Grace
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction 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 that has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5
STORY
Paul Hubbard was six years older than Luther Taylor, whose story I shared in my Tuesday devotional, and both boys attended the Kansas School for the deaf. They very were active in sports. Taylor in baseball. Hubbard in football. Hubbard went on to be the quarterback at Gallaudet College, a college for the deaf in Washington, D.C. Hubbard made several innovations to the game of football while he was at Gallaudet. He created an innovation for football by having large drums placed on the sidelines so players would be aware of the snap count through the vibrations in their feet. This is no longer a part of football, but another a Hubbard innovation is still practiced today. Hubbard created the football huddle so opposing players would not be able to see him signing the next play. The football huddle is very much a part of the game today. Hubbard experienced suffering. Hubbard was able to endure. Hubbard developed character. Hubbard had hope.
DEVOTION
Paul confessed when he wrote that suffering produces endurance, character, and hope. In order for us to realize that Paul is not being flippant, that he is not being simplistic, we must first look at the meaning of the word grace, in which he began this passage.
Paul wrote that through “Jesus we obtained access to grace.” The Greek word that Paul uses for grace is prosagoge. It is a word that means to be safe, to be secure, to be protected, to be at peace. In the Greek it has two different but similar applications, both of which Paul incorporated into his letter. It is the word that describes ushering someone into the presence of royalty. Grace, for Paul, would then mean bringing us into the presence of the King of Kings, Jesus the Christ. In the Greek the word also means a ship coming into a harbor. The ship having been tossed about in the open sea now finds calm water in the safety of the harbor. For Paul then the word grace means to be sheltered from life’s problems. Paul used the word grace in his letter to mean we are safe, we are secure, we are protected, we are at peace, by something bigger, by something more important, by something more powerful than ourselves.
For Paul knowing that we are in the presence of the King of Kings, that we are in a safe and protected harbor, allows us to endure our suffering and hardships. Endurance can also mean perseverance. This does not mean our problems are not real. This does not mean that our problems are not serious. But it does mean that by having faith in the King of Kings we shall endure. We shall persevere. We shall endure, we shall persevere, because of our faith in our Heavenly Parent who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
Endurance produces character.
What we need to do is put the word character into the perspective on how Paul used it in his letter. Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, and it is difficult to be a Christian in Rome as the church is being persecuted.
The Greek word that Paul uses for character is dokime. It is used for metal that has passed through the fire and the impurities have been purged out of it. For Paul this means the sufferings that he has endured as a missionary and what the Christians in Rome are presently enduring through their persecution, will purify their faith. It will make them stronger in their faith. We should never think that suffering is good, but suffering can make us more aware of our faith, and strengthen our need for faith.
Endurance and character create for us the ability to overcome suffering.
For Paul, if we have faith in the King of Kings our souls cannot be conquered.
Paul wrote that it is by grace that we have endurance and character in the midst of our suffering. But we also have something that is even more important than these, which is hope. Paul wrote that the assurance of God’s love gives us hope. Paul wrote that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit gives us hope. We have hope in our future, no matter how tragic our suffering is today, because of the assurance of God’s love and because God has filled us with His presence, we always have hope in our future.
The discussion of hope is an eschatological discussion by Paul. Eschatology comes from the Greek word eschatos which means last or farthest, and the suffix logy means study. Eschatology is the study of the end times. Eschatology is the branch of theology that deals with the end times. Paul message of hope is that as painful as suffering is today, eschatologically speaking, it will not be with us forever. Our soul shall remain unconquered by suffering.
William Ernest Henley was a poet. He had tuberculosis which caused him to have his left leg amputated below the knee. Lying in bed at the Edinburgh Infirmary, Henley faced the prospect of having his right leg amputated. This suffering, this fear, inspired Henley in 1875 to write the poem Invictus, a poem of endurance and character. It begins with these words:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
“For my unconquerable soul.” So inspiring was Henley, that his good friend Robert Louis Stevenson based his one-legged character Long John Silver on Henley. And today you may have heard of the Invictus games, which are sporting events played by disabled veterans. In Latin the word invictus means unconquerable.
Invictus.
Unconquerable.