In [15:5] Paul begins a prayer for the Christians in Rome…a prayer for unity:
5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Something we talked about last week…the paramount importance of church unity…which can only be achieved when we are of the same mind with one another according to Christ…that’s what Paul prays.
The word ‘mind’ used here means the seat of consciousness…it means looking at life from Jesus’ point of view…having His values…His desires…His thoughts…the ability to maintain the same focus as Christ did.
How do we achieve that…having the same mind with one another according to Christ… it doesn’t come naturally or without effort.
Although it’s a gift that is given to every believer…we must develop that gift in order to experience its full impact…HOW…by reading…memorizing…and meditating on Scripture…spending time in prayer…that is the only way by which we can have the same mind as Jesus.
In [13] he closes out that prayer with a benediction…a blessing he wants every believer to experience:
May the God of hope fill you—Paul uses the Greek plural pronoun (ὑμᾶς) you
which means all the saints in Rome, whether they are Jews or Gentile believers—
with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this closing prayer Paul mentions three marks of a Christian…joy… peace…and hope…all which come from God.
When you read a verse like this you have to ask yourself…does this verse even come close to describing the way I feel…can I honestly say that my life is filled with joy…peace…and hope?
Would my family or friends describe me as a person who is filled with joy… peace and hope?
Probably if we were honest with ourselves…we would admit that to varying degrees we all fall short of experiencing what that verse is suggesting.
I’m sure that we all want these qualities in our life…and yet I suspect that few can legitimately claim to be filled with joy, peace and hope.
How is this accomplished?…notice that Paul identifies the source…the God of hope…He is the ultimate source of hope…everything starts with God.
So, the most basic question is: What is hope?
Ordinarily, when we use the word hope, we are expressing uncertainty rather than certainty…most often hope is wishful thinking…a desire for something to happen but not having any control over whether or not it will happen.
That is not the Biblical definition of how hope is used in the Bible…for the Christians…hope is the response to the promises of God.
Hope is the confident expectation that what God has promised will happen.
One facet of hope is the certainty that believers will one day be given the same imperishable body like Jesus ( 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ; 1 Thess. 4:13-18 )… that is a promised reality…it will happen.
Paul’s awareness of how hope was understood in the Old Testament is his reason for Christians to adapt the same enthusiasm.
For the Jews their hope was being delivered from their enemies (Psalm 25)…the hope to recover from illness (Isa 38:10-20) …the hope that God would provide land… peace…and prosperity.
Much of the Old Testament was centered on hope…their hope had to do with waiting for…looking for…and the fulfillment of something.
Here we run into the issue of how Old Testament saints were saved if they didn’t know who Jesus was…compared with how we are saved today?
Before the Cross people were justified the same as we are today…by faith…and by hope in something they had never seen…they looked ahead into the distant future to their promised Messiah Who would one day redeem them from sin.
Those early believers listened closely to the words of God as they were revealed by the prophets and the Scripture…as a result, they understood the nature of grace…and were saved on the basis of their hope and faith in a coming Savior.
We are saved today in exactly the same way…by faith…and by hope in something we have never seen.
To encourage Christians to have the same hope of looking ahead into the distant future Paul in Romans mentions hope more than in any of his other letters:
—in 4:18 he mentions God’s promise to Abraham that he would have a son… in hope against hope he believed.
—in 8:20 Paul mentions the hope of fallen creation to be restored from the decay that has been occurring since the Fall in the garden.
—in 12:12 Paul says to rejoice in hope…what hope? …the hope of the redemption of our bodies and being united with God forever.
—in 8:24…one of my favorite verses in the Bible…Paul defines what Biblical hope is with regards to salvation:
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees why does he yet hope for it?
25 But if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Hope is one of the three classic virtues of Christianity…faith…hope…and love are foundational in that they draw us to God and to each other.
Hope is like a reservoir of emotional strength.
—If I am down, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to raise me up…without hope we only sink into self-pity.
—If I experience a setback in my planning — I get sick, or things don’t go the way I would have liked…I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to keep going and not give up.
—If I face a temptation to be dishonest…to steal…to lie…or to be unfaithful in my Christian walk…I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to hold fast to the way of righteousness.
That’s what differentiates ordinary hope from Biblical hope…Biblical hope is not just a desire for something good to happen in the future…it expects it to happen …Biblical hope is the confident expectation that something good will happen in the future.
Now the part that far too many people are discouraged about…how can we achieve joy and peace in a world of social…political…and religious turmoil? …for many it is just an elusive dream.
There are a large number of persons who profess to believe in Jesus but who admit that they have no joy and peace…they don’t usually make this profession to anyone in the church…or in any open manner…but when they are hard pressed upon the matter of personal salvation, they will sometimes say: “I do believe in Christ, but still I am so unhappy and so miserable…I cannot believe that I am saved;” Charles Spurgeon May 20, 1866.
That was preached by Charles Spurgeon over a hundred and fifty years ago.
People don’t change much in how they view their salvation…people had doubts then and they have doubts now.
There are two errors associated with people who experience joy and peace:
One kind are the people who seek cultural joy as opposed to Biblical joy…they often say ‘I just want to be happy’ …or despite not being a Christian they somehow believe God is obligated to make them happy… “Well, God wouldn’t want me to be unhappy would He?”
Here’s the error in this type of thinking…it has the potential to result in the complete opposite…leaving people miserable…their joy is seen in somehow believing life should be fair… not accepting the reality that regardless of who you are you will always be subject to the evils of this world…trials…troubles …tribulation…sin…natural disasters…disease…death…and all the other miseries we face in this life.
And in their misplaced concept of joy they view eternity the same way…a God of love would never exclude me from heaven…that is how they view eternity… their confidence in salvation is based on feeling.
To trust Christ because you just feel happy is irrational…to say…“I know I am saved, because I am happy,” is unreasonable.
Their joy is the result of something done by themselves…the result of their own doing…when things are going fine…they’re happy…when circumstances are less than desirable…misery and emotional distress are present.
That’s what separates Christians from unbelievers…for Christians, ‘joy’ comes DESPITE circumstances…for unbelievers, joy is based ON circumstances.
The SECOND kind of people are believers whose joy is the result of:
1) standing firm concerning the promises of God…that despite my circumstance God knows and is aware of my situation.
2) being secure in my faith…being confident that I am saved.
NOW…at times…not to contradict myself, it may seem that joy has departed us depending on the circumstances of life.
Because in this life we will not always have joy and peace as the world defines it…even Jesus promised us that…‘Through many tribulations (θλίψεων) we must enter the kingdom of God [Acts 14:22]
That word tribulations in the Greek encompasses all the futility that comes with living in this fallen world… you will always be subject to the evils of this world…mentioned them earlier.
Trials… troubles… suffering…sin…calamity…natural disasters… disease… death…and the other miseries we face in this life all fall under the heading of tribulation…no one is exempt…that is why we should not look at joy as the assurance of salvation…BUT…as the result of being in a relationship with God.
With regards to peace…most of Paul’s letters begin with ‘Grace and peace’.
So what is peace? …it is a state of tranquility or quietness of spirit that transcends circumstances…that’s important…what circumstances…that’s why there is a difference between Christian peace and Christian joy…at times they are interlocking circles but they are something we should not lump together.
Before we were Christians we had no peace…we thought we did…but we didn’t. WHY?…there was hostility between us and God…we were enemies of God… something I mention frequently…BUT Satan has convinced the unbelieving world that God just loves everybody…no he doesn’t.
It is only through the blood of Jesus that God’s wrath was satisfied…that our guilt was covered…and the result is there is now peace in our hearts.
That’s why Jesus taught that the peace He gives is not as the world gives [John 14:27] …worldly peace is: The absence of war…living however you want… focusing only on your needs…from seeking other’s approval.
Godly peace is found in any circumstances…even in the midst of trials…it’s found through serving others…but mostly Godly peace is found when we are sincerely repentant and seek to be better disciples of Jesus.
Here’s what’s interesting…the New Testament never talks about joy that way… we have joy in knowing that our relationship with God has been restored as a result of God’s work in Christ…we have peace in knowing that nothing can ever sever that relationship with God.
A couple things about God’s hope…peace…and joy:
FIRST…it is only achievable when we submit to and trust the commandments of God… you cannot have the peace of God while you continue to persist in doing what God does not tell you to do.
SECONDLY…The hope…peace and joy Paul is describing is supernatural…
here’s the KEY…it’s not in feelings…it’s not in Christian fellowship…it’s not even in reading the Bible or in praying…it’s in believing.
Are you believing what you read in Scripture?…if the Bible is nothing more than just words on a page…that’s not believing…are you believing that Jesus dwells in you…are you believing that He intends to act through you to accomplish His purpose?…if so…then the result is peace and joy.
God cannot fill us with joy and peace if we don’t believe…it is only when we believe that the power of the Holy Spirit begins to work through us and causes us to abound in hope. https://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_1513_commentary
This is all accomplished when we experience this by faith…the more we practice it the more joy…peace…and faith will spill out into our lives.