Believers not only rejoice in the hope of future salvation. We are blessed even in current sufferings (Romans 5:3–5). After Paul had written about being reconciled with God in heaven (Romans 5:1–2a) and about the expectation for the future (Romans 5:2b), he now directs his attention to the life of the believers in the present, on this earth (Romans 5:3–5). The beginning of Romans 5:3 (Not only that
) marks a transition. This not only contrasts the glory on the one hand (Romans 5:2b) and sufferings on the other (Romans 5:3), but relates the coming presence in the fullness of God’s glory (Romans 5:2b) with his nearness in the present (Romans 4:4–5). While Paul begins Romans 5:3 with the idea of rejoicing in suffering, in a certain sense it can be said that he starts with the conclusion. Having joy in suffering is the result of an entire process of sanctification that begins the moment the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5). It is precisely because believers experience the presence of God’s love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, that it becomes possible for us to rejoice in the midst of sufferings. By beginning with the result of this process first in Romans 5:3, this verse serves to shock readers, thereby inciting them to pay extra attention to what follows. How could one possibly rejoice in sufferings? The answer to that question then follows in Romans 5:5.
Paul therefore purposefully begins with the claim: We rejoice in our sufferings.
Some translations render this as we rejoice also in our tribulations.
The word tribulations
can be understood as referring to a scenario where believers are being oppressed by unbelievers. However, the Christians in Rome at the time were not (yet) being oppressed. Moreover, in the Greek Paul here employs a definite article which seems to suggest that he is referring back to something that he had already mentioned (i.e. those previously mentioned pressures in all kinds of forms
). After all, in Romans 2:9 we read: There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek.
Furthermore, from Romans 1:18–32 it was also apparent that the whole world is weighed down under the wrath of God over a humanity that denies him. The world in which Christians live remains a world characterized by that misery and death. They are not immediately liberated from all that upon becoming Christians, and their lives seem to remain unchanged in the sense that it continues to be weighed down by all of those sufferings.
What is radically different is their attitude towards this reality. They deem themselves joyous, not because of their sufferings, but in spite of their sufferings. They are not pleased with that which causes the distress, but rather with the outcome of that distress.
Romans 5:5 provides the solution to this mystery. Being joyful in a time characterized by suffering and persevering in that joy comes by means of the Christian’s inner certainty. The Christian knows that his expectation of another future is based on a solid foundation, and can therefore be confident that this hope will never disappoint. For God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Even though suffering is a reality, and experiencing the fullness of God’s glory is an expectation of the future, we can already begin to experience some of that now. God comes to us through his Spirit, poured out into the hearts of believers—a reality that Paul will discuss in greater detail in Romans 8:1–39. For now he restricts himself to this one aspect thereof by highlighting that through the indwelling of the Spirit, God’s love
is already in our hearts now.1
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,