“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:” (Romans 5:3-4 KJV)
This at the moment is an appropriate Scripture for me. It has been eleven days since I’ve done a Bible study. I had surgery on the 19th of May and this morning is the first morning that I have no pain. One thing I did learn is that when someone is suffering, it’s hard to concentrate on anything except the pain. This goes for any kind of pain; physical, mental, emotional or external. As mature children of God, we can mechanically quote Scripture, but our focus in suffering is the pain no matter how hard we try to at the time to put ourselves in Scriptural obedience. We know what we have to do. We know what we have to speak. We know what we believe, yet our circumstances say different. This is when we have to abandon our natural, hurting and wounded self to look beyond this natural world and see through Scripture what God sees. And God sees victory and peace. We can praise God for that and go through anything.
The NIV (New International Version) and at the least 8 other English Bibles including the Amplified use the word “sufferings” instead of tribulations. I wondered if there was a difference between what Paul was saying and what had been interpreted as Paul saying. The definition for suffering is “the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship.” Paul used the word tribulations in the Greek which is the word “thlipsis” which means, according to Strong’s dictionary, “pressure (literally or figuratively), affliction, anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble.” As Bible scholars have determined, the words sufferings and tribulations can be used interchangeably.
We notice that the beginning of the Scripture starts as part of the Scripture before, in mid-sentence actually, “And not only so...” So, what He states in verse 3 is part of verse 2 which in the same manner is part of verse 1. “Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so, we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!” (Romans 5:1-2 GNB) There is so much information in just these two verses. Through our faith in Jesus, we have peace with God. We are no longer His enemies and separated from Him. And because of our faith in Jesus, we can live our natural human life supernaturally in God’s grace. Grace is God unconditional, unearned and undeserved favor. We have to dig further. Again, Strong’s definition of grace helps. It’s the “abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual” (in other words in every which way); “especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude” which we can say is the Holy Spirit speaking and working in our lives. It’s the “acceptable, benefit, favor, gift, grace, joy liberality, pleasure, and anything worthy of praise.” As we dig further, we find more goodies. But, in relation to our suffering, we can say that in every which way, by our faith, we can allow the Holy Spirit to continue to speak the Word of God, no matter our condition and allow Him to work in us no matter how it looks and how it feels in the natural. God is at work in us producing God’s Will in us. This brings up the question: Is it God’s Will for us to suffer? I think God uses what the devil brings into our lives for His Good Purpose. Because it’s a certainty that we will suffer in this world. Jesus said it. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
And so, continuing with verses 3 and 4, Paul says, “...we glory in tribulations...” He’s not saying they won’t be hard or that we will like them. Nor is he saying that we ask for them nor welcome them. But sufferings will come. There is no such thing as a life without suffering here on earth. It’s not Scriptural. But God’s grace can be so powerful, we can sail through them in faith, knowing we have the victory when we speak what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. We can use the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God to conquer any demonic attack, which is where our sufferings come from.
Some say Jesus already conquered satan, so what are we fighting. There are two things here. The lies of satan are very real in this world. This is his world. And we are living here in his world. His world is what we see, hear and feel in the natural. Jesus in His prayer to the Father prayed, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:15-16) And, so many times, God’s Word tells us to live in the Spirit, in the spiritual realm where satan doesn’t have entry. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) This is faith living. In the natural we may have to go through sufferings, but in the spiritual, there is peace and victory, even if our sufferings lead to death. Death is liberation from this evil world. But in the meantime, while we are here in this world which belongs to the devil, we live in the spiritual, where there is victory. We conquer in this world by our faith, laughing in the devil’s face and continue to be a light in a dark and evil world. We continue to show God’s grace in our lives. We continue to speak the light of God’s Word in those dark corners of sin and darkness that have people captive.
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