, matters in which we are all well instructed. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11: 6), and without hope we would be despondent and tend to give up. It says of those who are without God that they have no hope (Eph 2:12), a very hopeless and sad condition. We see in these scriptures that Paul weaves the thought of hope into what he has to say, beginning with righteousness. That is Paul’s main theme in Romans, “righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ”, 3: 22. It says, “whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”, 3: 25. So righteousness comes first, as we follow Mr Raven’s teaching, and I commend that to all the brethren, especially the younger ones. Someone said to me when I was in my twenties, read Mr Raven; and that was very sound advice. It does not mean we neglect the other ministries because they all lead into each other; they all speak of Christ and the assembly, but if you read Mr Raven he will help you in the fundamentals. He will show you that Romans 3 is righteousness; Romans 4 is power, the power of God to raise Christ from among the dead; and Romans 5 is the love of God “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”, FER vol 1 p184. It gives you these thoughts just to give a structure, an outline, something that you can build on, something to get into your soul, and something that will stay with you your whole life through, the very fundamental principles of God’s kingdom.
Chapter 4 is Abraham’s faith, how it was tested and how it shone. Abraham had God’s promise of an heir, a son, and he hung on to that promise when everything in nature pointed to the fact that that promise was very unlikely, impossible according to nature. We think of one a hundred years old, his wife Sarah ninety years old. But it says he “hesitated not at the promise of God through unbelief”. It also says, “before the God whom he believed, who quickens the dead, and calls the things which be not as being; who against hope believed in hope to his becoming father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be”. I think we see in chapter 4 what is characteristic of faith, this wonderful matter of hope. Abraham believed God despite every evidence to the contrary; he held to the promise and God was true to His word, and Isaac was born. He had to do with the God of resurrection, the One we know who has raised the Lord Jesus from among the dead, “who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification”.
When we come into chapter 5 there are some wonderful matters of hope. It is a great matter to have peace with God and everything settled between you and God through the glad tidings, but then it says, “by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God”. It is a wonderful position of favour that the believer finds himself in, and what an outlook, “we boast in hope of the glory of God”. Do you have that outlook? Is that your boast; is that what you are proud of? Is that what you expect? That is what Paul lays out before us, “access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God”. It is assured that the glory of God will come in publicly. The prophet says so in the midst of a passage where he pronounces woes against many sins: he pauses to say, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea”, Hab 2: 14. The prophet has looked on to it but we are in the time when it is very near. By the Holy Spirit come down from an ascended Christ, we are in the position where we “boast in hope of the glory of God”. We are looking for the glory - Mr Darby has a verse on that -
I am waiting for the glory,
Are your thoughts with me too?
(Spiritual Songs p60)
If you have been attracted, as we have had in the readings, if you find the Lord Jesus attractive, is He the hope of your heart? I think that is the burden of what I have to say in these scriptures, that we might find that we are drawn heavenward where He is. Christ is not here, but He is in the glory of God. We are waiting for great matters, for God to be known fully in His creation. Paul holds that before us here.
Then this next section speaks of the trials of the way that we all go through at one time or another. It is "not only that, but we also boast in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. We start out happy and fresh, perhaps, in the Christian pathway, but it is a pathway of experience, and often tribulation; distresses come in. If in our health, our relationships, our employment, brethren departing from the faith, what sorrow that brings in. The sorrows of the pathway where the enemy breaks in upon the sweetness of Christian fellowship, these divisions that we have known in our lifetime, we carry the sorrow of them with us yet, the sorrow of separation from brethren. These are real tribulations, they cause real tears and many are going through deep sorrow. Paul is realistic here about the Christian pathway, “tribulation works endurance”. That is the great matter, that we are formed through our experience to be more like Christ and then to take on more of these features of manhood that we have been pondering over together in these readings. So that we acquire in type the acacia wood, the enduring wood that was seen in the wilderness - “endurance, experience; and experience, hope”. I think hope shines brighter through all these travails, all these experiences of the way, all the sorrow, all the tears. Hope here is the end of a pathway, the end of an experimental process, and it is a glorious end, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. You can always hope in God and He can do the impossible, He can work a miracle, but often we have to exercise patience, and we have this wonderful outlook that the glory of God is before us. It is not only that we are waiting for these things, we have this wonderful present recompense in the Holy Spirit, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. What assurance that brings into our hearts, what blessing, not only to know objectively that God loves us and has given His Son for us to die on the cross, but to know that love as it is conveyed into the very innermost parts of our being - “shed abroad in our hearts”. To have the confirmation of God’s wonderful love, what consolation and encouragement that is when we go through the trials of the pathway and when we go through days of sorrow, days of loss, days of confusion perhaps. But at the end of this road there is hope, “endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”.
In chapter 8, hope has a universal bearing. Paul speaks of the whole creation here. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us. For the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God”, and then “in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now”. This is Paul’s reckoning, born of experience, and what sufferings he endured! We could not compare our experience in any way with his but we can gain from what he says here, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory”. How Paul was buoyed up, not only through his faith but also in a living hope in a living Saviour; and the coming glory was always before him. The whole creation is looking out for this, “the revelation of the sons of God”. We might say that we are sons of God now by faith, and that is true, but this speaks of the revelation of the sons of God, when they will appear in glory, when God’s full thought for man in Christ will be realised, men in sonship in eternal and glorified conditions. That is the revelation of the sons of God. Paul says, “we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, that is the redemption of our body. For we have been saved in hope; but hope seen is not hope; for what any one sees, why does he also hope? But if what we see not we hope, we expect in patience”. However privileged we are - and we are at this present time, we enjoy many things, many privileges - yet we are still waiting the full consummation of blessing at the coming of the Lord when we will experience the redemption of the body. These bodies, so prone to failure and weakness and disease, will finally be redeemed in power. They already belong to the Lord Jesus, but He will redeem them in an act of power, “the redemption of our body”. We are to exercise patience in the meantime. The hope is not seen, Paul makes that very clear; if it was seen it would not be hope, but he adds, “But if what we see not we hope, we expect in patience”. I think the Lord would encourage our hearts in this great feature of patience. We sing -
O patient, spotless One,
Our hearts in meekness train
(Hymn 174).
That is another wonderful feature of Christ that Paul helps us here to take on, to await the time in patience.
I read in chapter 15 where the scripture we had in the reading in Isaiah is quoted. It says, “There shall be the root of Jesse, and one that arises, to rule over the nations: in him shall the nations hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. It is a wonderful thing that God is called "the God of hope". It is our God. There is a passage in Isaiah where the prophet says, “this is our God; we have waited for him”, Isa 25: 9. They proved that in waiting on God they had the joy of salvation. Paul says “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.
I would just suggest that these passages show something of this matter of hope. One beloved servant of God said it was very scarce among the saints (JT vol 70 p10), but I feel that in our day it has come forward and it is a very real matter in our hearts. God would have us to abound in it, as He does in many things. We are reading in John locally, and the Lord says, “I am come that they might have life, and mighty have it abundantly”, John 10: 10. That is what the Lord has in mind in the way of life. Here Paul says, “so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. It is all made good as the Spirit strengthens us in our hearts so that it is not a faint hope, a feeble hope, something that perhaps will happen; on the contrary, it is an assured hope.
I commit this to the brethren: Paul seems to weave this element of hope all through his writings. It is one of the three essential ingredients of Christianity at the present time, “faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love”.
For His Name’s sake.
Denton
22nd April 2011