How can we be sure that our Hope in God’s Love is not just wishful thinking?
5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Romans 5:5-10 (NIV)
In Romans 5:5, Paul anticipates a question: How can we be sure that our hope of glory is not just wishful thinking? He shows us that the Christian’s assurance is grounded in two realities: one internal and subjective, the other external and objective. Both are necessary for a robust faith.
First, verse 5 tells us that we can know God loves us through the inner, subjective experience of his love. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Every Christian has some measure of this inner witness, though it can vary in intensity. The greater your experience of God’s love, the greater your assurance, hope, and spiritual power. This experience is often strongest in those who are disciplined in prayer, meditation, and obedience.
Next, Romans 5:6-8 tells us that we can know God loves us because of the objective reality of Jesus’ death on the cross. While we were still weak, sinful, and rebellious, Christ died for us. This is an unprecedented act of love. People might conceivably give their lives for a good person, but who would die for someone evil and antagonistic? Yet that is precisely what God did for us in Christ. His sacrifice for us while we were still his enemies is the ultimate proof of his love.
But what about our future? We know we have peace with God now, and we hope in future glory, but how can we be sure we will persevere until that day? In Romans 5:9-10, Paul assures us that Christ’s work secures not only our ultimate salvation, but our preservation through every trial and temptation until we reach that goal.
His argument is powerful. If Jesus saved us through his death when we were God’s enemies, how much more will he keep us now that we are his friends? If he didn’t give up on us when we were hostile to him, what could we possibly do to make him abandon us now that we are at peace with him? Moreover, if Jesus accomplished our salvation through his death, how much more will he sustain us now that he is alive and reigning for us?
The God who brought us to faith will keep us in the faith. The God who opened heaven to us will ensure that we arrive safely home. As Paul will later declare in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
In Christ, we have an unshakable foundation for assurance. We can know God’s love deeply and personally through the inner witness of the Spirit. We can know it objectively and irrefutably through the cross. And we can face the future with confidence, knowing that the God who justified us will glorify us. This is the hope that does not disappoint, the anchor for our souls in every storm.
Reflect on your own experiences, struggles, and decisions, can you see how the truths of Romans 5:510 intersect with your daily lives?
[The ideas for this week’s materials on Romans 5:1-11 were drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
As I reflect on my own experiences, struggles, and decisions, the main thing that always stands out to me is the amazing grace of God as it relates to the way in which He has worked out His redemptive purpose in my life, in spite of my own faithlessness and rebellion against Him. I have quite consistently made decisions based on self, (even as a believer,) in which I’ve displayed the depravity of my own heart in a way that stands in direct opposition to Him, and yet, through it all, He has faithfully led me down a path that has drawn me ever closer to Him, and has allowed me to experience His redemption in increasingly greater degrees in my life. When I reflect on this, and truly consider its implications, it is nothing less than overwhelming to me. This is the internal, subjective evidence that I belong to Him, in that I love the One who first loved me. The external evidence of Christ’s death solidifies the fact that I belong to Him, and the evidence of His resurrection ensures the objective reality of my experience of this new life that I have today through Him, as well as the unwavering hope that I have in the glory to be revealed! This is not, as I mentioned before, some sort of optimistic, wishful thinking. Christ is our very real and sure hope, despite our circumstances, feelings, and even ourselves!!
I don’t think I would have come to my current believe in God faithfulness and love if I didn’t experience it myself and recognize His work for what it is. Before this point as much as I can read and study it just comes to an intellectual understanding not true faith and I could force a fake outward appearance of a Christian but it would not be true. Until I see for myself His work and experience the change He made in me, I could not really have faith and trust in His plans for me. To be honest the notion that Jesus died to justify me with God is not a strong enough evidence for me because I’m selfish and self centered. It was only in His work in the now and His real world miraculous work that provided real benefit to me that I recognize that convince me of who He is. Once I have that evidence, faith and trust in a future with Him is natural and easy.
Knowing God and trusting Him requires experiencing Him and studying His nature to recognize His actions in our lives so that we can come to trust Him and be comforted in His loving hands.