The Trials That Test Us – 3

Our third passage is from the fifth chapter of Romans: “³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3 – 5 ESV). The slide developed for it is as follows:

“Not only that” points back to the fact that we have been justified by faith, that we have peace with God, and that we exult in hope of the glory of God. Our text points out two things about our suffering: how we are to respond and the results or benefits of suffering.

As with Peter, Paul tells us that we are to rejoice in our sufferings. We will consider this in more depth later in our lesson (a later blog entry).

As we rejoice in our suffering what are its benefits? How does suffering benefit a believer?

• It produces endurance, which gives us the ability to handle even greater suffering in the future
• Suffering is used to help us grow in Christ-like character
• Suffering teaches us about hope of a better life in the future
• This living hope lifts us above shame
• We experience God’s love in action by experiencing the characteristics of love outlined in Galatians 5:22 – 23.

Jesus suffered greatly for us. He endured the cross, despising its shame because of the joy that was before him (Hebrews 12:2). How do we view the cross we are asked to carry? How do we respond to our suffering?