AND PERSEVERANCE: e de hupomone: (Ro 15:4; 2Cor 1:4, 5, 6; 4:8-12; 6:9,10; Jas 1:12; 1Pet 1:6,7; 5:10)

Perseverance (5281) (hupomone [Word Study] from hupo = under + meno = abide) (Click here for the 6 uses in Romans) means literally to abide under and so describes a bearing up under trials in a God-honoring way so as to learn the lesson for which they have been sent, rather than attempting to squirm out from under them in an effort to be relieved of their pressure. Hupomone is the strength to bear up under plus the persistent application of this strength and is ultimately not a grin and bear it attitude/action but a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Harry Ironside explains that...

"tribulation worketh patience" if we accept it as from our loving Lord Himself, knowing it is for our blessing. Out of patient endurance springs fragrant Christian experience, as the soul learns how wonderfully Christ can sustain in every circumstance. And experience blossoms into hope, weaning the heart from the things of earth and occupying them with the heavenly scene to which we are hastening. (Ironside, Harry. Romans and Galatians. Kregel. 2006)

John Calvin writes that perseverance...

"is not the natural effect of tribulation; for we see that a great portion of mankind are thereby instigated to murmur against God, and even to curse His name. But when that inward meekness, which is infused by the Spirit of God, and the consolation, which is conveyed by the same Spirit, succeed in the place of our stubbornness, then tribulations become the means of generating patience; yea, those (same) tribulations, which in the obstinate can produce nothing but indignation and clamorous discontent." (Romans 5)
 

Matthew Henry writes that perseverance...

"works an experience of God, and the songs He gives in the night; the patient sufferers have the greatest experience of the divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works an experience of ourselves. It is by tribulation that we make an experiment of our own sincerity, and therefore such tribulations are called trials. It works, dokimen—an approbation (an approving), as he is approved that has passed the test. Thus Job’s tribulation wrought patience, and that patience produced an approbation, that still he holds fast his integrity [Job 2:3]."

PROVEN CHARACTER: e de hupomone dokimen: (Josh 10:24,25; 1Sa 17:34, 35, 36, 37; Ps 27:2,3; 42:4,5; 71:14,18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24; 2Cor 4:8, 9, 10; 2Ti 4:16, 17, 18)

Proven character (1382) (dokime) (Click for in depth study of the related verb dokimazo) can describe a trial, test or ordeal (2Co 8:2). More commonly in  the NT it describes the quality of having stood the test.

BDAG says that "enduring something amounts to a test that promotes and validates the character of the one undergoing it."

Dokime in secular Greek was used to describe metals that had been tested and been determined to be pure.  The idea of dokime is that when you put the metal through a fiery test and if it comes out on the other side "persevering and enduring", you call the metal proven, authentic or genuine. That is the sense of dokime in Romans 5:3,4.  When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and if you  persevere, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You have "proof" that your faith is real for it has been tested and has stood the test.

Vine adds that here in Ro 5:4 dokime has the

meaning of approval, as a result of proving (see also 2Co 2:9; 9:13; Php 2:22), the condition of one who is conscious of having endured tribulations effectually, the spiritual state resulting being in accordance with God’s designs. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

Barclay...

Dokime is used of metal which has been passed through the fire so that everything base has been purged out of it. It is used of coinage as we use the word sterling. When affliction is met with fortitude, out of the battle a man emerges stronger, and purer, and better, and nearer God.

Richards...

The word group from which dokime comes draws our attention to testing as a means of determining genuineness and thus as a grounds for giving approval. Dokime is the quality of being approved and thus of having a demonstrated character...

 Words in this family (dokimazo, dokime, dokimos, or adokimos) emphasize that the test is designed to display the genuineness of that which is tried.

Dokime refers to a person who has successfully sustained the fiery test (eg, Timothy - Php 2:22-note). He has learned that by God's grace he can endure.

"I have trusted God in the middle of the trouble and found that God is faithful!"

In short, afflictions borne patiently show a Christian what he or she really is "made of". And so in the present context dokime refers to tried integrity or a state of mind which has stood the test.

The related verb dokimazo means “to put to the test for the purpose of approving, and finding that the person tested meets the specifications, to put one’s approval upon him.” This approved character produces in turn and increasing degree of hope, of absolute certainty that the Lord will do good to us in the future! (see index below to in depth study of this "blessed hope")

Dokime - 7x in 6v - NAS = ordeal(1), proof(2), proven character(2), proven worth(1), test(1).

Romans 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

2Corinthians 2:9 For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

2Corinthians 8:2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.

2Corinthians 9:13 Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all,

2Corinthians 13:3 since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.

Philippians 2:22-note But you know of his [Timothy's] proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.

Amy Carmichael in Candles in the Dark -- The best training is to learn to accept everything as it comes, as from Him whom our soul loves. The tests are always unexpected things, not great things that can be written up, but the common little rubs of life, silly little nothings, things you are ashamed of minding (at all). Yet they can knock a strong man over and lay him very low.

Wayne Barber explains proven character noting that...

The verb (katergazomai [word study]) is still implied (and can be paraphrased0 "brings out, works out" proven character. Suffering is a part of every believer’s life, just like it’s a part of anybody else in this world, except that we have persecution thrown in. The difference is we have the ability to endure. When we are able to bear up under in the power God gives us to bear up under, that proves something, not only to us but also to the world of what we really are. It proves the fact that we’ve been justified by our faith. I’ve always said, "Put a Christian under pressure, and you’ll find out what they’re made of." Pressure is God’s classroom. The whole world suffers, but to us it becomes a classroom. The term "proven character" is really the word dokime. It means to prove something, approve something. It’s the word Paul used in Philippians 2:22 when Paul spoke about Timothy. He said, "But you know of his proven worth that he served me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father." He’s been proven. It’s the same word. It’s also used in James 1:12-note;  when James says, "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." It’s a proving of something. When you depend upon the Lord you find something out about yourself, but you also find out something about Him that you could have known in no other way.

Peter says in 1Peter 1:6 (see note), "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof [same word] of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We need to understand how important suffering is to us so we don’t start shaking our fist in God’s face the next time something difficult happens in our life. It’s like a refiner’s fire.

Do you know what a refiner’s fire was? When a silversmith melted silver he would put it into a pot and heat that pot and heat that pot. It would get hotter and hotter and hotter, and finally the dross that’s in that silver would come to the surface. He would take a ladle and throw it off. When the silversmith could look into the pot and see himself, then he would cool the fire. Somebody said, "Having gone through the fire, it has become silver." I disagree. It was silver before it ever went in the fire, but it was the fire that burned off all the things that had been hiding what it really was.

When Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego went through the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel, the only things that burned on them were the things that bound them. It didn’t singe a hair on their heads. They didn’t even have the smell of smoke on them.

When we go through these things it proves what we are. How many Christians are fighting against the very thing God is trying to use to prove Himself, who you are and what He has given you in the Holy Spirit of God? This is a tremendous truth of this brand new relationship that we have with God. It is no wonder James could say, "Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials." If you read that without knowing Romans, you would think he had lost his mind. Who wants to thank God for trials? This is why Paul said in 1Th 5:18 (note), "in everything give thanks."

He also wrote in Ep 5:20 (note), "always giving thanks for all things." It’s not only IN it but FOR it, because he knows something. Whatever goes on in your life or in my life, God is using it as a refiner’s fire to prove what we are, to prove to us who He is, and to show us how much He desperately loves us.

Suffering is the classroom the believer goes through. Everyone in the world suffers, but Ro 8:17 (note) says we suffer with Christ. That’s the difference. We are not suffering alone. I’ve been justified by faith; therefore, He lives in me. He goes through it with me. That’s the difference between a person in the world and a person who knows Jesus Christ.

If we could see suffering from God’s point of view, we would stand up and rejoice in our suffering. We would begin to understand that we talk about things we have, but we don’t have a clue what that means in our life. Why? Because we fight Him through the valleys. We say, "God, why did You do this?" God’s looking back at you and saying, "Wait a minute. Don’t you eternally stand in My favor? It is for your good that I am doing this. I’m using it to shape you into the image of My Son, Jesus Christ. That’s the most incredible message in Romans 5 for the believer that you can find.

The world would stand up and defy everything I am saying. "Ah! God must be a cruel god to make us live like we live." God is the greatest god you can ever be around. The problem is they are looking at it from their perspective, not from His. So, it proves us; it proves Him to us, us to ourselves and gives us a witness to people who are all around us. Suffering, persecution, you name it. All of that has to do with God’s loving us in this life. If you didn’t go through it, you would have nothing to say on the other end of it.

Barnes explains this process writing that dokime refers to...

"that thorough examination by which we ascertain the quality or nature of a thing, as when we test a metal by fire, or in any other way, to ascertain that it is genuine. It also means approbation, or the result of such a trial; the being approved, and accepted as the effect of a trying process. The meaning is, that long afflictions borne patiently show a Christian what he is; they test his religion, and prove that it is genuine. Afflictions are often sent for this purpose, and patience in the midst of them shows that the religion which can sustain them is from God... (Afflictions) show that religion is genuine; that it is from God; and not only so, but they direct the mind onward to another world (exult in the hope), and sustain the soul by the prospect of a glorious immortality there." (Romans 5)

James writes a similar motivating truth...

"Blessed is a man who perseveres (hupomone - present tense = continually, habitually) under trial (peirasmos); for once he has been approved (dokimos), he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:12)
 

In a parallel truth, Peter encourages his suffering readers...

"In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if (since it is) necessary (to prepare us for glory), you have been distressed by various ("sized and shaped") trials (peirasmos), that the proof (dokimon) of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1Pe 1:6, 7-see notes 1Pe 1:6; 1:7).

In short, Christians can boast and rejoice in tribulations fully confident of what those tribulations are guaranteed to produce. This truth is another facet of the diamond called the good news or the gospel. Let us stand firm therefore and gird our minds for action, disciplining ourselves for godliness, for such discipline is profitable not only for the present age but for that to come!

And so for a believer, trials work FOR and NOT AGAINST us. No amount of suffering can separate us from the Lord, for as Paul asks

"Who (or what) shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (see note Romans 8:35)

In point of truth, trials actually bring us closer to our Lord and make us more like Him. Suffering builds Christ-like character, a character that has been tested and received God's seal of approval! When you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is "proven" or "authentic" or "genuine" and that is the idea of this section. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it bears up under the load of the difficult circumstance and results in the finished product, a wonderful sense of authenticity. You know beyond doubt that your faith is genuine for it has been tested and has stood the test with perseverance. Your faith is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine.

Cranfield adds that...

"the quality of provedness which is possessed by faith when it has stood up to testing, like the precious metal which is left when the base metals have been refined away”

The idea is that sufferings are like a test which, when endured by the strength which God supplies, results in a quality of life and character that has been tempered and purified and demonstrated to be pleasing to God.

Paul is probably drawing on a well established theme of Jewish wisdom—the idea of testing, particularly that of proving gold by testing it with fire.

In (Proverbs 17:3) Solomon writes that...

"The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts." The Septuagint (Greek of the Hebrew) reads "As silver and gold are continuously tried (dokimazo) in a furnace, so are choice hearts with the Lord."
 

Ray Stedman:

We have all seen the tire advertisements on television. A car is equipped with four tires and is put through horrendous tests -- driven through desert sands, bogs, swamps, and marshes, driven over rough, hard, cobblestone roads, over roads with holes and chuck-holes, over boards studded with nails. The tire is twisted and pulled and stretched in every direction, and you are amazed at what that tire can take! After the test is over, they hold the tire up and it looks like it's never been out of its wrapping! Then the ad comes: "Buy Sock'em Tires! They're tested, proven!" Now that is what this word character means. God is building you up so he can hold you up and say, "He's approved, he's tested." God is in the process of making veterans. I have always liked that word. A veteran has been through something and has been tested and proven. (Read full text of Rejoicing in Suffering)

AND PROVEN CHARACTER, HOPE: e de dokime elpida: (See detailed chart discussion on hope)

That hope does not put the believer to shame suggests that, on the contrary, being freed from illusion and despair, he is able to go boldly on his course through this life, knowing that he will not be disappointed.

How does "proven character" bring about hope? Isn't the answer that when your faith has been tried in affliction, and persevered, and thus proven genuine and authentic you know you are real and not a fake Christian and that gives you hope that you really are a child of God and will inherit his glory. In other words, one of the great obstacles to a full and strong hope in the glory of God is the fear that we are hypocrites - that our faith is not real and that we just inherited it from our parents and have been motivated by things that are not honoring to God. One of the purposes of afflictions in our lives is to give us victory over those fears and make us full of hope and confidence as the children of God.

Hendriksen writes that...

It is immediately clear that consciousness, on their part, of the fact that they have sustained the test, so that God’s approval rests on them, will strengthen their hope. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Baker Book or Logos)

Morris adds that...

the Christian who has been tested has proved God’s faithfulness and will surely hope the more confidently. (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
 

Cranfield explained that...

To have one's faith proved by God in the fires of tribulation and sustained by Him so as to stand the test is to have one's hope in Him and in the fulfilment of His promises, one's hope of His glory (Ro 5:2), strengthened and confirmed.

MacArthur adds that...

The more a believer pursues holiness, the more he is persecuted and troubled and the greater will be his hope as he is sustained through it all by God’s powerful grace. (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)

Denney comments that...

The experience of what God can do, or rather of what He does, for the justified amid the tribulations of this life, animates into new vigor the hope with which the life of faith begins.

Ray Stedman writes:

"Suffering produces character. Character (gradually growing into true manhood and womanhood) makes us hope, for we see that the job is being done, and we know that God is at work and that we need not stand at last ashamed and disappointed before Jesus Christ when he comes. All this, Paul says, is because God loves us -- so, when suffering comes, it is not a mark of God's anger; it is a mark of his love. That is what Heb12 says, doesn't it? Every son whom God receives, he chastens because he loves him -- not because he hates him -- but because he loves him {cf, Heb12:6}. Therefore, there is no necessity to cry out, and say, "Oh, what have I done? What have I done, that God should treat me like this?" We think that God is interested in getting a certain amount of work done in this world, and we think that the work is the important thing to God, but it is not so. God doesn't need us to do the work that he wants done in the world. He can do that with a rock, or a stone, or a child, or a tree -- it makes no difference. Did not Jesus say, when the Pharisees rebuked the crowds for praising him as he rode into the city of Jerusalem on the triumphal entry -- did not he say to them, "Look, if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out," {cf, Lk19:40}. That is, God can use anything to do his work. This isn't what he is interested in. He is interested in our lives -- it is what the work does to us, it is what life is doing to us. It is our character that God is after, and this is why (in love) he introduces suffering, tribulation, trials, disappointments, and anguish into our lives. These are an indispensable part of the process. Oh, I wish we could see that! These things come because he loves us, and because he has given the Holy Spirit to us to do this very work in our lives.

Let me share with you a brief word from Amy Carmichael; some of you know of her great work out in India. She was a woman who suffered greatly through her life, but accomplished tremendous things for God in southern India. She writes this under the title, The Shadowed Way:
 

AND (biblical) HOPE DOES NOT (never, ever) DISAPPOINT (ashamed): e de elpis ou kataischunei (3SPAI):  (Job 27:8; Ps 22:4,5; Isa 28:15, 16, 17, 18; 45:16,17; 49:23; Jer 17:5, 6, 7, 8; Phil 1:20; 2Th 2:16; 2Ti 1:12; Heb 6:18,19)

Jeremiah writes...

Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. (Why?) For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, nor cease from yielding fruit. (Jer 17:7-8)

Paul prayed on the basis of the assurance of this hope...

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. (2Th 2:16,17)

John Piper writes that that Paul addresses two threats to the assurance of our salvation...

One was that our faith might be fake, and the fire of tribulation is a gift to prove us and show us to ourselves that we are real. The other is that the object of our faith might be fake. What if we make it through tribulation with proven faith and growing hope, and in the end that hope proves to have been built on sand? We thought God loved us, but it turns out he didn't? That is what Paul addresses in verse 5.  He says that God has provided a remedy for this kind of doubt and fretting. He calls it the pouring out of the love of God within our hearts. I take the phrase "love of God" in verse 5 ("the love of God has been poured out within our hearts") to refer mainly to God's love for us, not our love for God...

Whatever else we say about this experience, let this be said: it is not decisively the work of man, but the work of God. It is supernatural. It is not finally in our power. It is not the product of mere circumstances. It is not owing to a good family of origin. It is owing to the Holy Spirit. You don't make it happen. The Holy Spirit makes it happen. It's his work. There is something deeply wrong when we have become so naturalistic and so psychologized that we think a person with a traumatic, abusive background cannot know the love of God experientially. We give the impression that knowing the love of God is really a matter of good upbringing. But when we take this so far that we obscure the main and glorious truth that knowing the love of God experientially is the sovereign, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, we have taken it too far. To balance things out, consider this: is it not also likely that many healthy, well-adjusted, productive adults from self-assured families mistake their own natural sense of well-being for the love of God, and are therefore worse off spiritually than the broken person who, beyond all expectation, has tasted the love of God by the power of the Holy Spirit? (Click Romans 5:3-8 for full sermon)

Hope (1680) (elpis [word study]) in Scripture is not the world's definition of "I hope so", with a few rare exceptions (e.g., Acts 27:20) Hope is defined as a desire for some future good with the expectation of obtaining it. Hope is confident expectancy. Hope is the looking forward to something with some reason for confidence respecting fulfillment.

Does not (3756) (ou) expresses direct and full negation, independently and absolutely, and hence, objectively. This differs from me (3361) which implies a conditional and hypothetical neg., and is, thus, subjective.

There is a hope which will disappoint - it is an illusory, deceptive, empty hope of men who have grasped at the wind and believed words of straw instead of hoping in Christ. Solomon writes that...

When a wicked man dies, his expectation (Hebrew = tiqvah = hope) will perish, and the hope of strong men perishes (comes to nothing). (Proverbs 11:7)

Comment: Dear reader, the sad end of a deceptive professed hope begs the question - have you placed your faith and hope in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Living Lord Jesus Christ which is evidenced by a definite change [cf repentance] in your life?

Does not disappoint - does not bring us shame. Notice that the Greek word for not (ou) signifies absolute negation - it will never, ever disappoint! This is surely good news for the redeemed - let us say so!

The Septuagint translation has several OT passages speaking of those who hope or trust in God will be ashamed.

David wrote that...

Indeed, none of those who wait ("hope" in NIV; Hebrew = qavah = to wait for and/or look for with eager expectation and confident hope)  for Thee will be ashamed (Septuagint uses the root word - aischuno - be ashamed); Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed. (Psalm 25:3)

Spurgeon writes "The prayer may be viewed as a promise; our Heavenly Father will never let his trustful children find him untrue or unkind. He will ever be mindful of his covenant."

In another Psalm (a Messianic one) David wrote...

In Thee our fathers trusted; They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. To Thee they cried out, and were delivered; In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed (Septuagint  = ashamed =  kataischuno) (Psalm 22:4, 5).

Through Isaiah Jehovah issues the sure promise...

Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it (Him - Messiah) will not be disturbed (Septuagint = ashamed =  kataischuno). (Isaiah 28:16 - quoted in 1Pe 2:6-note)

Disappoint (2617) (kataischuno from katá = intensifies verb aischúno = to shame) cause someone to be much ashamed, humiliated or disgraced.

Disappoint (2617) (Kataischuno from kata = down but here intensifies meaning of verb aischuno = to shame) means primarily to put to shame, to humiliate, to disgrace (1Cor 11:4, 5) and (as used in the present verse) to disappoint or to frustrate one's hope (Ro 9:33-note, Ro 10:11-note, 1Pe 2:6-note).

This hope does not prove illusory (Sanday & Headlam)

Vine writes that this hope...

does not put the believer to shame (but)... on the contrary, being freed from illusion and despair, he is able to go boldly on his course through this life, knowing that he will not be disappointed. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

In a context like this the verb has the Hebrew usage where one is said to be put to shame who suffers a repulse, or whom some hope has deceived. The KJV is not bad

"and hope maketh not ashamed".

God's Word Translation paraphrases it as...

We're not ashamed to have this confidence

Hope makes us confident. Hope, or certainty, produces confidence and boldness. We will NEVER be ashamed by this HOPE -- it is sure and steadfast.

This hope is based on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness and so dear believer...

we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (He 6:18, 19, 20-See notes He 6:18; 19; 20) (Note that when our hope is centered on Christ and His finished work on our behalf, it will not disappoint. Note also that this hope is moored to the throne of grace which is “within the veil,” where Jesus is seated at God’s right hand living and interceding forevermore for his people - Heb 7:25-note).

Solomon writes that

Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Pr 13:12).

But for a believer hope does not make the heart sick nor disappoint because God’s love is poured within our hearts.

Wiersbe reminds us that...

Before we were saved, God proved His love by sending Christ to die for us. Now that we are His children, surely He will love us more. It is the inner experience of this love through the Spirit that sustains us as we go through tribulations.

For many months I visited a young man in a hospital who had almost burned to death. I do not know how many operations and skin grafts he had during those months, or how many specialists visited him. But the thing that sustained him during those difficult months was not the explanations of the doctors but the promises they gave him that he would recover. That was his hope. And the thing that sustained his hope was the love of his family and many friends as they stood by him. The love of God was channeled through them to him. He did recover and today gives glory to God. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos).

MacDonald adds that...

If we were to hope for something but then later find that we were never going to get it, our hope would be put to shame or disappointed. But the hope of our salvation will never be put to shame. We will never be disappointed or find that we have rested on a false confidence. How can we be so sure? (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

BKC comments that...

The reality of God’s love in a believer’s heart gives the assurance, even the guarantee, that the believer’s hope in God and His promise of glory is not misplaced and will not fail. This ministry of the Holy Spirit is related to His presence in believers as the seal of God (Ep 4:30-note) and as the earnest or down payment of their inheritance in glory (2Cor. 1:21, 22; Ep 1:13, 14-notes). Later Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit Himself has been poured out in believers (Titus 3:6-note). Each believer has the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8:9-note) in the sense that He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1Jn 3:24; 4:13).

If you are a Christian, God really means for you to have assurance that you are going to inherit the glory of God. You are going to go to heaven when you die, not hell; and you are going be a part of Christ's future kingdom, and live forever in the new heavens and the new earth with unbroken joy and no affliction. The truth of Ro 5:5 is that God gives assurance to us through the Holy Spirit. Paul knows that there is more than one enemy to our assurance. One is the fear that we might be hypocrites. We might be fake Christians, no Christians at all, even though we are religious and belong to the Church. He teaches us here that affliction is God's great proving ground for the genuineness of faith. And he graciously takes us through trials so that our faith will be seen as genuine and we will have hope because we are not hypocrites. But there is another enemy to our assurance. What if the object of our faith is false? Not just our faith, but what we put our faith in. What if we make it through tribulation with proven faith and growing hope, and in the end that hope proves to have been built on sand? We thought God loved us, but it turns out he didn't. He may not even exist. That too is a great obstacle to our assurance. And Paul's answer here to it is not an argument, but an experience. There are arguments, and Paul is willing to use them. But here he simply says, your hope, rooted in the genuineness of your proven faith, will not disappoint you. And you can know this because the Holy Spirit has come into your life and has begun to pour the love of God experientially into your heart. This is not mainly an argument. This is mainly a personal experience of God's love flooding the heart with an immediate sense of God's reality and love.

William Newell remarks that...

And our state of hope does not make us ashamed: because God's love for us is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Furthermore, then, no matter how much the world or worldly Christians may avoid or deride us, this hopefulness is not "ashamed, " or is not "put to shame": because there is supplied the inward and wonderful miracle of the consciousness of God's love shed abroad in our hearts through that second mighty gift of God to us (Christ Himself being the first), -the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Romans 5)

So this hope will not disappoint us or cause us to be ashamed; i.e., it is not a hope that will deceive us. Nothing confounds more than disappointment. Everlasting shame and confusion will be caused by the perishing of the expectation of the wicked for as Proverbs 10:28 says

"The hope of the righteous (of who?) is gladness, but the expectation of the wicked perishes."

We will never think ourselves disparaged (spoken slightingly about) by sufferings that are likely to end so well. Indeed, we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us.

An earthly illustration of our hope which does not disappoint: about the boy and his father who were planning a fishing trip for the next day. That evening as the father was putting his son to bed, the boy hugged his father's neck and said, "Daddy, thank you for tomorrow."

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The Book Of Hope: Writing in Texas Co-Op Power magazine, Donna Chapman described the excitement generated on her family's farm in the 1940s by the arrival of the Montgomery Ward catalog. Often called "the wish book," its pages were filled with images of items ranging from clothing and cook stoves to furniture and tools. The catalog's warm, friendly tone seemed to invite people to picture themselves as they lived, worked, and dressed at the time, and as they hoped to become.

The Bible is not a spiritual mail-order catalog, but in its pages we vividly see ourselves both as we are today and as we hope to be. The Bible certainly is God's book of hope. In Romans 5, Paul said that "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Ro 5:2), "glory in tribulations" (Ro 5:3), and "rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ro 5:11). Even our present difficulties are an essential part of the process of becoming the people we know God wants us to be. The Bible is far more than a book of wishful thinking; it is a book of well-founded confidence in God's purpose and plan for us as believers. Whatever we are like today, we know that in Christ we have a living hope, and it will not end in disappointment. —D C McCasland  (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

A strong defense to guard the soul
Is ours from heaven above;
God fills our hearts with steadfast hope
And gives us faith and love. —D. De Haan

No one is hopeless whose hope is in God's Word.

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BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD HAS BEEN POURED OUT: hoti e agape tou theou ekkechutai (3SRPI): (Ro 8:14, 15, 16, 17,28; Mt 22:36,37; 1Cor 8:3; Heb 8:10, 11, 12; 1Jn 4:19)

Note Paul's transition from faith (Ro 5:1, 2-see notes Ro 5:1; 5:2) to hope (Ro 5:2, 4, 5-see notes Ro 5:2; 5:4; 5:5), to love (Ro 5:5-note).

Love of God could be interpreted as the love God has for us or the love we now have for Him, but in view of the fact that "God demonstrates His own love for us" in verse 8, the love of God most likely refers to His love for us. Furthermore, the proof that our hope will not disappoint us in the end is the fact of the amazing generosity of God’s love for us—a fact which we have been enabled to know and understand by His gift of the Holy Spirit to every believer.

John reminds us that...

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1Jn 4:10-11)

Spurgeon writes that...

The love of God is like light to a blind eye until the Holy Ghost opens that eye . . . may the Holy Spirit now be here in each one of us, to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts.

Poured out (1632) (ekcheo from ek = out + chéo = pour) means literally to pour out, and pictures a lavish outpouring to the point of overflowing. In other words, God’s love is not rationed out drop by drop but is like a mighty endless current!

Three NT uses of ekcheo refer to the Holy Spirit...

Whom (the Holy Spirit) He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (see note Titus 3:6)

And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; (Acts 2:17)

All the circumcised (Jewish) believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. (Acts 10:45)

The pouring out in Romans 5:5 is however not of the Holy Spirit but of God's holy love. The pouring out of divine love marks an interesting contrast with John's 9 uses of ekcheo in Revelation 16, all but one referring to a pouring out of God's wrath. So either one repents and believes in Jesus and has God's love poured out extravagantly within his heart or he rebels against and blasphemes Jesus and has God's wrath poured out abundantly!

Paul also used ekcheo one other time in Romans to describe unbelievers whose...

feet are swift to shed (ekcheo) blood (Ro 3:15-note)

Poured out speaks of the inexhaustible abundance of the supply and is reminiscent of the copious provision for the thirsty children of Israel in the wilderness...

"Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. (Nu 20:11).

God's love flows out in abundance and we experience it in an abundant manner.  

Ekcheo is in the perfect tense which conveys the picture that the "pouring out" began at some point of time in the past (at conversion) and the effects, results and benefits of that outpouring continue - they have not been withdrawn. The idea is that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts and still floods them. The fact that the voice is passive supports the interpretation that this is a reference to God's love for us not our love for God.

Philippi rightly observes that...

The love of God does not descend upon us as dew in drops, but as a stream which spreads itself abroad through the whole soul, filling it with the consciousness of his presence and favor.

Wuest paraphrase nicely conveys this thought also picking up the essence of ekcheo in the perfect tense...

has been poured out in our hearts and still floods them through the agency of the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.

God’s love comes to us as a brimming and overflowing river, in “immeasurable torrents” , in “unstinting lavishness”. His love in our hearts is like a shower of rain soaking parched ground. One of the Holy Spirit's main roles is to

"make us deeply and refreshingly aware that God loves us."

Guzik comments that...

God's love isn't given to us in a trickle, it is poured out in our hearts. Some Christians live as if it was only a trickle but God wants us to know the outpouring of His love. (Romans 5)

Leon Morris writes that...

While the reference is surely to the love God has for us, we should not overlook the truth that the Spirit’s pouring of God’s love into our hearts is a creative act. It kindles love in us, and love “becomes the moral principle by which we live” (Dodd). Poured out points to abundance (cf. Moffatt, “floods our hearts”). (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)

In a passage with a parallel thought to Romans 5:5, John records that...

on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (Jn 7:37, 38, 39)

The rivers of living water now can flow out of believers because God has poured into them His love by His Spirit.

Sanday adds that

the idea of spiritual refreshment and encouragement is conveyed through the metaphor of watering. (Sanday, W., & Headlam, A. C.. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of the Romans. Originally published 1897. T. & T. Clark Publishers. 1980)

Notice how the first three aspects of the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22, 23-see notes Gal 5:22; 23) are experienced: love (Ro 5:5), joy (Ro 5:2), and peace (Ro 5:1). Before we were saved, God proved His love by sending Christ to die for us. Now that we are His children, surely He will love us much more. It is the inner experience of this love through the Spirit that sustains us as we go through tribulations.

WITHIN OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO WAS GIVEN TO US: en tais kardiais hemon dia pneumatos hagiou tou dothentos (APPNSG) hemin: (Isa 44:3, 4, 5; Ezek 36:25; 2Cor 1:22; 3:18; 4:6; Gal 4:6; 5:22; Ep 1:13; Ep 3:16, 17, 18, 19; 4:30; Titus 3:5)

Within our hearts - The manifestation of God's love is not an external revelation as one might see in His works of providence or even in His act of redemption, but it is diffused within our hearts. The Greek preposition is eis which conveys the primary idea of motion into any place or thing, in this case into the heart, the "control tower" so to speak of the believer's being.

Heart  (2588) (kardia [word study]) as used here and most places in Scripture does not refer to the physical organ but figuratively refers to the seat and center of human life. Even as the heart is the chief organ of physical life, the heart figuratively is the inner spring of the personal life, the seat of the affections. The heart is the wellspring of man’s spiritual life. The heart is the center of the personality, and it controls the intellect, emotions, and will.  No outward obedience is of the slightest value unless the heart turns to God.

Vine writes that kardia...

came to denote man’s entire mental and moral activities, and to stand figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life, and so here signifies the seat of thought and feeling. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson )

MacArthur adds that

Constable writes that in this verse we see...

The fourth benefit of justification therefore is the indwelling Holy Spirit. Note the progression in these verses from faith (Ro 5:1) to hope (Ro 5:2, 3, 4, 5) to love (Ro 5:5; cf. 1Cor 13:13).. (Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible)

Through the Holy Spirit - This is the first mention of love and the first mention of the Holy Spirit in believers in Romans (cf Ro 1:4-note).

Hodge notes that

this inward assurance that we are the objects of the love of God is not the mere result of the examination of evidence, nor is it a vain delusion, but it is produced by the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Ro 8:16 [note]; 2Co 1:21,22; Ep 1:14 [note]). (Hodge, Charles: Commentary on Romans. Ages Classic Commentaries  or Logos)

Vine notes that...

Each believer received the Holy Spirit when he believed (John 7:39; cp. Acts 5:32 and Ro 8:9-note). Since the believer was then “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6), and lives by the Spirit (Gal 5:25-note), He is his inalienable possession. (Ibid)

Harry Ironside observes that...

 In Romans 1 (Ro 1:4-note). we read of the Spirit of holiness in connection with Christ's work and resurrection. But we do not read of the Spirit's work in the believer until the soul enters into peace through the apprehension of the finished work of Christ. This is all-important. I am not saved by what goes on within myself. I am saved by what the Lord Jesus did for me. But the Spirit seals me when I believe the gospel (Ep 4:30-note), and by His indwelling (Ro 8:9-note), the love of God is shed abroad within my heart.

Soon as my all I ventured
On the atoning blood,
The Holy Spirit entered,
For I was born of God.

It is a great mistake to rely on my own recognition of the Spirit's work within me as the ground of my assurance. Assurance is by the word of the truth of the gospel. But upon believing, I receive the Spirit (see note Romans 8:9). John gave corroborative evidence of Romans 5:5 "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1Jn 3:14). (Ironside, Harry. Romans and Galatians. Kregel. 2006)

Holy Spirit (Click for nice summary) is the mysterious third Person of the Trinity through Whom God acts, reveals His will, empowers individuals, and discloses His personal presence in the Old and New Testament. The Holman Bible Dictionary writes that...

Of the eighty-seven times that the Spirit is described as wind, thirty-seven describe the wind as the agent of God, mostly baneful, and ever strong and intense. This property of the Spirit clearly reflects the power of God... Luke has many more references to the Holy Spirit than do the other synoptic accounts. This can be accounted for by Luke's theological interests which are extended in the Acts of the Apostles, which has been rightly named “The Acts of the Holy Spirit” because of the prominence given to the Spirit...All apostolic writers witnessed to the reality of the Spirit in the church; however, the apostle Paul, who wrote more than any other author, offers the most theological reflection on the subject. The main chapters to consult are Romans 8; 1Corinthians 2; 1Corinthians 12-14; 2Corinthians 3; and Galatians 5. Johannine theology is rich in its doctrine of the Spirit. In the Gospel of John, the Spirit possesses Christ (John 1:32, 33); is indicative of the new birth (John 3:1-16); will come upon Jesus' departure (John 16:7, 8, 9, 10, 11); and will endow the believer after the resurrection (John 20:22). The Christian community is anointed by the Spirit (1John 2:20); and the Spirit assures the believer of the indwelling presence of Jesus (1John 3:24). In the prophetic Book of Revelation, John, in Old Testament fashion, depicted himself as a prophet inspired by the Spirit.

John Piper writes that...

The Holy Spirit is not a mood-altering drug. He is an illuminator of the glory of God's love in the work of Christ. He is a heart-eye opener to the ravishing reality that in the death of Christ for us, God loved us infinitely.  (Romans 5:3-8)

Was given (1325) (didomi) means to give based on decision of the will of the giver with no merit of recipient.

This giving of the Spirit does not refer to the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost in the sense that at that time He came to form the Church, but to the act of the Spirit at the time of the conversion of every believer, at which time He takes up His permanent abode in the believer's inner being.

It is interesting though that Luke used the same verb ekcheo in describing the event at Pentecost, Peter declaring...

"Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear." (Acts 2:33)

Note that this outpouring by the Holy Spirit fulfills God's promise to Israel in captivity in Ezekiel's day, the prophet recording God's declaration that...

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." (Ezekiel 36:26, 27, cf Ezek 18:31)

Calvin adds that "given" means that this love was

bestowed through the gratuitous goodness of God, and not conferred for our merits (Romans 5)

Paul records the following verses dealing with the gift of the Spirit...

Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. (2Cor 1:21-22)

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Gal 4:6)

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ep 1:13, 14-note)

Note that every believer has the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:9-note), but not every believer lives in the fullness of the Spirit (Ep 5:18-note), and not every believer walks in the Spirit (Ro 8:4, 5-see notes Ro 8:4; 8:5).

The Spirit within sheds God’s love to us and through us. God revealed His love at the Cross when Christ died for those who were “helpless,” “ungodly,” “sinners,” and “enemies,” thus proving His great love. Paul’s argument is that if God did all that for us while we were His enemies, how much more will He do for us now that we are His children! We are saved by Christ’s death (Ro 5:9), but we are also saved by His life (Ro 5:10) as “the power of His resurrection” (Php 3:10-note, Ro 1:4-note) operates in our lives. We have received “reconciliation” (Ro 5:11), and now the love of God is experienced in our lives.

Harry Ironside (Ironside, H. Romans - Bolding added) observes that...

This is the first mention of the Spirit's work in the believer. In Romans 1 we read of the Spirit of holiness in connection with Christ's work and resurrection. But we do not read of the Spirit's work in the believer until the soul enters into peace through the apprehension of the finished work of Christ. This is all-important. I am not saved by what goes on within myself. I am saved by what the Lord Jesus did for me. But the Spirit seals me when I believe the gospel, and by His indwelling, the love of God is shed abroad within my heart.

Soon as my all I ventured
On the atoning blood,
The Holy Spirit entered,
For I was born of God.

It is a great mistake to rely on my own recognition of the Spirit's work within me as the ground of my assurance. Assurance is by the word of the truth of the gospel. But upon believing, I receive the Spirit (see Romans 8). John gave corroborative evidence of Romans 5:5:

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1John 3:14 ).

G Campbell Morgan remarks that the words in this verse...