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I wonder, if you'd call yourself a Christian, what most rocks your Christian faith? What causes you to doubt that God is committed to you, and that he cares about you? Those are big questions and the Bible has things to say that help us. And Paul's letter to the Romans unpacks probably the two biggest things that cause us to doubt that God loves us and is unconditionally committed to us: our sin and our suffering. We're in Romans 5-6 in the next number of weeks. Paul has more to say about both sin and suffering than we're covering in this series, so remember Jonathan's New Year challenge from last week? Read Romans!

But, as we saw last week, Paul has already begun to address problem number 1: our sin. So, look back to Romans 5.1-2 (which we looked at last time). That's on page 942. And let's briefly recap the astonishing, life-transforming, truths that we looked at last time. If we trust in Jesus we have been justified. We have been declared innocent of our sin. Our sinful God-rejection meant we deserved death, but we have been acquitted because Jesus took the punishment we deserved on the cross. And in the here and the now we have peace with God. The state of war between us and God is over. And we have access by faith. In Jesus, God has opened a door between us and him – and if we trust him, then we've gone through it. And we're with him, in him, once and for all. And we stand secure in his grace. And we rejoice (which means boast) in hope of the glory of God – that's the eternal world to come when we're like Jesus, and we're with Jesus. So in the face of the battle against sin, Paul is saying remember what Christ has done, remember where you are now, and remember the hope of where you're going.

This is wonderfully good news! Good news for today. Good news for all of our hearts. So let's not detach it from Romans 5.3-4, because it's with that hope of the heavenly world to come at the forefront of his mind that Paul begins to focus his attention on problem number 2: our suffering. So, before, we get stuck into that in Romans 5.3-4, let's pray…

Paul continues his chain of thought in Romans 5.3:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings…

So, like I said, to rejoice means ‘to boast’. Romans 5.2 talks about boasting, rejoicing, in the hope of the glory of God? Sure. But, boasting in our suffering? Let's think about our suffering as a church family; some of us have had a difficult upbringing or family life, some of us have experienced deep loss, or bereavement – of a loved one, a spouse, a child. Maybe we're battling loneliness, disability, illness, or depression. The breakdown of a relationship. Failing health, with the reality that death itself is on the horizon, sooner or later. Then there's life's painful, ravaging, disappointments; unwanted singleness, childlessness, redundancy, unemployment. The transience of life. Doesn't too much of it, too often, feel a little pointless? And there's suffering for Christ, and for faithfully following him. Some of us have gotten into trouble at work, we've got families who are hostile. A student from a while back got called Bible-boy by his housemates for a year. I said to him "There's worse things they could call you". He said, "Oh they call me those things too". Life for some of us is, or has been, incredibly hard. Suffering was the pattern for the Lord Jesus. And it's the pattern for us, and any of his followers. Which is why the type of Christianity which claims "glory now" is totally wrong, because in this life, we aren't promised prosperity, or wealth, or health, because even on our best days, the reality is that suffering could be just round the corner. So, if you haven't suffered anything significant in life yet, the inescapable truth is one day, you will.

And in the midst of all of this Paul tells us to rejoice but he says we are to rejoice knowing that. We don't rejoice in our suffering, or because of our suffering. We don't rejoice because of what we feel - suffering causes us to feel pain. No. We rejoice because of what we can know. So, back to Romans 5.3:

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance…

Endurance here means the "quality of someone who is able to keep going under pressure and not give up". In a sense, we only really learn how to keep going as a Christian when hard things come our way. When life is easy, and being a Christian feels great, there isn't anything to endure, but suffering always comes our way, sooner or later. And keeping going through that will help our spiritual stamina – and we will be more ready to endure in the future, whatever life throws at us. And (Romans 5.4):

endurance produces character

So, the meaning of character here is "character that is tested and found to be trustworthy and true". Until we suffer, the character of our faith is, to an extent, untested. We run the danger of being fair weather Christians. We run the danger of enjoying the benefits of Christianity, without the cost. And without experiencing the reality of keeping going in following Jesus even when life is hard. But if we suffer, and we endure, it will produce a tried and tested Christian character in us.

Who have you seen who's suffered well? Maybe a brother or sister here among us. Don't they often have great strength of Christian character? A mature, articulate, living faith - one that's been tested, and come out stronger. It can be hard to pin down – the great John Stott described is as an "indefinable something". Maybe it's the kind of Christian who's kept serving and encouraging others, even when their life has been incredibly hard. The kind of Christian who's faced unspeakable pain, yet somehow can still speak of the goodness and mercy of God. The kind of Christian who can relate the truth of the gospel to the hardest of situations, and still find hope because character produces hope. Of course, every Christian, even the newest Christian, experiences hope. But when we have suffered, our hope in the glory of God (i.e. heaven) is made deeper and stronger.

Now putting all of this together, Paul isn't saying that we'll always be able to "see the point" of our suffering. So often, we don't. Suffering is inexplicable. And, we will ask ourselves "Why has this happened? Why do I have to endure this burden?" And the truth is, we really won't know why. That is the painful mystery of suffering. But, it's a mystery Paul is trying to answer in this passage. What he is trying to do is help us grasp some of what God promises he's doing in us as believers through, and despite, suffering. Because, it's been my experience when I've faced hardships that it's shown me more clearly, what's been true all along: That sin (including my sin) has ruined things. That life, though great, is often unpredictable and painful. That much of what we hope in ultimately doesn't pay off. But that the one hope that does is the gospel of Jesus – and the hope of the new world to come with him. So, we'll all question why we face suffering. We'll all struggle with why others suffer too. We'll all face situations that feel totally inexplicable when things hurt, or are taken away, or don't work out as we'd have wanted, but, when that happens, the promise here is that God will work in us. He will begin to shift our eyes beyond this life to the hope of our eternal future.

And we can understand all of that academically. And we can understand it spiritually too. But it's suffering that really helps us understand the depth of this truth - that this life though often wonderful, and better yet because of Jesus, is also just not what it's cracked up to be, and often so painful. So through suffering, God will begin to fix our eyes on the end-point when everything will be made right. And, Paul says, God will give us a greater hope in that than we've ever had before. Of course, going through suffering isn't the only way we can mature as Christians. God uses other ways too – like his word the Bible speaking to us, and transforming us by the power of his Spirit. And I think we'd all prefer if he only used positive things like that to grow us. In fact, it would be great if he protected us from suffering full stop!

God using suffering isn't him somehow smiting us, you know, pouring suffering upon us just so we mature as Christians. Suffering is a by-product of the sinful, broken, world we live in. And, with our own sin, whether we like it or not, we all contribute to that. But God, in his sovereignty, isn't prepared for our suffering to be a waste of time. And that's got to be better than the alternative views isn't it? Take the atheist's perspective (from Richard Dawkins to Ricky Gervais), there is no God, no anything and therefore, no point to suffering. Bad times come, so while we can, we may as well enjoy ourselves and be as decent as possible, before life ends forever. Or those who believe in another god, or the supernatural of some form, do they have a better explanation? Isn't the Christian promise here (that God will use suffering to strengthen our certain hope) far better?

So a while back, one of you who has been through a really tough number of months battling serious personal illness, and repeated illness in the family, said to me "I don't know how I've kept going through this past season…" And the Bible's answer to that is that it's God that kept them going. He keeps you, and me, and any Christian that suffers going. And when we come out the other end of suffering, and we think "how did I keep going?" Don't we realise that it was God all along? And there's a new tried and tested-ness to our faith. Our faith has been strengthened, and, with God's help, we can say to ourselves "It's God who has kept me going. I will get to the end. I will get to heaven. Despite suffering and hardship, I know he will finish what he's started in me – and it will be glorious. And in that I rejoice!"

You might be in the depth of suffering right now, and scarcely believe what God is saying here. It might be hard to hear, hard to stomach, let alone believe. I think sometimes it's so hard to believe, but it is a promise designed to reassure you, designed to help you have confidence that your suffering, instead of being a total waste of time, in God's sovereignty, can become the catalyst for a stronger, more mature hope, in the certain glory to come. That is what God is committed to doing in you right now as you suffer. So take heart. You will not understand how, but your suffering is not being wasted.

In studying these verses, I couldn't help but think of the incredible example of Elisabeth Elliot. If you don't know her story she was a missionary and Bible translator to the indigenous people of Ecuador. A while into her early translation ministry, she received the shocking news that her luggage had been stolen whilst being transported via truck. No copies had been made. 9 solid months of Bible translation work gone. She later married Jim Elliot and they continued to serve God together in Ecuador seeking to reach a dangerous but previously never reached people group. On 8th January 1956 Jim Elliot and four missionary companions were speared to death, and their bodies were found downstream in a river. After Jim's death, Elisabeth continued their missionary for two more years. God worked incredibly powerfully through her in reaching the people who'd killed her husband. Elisabeth married two more times, her second husband also dying before she did. She died in 2015 after suffering from dementia for 10 years. But God used her, and give her a speaking and writing ministry which has helped thousands of Christians. I'm not God. And I don't say this carelessly but it looks like, if she hadn't suffered, God couldn't have used her in the way that he did. Elisabeth Elliot wrote this:

There have been some hard things in my life, of course, as there have been in yours, and I cannot say to you, I know exactly what you’re going through. But I can say that I know the One who knows. And I’ve come to see that it’s through the deepest suffering that God has taught me the deepest lessons. And if we’ll trust Him for it, we can come through to the unshakable assurance that He’s in charge. He has a loving purpose. And He can transform something terrible into something wonderful…If your faith rests in your idea of how God is supposed to answer your prayers, your idea of heaven here on earth or pie in the sky or whatever, then that kind of faith is very shaky and is bound to be demolished when the storms of life hit it. But if your faith rests on the character of Him who is the eternal… then that kind of faith is rugged and will endure.[Suffering is Never for Nothing, Elisabeth Elliot]

This is it isn't it? The assurance of God's unconditional commitment to us. The assurance that he will use our suffering, somehow, for good. Hope. The hope of glory. Hope that makes us think "If he can get me through this, he can get me through anything, and one day he can get me to heaven…" This is the same assurance, the same hope, God can give us. We saw it in Elisabeth Elliot and I think, we see it very powerfully it in each other right now. Who can you think of? So, that student who got called "Bible boy" (and far worse) on repeat, with all sorts of pressure and frankly bullying coming his way, grew in faith as much as any student I've seen in recent years. And that person who said to me "I don't know how I got through this past season…" after a year ravaged by illness (the kind of illness from which you never really recover) they're still among us, keeping going as a Christian, looking and pointing us to the hope to heaven - a hope of heaven that will be infinitely better. Friends, we've got to believe that it will be. Here's how Paul describes it in another of his letters (2 Corinthians 4.8):

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…

He's saying that all of the suffering he's faced (shipwrecks, floggings, hunger, imprisonment) is light and momentary, and that's it's far outweighed by the glory to come which will last forever. So, it really is worth keeping going in the here and now to get there. So, think of everything that's painful in this life; everything you've suffered, all your pain and disappointments - in heaven, none of that will be there. Not one drop of it. No painful memories, no scars from the past. Everything that is sinful, and everything that sin spoils, will be gone. Are you facing illness? One day you'll have a new body that will never decay. Are you experiencing heartache? One day Christ will occupy every corner of your heart. Have you lost someone you love? One day, you'll experience the perfect relationship with the Lord Jesus. You'll never lose him.

It is so hard to comprehend. I know that. I find that. But this is our certain hope. This is the perspective God can/will give us through suffering. And now think about everything that's good about this life (maybe great times with family and friends) through to the best of God's promises and the joy of living for him. Well, in heaven it will all be better. C.S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce writes vividly about what awaits us in this new creation; of grass that remains unruffled under our feet, of dew that remains perfectly intact on it, of flowers that sit perfectly and whose stalks can’t be broken, of everything feeling solider, more beautiful, better, more real than ever before. And the best of all will be Jesus (there at the heart of it) for us to enjoy perfect relationship with forever. He really will be the best of all! And if you're not yet a Christian He's the person you need to trust in to deal with your sin, to one day get you beyond the suffering of this life, into his eternity.

The Christian life is not a miserable crawl through suffering forcing ourselves to somehow be happy, because we've got a ticket to heaven in our pockets. Romans 5 shows us it's a life full of blessings – please do not forget the wonder of Romans 5.1-2. Following Jesus is staggeringly good news for the here and now. But Romans 5.3-4 remind us that we live a tough life (a life often marked with suffering), but a life where God is daily at work to change us. Because painfully, but astonishingly, there is a deep process of change going on within us. God is preparing us for glory, and he's fixing our eyes more and more upon it, and less and less on everything else. And all of this is not wishful thinking. We won't arrive at heaven and be disappointed. We won't arrive and find we're not accepted after all, because of the nature of God's love for us, made known by his Spirit. But to hear more about that you'll have to come back next week!