We Rejoice in Our Sufferings


by Margaret McPhillips on June 25, 2023

Open your Bibles please to Romans, the fifth chapter, beginning at verse 1. This passage contains one of the most shocking statements in the Bible – we can rejoice in our sufferings. Let’s be clear. We don’t seek suffering. Suffering is never pleasant, always painful, much of it overwhelming, still we can rejoice in our suffering. Tell us, Paul, tell us, how can we rejoice in our sufferings. Let us bow for prayer.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, give us understanding of Your Word, grant us grace to cherish it in our hearts, and practice it in our lives. And this we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Hear God’s Word:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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.”

Here ends the Scripture lesson, and this is the Word of the Lord.

About twenty years ago, I preached at a leper colony in South America. The congregation was made up of older believers; the cure for this dread disease had come too late for them. Horribly disfigured, they lived out their lives together, separated from the world around them. I think of these believers often, but when I do it’s not about their ravaged bodies or ruined dreams or wretched lives. No, when I think of these believers, I think of their joy. They welcomed me with joy. When I was preaching, they listened attentively. When I finished preaching, they hugged me and made me feel that I was a part of their family. And you know what I want to know is – Where did these believers learn to have joy like that? Well, I believe they learned to rejoice in their sufferings from Paul.

And this morning we are asking Paul, “Tell us, Paul, how can we rejoice in our sufferings? We want the testimony of these precious South American believers to be our testimony. We want your testimony of joy, Paul, to be our testimony. Tell us, Paul, how we can rejoice in our suffering.” And this morning, I want to assure you that your testimony will be one of rejoicing in your suffering as you take to heart three Gospel truths.

First, you can rejoice in your suffering because of who you are right now – a justified believer. Look at verse 1. “We have been justified by faith.” Justification is a legal word. It comes from the courtroom. You stand before a judge and one of two sentences is going to be passed. Either you will be condemned, you have not met the law’s demands, or you will be declared not guilty, justified; you have met the law’s demands. Jesus, because of Jesus’ work for us, God declares you, the believer, justified. When you stand before Him in His cosmic courtroom, He pronounces the believer in Christ justified. Why? Jesus has shed His blood to satisfy God’s justice and He did that for you. Why? Because when your faith rests in Christ, His righteousness is credited to you. You see, God has pronounced upon you the same verdict He pronounced on the ——- to Abraham – justified. He has pronounced the same verdict upon you that He has pronounced upon adulterous David – justified. Whatever your sin is, as you come to Christ in faith and repentance, God declares you justified. I know you at First Presbyterian church love to sing, and you love to sing about justification. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness!” His blood shed to atone for our sins and satisfy the demands of God’s justice. His righteousness, credited to us as our faith rests in the Savior.

As a justified believer, you possess two of life’s great treasures. As a justified believer, you have peace with God. Look again with me at verse 1. ““Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Well how dire was our situation when we lived in unbelief apart from our Savior, Jesus Christ? Well drop with me down to verse 10. We were His enemies. Look at verse 10. “While we were enemies” – that means while we were under God’s wrath – “we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” We were His enemies judicially – guilty before Him. We were His enemies morally – living lives of defiance.

You know back in the 1920s and the 1930s, the FBI had its “Most Wanted” list. You remember the names that were on them. Alvin Karpis. Baby Face Nelson. John Dillinger. Bonnie and Clyde. These were public enemies and law enforcement officials were given the task of tracking them down, apprehending them, killing them if they must. These were public enemies. Well we were God’s enemies, but He has reconciled us to Himself, made us friends through our Savior, Jesus Christ. And every one of you can go to bed tonight, you who are trusting in Christ, and know that your sins are forgiven and that you are at peace with God through our Savior, Jesus Christ. As a justified believer, that’s what you are right now, as a justified believer you have peace with God.

But you also have access to God. Look at verse 2. “Through him,” our Lord Jesus Christ, “we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Access. It’s language which is used of a person who is being ushered into the presence of a king to be introduced to him. And Jesus ushers us into the presence of our heavenly Father and into that grace in which we now stand. You see, that grace that pardons our sin also makes us a child of God so we can come into the very presence of our heavenly Father as His beloved children. Jesus has ushered us into the presence of God.

I used to live in the Boston area. One of my prized possessions was a season pass to Fenway Park. I could go and take a friend with me and I loved to take my oldest son to Fenway Park, go to Gate B, flash my card, point at my son, and say, “He’s with me.” And our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, He ushers us into the presence of the Father and says, “These are the ones that were given to Me by You from before the foundation of the world. I bring them, justified, Your children, into Your presence.” Justified believer, you have access to God and you can rejoice in your suffering right now because of who you are. You are a justified believer.

We’re summoned by Paul to rejoice in our sufferings, and we say to Paul, “Tell us how we can rejoice in our sufferings.” Well, you can rejoice in your sufferings because of who you are right now, a justified believer, and next, you can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you will one day be – a glorified believer. Look at the last part of verse 2. There, the apostle Paul says, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Well when I read that, I want to ask questions. “What is hope?” You know when we use the word “hope,” there’s always an element of uncertainty about it. It’s more of a wish. I hope we don’t have any more tornadoes this summer. We hope for that, but they may come. We hope that we’ll stay healthy throughout the year. We hope that, but we may not stay healthy. I hope the Boston Red Sox win the World Series. Well, I really don’t care, just so long as it’s not the Yankees! You see how when we use the word “hope” there’s always an element of uncertainty.

Well that’s not how Paul uses the word. When he uses the word “hope,” he’s talking about the rock solid confidence we have in Jesus Christ, that God will fulfill every promise He has made to us in Jesus. Hope is our unshakeable certainty that no word of God ever falls to the ground without fulfilling its purpose. What is hope? Rock solid confidence. Unshakable certainty that God fulfills His promises to us in Jesus Christ.

But another question. “What is the glory of God?” Well, the glory of God can mean His radiant splendor. Philippians 3:20, “From heaven we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.” On the resurrection day, we will be given resurrection bodies that, like our Savior’s, are incorruptible, indestructible, and imperishable. And that should give you hope right now. We hope for that glorious hope that is coming to us on resurrection day. What is the glory of God? It can mean His radiant splendor but it can also mean His moral perfection. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is falling short of God’s moral perfection. And so we as believers long for that day when we’ll stand in the very presence of our Savior and we will be perfectly holy, like our Savior. No sin will remain. And what’s really wondrous about the hope that is before us, even the desire to sin will be taken away. I like the way that Jonathan Edwards describes heaven. He calls is “a world of perfect love,” and there in heaven you will be perfectly loved and perfectly loving and perfectly lovely. You can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you will one day be – a glorified believer.

Well we’re talking this morning about rejoicing in our sufferings. We’re asking Paul, Paul the pastor, “Tell us how we can rejoice in our sufferings,” and he’s doing that in our text. You can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you are right now – a justified believer. And you an rejoice in your sufferings because of what you will one day be – a glorified believer. And next, you can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you are becoming now – a Christlike believer. You can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you are becoming – a Christlike believer. Look at verse 2. “We rejoice in our sufferings.” We don’t celebrate suffering. We don’t seek it out. We don’t pretend that it’s inherently good. We rejoice in our sufferings because we are certain of its outcome – our Christlikeness. Suffering shows us who we are and we learn to depend on God who is transforming us into the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Well I want to ask another question of the text – “What does Paul mean by suffering?” Well there’s the suffering of course that’s common to all men and women in our fallen world, and here we have to be realistic. We have to face up to the truths of the Bible. An unbeliever dies of cancer and so does a believer. It’s a part of life in a fallen world. All of us, believer and unbeliever alike, suffer. The child of a believer is born with a terrible birth defect just like the child of an unbeliever. A believer is gunned down in a driveby shooting just as an unbeliever is. When those tornadoes came through the Mississippi Delta, they struck the homes of unbeliever and believer alike. These are the sufferings that are common to men and women, all men and women, who live in a fallen world. And it should cause your heart to go out not only to your fellow believers, but to an unbelieving world. We’re right there with them, experiencing these same sufferings.

So there is a suffering that is common to all men and women in a common world, believer and unbeliever alike. But there is also a suffering that comes only to believers. The person that led you to Christ, did they tell you, “You know, when you become a Christian, many of those problems that you’ve struggled with your whole life, those problems of health, of financial insecurity, of those things that have plagued you, when you become a Christian, those problems stay and then you get a whole new set of problems – the problems that come with seeking to be an obedient disciple of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The cost of discipleship. Think about it. Before you became a Christian, what was a little lie or sexual indiscretion or outburst of temper? You didn’t care about those things. Now as a believer, you’re seeking to mortify them. You’ve declared an all-out war upon them. And that war is painful. We rejoice in our sufferings. Before you became a Christian, you may not have cared about cutting corners in business. What was fudging the numbers? What if I didn’t disclose the whole truth? Those things didn’t really matter to you. Now as a Christian, you’re committed to rock solid integrity and that integrity can be painful as we seek to live out lives as obedient disciples.

There are moral crises that come to Christians that don’t come to non-Christians. I remember a man who was an independent contractor. He made a lot of money working for a company. Then he got his next assignment, which was to develop a system for distributing pornography. What did he do? Well he did what any Christian would do. He walked into his manager’s office and he turned in his resignation. And so for a time, his family suffered financial hardship. That’s a part of the suffering that comes when we follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Here’s another kind of suffering that you never had before you became a Christian. Before you were a Christian, how did you choose your friend? You shared mutual interests. It was a society of people that gathered around you to tell you how wonderful you are and you tell them how wonderful they are. You share the same hobbies. You share the same dreams, the same ambitions. These are the kind of people you selected to be your friends. And lo and behold, God takes you and makes you a part of a church family and you look around the church family and you say, “I’m not like everybody here and it’s hard work learning to get involved in people’s lives, to bear their burdens, to let them bear your burdens. That’s hard work!” Reorganizing your life around the church family. Well that’s the suffering that comes with following Jesus Christ. But remember the outcome – more like Jesus you will become, more Christlike, more loving, more compassionate, more willing to bear the burdens of others.

Here’s what God is doing in your sufferings. Look at verse 3. “Suffering produces endurance.” As you suffer and you keep putting one step in front of the other and moving on toward the heavenly city, you become convinced that you can handle what life throws at you by dependence upon your Savior. As one writer calls it, the Christian life becomes “a long obedience in the same direction.” That’s endurance. You’re moving toward the heavenly city. You’re not moving alone so you invite your brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside you and encourage you, walk with you. When there are times that you don’t feel you can pray, you ask them to come alongside you and have them pray for you and with you. You begin to look at those people that are in your D-group, your Sunday School class, those that are in the various groups of the church, you look upon them as family that’s going to help you to keep moving in the same direction; the long obedience in the same direction. “Suffering produces endurance.”

And then, “endurance produces character.” Our text tells us that. “Mature character” is how J.B. Phillips translates it. “Not the unproven recruit,” says John Stott, “not the one who has never been tested in battle, but the mature soldier who does not give up ground to the enemy.” Endurance produces character, Christlike character.

And then we’re told, as we think what God is up to in our suffering – “suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” The confidence that the God who has sustained you in the past, that’s upheld you, and the God who will sustain you in the future as you march toward the heavenly city, that that God right now will uphold you.

Character produces hope, and that hope will never disappoint us. Why? Look at verse 5. “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.” You can rejoice in your sufferings because of what you are becoming. You are becoming a Christlike believer.

Well it’s time for me to begin to wrap up, and let me do that by taking you back 300 years. I want to take you to a jail cell in Bedford, England. When you enter that cell, you’re going to see three pieces of furniture. You’re going to see a bed. You’re going to see a chair. And then you’re going to see a desk. Then your eyes are going to go back to that chair because there’s something not right about it. You see, one of the chair’s legs is missing and that missing leg tells us a lot about the prisoner who was there. His name was John Bunyan. He spent 12 years in that jail cell. He could have walked free any day; all he had to do was say, “I won’t preach Jesus Christ. I won’t preach the Gospel.” That’s all he had to say and he could walk free and go back to the family that needed him so much. But he was asked to do the one thing he could not do. And so he remained in jail. And he took a leg off that chair and he carved a flute and he turned his prison cell into a place of praise as he made music to the glory of God. And he wrote and he wrote and he wrote – his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, part of Pilgrim’s Progress, scores of tracks and sermons – he wrote and wrote and wrote to the glory of God.

Now you say that that’s really surprising. Not at all. It’s what we expect from a man who has learned to rejoice in his suffering. Now I’ve never known a man or a woman as famous as John Bunyan was, but in every church that I’ve ever served, including this one, I’ve known men and women like him – precious believers who have set before me an example of rejoicing in their suffering. Suffering has come and they have endured. Their character is distinguished by trust. The rough edges in their life are being made smooth through the sanctified influences of the Holy Spirit. They’re more loving, more faithful, more compassionate. And their outlook on life in their suffering is filled with hope. I’m thankful that in this church I have examples of that kind of faith.

But I want that to be your testimony too. I want people to be able to look at you and draw strength from you as you rejoice in your sufferings. And I know that that can be your testimony. I know it will be your testimony as you are firmly persuaded in your heart that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, a hope that will never put you to shame.

Let us bow for prayer.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, I know some of the needs of this congregation; most of them I don’t. I don’t know their needs, but You do. You know where the places are where they suffer. I pray that You will draw close to them, reassuring them of Your great love for them in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, causing them to know that in the midst of their affliction that they are Your beloved children, justified by faith, that You are the one that is using the fiery furnaces of affliction to make them more like Jesus Christ, that You are producing in them a character that has hope – hope in all the promises that You have made to us in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherever one of Your people here this morning is suffering, draw alongside them we pray. Cause the Holy Spirit to give them joy as they rest upon and follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

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