I.
When the ancient Greeks and Romans used the word hope they meant expectation, but not always in the good sense. It often carried an ominous tone and conveyed a sense of foreboding.
The ancient Babylonians never cried out in hope to their gods.
Hope does not appear to be a fundamental religious attitude in any ancient culture except one.
Phrases such as “to hope in the Lord” or “to wait for God” are a distinctive of Old Testament religion.
The prophets looked forward in hope. This is because God knows the future, He has promised His people a future, and His almighty power will bring that future to pass.1
Hope, like creation, is a uniquely biblical idea that stands over and against pagan thought, both ancient and modern.
Hope opposes fatalism.
II.
Today we continue our series preaching through the appointed lectionary readings from Romans. Today’s reading is from Romans 5:1-8. Paul is speaking about hope.
What he says is that hope is rooted in the experience of God’s help.
This why the Old Testament — in 150 places — can speak so confidently about hope. The Old Testament is the record of the experience of a people’s hope in God’s help.
Paul writes:
“We boast in the hope of the glory of God.”
That hope is based in the experience of God’s grace which gives His people a place to stand.
In times of oppression and persecution, when we are humbled by circumstance, there is no greater experience of God’s help then being given a place to stand.
It is a fundamental aspect of man’s nature to stand erect. He is unique in the animal kingdom. The fall from grace signifies a loss of man’s standing, both in the deformity in his stature caused by disease and death, and in the loss of his righteous standing before God and the rest of creation.
Yet the grace of God is such that Paul writes:
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
When the human race hadn’t a leg to stand on, God gave us a place to stand. Once you’ve experienced this personally, you’ll have every reason to hope going forward.2
III.
There are two types of experience: carnal and spiritual.
Carnal means of the flesh, which, in the Bible, means man as he is, man in his depraved condition, a slave to sin and subject to death.
Spiritual means of the Holy Spirit, God as He is, righteous, holy, full of grace and truth. This is why we can say Jesus was a spiritual man, not because he had some far-away look in his eyes, or because He was chill and relaxed, but because He was born of God.
A lot of people think they are having a spiritual experience when, in fact, they are having a carnal experience. Almost all self-help philosophies and spiritualities are built on having carnal, not spiritual experiences.
The Holy Spirit cannot be packaged, shipped, distributed, or sold.
We read about an attempt to market the Holy Spirit in Acts 8:9-25. Peter and John are sent to the new Christian believers in Samaria. When they arrive Peter and John realize the Samaritans have not yet received the Holy Spirit. So, the apostles lay their hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit — a genuine spiritual experience.
A magician named Simon is standing by and watching all of this happen. Acts tells us:
“When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’
Peter answered: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’”
Simon’s understanding of a spiritual experience remains carnal. God is not conjured on the spot in response to some spell. Hope is not for sale. Hope can only be had by the experience of God’s help.
IV.
How do we experience God’s help? In our sufferings.
Paul writes:
“And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
What this means is that there is a good outcome for those who stand in God’s grace. Remember I said that God gives us a place to stand?
Now, I can already hear the objection, “You’re saying God just lets us suffer, or, worse that he wants us to suffer,” neither of which is true.
There are a whole host of problems that we inherit just by virtue of being born into a fallen race. We inherit disease, disaster, famine, and war, just to name four. Paul is not speaking of these carnal sufferings.
I suspect the ancient Babylonians were speaking of these very things, which is why their gods tended to personify them, and it’s also why none of their prayers called out to these gods with expectant hope.
It’s why many people today in the growing euthanasia movement look to death as a relief and a release from their sufferings.
So, when Paul writes that we “glory in our sufferings” it rings hollow to the modern pagan’s ear. The modern pagan knows (correctly) there is no glory in a terminal diagnosis, a death by overdose, or a drunk-driving accident.
Some Christian traditions, notably Roman Catholicism, have tried to make a virtue of this carnal suffering by saying it can become united with Christ’s own suffering on the cross.
The Roman Church, incorrectly I believe, teaches that by adding our suffering to Christ’s, God will add to our allotment of grace and allow us to partially undo the damage done by our own sins or the sins of others.
In the theology of the Roman Church this is called reparation, and the idea is that it will reduce the punishment you are bound to receive. This is sometimes expressed in terms of the number of days or even years that you can shave off of your sentence to Purgatory. That is the kind of carnal spirituality I was warning you about before.
The Hindu concept of karma is similar. The damage done in one lifetime must be repaired over many to come — over many incarnations. Carnality is at the very root of what is taken by many in the West to be the supposedly more spiritual wisdom of the East.
Biblical Christianity has no concept of this. All the reparation that needed to be done — even that could be done — was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross. Nothing can add to or take away from it.
Hebrews 10:14 reads:
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
In other words, the whole carnal system comes to an end on the cross and true spiritual life is inaugurated by Jesus’ resurrection. One lesson to learn here is that a carnal desire can never produce a spiritual result even when that desire springs from supposedly high and pure motives.
V.
The kind of suffering Paul has in mind is the suffering that one faces when he or she becomes a professed Christian. Become a Christian in a way that you really mean it, such that you really start to speak it and to live it, and you will find that the world is suddenly against you and that persecutions small and great become your daily experience.
If you doubt me, try putting a Bible verse in your email signature block, you know, right next to the place where they’ve asked you to put your pronouns.
You’ll suffer if you do. You’ll pay a price. And it is this kind of suffering that God guarantees to underwrite, by sustaining you through it, and ultimately by vindicating you, all the while honing your character so that you become more and more like Him in stature.
This is the cycle of Christian growth that Paul is describing, and it is the result of spiritual, not carnal suffering.
First, persecution calls down God’s grace.
Second, this grace sustains you during hard times.
Third, accumulate enough victories over your persecutors and you will find that you can look back and point to tangible evidence of God’s help in your life. This becomes clear in Paul’s own letters. He writes in a famous passage from 1 Corinthians:
“Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.
I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches…. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.”
This is powerful proof that God looks out for his own. All of this accumulated evidence from his own life was more than enough to justify Paul’s confidence in God and his hope for the future.
You may not have the same hardships as Paul, because you do not have the same calling that he did. However, a call has been placed on your life. A response is required. Will you put your faith in the one who died for you? Will you stand on the only ground that isn’t sinking?
If you say yes, you will find help comes quickly and hope soon returns. Amen.
Preached on June 18, 2023 at St. Peter’s Lithgow, Millbrook, New York.
Proper 6 - Year A
Romans 5:1-8
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. The ancient Babylonians never cried out to their gods in ____________.
2. Phrases such as “to hope in the Lord” or “to wait for God” are a distinctive of ____________ religion.
3. Hope opposes ____________.
4. Paul says is that hope is rooted in the experience of God’s ____________.
5. God’s grace gives His people a place to ____________.
6. Explain how man’s fall from grace resulted in his loss of standing.
7. Carnal means of the flesh and signifies ____________.
8. Spiritual means of the ____________.
9. Hope is not for ____________. Hope can only be had by the experience of God’s ____________.
10. What are some examples of “carnal suffering” that we inherit from being born into a fallen race?
11. How has Roman Catholicism tried to make a virtue of carnal suffering?
12. Explain how spiritual suffering, in the form of persecution, gives a Christian reason to hope.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Count how many times “hope” is mentioned. 2) Discuss with your parents how a bad experience can make you more confident.
(1) hope; (2) Old Testament; (3) fatalism; (4) help; (5) stand; (6) (a) the deformities caused by diseases and death, (b) the loss of his righteous standing before God and the rest of creation; (7) man as he is after his fall from grace; (8) Holy Spirit; (9) sale/help; (10) disease, disaster, famine, and war; (11) by saying it can be united to Christ’s suffering to attain more grace for victims and reparation of our sins; (12) persecution calls down God’s grace, this grace sustains us, the experience of being sustained makes us confident in God, confidence in God gives us hope
Silva, Moises, ed. 2014. Review of ἐλπὶς. In New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, 183–89. Zondervan.
See: 1 Pet. 3:15.