Does being a Christian make a difference in our lives? If so, how does it? Can you name any ways you are now different because you are a Christian as compared to when you were not a Christian?

Our Scripture is set in the context of Paul’s teaching on justification by faith. In the previous chapter Paul referred to the patriarch Abraham being made righteous not by works but by his faith.

Paul is explaining to these early Christians in Rome (and to us) that we are made right before God not by keeping God’s law, not be doing good things, not by being good, but we are made right in God’s sight by our faith in Jesus and His redeeming act at Calvary. Justification simply means, “Just as if I had never sinned.” The marker board that lists all your sins has been wiped clean by your faith in Jesus. Now to be sure there is repentance involved in this. There is the need to ask for forgiveness because our sins have offended a holy heavenly father. All of this brings us into a new relationship with God Himself. This is the context in which Paul indicates 3 great qualities of our Christian experience.

One of the great aspects of Christianity as opposed to most if not all of the other religions is that Christianity is very down-to-earth and practical. It works in everyday life. Christianity is NOT so heavenly minded as to be any earthly good. Being a Christian has eternal consequences as well as earthly results.

I. The first quality Paul mentions in verse 1 is peace with God through Jesus. The implication here is that if we are not justified by faith then there is no peace. We are still caught in the warp and woof of trying to serve more than one master. As James tells us we are double-minded and that causes an inner battle that is at best disturbing and at worst destroys every thing we once valued and prized.

Everyone wants peace but peace is as elusive as a greased pig. We call for peace, pray for peace, talk of peace but peace doesn’t come, and this is true among nations, among families, and in our own hearts. Do you have personal peace? No one knows that for sure except you and God. There are however, signs and indicators that a person is not at peace. Sometimes those signs are quite evident. God’s Spirit convicts us and troubles us and makes us restless until we find our rest in Jesus.

People look for inner peace in all manner of ways and places but it is only Jesus that can bring us to real and lasting peace. In fact Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. This peace isn’t the kind of peace the world gives.” Jesus’ peace is like no other peace we could ever know and experience because it “passes all understanding.” That means you can’t explain it. You can only enjoy it!

Paul explains that this peace comes from knowing your sins are forgiven and that all is right between you and God. This peace can only be acquired through a personal relationship with Jesus and only through Him.

II. There is another quality of Christian experience that Paul references that is a direct result of being justified by faith and that is joy. Paul says here that we “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Joy is not the same as happiness. Joy is deep within, whereas happiness is external. One of my favorite verses is found in Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Joy is the effervescence of the Spirit of God that comes from deep within. It is like shaking a can of soda and then popping the top. It is like dropping an alka-seltzer in a glass of water and watching it fizz up.

When we are saved by faith and experience the new birth, God puts His Holy Spirit within us that bubbles up and sometimes gets all over every thing! That is the joy of the Lord. We rejoice because of the joy. Rejoicing is simply the verb of the noun joy. When you have joy, you rejoice! What do we rejoice about? We rejoice in God’s glory! Our joy is not about me, not about what God does and/or can do for me. No, it is not about me. It is about God and His glory. God’s glory is who God is—His nature, His character, His acts, His love, mercy, grace, holiness, et al. We need to understand that this is a maturity issue. At first we rejoice over what God does for us and the focus is on me, on what I get, and how I benefit from being a Christian. But as we grow in our understanding and in this relationship, we come to understand that it is not so much what we have been given, but more about the giver. We see that clearly as we grow up from kids to adults.

As kids we glory in our parents for what they do for us, and give us. Our response of love is real and genuine, but we love our parents for what they give us. When we become adults, we come to understand that we rejoice over our parents for who they are and how they have left their character, their virtue, and their values in us. Our parents’ glory is not what they have given us, but in whom they are. We no longer rejoice over the gifts, rather we now rejoice over the givers. The same maturity happens (or should happen) in our spiritual growth and maturity in our relationship with our heavenly Father, and we grow to the point that we can rejoice in the glory that is God Himself.

There is joy in sins forgiven. There is joy in knowing that in Christ we are victorious over sin and Satan. There is joy knowing that eternal life awaits us. While peace is a quiet river gently flowing through our lives, joy is the babbling, bubbly brook gurgling with excited life! The joy of the Lord is evident in our lives.

In verse 3 Paul also says “we also rejoice in our sufferings.” What? “Rejoice in our sufferings.” That is absolutely insane. Nobody in his or her right mind would rejoice in suffering! One of the hardest things for most Christians to do is to have joy in the midst of hardship, heartache and pain—both physical and emotional pain. When you have been told you have cancer, it is difficult to do handsprings. When a loved one dies, our normal response is not one of glee. In sickness and suffering we do not “go walking and leaping and praising God.” How interesting it is then that time and again the Bible speaks of this very thing that we find so difficult—rejoicing in our suffering. In Acts we read that the disciples were flogged by the Sanhedrin council for preaching Christ. Acts 5:4 records, “They left rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer dishonor for His name.”

Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail were singing hymns and praising God. In the midst of their suffering they were rejoicing and praising God! Let’s look closer as to why Paul says to rejoice in our suffering. In Romans 5 Paul follows up his statement to rejoice in suffering. Some have translated “because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope.” perseverance as patience and endurance. The word for suffering that Paul uses here literally means ‘pressure.’ Most of us don’t like pressure and some of us don’t do well under pressure. Yet especially as Christians we are in constant pressure because of the tension we live in between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.

In these verses Paul is saying that this pressure in us produces perseverance in our Christian walk. This means that we can overcome the world not in a passive mode but in a way that confronts the issues and problems head-on. This overcoming perseverance leads to character and the word for character is used of metal, which has passed through the fire so that all its impurities are burned out of it. There is a definite link between purity and character. What is purity? What is pure gold? Pure gold is nothing but gold and has the character of gold. What then does it mean to be pure in Christianity? It means that the impurities are burned off and we are nothing but Christian—no divided loyalties, no mismatched priorities, no other loves, no other gods, no hidden agendas, etc. A pure Christian then is a Christian with character. Joy for the Christian then is founded both in God’s glory and even in suffering.

III. The final great quality of Christian experience in Romans 5 is hope. Hope in the normal sense is a ‘maybe’ kind of thing. “I hope I get that loan for my new car.” “I hope the Indians beat the Phillies.” I hope it doesn’t rain today.” All of these are maybes because we really don’t know for sure. Hope in the Christian use and sense is not a ‘maybe thing’ but rather is a definite assurance of things based on God’s Word and promises. Christian hope refers to both to eternal life for believers and to the second coming of Jesus. Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica and spoke of those who were not Christians and who had no hope of eternal life. But we who have hope have the assurance, the certainty of living for all eternity. Paul tells us in verse 5 that this hope is based upon God’s love that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

For us as Christians hope is better understood as a promise, a holy confidence that God is for us and as Paul wrote later in Romans, “if God is for us who can be against us?”

Three great qualities of Christian experience have a transforming effect on our lives each and every day. God’s peace calms our spirits. His joy enables us to overcome difficulties and trials. His hope gives us a calm assurance that “everything works together for good to those who love God.” Peace, joy and hope are a result of knowing Jesus.

So I ask you: do you know Him?

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.