![]() God tested Abraham (Gen 22:1), Israel to see what was in their heart (Deut 8:2), Hezekiah (2 Chr 32:31), and Paul (1 Thess 2:4). Testing is a motif that runs through the whole narrative of God. ASV: “approvedness.” It is “tested character” or “approved character.” Test or trial is built into the word. “Character” does not fully capture the meaning. Endurance is produced it is worked out in life. The word means to “stand up under the pressure.” Pressure forms something (cf. Suffering produces endurance or perseverance. Affliction includes the groaning of creation itself-life’s hardships. Afflictions do something for us they produce something. There is something about “affliction” that is profitable. Will “afflictions” separate from the love of God? No! Does “standing in the grace of God” keep us from “afflictions.” No! The “grace of God” does not entail a rose-garden utopian life. What is suffering? The word is more like “afflictions” (cf. Suffering has meaning, value, and even purpose because “we know….” What do we know? How do we boast in suffering? Why might we boast in suffering? This is disturbing and counter-intuitive, and it seems to mean that there is some value in suffering and that some how God is doing something in the midst of our suffering. Transition: we boast in hope (that I understand), but it doesn’t make much sense to “boast in our sufferings” (I usually lament them, complain about them, and protest them). We boast in the hope of becoming like God, being fully conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). What we have fallen short of (Rom 3:23) and what we were created to be (the glory of God), we now boast in the hope of sharing in the glory of God. We stand in the presence of God because of restored shalom between God and humanity. Through Jesus, we are able to enter into the presence of God, that is, we have access to and stand in the grace. The Hebraic thought-world shapes Paul’s language: Messiah, shalom, access (as in temple), and standing (as in the temple). We boast in the hope of sharing the glory of God. The conclusion serves as the hinge between Romans 1-4 and Romans 5-8, which is “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.” The themes of suffering, hope, and Holy Spirit anticipate chapter 8. Romans 5:2-5 summarizes the content of Romans 5:6-8:39 (a la NT Wright). We have been set right (justified) with God and have peace with God. Romans 5:1 is the conclusion of Romans 1:18-4:25 (“therefore”). And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance 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 whom God has given to us.” “Therefore, since we have been set right by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have gained entrance into this grace in which we stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
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