These Three Remain: Faith, Hope and Love
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Hope is another one of those topics with so much information, that it could fill an “all day sermon.” However, we will restrict our time Sunday to Romans 5:1-5. Our series text is 1 Corinthians 13:13, Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. We are looking at things that last. There are so many things we could choose to change about ourselves, most of them good, but Paul tells us that faith, hope and love are among the few things that will last. Why build our lives upon things that are transient and temporary when we can choose things that last.
Last week we spoke of faith – covenant faith (saving faith in Jesus), epistemological faith (perceptive faith – recognizing the biblical worldview in life), and eschatological faith (faith that trusts God to eventually answer all our questions and make all things right). This last type of faith is what creates hope for the child of God.
Romans 5:1-5 mentions all three dimensions of faith and introduces our Christian hope. We are justified by faith in the finished work of Christ. We are introduced to God’s perspective (world view) regarding human suffering and how that leads us to our eschatological faith/hope in the glory of God which will be ours on the last day.
We can rejoice in our sufferings because we know where they lead the child of God—perseverance, character, and finally hope.
Our hope is one that will not disappoint us because it is of di-vine origin. God floods our heart with love and hope through his indwelling Spirit.
No matter how hard life gets, how much we suffer and struggle, how difficult our pathway, or how dark the night becomes, we know that morning is coming and it will not disappoint!
I’ll say more in my lesson, Joey
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