"Someone may point out that unregenerate people go through trials and sufferings and do not steadfastly endure. The reason is that they have nothing to look forward to except more suffering and desolation. The Christian's afflictions lead to perseverance because they are connected with this hope. If some Christians fail to grasp triumph in the midst of trial, it is because they have lost the connection between the fire and the future; they have failed to grasp hope, the cord that binds the pain to the prize. If our eyes are on the stars, we cannot see our sorrow. If we keep in our hearts the glory that is to follow, than the gloom of the present will have no significance."
"Suffering receives a new meaning. It becomes a means in God's hand to carry us on toward consummation. When God lets the weight of suffering rest on us, He does so to exercise us in
patience and endurance. Suffering has the very effect of making the Christian hope the more eagerly for the 'glory' which God has promised him. Suffering is thus not something of which we must be ashamed. Hope makes it something positive, in which we can actually rejoice. If there were no suffering, hope would never have the opportunity to attain full strength. It is by suffering that hope is tested and strengthened. The role of suffering in the Christian life is to develop endurance "and endurance produces character and character produces hope.'"
"It should be noticed that the virtue produced in the Christian by the ploughing of tribulation is not mere tolerance. There is no thought of, "I can stand it." The pagan, in dull hopelessness, bows to the inevitable. The Christian accepts the suffering, knowing that God is bringing him through to glory; and from the hope of the past to the hope of the future, he sees the connection running through his suffering like a thread that binds all together. His life is like the turbulent rapids of a river, but he knows that the river comes from a still spring and is flowing to a calm ocean. In this knowledge, the Christan has settled peace."
"The tribulation which has wrought in us the habit of reliance on God, the patient persistence of endurance, develops in us still further virtues. Patient endurance will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us."
"Multitudes of Christians live out their lives in the simplest circumstances. Not only will they never set the world on fire, but also they will never be noticed by the world. But we may be sure that devotion to the Lord, though unnoticed by the world, is observed by Him and will not go unrewarded. These multitudes know the joy and power of steadfast endurance and resultant maturity of virtue and character. They have the sense of being approved by God, even though they have not done anything that would call for special citation. Some of the greatest battles and victories are fought and won in the dark recesses of secret lives, well away from man's historical writing. What secular historian would mention Job? But we can be sure that all Heaven was regarding, with intense interest, the conflict raging in the life of that ancient cattle raiser, and that the glory of God was manifest in all that he did."
"Let all humble souls take comfort in this. It may take more of the grace of God for a man to go to his office each morning and sit at the same desk he has occupied for the last forty years than for a martyr to be burned at the stake. It may have a greater supply of the grace of God for a housewife to resume the daily round of household chores than for a missionary to be shot by the Reds in China."
"Let us see in Job's life this chain reaction of God's dealings with His people in the midst of pain. Job knew the terrible pressure of suffering. This caused him to examine his position before God; he realized that he was nothing in himself, that he had no rights so far as God was concerned. This conclusion led him to look to God and to accept absolutely anything from His hand. When God allowed the severer blows to strike him, Job perceived the corresponding grace and love of God toward himself. This taught him steadfast and persistent endurance. As his sorrows increased, Job sensed that he was being proved by God and approved, so he looked to God with even greater confidence, and with the expectation that the Lord would reveal Himself to him in a fresh way. Since his hope was from God, his heart was filled with the joy of the Lord. This is what our text sets forth, God is working in us. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son who he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6)."
"Tribulation leads to steadfast endurance; steadfast endurance produces maturity of character and a sense of being approved by God, which increases our further hope. But all this results from the truth that we have been justified by the grace of God in Christ."
"Our victory over daily tribulation comes from the fact that Christ took our place upon the cross, and died in order to bring us back to God and to bring God back to us. Our lives have ten thousand facets, and God wants the light of His being to reflect from every one of them. He wants to show the world the great sufficiency of His grace. Do we have a problem? God is able to meet that problem. Do we have a need? God is able to supply that need. Do our hearts have a cavity of Loneliness? God is able to fill it with Himself and to be all things to us through Christ. Do we stumble? God is able to strengthen us and make us stand. Do we waver between two choices? God is able to direct us. Are we feeble in our wills? God is able to give us the power to choose for Him."
"Thus God's work leads us from Himself to Himself. Thus we learn to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
Barnhouse, Donald Grey. God's River Romans 5:1-11 Expositions of Bible Doctrines Epistles to the Romans.Philadelphia: The Evangelical Foundation, inc., 1959. 94-99
