Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
13. the God of hope ] Lit. of the hope; i.e. of our hope, the special hope in question; the Christian’s hope of glory. So just below, that ye may abound in the hope.
St Paul takes up the last word of the last quotation, and applies it in this expression of holy and loving desire. He ceases now to speak of controversy, and looks joyfully heavenward. On the whole ver., cp. ch. Rom 5:1-5.
in believing ] The word seems to sum up the great argument of the Epistle. Here closes its course of explicit Instruction, whether concerning Doctrine or Practice. The remainder is devoted to personal and other incidental topics. Meyer calls the passage, Rom 15:14-33, the “Epilogue” of the Epistle.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now the God of hope – The God who inspires, or produces the Christian hope.
All joy and peace – Rom 14:17. If they were filled with this, there would be no strife and contention.
In believing – The effect of believing is to produce this joy and peace.
That ye may abound … – That your hope may be steadfast and strong.
Through the power … – By means of the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit. It is by his power alone that the Christian has the hope of eternal life; see Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:24.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 15:13
Now the God of hope.
The blessing given to the Church at Rome
I. A benediction pronounced. Filled–
1. With what? joy and peace in believing.
2. By whom? the God of hope.
3. To what end? that ye may abound, etc.
II. A fact stated.
1. The high estimate in which Paul held the Roman converts.
2. The reminder that was needed by them, so that they should not forget Gods grace.
III. A great progress in Christian knowledge implied (Rom 15:14). The Romans were–
1. Filled with knowledge.
2. Able to admonish their erring fellow Christians. (J. Hanson.)
Christian privileges
I. The privileges of true Christians.
1. Joy.
2. Peace.
3. Hope.
II. The method of securing them.
1. God the source.
2. Faith in Christ the means.
3. The Holy Ghost the agent. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
A round of delights
1. The apostle desired for the Romans the most delightful state of mind. See the value of prayer, for if Paul longs to see his friends attain the highest possible condition, he prays for them.
2. Pauls making this state a subject of prayer implies that it is possible for it to be attained. There is no reason why we should hang our heads and live in perpetual doubt. We may not only be somewhat comforted, but we may be full of joy, etc.
3. The fact that the happy condition described is sought by prayer is a plain evidence that the blessing comes from a Divine source. Notice concerning this state:–
I. Whence. It comes. From the God of hope. The connection is instructive.
1. To know joy and peace through believing we must begin by knowing what is to be believed from Holy Scripture (verse 4). Where He is revealed as the God of hope. Unless God had revealed Himself we could have guessed at hope, but the Scriptures are windows of hope to us, and reveal the God of hope to inspire us with hope. Faith deals with the Scriptures and with the God of hope as therein revealed, and out of these it draws its fulness of joy and peace. At least three of the apostles quotations call us to joy (verses 10-12).
2. The apostle leads us through the Scriptures to God Himself, who is personally to fill us with joy and peace; i.e., He is to become the great object of our joy. Our God is a blessed God, so that to believe in Him is to find happiness and rest. When you think of God, the just One, apart from Christ, you might well tremble, but when you see Him in Jesus, His very justice becomes precious to you. The holiness of God which aforetime awed you becomes supremely attractive when you see it revealed in the person of Jesus. How charming is the glory of God in the face of Christ. His power, which was once so terrible, now becomes delightful.
3. God is, moreover, called the God of hope because He worketh hope and joy in us. Peace without God is stupefaction, joy madness, and hope presumption. This blessed name of God of hope belongs to the New Testament, and is a truly gospel title. The Romans had a god of hope, but the temple was struck by lightning, and afterwards burned to the ground. Exceedingly typical this of whatever of hope can come to nations which worship gods of their own making. The hope which God excites is a hope worthy of Him. It is a Godlike hope–a hope which helps us to purify ourselves. He who graspeth this hope hath a soul-satisfying portion. It is a hope which only God would have contrived for man, and a hope which God alone can inspire in men.
II. What it is.
1. It is a state of mind–
(1) Most pleasant, for to be filled with joy is a rare delight, reminding one of heaven.
(2) Safe, for the man who has a joy which God gives him may be quite easy in the enjoyment of it.
(3) Abiding. We may drink our full of it without surfeit.
(4) Most profitable, for the more a man has of this joy the better man he will be. The more happy we can be in our God the more thoroughly will the will of Christ be fulfilled in us, for He desired that our joy might be full.
(5) Which has varieties in it. It is joy and peace; and it may be either. Peace is joy resting, and joy is peace dancing. Joy cries hosanna before the Well-beloved, but peace leans her head on His bosom. We work with joy and rest with peace.
(6) Which is also a compound, for we are bidden at one and the same time to receive both wine and milk–wine exhilarating with joy, and milk satisfying with peace. Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. You shall lie down in the green pastures of delight, and be led by the still waters of quietness.
2. The joy and peace here spoken of are through believing. You come to know the God of hope through the Scriptures, which reveal Him; by this you are led to believe in Him, and it is through that believing that you become filled with joy and peace. It is not by working nor by feeling.
3. This joy and peace are of a superlative character, Fill you with all joy. He means with the best and highest degree of joy, with as much of it as you can hold.
4. Notice the comprehensiveness of his prayer.
(1) All joy; that is joy in the Fathers love, the Sons redeeming blood, the Holy Ghosts indwelling; joy in the covenant of grace, in the promises, in the doctrines, in the precepts, in everything which cometh from God.
(2) All peace–with God, of conscience, with one another, even with the outside world, as far as peace may be.
5. Observe the degree of joy and peace which he wishes for them–that ye may be filled. God alone knows our capacity and where the vacuum lies which most needs filling. As the sun fills the world with light, even so the God of hope by His presence lights up every part of our nature with the golden light of joyous peace.
III. What it leads to. Lead to? What more is wanted? When a man brings you into a chamber vaulted with diamonds, walled with gold, and floored with silver, we should be astonished if he said, This is a passage to something richer still. Yet the apostle directs us to this fulness of joy and peace that we may by its means reach to something else–that you may abound in hope, etc. How often do great things in the Bible, like the perpetual cycles of nature, begin where they end and end where they begin. If we begin with the God of hope, we are wound up into holy joy and peace, that we may come back to hope again, and to abounding in it by the power of the Holy Ghost.
1. The hope here mentioned, arises, not out of believing, but out of the joy created in us by our having believed. This hope drinks its life at the fountain of personal experience.
2. The text speaks of an abounding hope. Much hope must arise to a Christian out of his spiritual joy. Grace enjoyed is a pledge of glory. Acceptance with God to-day creates a blessed hope of acceptance for ever.
3. By the power of the Holy Ghost, is partially mentioned by way of caution, because we must discriminate between the fallacious hope of nature and the certain hope of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gospel blessings
I. The blessings derived.
1. Joy.
2. Peace.
3. Hope.
II. The source whence they flow–the God of hope.
III. The measure in which they may be enjoyed.
IV. The means by which they are attained.
V. The power by which they are effected. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The unbounded beneficence of God in the history of a Christian
This is seen in:–
I. The character He assumes towards them God of hope. In this chapter the apostle speaks of Him as the God of patience, and the God of peace. Patience implies something to provoke, viz., sin. The history of the Almighty towards us and our race is a history of patience. Peace implies benevolence, rectitude, and freedom from all anger, remorse, fear, the necessary elements of inward commotion and outward war. God is peaceful in Himself. The storms of all the hells in His great universe ruffle not the infinite tranquility of His nature. He is peaceful in His aim. The constitution of the universe, the principles of moral law, the mediation of Christ, and the work of the Spirit show, that He desires to diffuse peace throughout this stormy world. He is peaceful in His working. How quietly does He move in accomplishing His sublime decrees. But in the text He is styled, God of hope; an appellation more significant than either of the other two, and more interesting to us as sinners. It does not mean that God is the subject of hope. God is infinitely above hope; Satan is infinitely below it; this is the glory of the one, it is the degradation of the other.
1. God is the object of hope. What is hope? Is it expectation? No. We expect sorrow and death. Is it desire? No. A poor man may desire to live in a mansion, a lost spirit to dwell in heaven. But put these two things together. Hope is the expectation of the desirable–God–His favour, society, friendship. Now that God should thus reveal Himself is a wonderful exhibition of love. The mind never points its hopes to a being that it has offended; it always looks to those that it has pleased. But here is God, whom the world has injured, revealing Himself as the object of its hope.
2. God is the author of hope. Before man can possess real Christian hope he must have–
(1) Ground to expect it. What reason have we to expect that the God of inflexible justice and immaculate purity will be favourable to us? Thanks be to Him, He has given us firm ground in the atonement of His Son.
(2) Appetite to desire it. The reason that there is so little real Christian hope is because men do not want God. This appetite is produced by the Spirit of God.
II. The blessings He imparts to them.
1. The nature of the enjoyment. Joy and peace, i.e., complete happiness. How delightful is the calm of nature after a thunderstorm! How still more precious is the peace of the empire after a long war! But how infinitely more so is the peace that passeth all understanding! The great causes of all mental distress are–
(1) Remorse. God removes this by the application of the sacrifice of Christ. As oil smooths the troubled waters, so the atonement of Christ calms the agitated breast. Being justified by faith, etc.
(2) Anger. God takes this away, and fills the heart with love.
(3) Apprehension. God removes this by assuring us of His constant presence and guardianship. Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace, etc.
2. The plenitude of the enjoyment. Fill you, etc. Not a mere taste, a transient thrill, but a fulness of deep spiritual happiness. Have you ever seen a person filled with delight? The tender mother that clasps in her arms a beloved child, etc. Now God wishes His people always to be filled with all joy–intellectual, social, religious: to have as much joy as their vessels can hold in this world. Christians have not lived up to this, and in consequence have led the world to associate the idea of sadness with that religion whose ways are ways of pleasantness, etc. It is our duty to have joy. Rejoice evermere, etc.
3. The condition of the enjoyment. What is this? Painful penances? Great attainments? Difficult labours? No. Believing. An act that can be performed at any time in any place.
4. The design of the enjoyment. That we may abound in hope, etc. This is very remarkable. God wishes us to be filled with happiness, that we may expect the more. The more favours we receive from an individual the less we have to expect; but the reverse is the case with God. Gods disposition to bestow is infinite, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all, etc. Let us come to God with enlarged expectations. We can never weary Him, for it is His delight to give. We can never exhaust His fulness, for it is infinite. What a view does this give us of heaven! We shall be always anticipating; and the more we receive the more we shall anticipate.
III. The agency which He employs for them. Through the power of the Holy Ghost. What an exhibition of mercy is this! Had God employed the greatest, the oldest, or the noblest spirit for this purpose, it would have been wonderful mercy; but He employs His Holy Spirit who is equal with Himself. We are not sufficiently impressed with the value of this Infinite gift. We profess to estimate the gift of His Son to bleed and die for us. True, the world could never be saved without that; but it is equally true that the world could never be saved without the operations of the Spirit. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Prayer to the God of hope
All men desire to be happy; but very few obtain the happiness which they covet. All happiness, except that of the Christian, is but counterfeit. It is like the morning cloud and early dew. Yet even the true Christian often falls short of the blessedness which he might enjoy.
I. The encouraging character here given of God. This manner of speaking expresses somewhat more than if Paul had called God the Author or the Giver of Hope. It is meant to teach us that this is His distinguishing characteristic, that hope springs from Him.
1. Even if we had no revelation of His gracious purposes, the probability would be that there is hope from Him; for we, His guilty creatures, are not yet finally lost–He hath not dealt with us after our sins.
2. This probability is, however, increased to certainty by the gospel. The great design is to encourage our hope. It reveals Gods unspeakable gift to make reconciliation for iniquities. It exhibits God as a present Father and Friend, and assures an eternity of blessedness in Christ.
II. The blessings which may be sought from Him
1. Joy. This may be thought by the penitent too great a blessing to be expected; yet thy Lord allows thee to expect it. Nay, thou art even commanded to rejoice in the Lord. This, however, like all other duties, is hard to fulfil. We are often unfaithful; this unfaithfulness begets distrust; and this interrupts our joy in the Lord. We have, therefore, cause to pray that God would bestow on us, and preserve to us, this inestimable blessing.
2. Peace. This is a gift more common, perhaps, than the other; a gift, also, of a more uniform and abiding nature. The continuance of joy depends in some measure on bodily constitution; but the soul may enjoy peace under the greatest trials. This was, in fact, the dying bequest of Jesus–Peace I leave with you. It is a holy calmness and tranquility, springing from faith in the promises of God. Let the apostles example encourage you in this prayer, both for yourselves and for those whom you love.
3. Hope. Joy and peace are present blessings; but hope has respect to things future. We have already seen that the character of God is calculated to raise our expectation of these future mercies. Now, then, we must pray for strength to hope for them. We are too apt to rest satisfied with the present enjoyments; and, even when we look forward to the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, this is too often done with a cold heart and a languid eye. This is our infirmity and our sin. We ought rather to forget the things which are behind, etc.
4. The prayer of the apostle implies that we should set no bounds to our requests for these blessings. It is no scanty measure of joy, and peace, and hope, which he prays for. Hath He not said, Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it? If, then, our joy, our peace, or hope be defective, we are not straitened in Him; but we are straitened in our own bowels.
III. The way in which we may expect these blessings to be communicated.
1. On our part, Faith is the instrument. It is faith in His Word, which alone can make known to us the existence of such gifts. When, however, the discovery is made, true faith leads a man one step further, constraining him to say, Here is all my salvation and all my desire.
2. On Gods part, the power of the Holy Ghost is promised, for the communication of His gracious gifts. Faith is, indeed, the band which grasps the gift; but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally, in such kind and in such proportion, as He will. (J. Jowett, M.A.)
The God of hope
I. What is implied in this title.
1. The expression is peculiar: He is termed the God of peace (verse 33), of grace (1Pe 5:10), of love and peace (2Co 13:11), of patience (verse 5), and the meaning is not only that He is the Author of these graces in us, but also that they exist in Him. But the case is different with respect to hope: this cannot exist in God, as He has every good in possession, and has nothing for which to hope. In this, and in this chiefly, the Creator differs from all His creatures.
II. The reasons why God has this title.
1. There is in Him the most stable foundation for the most glorious Lopes to all His rational creatures. The most solid ground for hope is offered–
(1) In His nature and attributes, e.g., His self-existence, supremacy, eternity; His infinite power, wisdom, love and mercy, and even His justice, Christ having died.
(2) In the relations in which He stands to us. What may not His offspring expect from such a Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer; His subjects from such a King; His servants from such a Master? What may not we, His children, hope for from such a Parent?
(3) In what He has already done. He has given His Son for the redemption of mankind, and His Spirits influence. And He, who withheld not His own Son, what gift can He deny?
(4) In what He has promised still further to do: to receive us to be with Jesus, to raise our bodies, to give us the vision and enjoyment of Himself, and the society of saints and angels for ever!
2. He is the great object of our hope. The main thing we hope for is, the vision, love, and enjoyment of Him (Psa 73:24).
3. He is also the Author of our hope. By freely justifying us, and by giving us peace with Him; by adopting us into His family; regenerating us by His grace; constituting us His heirs, and giving us an earnest of our future inheritance in our hearts (1Pe 1:3; 2Co 4:17).
III. Application and improvement.
1. What an antidote against–
(1) Distress, on account of all present troubles (chap. 8:16, 17; Heb 11:13-16).
(2) Doubt, fear, despondency, and despair.
2. What a deathblow to the carnal expecters of a Mohammedan paradise I God Himself is the true object of hope. And what a help to spiritual-mindedness? How necessary the question, Are we begotten again to a lively hope? (J. Benson.)
Hope
This prayer is closely connected with the preceding (verses 5, 6), and the more obvious link between them is In Him shall the Gentiles hope; but the note of hope had been struck before (verse 4). The apostle, however, loses sight of the connection and gives us his solitary petition for this grace in a manner perfectly independent. Let us study the prayer in regard to–
I. The God to whom it is addressed. Who derives many of His names from the gospel which manifests His glory. As that gospel rests on an accomplished propitiation, He is the God of grace, the Father of mercies; as it displays its present effects in the soul, He is the God of peace, and His name of names is love; as it reserves its blessedness for the future, He is the God of hope, i.e., the Fountain of the entire Christian salvation as it is not yet revealed. This includes–
1. A wide range: there is hardly an aspect of the redeeming work which the God of hope does not preside over. His Son is Jesus Christ which is our hope (1Ti 1:1); the gospel is the foundation of a great hope (Col 1:23); the Christian vocation is summed up in hope (Eph 1:18); salvation is our comprehensive hope (1Th 5:8).
2. An interminable perspective. The future is a glorious sequence of revelations which the God of hope has yet to disclose (Rom 8:20; Rom 8:24). There is the hope of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour (Tit 2:3), the hope of the resurrection (1Th 4:13), the hope of final deliverance from every evil (1Th 5:8), the hope of eternal life (Rom 7:20), the hope of glory (Tit 1:2; Tit 3:7); and it would be easy to show that every one of these forms of the one great gospel blessing is referred to God as its Author (Col 1:27; Rom 5:2; 2Co 3:12).
II. The fulness of the blessing which it asks. Though other terms are found here, they all pay tribute to this grace. Faith is the root of hope; the peace and joy which are the fruits of faith are the nourishment of hope; and the abundance of hope is made the perfection of the Christian life as a state of probation.
1. Faith and hope are so inseparable that their only scriptural definition makes them all but identical (Heb 11:1); and they are one in this that their objects are invisible (Rom 8:25). But they differ in this, that faith has to do with the present, but hope with the future; or faith brings the past and hope the future into the reality of the present moment. Faith rests upon the It is finished already spoken; hope rejoices in the assurance of another It is finished which the creation waits to hear. But faith must have the pre-eminence as the parent of hope; for while we can conceive of a faith without hope, we cannot conceive of a hope that does not believe in its object. Hence the apostle here utters his prayer in a circuitous manner, and takes faith on the way.
2. There is an evident connection in Pauls mind between the fruits of faith and the abounding in hope. He borrows from the previous chapter (verse 17). Peace is the blessed settlement of the controversy between God and the sinner as respects the past; while joy is the present good cheer of the soul as encompassed by mercies, but feeling the present rather than thinking of the past or future. Now these two demand a third to fill up the measure of the Christian estate; peace touching the guilty past, and joy in the fruitful present, do not so much cry out for as naturally produce good hope for the unknown future.
3. But of all these there may be measures and degrees. Nothing is more characteristic of St. Paul than his insistance on the increase even unto perfection of every grace. The notion of fulness enters into every department of his practical theology. Here we have set before us the abundance of peace, joy and hope as the result of the abounding power in us of the Holy Ghost. But the term reluctantly submits to exposition. It is chiefly to be defined by negatives, though they are positive enough for mans desire. To be filled with peace is to be dispossessed of the last residue of a servile dread before God, and to have risen beyond the possibility of unholy resentments towards man; to be filled with joy is to have vanquished the sorrow of the world, to find elements of rejoicing even in tribulation, and to possess a serene contentment that finds nothing wrong in nature, providence, or grace; to abound in hope is expressed by another word that rather brings the answer of the prayer down into the region of our own endeavour. The God of hope bestows its increase rather as the fruit of our patience and fortitude. Hence the marked allusion to the power of the Holy Ghost. Hope is strengthened by the habits of endurance and resistance. While all graces demand His in working, these demand His power.
4. Abounding in hope is prayed for as the end and result of the fulness of joy and peace. This indicates that these more tranquil graces are instruments for the attainment of that more strenuous grace. Joy and peace minister to hope. The assurance of reconciliation cannot rest in itself, but must muse on that which is to come; how can it but encourage the expectation of all the fruits of a justified estate? The soul, no longer weighed down under the burden of sin, by a holy necessity springs upward. Peace is not hope, but it sets hope free. So also joy, by an equally Divine necessity, encourages endurance and fortitude, and the hopeful expectation of the great release. Hope in this case ministers as it is ministered unto (Rom 5:2). Conclusion: Hope is in some sense the highest of the probationary graces. It is the servant of many of them, but is itself served by all. What would everything else be without this? The mere imagination of the withdrawal of hope withers the rest, and wraps all in darkness. Charity, of course, has the pre-eminence by every right; but as the grace of our stern probation–hope has its own peculiar pre-eminence. It imparts its strength to all other graces, so that they without it cannot be made perfect. It divides the triumphs of faith, and enters largely into the self-denials and labours of love. As it respects the present life hope is in some sense the abiding grace. Then comes a supreme moment when hope, or faith working by hope, is the only anchor of the soul; and when it has endured its final strain it will be glorified for ever. With all its fruition it will have its everlasting anticipation of glories not yet revealed. (W. B. Pope, D.D.)
The secret of joy and of hope
Joy, peace, hope: a fair triad which all men seek, and few find and retain. They are, for the most of us, like bright-winged, sweet-voiced birds that dart and gleam about us, and we hear their voices, but nets and cages are hard to find. This prayer opens up the way to find joy, peace, and hope. Notice that the text begins with the God of peace fill you with these things, and it ends with through the power of the Holy Ghost. So, then, there are here three stages. There is, first, the Divine gift, which underlies everything. Then there is the human condition of making that gift our own; and then there is the triumphant hope which crowns joy and peace, and is their result. I ask you, then, to look at these three things with me this morning.
1. The only source of true joy and peace is God Himself. The only way by which God can give any man joy and peace is by giving him Himself. No gifts of His hand, apart from Him; no mere judicial act of pardon, and removal from a state of condemnation, are of themselves enough to fill a human heart with calm gladness. And if there is ever to be tranquillity in this disturbed being of mine, if the conflict between duty and inclination, between passion and principle, between present and future, between flesh and spirit, is ever to be hushed, it must be because God dwells in us. Notice the bold emphasis of the apostles prayer. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. So then, where God comes and is welcomed by humble obedience and-trustful love, there is fulness of these precious gifts. So as that a man has as much gladness and peace as he can hold. There is the difference between Christian joy and all other. In all others there is always some part of the nature lacking its satisfaction. Only when we put the colouring matter in at the fountain-head will it tinge every little ripple as it runs. Only when we have God for the joy of our hearts and the peace of our else troubled spirits will the joy be full. Otherwise, however abundant the flood, there will always be some gaunt, barren peak lifting itself parched above the rejoicing waters. No man was ever glad up to the height of his possibility who found his joy anywhere else than in God. And, then, mark that other word, too, all joy and peace. From this one gift comes an infinite variety of forms and phases of gladness and peace. And so it is wise, in the highest regions, to have all our investments in one security; to have all our joy contingent upon one possession. One pearl of great price is worth a million of little ones. One sun in the heavens outshines a million stars; and all their lustres gathered together only illuminate the night, while its rising makes the day. So if we want joy and peace, let us learn that we are too great and too miserable for any but God to give it us.
II. And now the human condition of this Divine gift of full and manifold joy and peace. Fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Believing what? He does not think it necessary to say, partly because all his readers knew who was the object of faith, and partly because there was more prominent in his mind at the moment the act of faith itself than the object on which it rests. They who thus trust in Jesus Christ are they to whom, on condition of, and at the moment of their trust or faith, God gives this fulness of joy and peace. Altogether apart from any consideration of the thing which a mans faith grasps, the very act of trust has in itself a natural tendency to bring joy and peace. When I can shift the responsibility off my shoulders on to anothers, my heart is lightened; and there comes a great calm. Christian faith does not wriggle out of the responsibilities that attach to a human life, but it does bring in the thought of a mighty hand that guides and protects; and that itself brings calm and gladness. You fathers have got far more anxious faces than your little children have, because they trust, and you are responsible for them. Trust God, and it cannot be misplaced, and the vessel can never be swept out of the centre of rest into the hurtling rage of the revolving storm around. Nor need I do more than just remind you of how, in the object that the faith grasps, there is ample provision for all manner of calm and of gladness, seeing that we lay hold upon Christ, infinite in wisdom, gentleness, brotherliness, strength. Oh, if only we keep hold of Him there can be but little in any future to alarm, and little in any present to disturb or to sadden. But note how the communication from God of joy and peace, in their fulness and variety, is strictly contemporaneous with the actual exercise of our faith. Our belief is the condition of Gods bestowal, and that is no arbitrary condition. It is because my faith makes it possible for God to give me Himself that He only gives Himself on condition of my faith. You open the door, and the daylight will come in. You remove the hermetical sealing, and the air will rush into the vacuum. Only mark this, as tong as you and I keep up the continuity of our believing, so long, and not one moment longer, does God keep up the continuity of His giving. Because there are such spasmodic and interrupted acts of faith on our part, we possess such transient and imperfect gifts of joy and peace. Let me drop one more word. Their are other kinds of religion and religious exercise than that of trust. There is no promise of peace and joy to them. Fill you with all joy and peace in poking into your own hearts to see whether you are a Christian or not. That is not the promise. Fill you with all joy and peace in painfully trying, to acquire certain qualities, and to do certain duties. That is not the promise.
III. And so, lastly, the issue of this God-given joy and peace is hope. The apostle did not tell us what was the object of the faith that he enjoined. He does not tell us what is the object of the hope either; and I suppose that is because he is not thinking so much about the object as about the thing. And this is the teaching here, that if a man, trusting in God in Jesus Christ, has all this flood of sunny gladness lying quiet in his heart, there will be nothing in any future that can alarm. For the peace and joy that God gives bear witness in themselves to their own immortality. Ah, there is a difference between all earths gladnesses and the joys that Christian people may possess. In all earthly blessedness there blends ever the unwelcome consciousness of its transiency. Therefore the best demonstration of a heaven of blessedness is the present possession of joy and peace in believing. These are like the floating timber and seeds that Columbus saw the day before he sighted land. But, brother, is there any reason to suppose that you will find a heaven of blessedness beyond the grave, in close contact with the things that you do not like to be in contact with now? We must begin here. We must here exercise the faith. We must here experience the peace and the joy, and then we may have the hope. Then, rich and blessed with such gifts from such a Giver, we may venture to say, To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant, and that hope shall not be put to shame. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christian hope
I. Comes from God.
1. Worldly hope rests upon favouring circumstances–our own powers. It hangs often upon a slender thread. Hope centred in that child. How often parents with broken hearts have said that.
2. Few are atheists in theory, but many are such in their feelings. They are hopeless because they are godless. On the other hand, the Christian is first of all a believer in God as revealed in Christ. God therefore is the giver and the foundation of his hope.
II. Comes through joy and peace in believing.
1. It comes not to a heart that is without faith. It comes not from a creed repeated, or held merely intellectually. It comes from a faith that yields the affections, the will, the whole life to God. Are there Christians without faith? Then they are also without hope. Are they without joy and peace? Then they are also without hope.
2. Peace and joy in believing make God known. This is the logic of the heart. Such joy and such peace can come only from God. The joy of pardon and cleansing is the faith that only God can pardon and cleanse.
3. Peace and joy in believing are the firstfruits of Heaven. They are like the two faithful spies who came back loaded with the rich clusters of the promised inheritance. Larger faith, permanent faith, mean larger and more permanent hope. Being justified by faith, our tribulations work patience, our patience experience, our experience hope.
4. And this hope is for others as well as for ourselves. The man whose hope is confined to his individual interests is not a Christian. Under the stimulus of joy and peace in believing we argue: The God who has pardoned my sins can pardon others.
III. Is by the power of the Holy Ghost.
1. Like all other elements of the Christian life, hope is inspired. It is not a natural impulse. The lack of hope argues, then, a lack of spiritual life. Do we find persons professing faith in Christ, and yet living drearily? It may mean enfeebled health, or overtaxed nerves. It may mean also that they have not received the Holy Ghost. And when we remember this saintly apostle who writes of hope, yet has an enfeebled body, and nerves constantly taxed by toils and perils, we can conclude what the lack of despondent Christians most commonly is.
2. Our hope is not for the sanguine only, but for persons of every shade of temperament.
Conclusion:
1. Our hope is not a selfish emotion. God never inspires mortals with any sort of selfishness, not even with religious selfishness. The hope we cherish, if it reflects the spirit of Christ, will be large-hearted. It will rest upon the God of Hope, as the God who rules over all the world.
2. It is an exclusively Christian possession. Such is the unavoidable inference from the text. Men who are not Christians are without God and without hope. (E. McChesney, Ph.D.)
Joy and peace in believing.—
Joy and peace in believing
Consider–
I. The source of this desired good. God sometimes permits the use of titles descriptive of what He is in Himself, and sometimes of names denoting His relation to His creatures. In the former sense we apply such designations asthe God of mercy, the God of love, the God of truth. Examples of the latter are the God of peace, the God of patience, the God of all consolation. In the text He is the God of hope, because–
1. He is the Fountain from which all hope must flow. Hope, like its sister Faith, is one of those good and perfect gifts which, pass through what intermediate channels it may, must come down to us from the Father of lights. And this hope, which God begets in us, is a lively hope that is, God invests spiritual objects with a new attractiveness, and creates within us longing desires after their attainment.
2. He is the object on which all hope must terminate. God can never raise an expectation in His creatures for the mere purpose of disappointing them. It might be optional whether He should give to us a ground of hope or not; but having given us cause to hope, it is no longer an option whether such a hope shall be fulfilled. God cannot deny Himself. And although God may and will take His own time, we must not, as in the case of human promises, allow the heart to sicken at hope deferred. Delays with God are but invisible means of hastening mercy. He that believeth must not make haste. In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
II. The particular blessings.
1. Joy is one of those early fruits of the Spirit which flow from a sense of our interest in the promises–a well-grounded persuasion of our having a part in the great propitiation. It is a joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not, and of which even adversity depriveth us not. Hence this joy is to be distinguished from every other as having God for its object. It is not in riches, which have wings–not in honours, which may fail–not in health, which may languish, etc.; but it is Isaiahs joy when he said, My soul shall be joyful in my God. It is the Virgins joy when she said, My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. It is the apostles joy when he said to the Philippians, Rejoice in the Lord alway. And this may serve to explain the paradox, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. For the Christian has meat to eat that the world knows not of.
2. Peace–
(1) The peace of reconciliation with a God offended.
(2) The peace of conscience for a law infringed.
(3) The peace of an assured conscience.
The apostle would have us filled with peace–the true peace–the peace which was the Fathers token, the Sons legacy, the Spirits seal and earnest unto the day of a complete redemption. This is a peace which the world cannot give.
3. In believing. We might have expected after ye have believed, as if joy and peace were net to be looked for at the outset of our Christian course, but the recompense of an advanced and established faith. But no; you should expect the blessing as you believe, and because you believe. Faith is the hand which takes the blessing at Gods hand.
III. The fruit.
1. In verse 4 and here the respective functions of the Word and the Spirit in our salvation are beautifully brought together. Perfectly distinct as these agencies are, yet their joint operation issues in the same result. The reason is, that one is the agent and the other the instrument in this great work. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit; it is that by which He works. The Word cannot convert without the Spirit; and, as a rule, the Spirit does not convert without the Word. And here the Word and the Spirit join together to make us abound in hope.
2. What is the hope in which we are to rejoice and abound? Why, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God; we rejoice in hope of the glory that shall be revealed. We abound in hope of entering a world without sin, suffering, and death. (D. Moore, M.A.)
The present happiness of believers
I. Faith naturally tends to fill the soul with the most pleasant and delightful fulness, pleasure, and hope.
II. Though faith naturally tends to fill the soul with the most pleasant and delightful feelings, yet even true Christians do not always fully enjoy them.
III. We must labour to remove the obstacles which prevent our full enjoyment of this spiritual happiness. (D. Savile, M.A.)
Joy and peace in believing
There are a large number of persons who profess to have believed in Christ, but who assert that they have no joy and peace in consequence. Now I shall suppose that these are not raising this difficulty by way of cavil, and that they are not labouring under any bodily sickness such as might bring on hypochondriacal feelings. We begin with two observations–
1. That joy and peace are exceedingly desirable for your own sakes and for the sake of your acquaintances, who set down your despondency to your religion.
2. Do not overestimate them; for, though eminently desirable, they are not infallible evidences of safety. Many have them who are not saved, for their joy springs from a mistake, and their peace rests upon the sand of their own imaginations. It is a good sign that the spring is come, that the weather is warm; but there are mild days in winter. A man may be in the lifeboat, but be exceedingly ill, and think himself to be still in peril. It is not his sense of safety that makes him safe. Joy and peace are the element of a Christian, but he is sometimes out of his element. The leaves on the tree prove that the tree is alive, but the absence of leaves will not prove that the tree is dead. True joy and peace may be very satisfactory evidences, but their absence, during certain seasons, can often be accounted for on some other hypothesis than that of the absence of faith.
3. Do not seek them as the first and main thing. Let your prayer be, Lord, give me comfort, but give me safety first. Be anxious to be happy, but be more anxious to be holy.
I. The text may be used to correct two common and dangerous errors.
1. That there is a way of joy and peace through self. Some look for them through good works. Now if we had never sinned, joy and peace would have been the consequences of perfect holiness; but since we have broken Gods law any rational joy and peace are impossible under the covenant of works. You have broken the alabaster vase; you may preserve the fragments, but you cannot make it whole again. Many who are conscious of this say, Then I will do my best. Yes; but a man who is drowning may say that, but it is no solace to him as the billows close over him. Some try the plan of scrupulous observance of all religious ceremonies. These things may be good in themselves; but to rest in them will be your ruin.
2. That of turning the text upside down. There is such a thing as joy and peace in believing, and some therefore infer that there is such a thing as believing in joy and peace. You will get peace just as the florist gets his flower from the bulb; but you will never get the bulb from the flower. To trust Christ because you just feel happy is–
(1) Irrational. Suppose a man should say during a panic, I feel sure that my bank is safe, because I feel so easy about my money; you would say to him, That is no reason. Suppose he said, I feel sure that my money is safe, because I believe the bank is safe. That is good reasoning. But here you put the effect in the place of the cause. If a man should say, I have got a large estate in India, because I feel so happy in thinking about it, that is no proof whatever. But if he says, I feel very happy, because I have got an estate in India, that may be right enough.
(2) Irreverent. You say to God, Thou tellest me to trust Christ and I shall be saved. Well, I cannot trust Christ, but I can trust my own feeling, and if I felt very happy I could believe that He would save me.
(3) Egotistical. Here is a person who has the Divine promise–He that believeth on Him is not condemned; and instead of confiding in this, he says, No, I shall believe nothing which I do not feel.
II. The great truth of the text is, that believing in Christ is the true ground for joy and peace. Believing in Christ is trusting Christ, But what sort of a Christ is this I am to confide in? Is He worthy of my trust? The reply is this, We have trusted Christ–
1. Because of the wonderful union of His natures. He is God, and whatever God undertakes He is able to accomplish. But He is man, and has the requisite tenderness to deal with sinners.
2. Because of the evident truthfulness of His character. Could we suspect the Saviour we should find it difficult to trust Him; but as we cannot imagine a cause for suspecting Him, we feel shut up to believing Him. Millions of spirits boar witness to the trustworthiness of Christ. He did not fail one of them.
3. Because He was sent of God on purpose to save. Now if this be so, and Christ comes into the world and says, Trust, and I will save you, He has God to back Him, and the honour of the Trinity is pledged to every soul that comes to Christ.
4. Because the merit of His sufferings must be great enough to save us.
5. Because He rose again from the dead, and now He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Wherefore, He is able to save to the uttermost.
III. The principle of the text is of constant application : joy and peace always come through believing. We do not always have joy and peace, but still, in the main, joy and peace are the result of believing. E.g.
1. As soon as a person is saved, one of the earliest evidences of spiritual life is a great battle within. Some have the notion that as soon as they are saved they shall never have to fight. Why, it is then that you begin the campaign. But you shall have joy and peace while the fighting is going on.
2. Remember that even after you are secure in Christ, and accepted before God, you may sometimes get despondent. Christian men may have a bad liver, or some trial, and then they get depressed. But what then? Why then you can get joy and peace through believing. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Joy essential
Joy has been considered by Christian people very largely as an exceptional state; whereas sobriety–by which is meant severity of mind, or a non-enjoying state of mind–is supposed to be the normal condition. I knew a Roman Catholic priest that was as upright and conscientious a man as I ever met, who said he did not dare to be happy; he was afraid that he should lose his soul if he was; and he subjected himself to every possible mortification, saying, It is not for me to be happy here; I must take it out when I get to heaven. There I expect to be happy. That was in accordance with his view of Christianity. Now, it is of the utmost importance that it should be understood that health of soul and joyfulness are one and the same thing. You cannot be healthy in soul and not be happy. The true idea of religion is one that makes men happy by making them happiable; that brings them into that soul-knowledge, and into that concord of soul, out of which comes happiness. Remember that the state of suffering, if you must suffer, is the abnormal state, and that a true Christian is a man who is a happy Christian. You may say, I cannot be happy. Very well, then you cannot be an ideal of true Christianity. You are not able to reach the highest condition of which the human soul is capable. It does not follow because a man has one leg shorter than the other, and is obliged to limp, that limping is a part of the best state of man. The man whose legs are lithe, and who can run like a roe, is a true man physically, in so far as that is concerned; and the man who is maimed, and cannot do this, is physically so much less than a true man as he falls short of the possibility of it. (H. W. Beecher.)
A cheerful hope
A hopeless life is a bitter life. Surely the heart is broken when hope is gone. Thank God, this is a rare thing. You tread upon the wild flower in the field, and for a time it is crushed; but ere the next morning comes, when the dew is on the grass, it stands erect again. And when deep trouble comes the heart may be crushed for a time, but it is generally only for a time. It is wonderful how people will recover and see there is still something left. Here is a bankrupt: his plans are frustrated, his heart is bruised. For a time he droops his head despondently, but he is soon ready to make another start. He adapts himself to his circumstances, and finds hope rising within him. I may yet be in comfortable circumstances, he says, and again he can work with a will. It is beautiful, though sometimes very sad, to see how the poor consumptive patient will retain hope to the last. It is only a little cold, she says; I shall soon be strong again. We are saved by hope, says Paul, and there is a depth of meaning in his words. People often say, While there is life there is hope; but would it not be truer still to say, While there is hope there is life? This cheerful hope is the Christians. All things are his, not in possession, but in prospect. The heart can cherish no desire which is not abundantly spread out before him. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him. (J. Matthews.)
Through the power of the Holy Ghost.—
The power of the Holy Ghost
Power is the peculiar prerogative of God. Twice have I heard this, etc. If He delegates a portion of it to His creatures, yet still it is His power. This prerogative is to be found in each of the three persons of the Trinity. We shall look at the power of the Holy Ghost in–
I. The outward and visible displays of it.
1. In creation works (Job 26:13; Psa 104:29; Gen 1:2). But there was one instance of creation in which the Spirit was more especially concerned, viz., the formation of the body of Christ. The power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee, etc.
2. In the resurrection of Christ. Sometimes this is ascribed to Himself, sometimes to God the Father. He was raised by the Father, who said, Loose the Prisoner–let Him go. Justice is satisfied. He was raised by His own majesty and power because He had a right to come out. But He was raised by the Spirit as to the energy which His mortal frame received (Rom 8:11; 1Pe 3:18).
3. In works of witnessing. When Jesus went into Jordan the Spirit proclaimed Him Gods beloved Son. And when afterwards Jesus raised the dead, healed the leper, etc., it was done by the power of the Spirit, who dwelt in Him without measure. And when Jesus was gone the master attestation of the Spirit was when He came like a rushing mighty wind, and cloven tongues. And all through the apostles ministry mighty signs and wonders were clone by the Holy Ghost, and many believed thereby.
4. The works of grace. Under the power of the Holy Ghost the uncivilised become civilised, the savage polite, the drunkard sober, etc.
II. The inward and spiritual manifestation. The former may be seen, this must be felt. The Holy Ghost has a power over–
1. Mens hearts. Now these are very hard to affect. If you want to get at them for any worldly object you can do it. But there is not a minister breathing who can win mans heart himself. He can win his ears, his eyes, his attention; but he cannot reach the heart. The Holy Spirit can. He can Speak with that voice which wakes the dead.
2. The will. This, especially in some men, is a very stubborn thing. I can bring you all to the water, and a great many more; but I cannot make you drink; and I dont think a hundred ministers could. But the Spirit of God can make us willing in the day of His power.
3. The imagination. Those who have a fair share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is to control. It will sometimes fly up to God with such a power that eagles wings cannot match it; but it is also potent the other way, for my imagination has taken me down to the vilest kennels and sewers of earth. Can you chain your imagination? No; but the power of the Holy Ghost can.
III. Its future and desired effects. He has–
1. To perfect us in holiness. The Christian needs two kinds of perfection-of justification in the person of Jesus, of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. At present corruption still rests even in the breasts of the regenerate, but the day is coming when God shall finish the work which He has begun.
2. To bring on the latter-day glory.
3. To raise the dead. That same power which raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.
Practical inferences:
1. The Spirit is very powerful, Christian!
(1) Then you never need distrust the power of God to carry you to heaven.
(2) Why should you doubt anything?
2. Sinners, there is some hope for you. I cannot save you, but I know my Master can. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Our urgent need of the Holy Spirit
(text, and verse 19):–
1. The Spirit of God is necessary to the Church for its own internal growth in grace. Hence verse 13, where the apostle attributes the power to be filled with joy and peace in believing, and to abound in hope, to the Holy Ghost. But the power of the Church outside, to be aggressive, is this same energy (verse 19). If the Church is to be happy and holy within herself, and if she is to conquer the world for Christ, she must have the power of the Holy Ghost.
2. The power of the Church for external work will be proportionate to the power within.
(1) There are two cottages in winter. From the roof of one the snow has disappeared, while the other is still covered with it. The reason is that there is a fire burning inside the one, but the other is untenanted. So where worldliness and formalism lie thick upon Churches there is not the warmth of Christian life within; but where hearts are warm with Divine love through the Spirit of God, evils vanish and beneficial consequences follow.
(2) Here is a trouble arising between different nations. Everybody knows that one of the hopes of peace lies in the bankrupt condition of the nation which is likely to go to war. Thus is it in the great battle of truth. The strength or weakness of a nations exchequer affects its army in its every march, and in like manner its measure of grace influences the Church of God in all its actions.
(3) The rising of the Nile depends upon those far-off lakes in the centre of Africa. If there be a scanty supply in the higher reservoirs, there cannot be much overflow in the course of the river through Egypt. So if the upper lakes of fellowship with God are not well-filled the Nile of practical Christian service will never rise to the flood. You cannot get out of the Church what is not in it. We must ourselves drink of the living water till we are full, and then out of the midst of us shall flow rivers of living water. Out of an empty basket you cannot distribute loaves and fishes, however hungry the crowd may be. The power of the Holy Ghost is manifested in–
I. The quickening of souls to spiritual life.
1. All the spiritual life which exists in this world is the creation of the Holy Spirit. Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has also been His work. You will never have more life, except as the Holy Ghost bestows it upon you.
2. The Holy Spirit is absolutely needful to make everything that we do to be alive. We are sowers, but if we take dead seed in our seed-basket there will never be a harvest. How much there is of Church work which is nothing better than the movement of a galvanised corpse. How much of religion is done as if it were performed by an automaton, or ground off by machinery.
3. As the Spirit is a quickener to make us and our work alive, so must He specially be with us to make those alive with whom we have to deal for Jesus. As well may you try to calm the tempest with poetry or stay the hurricane with rhetoric as to bless a soul by mere learning and eloquence. We are utterly dependent here, and I rejoice in this. If I could have a stock of power all my own apart from the Spirit, I cannot suppose a greater temptation to pride and to living a distance from God.
II. The enlightenment of His people.
1. This He has done by giving us His Word; but the Book, inspired though it be, is never spiritually understood by any man apart from His personal teaching. The letter you may know, but no man knows the things of God save he to whom the Spirit of God has revealed them.
2. If professors be not taught of the Spirit their ignorance will breed conceit, pride, unbelief. Sorrow too comes of ignorance. Hadst thou known the doctrines of grace thou hadst not been so long a time in bondage! Half of the heresy in the Church of God is not wilful error, but error which springs of not submitting the mind to the light of the Holy Ghost. If He will but enlighten the Church thoroughly there will be an end of divisions. Practical unity will exist in proportion to the unity of mens minds in the truth of God.
3. We find in this gracious operation our strength for the instruction of others; for how shall those teach who have never been taught? Son of man, eat this roll; for until thou hast eaten it thyself thy lips can never tell it out to others. It is the law of Christs vineyard that none shall work therein till first of all they know the flavour of the fruits which grow in the sacred enclosure. An ignorant Christian is disqualified for great usefulness; but he who is taught of God will teach transgressors Gods ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Christ.
III. The creation in believers of the spirit of adoption.
1. We are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and so receive the nature of children; and that nature He develops and matures. This is of very great importance, for sometimes the spirit of slaves creeps over us.
2. This will have a great effect upon the outside world. A body of professors performing religion as a task can have but small effect upon the sinners around them. But bring me a Church made up of men who know they are accepted and beloved, and are perfectly content with the great Fathers will; put them down in the midst of ungodly ones, and they will begin to envy them their peace and joy.
IV. Sanctification.
1. Holiness is the entirety of our manhood fully consecrated to the Lord and moulded to His will. This is the thing which the Church of God must have, but it can never have it apart from the Sanctifier, for there is no holiness but what is of His operation.
2. And if a Church be destitute of holiness what effect can it have upon the world? Scoffers utterly despise professors whose lives contradict their testimonies.
V. Prayer.
1. The strength of a Church may pretty accurately be gauged by her prayerfulness. But all acceptable supplication is wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost.
2. Furthermore, when we come to deal with sinners we know that they must pray. Behold he prayeth is one of the earliest signs of the new birth. But can we make the sinner pray?
VI. Fellowship.
1. In the apostolic benediction we pray that we may receive the communion of the Holy Ghost. He gives us fellowship with God Himself. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. So, too, our fellowship with one another is always produced by the Spirit.
2. If you are to tell upon the world you must be united as one living body. A. divided Church has long been the scorn of Antichrist.
VII. In His office of paraclete.
1. The Holy Spirit is our friend and Comforter. Many a heart would break if the Spirit of God had not comforted it. This is a very necessary work, for if believers become unhappy they become weak for service.
2. He is the Advocate of the Church–not with God, for there Christ is our sole Advocate, but with man. The grandest plea that the Church has against the world is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. All the evidences of the truth of Christianity which can be gathered from analogy, history, and external facts, are nothing whatever compared with the operations of the Spirit of God. If we have the Spirit of God amongst us, and conversions are constantly being wrought, the Holy Spirit is thus fulfilling His advocacy, and refuting all accusers. (C. H. Spurgeon)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Now the God of hope, c.] , May the God of this hope-that God who caused both Jews and Gentiles to hope that the gracious promises which he made to them should be fulfilled and who, accordingly, has fulfilled them in the most punctual and circumstantial manner;
Fill you with all joy] Give you true spiritual happiness; peace in your own hearts, and unity among yourselves; in believing not only the promises which he has given you, but believing in Christ Jesus, in whom all the promises are yea and amen.
That ye may abound in hope] That ye may be excited to take more enlarged views of the salvation which God has provided for you, and have all your expectations fulfilled by the power of the Holy Ghost, enabling you to hope and believe; and then sealing the fulfilment of the promises upon your hearts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He finisheth here his long discourse about brotherly love and concord with a short and pithy prayer. Having said before, that the Gentiles should hope in God, he takes occasion from hence to style him,
The God of hope. He is so, both objective, as being the only object of our hope, see Psa 146:5; Jer 17:7; 1Ti 6:17; and effective, as being the only author of it, 1Pe 1:3.
With all joy and peace in believing; i.e. with much inward joy and peace, which riseth in the heart through a lively faith in Christ; or else, with all comfort and concord in the Christian faith. In this he prays they may abound; instead of those contentions that had been amongst them, he desires they may be filled with those things, wherein he told them, Rom 14:17, the kingdom of God consisted.
That ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost; he doth not say, that you may have hope, but that you may abound therein, that you may arrive to a plerophory or full assurance of hope, as it is in Heb 6:11. Such hope as may be like an anchor to the soul, to keep it safe and steady in the midst of storms and tempests. This hope is wrought in us by no less power and virtue than that of the Holy Ghost. See before.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Now, c.This seems aconcluding prayer, suggested by the whole preceding subject matter ofthe epistle.
the God of hope(See onRo 15:5).
fill you with all joy andpeace in believingthe native truth of that faith whichis the great theme of this epistle (compare Ga5:22).
that ye may abound inhope“of the glory of God.” (See on Ro5:1).
through the power of the HolyGhostto whom, in the economy of redemption, it belongs toinspire believers with all gracious affections.
On the foregoing portion, Note,(1) No Christian is at liberty to regard himself as an isolateddisciple of the Lord Jesus, having to decide questions of duty andliberty solely with reference to himself. As Christians are one bodyin Christ, so the great law of love binds them to act in all thingswith tenderness and consideration for their brethren in “thecommon salvation” (Rom 15:1Rom 15:2). (2) Of thisunselfishness CHRIST isthe perfect model of all Christians (Ro15:3). (3) Holy Scripture is the divine storehouse of allfurniture for the Christian life, even in its most trying anddelicate features (Ro 15:4).(4) The harmonious glorification of the God and Father of our LordJesus Christ by the whole body of the redeemed, as it is the mostexalted fruit of the scheme of redemption, so it is the last end ofGod in it (Ro 15:5-7).
Ro15:14-33. CONCLUSION:IN WHICHTHE APOSTLEAPOLOGIZES FOR THUSWRITING TO THE ROMANCHRISTIANS, EXPLAINSWHY HEHAD NOTYET VISITEDTHEM, ANNOUNCESHIS FUTUREPLANS, AND ASKSTHEIR PRAYERSFOR THE COMPLETION OFTHEM.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now the God of hope,…. This character is taken from the latter part of Ro 15:12, and is occasioned by it, “in him shall the Gentiles trust”, or “hope”; and is proper to God as he is the author and giver of this grace; for naturally men are without it; that which is a good hope is the gift of God, and through his grace, and is wrought in the heart in regeneration; for to this are the children of God begotten again. Moreover, God is the object of it; not wealth and riches, nor works of righteousness, but Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, particularly Christ, is called the believer’s hope; that is, the object of it, in whom the Gentiles hope and trust. Likewise, it is God that encourages to the exercise of it by the proclamations of his grace, and mercy, and plenteous redemption; by the discoveries of his love, and views of interest in him; and by bringing to mind the past experiences of his goodness: he preserves and maintains this grace useful and lively, firm and steadfast, at least in being, which sometimes seems almost perished and gone; he increases it, and causes his people to abound in the exercise of it, and continues it even unto death. The Ethiopic version reads, “the God of our promises”, which are what hope has respect unto, and builds upon:
fill you with all joy and peace in believing. This is a petition to the God of hope. The apostle has recourse again to prayer, knowing that all his exhortations would be useless, without the grace of God accompanying them: and it is observable, that he prays for the same things mentioned in the above prophecies and promises, as joy, peace, and hope; for though God has promised ever so great things concerning his people, he will be inquired of by them to do them for them. One part of this petition is, that God would “fill them with all joy”; not with every kind of joy; not with worldly joy, or with the joy of hypocrites, who rejoice in sin, or in their own boastings, which is evil; but with spiritual joy, joy in God as a covenant God and Father; in Christ, in his person, righteousness, and salvation; and in the Holy Ghost, the author of it, whose fruit it is; and in the Gospel, doctrines, blessings, and promises of it; and in the view and hope of the heavenly glory, amidst various afflictions and tribulations: and it designs an abundance of it, even a fulness thereof; though the petition implies, that as yet it is not full; it is frequently interrupted and broke in upon by the corruption of nature, and falls into sin, by the temptations of Satan, through divine desertions, and various trials and exercises; yet it supposes it may be increased, as by the renewed discoveries of the love of God, of interest in Christ, and through the gracious influences of the Spirit; and even made full and complete, though not in this, yet in the other world: another branch of the petition is, that God would fill with “peace”, with a sense of their peace with him, made by the blood of Christ; with a conscience peace in their own breasts, arising from a view of their justification by the righteousness of Christ, and from the sprinklings of his blood upon them; and also with peace one among another, which was much wanting, and the apostle was very desirous of: and all this he asks, that it might come to them “in believing”; in the way of faith, and the exercise of that grace; for joy comes this way; faith and joy go together; where one is, the other is also; and as the one increases, so does the other; a believing view of interest in Christ is attended with joy unspeakable, and full of glory: and so peace comes in at the door of faith: there is no true peace till a soul is brought to believe in Christ; and that is promoted and increased by repeated acts of faith on Christ, or by a constant living by faith on him; see Isa 26:3. The end for which this petition is made is,
that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. By hope is meant that grace which God is the author, object, and promoter of; and the Syriac version reads it, , “in his hope”, or “the hope of him”; of enjoying him, of meeting with him, and having communion with him in his house and ordinances; of having fresh supplies of grace from him, and of being favoured with all the blessings of grace laid up in an everlasting covenant, and at last with eternal life and glory: to “abound” herein, is to be in the free and frequent exercise of this grace, being encouraged by the grace of God, and an enlarged experience of it, and supported by faith, the substance of things hoped for: and this “through the power of the Holy Ghost”; not by might or power of man, but by that same divine power which first began the good work, and must fulfil it; which at first implanted the grace of hope, and must perform the work of that, as of faith. The same power is requisite to cause grace to abound, or saints to abound in the exercise of it, as was to the first production of it. The Vulgate Latin reads, “that ye may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost”; but there is no copulative in the Greek text.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The God of Hope. | A. D. 58. |
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Here is another prayer directed to God, as the God of hope; and it is, as the former (v. 5, 6), for spiritual blessings: these are the blest blessings, and to be first and chiefly prayed for.
I. Observe how he addresses himself to God, as the God of hope. It is good in prayer to fasten upon those names, titles, and attributes of God, which are most suitable to the errand we come upon, and will best serve to encourage our faith concerning it. Every word in the prayer should be a plea. Thus should the cause be skilfully ordered, and the mouth filled with arguments. God is the God of hope. He is the foundation on which our hope is built, and he is the builder that doth himself raise it: he is both the object of our hope, and the author of it. That hope is but fancy, and will deceive us, which is not fastened upon God (as the goodness hoped for, and the truth hoped in), and which is not of his working in us. We have both together, Ps. cxix. 49. Thy word–there is God the object; on which thou hast caused me to hope–there is God the author of our hope, 1 Pet. i. 3.
II. What he asks of God, not for himself, but for them.
1. That they might be filled with all joy and peace in believing. Joy and peace are two of those things in which the kingdom of God consists, ch. xiv. 17. Joy in God, peace of conscience, both arising from a sense of our justification; see Rom 5:1; Rom 5:2. Joy and peace in our own bosoms would promote a cheerful unity and unanimity with our brethren. Observe, (1.) How desirable this joy and peace are: they are filling. Carnal joy puffs up the soul, but cannot fill it; therefore in laughter the heart is sad. True, heavenly, spiritual joy is filling to the soul; it has a satisfaction in it, answerable to the soul’s vast and just desires. Thus does God satiate and replenish the weary soul. Nothing more than this joy, only more of it, even the perfection of it in glory, is the desire of the soul that hath it, Psa 4:6; Psa 4:7; Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5; Psa 65:4. (2.) How it is attainable. [1.] By prayer. We must go to God for it; he will for this be enquired of. Prayer fetches in spiritual joy and peace. [2.] By believing; that is the means to be used. It is vain, and flashy, and transient joy, that is the product of fancy; true substantial joy is the fruit of faith. Believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable, 1 Pet. i. 8. It is owing to the weakness of our faith that we are so much wanting in joy and peace. Only believe; believe the goodness of Christ, the love of Christ, the promises of the covenant, and the joys and glories of heaven; let faith be the substance and evidence of these things, and the result must needs be joy and peace. Observe, It is all joy and peace–all sorts of true joy and peace. When we come to God by prayer we must enlarge our desires; we are not straitened in him, why should we be straitened in ourselves? Ask for all joy; open thy mouth wide, and he will fill it.
2. That they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. The joy and peace of believers arise chiefly from their hopes. What is laid out upon them is but little, compared with what is laid up for them; therefore the more hope they have the more joy and peace they have. We do then abound in hope when we hope for great things from God, and are greatly established and confirmed in these hopes. Christians should desire and labour after an abundance of hope, such hope as will not make ashamed. This is through the power of the Holy Ghost. The same almighty power that works grace begets and strengthens this hope. Our own power will never reach it; and therefore where this hope is, and is abounding, the blessed Spirit must have all the glory.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The God of hope ( ). Taking up the idea in verse 12 as in verse 5 from 4.
Fill you ( ). Optative (first aorist active of ) of wish for the future. Cf. in verse 5.
In believing ( ). “In the believing” ( with locative of the articular infinitive, the idiom so common in Luke’s Gospel).
That ye may abound ( ). Purpose clause with , as in verse 8, with (present active infinitive of , with accusative of general reference, ). This verse gathers up the points in the preceding quotations.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Now the God of hope fill you,” (ho de theos eis elpidos plerosai humas) “May the God of hope fill you all,” the God who gives hope, may he fill you all, Rom 15:5: Heb 13:20; He is also the God of peace, from whom peace originates and comes to men, Gal 5:5; Col 1:23; Col 1:27; 1Th 5:8; Psa 39:7; Psa 71:5.
2) “With all joy and peace in believing,” (pases charas kai eirenes en to pisteuein) “With all joy and peace in continually believing,” or as you keep on believing. Note, if a believer, or when a believer doubts God’s Word or promises he must not expect God’s joy and peace in an abounding or ever present experience. It is in or by trust, faith, or believing that peace and joy fill and abide with the saint, not in doubting, Joh 15:11; Joh 16:33; Rom 12:12; Rom 14:17.
3) “That ye may abound in hope,” (eis to perisseuein humas en te elpidi) “In order for you to go forward or go on continually in the gift of hope,” Rom 5:1-5; have an abundance of continuing hope, Heb 6:17-19; Tit 2:13; 1Pe 3:15; We are to be sober, serious and hope (with expectancy) to the end of Iife, 1Pe 1:13.
4) “Through the power of the Holy Ghost,” (en dunamei pneumatos hagiou) “In (the) enabling power of the Holy Spirit”. who enables men to witness and labor effectively for Christ, Act 1:8; Rom 8:14; Luk 4:14; Luk 4:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. And may the God, etc. He now concludes the passage, as before, with prayer; in which he desires the Lord to give them whatever he had commanded. It hence appears, that the Lord does in no degree measure his precepts according to our strength or the power of free-will; and that he does not command what we ought to do, that we, relying on our own power, may gird up ourselves to render obedience; but that he commands those things which require the aid of his grace, that he may stimulate us in our attention to prayer.
In saying the God of hope, he had in view the last verse; as though he said, — “May then the God in whom we all hope fill you with joy, that is, with cheerfulness of heart, and also with unity and concord, and this by believing:” (449) for in order that our peace may be approved by God, we must be bound together by real and genuine faith. If any one prefers taking in believing, for, in order to believe, (450) the sense will be, — that they were to cultivate peace for the purpose of believing; for then only are we rightly prepared to believe, when we, being peaceable and unanimous, do willingly embrace what is taught us. It is however preferable, that faith should be connected with peace and joy; for it is the bond of holy and legitimate concord, and the support of godly joy. And though the peace which one has within with God may also be understood, yet the context leads us rather to the former explanation. (451)
He further adds, that ye may abound in hope; for in this way also is hope confirmed and increased in us. The words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, intimate that all things are the gifts of the divine bounty: and the word power is intended emphatically to set forth that wonderful energy, by which the Spirit works in us faith, hope, joy, and peace.
(449) The God of hope may mean one of two things, — the giver or author of hope, as in 1Pe 1:3, — or the object of hope, he in whom hope is placed, as in 1Ti 6:17.
Why does he mention joy before peace? It is in accordance with his usual manner, — the most visible, the stream first, then the most hidden, the spring. — Ed.
(450) That is εἰς τὸ, instead of ἐν τῷ. — Ed.
(451) This is the view approved by [ Theophylact ], [ Beza ], [ Grotius ], [ Mede ], and [ Hammond ] : but [ Doddridge ], [ Scott ], [ Stuart ], and [ Chalmers ] consider “peace” here to be that with God, and “joy” as its accompaniment; while [ Pareus ] and [ Hodge ] view both as included, especially the latter. If we consider the subject in hand, that the Apostle was attempting to produce union and concord between the Jews and the Gentiles, we shall see reason to accede to [ Calvin ] ’s explanations. This joy and peace seem to be the same as in Rom 14:17. Concord, union, and mutual enjoyment, are graces which come by believing, or by faith, as well as concord or peace with God, and its accompanying joy; and these graces have no doubt an influence on hope, so as to make it brighter and stronger, when they are produced by the Holy Spirit. There are three things which distinguish these graces from such as are fictitious, — they proceed from faith, — they increase hope, — they are produced by the Spirit. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 15:13
The divine antidote against despair.It is difficult to lead a truly religious life. This arises from our proneness to evil and from the influences working to draw us away from the path of rectitude. There are great forces against us; but, rightly considered, there are mightier forces engaged on our behalf. This text is in itself a shield of protection. An apostle prays. A God of hope encourages. The power of the Holy Ghost is engaged. The essentials of the Christian life are being developed to establish in that hope which is the crown and guarantee of safety and of ultimate triumph.
I. The apostle prays.Spiritual earnestness is characteristic of all his supplications. He prays for moral advancement. Too oft we pray for worldly good, and not to be filled with joy and peace in believing. We pray thus, if prayer be the real expression of our hearts. The apostles prayer was intercessory. We need to know more truly the blessing of intercessory prayer. It would remove our selfishness, make us possess more of the diffusive spirit of Christianity, enlist our sympathies on behalf of the erring, prevent us being so censorious, tend to make us love the brethren, and cause us to dwell together in Christian unity.
II. A God of hope encourages.There are divine agents working for the expansion of Christian hopethe God of hope and the power of the Holy Ghost. How appropriate the term when we remember the apostles object to inspire with hope! God is not the subject but the object of hope. Hope is the faculty or grace exercised by the creature who cannot see the future. God sees the future, and has no need to overcome the cloud of the present by drawing from the future the light of hope. God, as the object of hope, is a reason for gratitude. Nature and philosophy may teach a dread abstraction, and may thus induce a desire for atheism. Revelation declares a God of hope. There is hope in the fulness of the divine promises, in the pages of the sacred record, in the cross of our Saviour, and by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the gracious province of the divine Spirit to work in and upon the human spirit, so that it may abound in hope. There is not often a superabundance of hope; it is too rare a possession. Abound in hope. How excellent the nature that abounds in hope!
III. The essentials of the Christian life are being developed.Faith, peace, and joy are essential elements of the Christian character. These are to be increased, and then there follows the enlargement of hope. A man filled with joy and peace has no room for despair. Peace and joy constitute the favourable sphere in which hope may abound. Peace, joy, and hope do not spring from a desire, however earnest, after righteousness. A longing after the harmony with the eternal law of moral order will fill us with despair as we feel that we are incapable of satisfying the souls infinite longings. Peace, joy, and hope come to the soul in and through believing. The truth of this cannot be tested by any scientific method, but it is affirmed by experience.
IV. The blessed processes employed for the attainment of a great result.The blessed processes are both external and internal, both human and divine, and all spiritual. All intercessory prayers are external to the objects of such petitions. Paul prays; the Mediator intercedes. The divine Spirit is external to the human spirit, and works in external spheres, even when that divine Spirit has put itself into blessed union with the human spirit. The divine Spirit is filling. When the divine Spirit fills the human spirit, then it fills with joy and peace. The very presence of the Spirit is joy and peace, for the Holy Ghost is a peaceful and joyful Spirit. All are moving towards the blessed resultsuperabundance of hope.
V. The result reacts beneficially on the processes.Abundance of hope strengthens faith, deepens peace, enlarges joy. Beneficial reactions are to be expected in Christian processes; while maleficent reactions too often occur in other spheres. Do evil, and evil rebounds. Work in material spheres, and though the work be legitimate, harm and damage may recoil. Do good, and good beyond our doing accrues. Work in moral spheres, and though the work be imperfect, there will be a beneficial reaction beyond the measure of our efforts. Seek for more faith; cultivate peace; enlarge joy. Then hope will abound. And abounding hope will sweetly nourish all graces, like the prospering sunlight of heaven. The apostle abounded in hope in darkest scenes; and why may not we? The heathen wept amid the ruins, but the apostle could sing amid the ruins of worldly hopes; and why may not we?
Rom. 15:13. Religion and pleasure.It is a remarkable fact that St. Paul, whose record was so stormy, can rejoice. Sketch his chequered life. Yet he speaks of the joy of faith even while the chains about his wrists are clanking. He is a happy Christian, praising God in spite of his uncomfortable quarters and his perilous position. The secret of this? That he weighed consequences before experience: the sufferings of the present not worthy of comparison with the glory that should follow.
I. St. Paul sought to teach men that religion is a thing of joy.The general notion among the worldly runs in the opposite direction. Some say of St. Paul that his exultation was due to his natural temperament, to the atmosphere of controversy and opposition, which he dearly loved. But thousands of others have believed that religion is the groundwork of the worlds joy. Sceptics and others say that they have joydeep, solemn, self-respecting, abidingin looking into the heavens and nature as mysteries, the delight coming from the endeavour to solve them. But the fact is indisputable that their joy is marred by thisthat shutting out God they shut out all hope and encouragement.
II. The text leaves no room for the false ideal of gloomy sainthood.One of the greatest injustices that can be done to the Christian cause is to take as ones ideal Christian the melancholy, wasted saint who frowns on everything but the Bible or hymn-bookthe grim, gloomy creatures, extreme Puritans, who frown on laughter and lightheartedness. They do not truly reflect the religion Jesus set up among men. Nothing in Christianity to refute Solomons saying, To everything there is a season; but we may make one exception therenamely, no time for the gospel of gloom. Reading between the lines of religion, you come upon the philosophy of right things in right places; but everywhere in religion you find the word cheerfulness.
1. To be cheerful is a duty which you owe to God. He has placed you in a beautiful world with power to enjoy it. If you go complaining and wearing a gloomy face, it is a constant denial that God has done all things to make you happy.
2. To be cheerful is a duty you owe to your neighbour. By being cheerful you contribute to the happiness of those around you. We are so constituted that we are always affected by our associates and associations.
3. Cheerfulness a duty you owe to yourself. Life is what we make it.
III. Religion is pleasurable, notwithstanding the element of discipline.Discipline an absolute necessity, otherwise many would carry their pleasures into licence. Religion has its pleasure; but it draws a necessary line somewhere. It will not tolerate forgetfulness of God and duty, laxity of service, questionable fraternity with the world that opposes God.
IV. No real pleasure apart from religion.Some say the world would be just as happy without Christs religion as with it. History gives this the lie. Were the pagans a happy race? Were the Greeks with their full pantheon happy? Think of the picture of the Christless world! Suicide resorted to and praised as a means of escape from misery. It is false to impute gloom to Christianity. Rightly interpreted, it does not sanction a single doctrine or utter a precept which is meant to extinguish one happy impulse or dim one innocent delight. What it does is to warn us against seeking and following the lowest and most shortlived pleasures as a final end. Since all that makes life tolerable and society possible is due to Christs religion, it is but another step to say that it is only through that religion that there can by any possibility be any real joy and peace.
V. The false representations have done great mischief.Some have held aloof, refusing the yoke of Christ, and have lost much abiding peace. The joy and peace of religion consist in an enlarged view of life, a wider conception of the duties demanded of it, a real comfort in the day of sorrow: these have been lost to many because of misrepresentation. It is something to lose companionship of a Saviour ready to meet our sinfulness and purge itone ready to meet our feebleness, especially since we are made up of needs.Albert Lee.
Rom. 15:13. God has no unfulfilled desires.Jesus Christ exercised His ministry amongst the Jews, and chose His apostles from the same people. The far larger proportion of primitive Christians were Jews; but the full and final commission to His disciples was to preach the gospel to every creature. It was necessary that Christ should be of some nation: He came unto the Jews to fulfil the prophecies concerning Him, and to establish the new covenant, for which the old was a preparation. The new covenant was for the benefit of all, according to the prediction of Isaiah: There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious. Thus is He set forth as the hope, or the object of hope, for all people. His ministers are sent for this purposeto lead men to Him, that they may be induced to hope in Him and through Him. There is no exception or exclusion, except that which individuals themselves unwisely make. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, Christ said, will draw all men unto Me. The attraction of His love produces hope. The divine Being is not called a God of hope because He has unfulfilled desires; for He is possessed of all things, and has the universe under His control. The very perfection of His nature must be a source of happiness, and excludes the hope so necessary to men, and without which energy would be dissipated and purposes made vain. Hope implies that there is some good not yet in possession, but in God are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But God is the giver of all that is worth having: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. To Him rational beings must look, in Him must trust. On Him we are dependent, and even the power to get wealth is received from Him. He permits evil. Why? It is not for us to say; but often what appears so is not so absolutely. He out of seeming evil still educeth good. He is called the God of hope in view of the fact that our state morally is desperate, and that no power less than His can deliver us from it and put us in a condition acceptable to Himself. His good-will towards us is so great as to be incomprehensible. For acceptance in the Beloved, for spiritual renewal, and for life eternal we are to hope in Him. He is not like the fabled deities of old, pleased to execute vengeance; He delights in mercy, showing it to thousands of them that love Him. But He does not show mercy to penitents that they may continue in sin: He that confesseth and forsaketh it shall find mercy. It is desirable and possible to abound in hope, even in the most troublesome events of life. Sometimes it may be dimmed or clouded through manifold temptations, when a resort to the very Source of hope becomes especially necessary. How many have been sustained by hope in the most fearful difficulties! Take only one example. Carlyle says; John Knox had a sore fight for existence, wrestling with principalities in defeat, contention, lifelong struggle, rowing as a galley-slave, wandering in exile. A sore fight, but he won it. Have you hope? he was asked in his last moments, when he could no longer speak. He lifted his finger, pointed upward with it, and so died. The God of hope makes His servants to abound in hope through His gracious Spirit by filling them with the joy of forgiveness, giving them His abiding presence, and strengthening the desire to purify themselves, even as He is pure. From Him too cometh a sweet and sacred peace, which is diffused through the whole spiritual naturea peace which passeth all understanding. This peace cannot exist where sin reigns, and the conscience is not sprinkled as with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The peace that abideth and flourisheth comes through believing, not merely through consenting to certain truths, or accepting revelation as from God, but through believing with the heart unto righteousness. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.Dr. Burrows, Ashtabula, New York.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 15:13
Pauls cheerfulness in affliction.What can be more free and buoyant, with all their variety, than his writings? Brilliant, broken, impetuous as the mountain torrent freshly filled, never smooth and calm but on the eve of some bold leap, never vehement but to fill some receptacle of dearest peace, they present everywhere the image of a vigorous joy. Beneath the forms of their theosophic reasonings, and their hints of deep philosophy, there may be heard a secret lyric strain of glorious praise, bursting at times into open utterance, and asking others to join the chorus. His life was a battle from which, in intervals of the good fight, his words arose as the song of victory.Albert Lee.
The world without Christ.Their hearts became surcharged with every element of vileness,with impurity in its most abysmal degradations, with hatred alike in its meanest and its most virulent developments, with insolence culminating in the deliberate search for fresh forms of evil, with cruelty and falsity in their most repulsive features. And the last crime of all, beyond which crime itself could go no further, was the awfully defiant attitude of moral evil, which led them, while they were fully aware of Gods sentence of death pronounced on willing guilt, not only to incur it themselves, but with a devilish delight in human depravity and human ruin to take a positive pleasure in those who practise the same. The moral emptiness and desolation of the ancient world is evident to all eyes. It had no moral and spiritual purpose by which to solve the problems that are vital to the very existence of the State. The upbuilding of political life with all its earnestness and struggle and end avour was over. Many things sank into the mere shows and semblances of realities; and, in truth, this was the case with the assemblies of the people, the senate, and the high officers of religion and the State. Everything was sacrificed to appetite, enjoyment, and play. Because heathenism had no goal beyond the grave, it had no worthy purpose and aim on this side of it.Seidel.
Going without religion.I fear that when we indulge ourselves in the amusement of going without a religion, we are not perhaps aware how much we are sustained at present by an enormous mass all about us of religious feeling and religious conviction; so that, whatever it may be safe for us to think, for us who have had great advantages and have been brought up in such a way that a certain moral direction has been given to our character, I do not know what would become of the less favoured classes of mankind if they undertook to play the same game. The worst kind of religion is no religion at all; and these men who are living in ease and luxury, indulging themselves in the amusement of going without religion, may be thankful that they live in lands where the gospel they neglect has tamed the beastliness and ferocity of the men who but for Christianity might long ago have eaten their carcases like the South Sea islanders, or cut off their heads and tanned their hides like the monsters of the French Revolution. When the microscopic search of sceptioism, which had hurled the heavens and sounded the seas to disprove the existence of the Creator, has turned its attention to human society, and has found a place on this planet ten miles square where a decent man can live in decency, comfort, and security, supporting and educating his children, unspoiled and unpolluteda place where age is reverenced, infancy respected, manhood respected, woman honoured, and human life held in due regardwhen sceptics can find such a place ten miles square on this globe where the gospel of Christ has not gone and cleared the way, and laid the foundations, and made decency and security possible, it will then be in order for (sceptics) to move thither, and then ventilate their views. But so long as these very men are dependent upon the religion which they discard for every privilege they enjoy, they may well hesitate a little before they seek to rob the Christian of his hope, and humanity of its faith in that Saviour who alone has given to man that hope of life eternal, which makes life tolerable and society possible, and robs death of its terrors and the grave of its gloom.James Russell Lowell.
The joy of believing.Some, because religion has been shamefully misrepresented, have stood afar off, dreading to take upon themselves the yoke of Christ. They may well consider that the joy and peace of religion consist in an enlarged view of life, a wider conception of the duties demanded of it, a real comfort in the day of affliction, a real light in the hour of darkness. There is to the Christian all the joy that is worth the name. There is a Saviour ready to meet our sinfulness, ready to purge it; there is a God willing to meet our feebleness, helping those who are weak in faith, compassed about with difficulties and infirmities, men and women made up of needs. There is surely joy and peace in believing and realising this. But what joy for the man who will meet his own needs? Dares he to defy the help of One who is mighty, and from whom all real good proceeds?never once to have a whisper of encouragement, nor a word of sympathy, nor one kindly touch of help; no great Master on whom to cast the heavy burdens of care; no one to whom to turn and say, Thou art my glory, and the lifter-up of my head; no God to be a refuge and strength, a present help in the dark days of trouble! Verily, they have failing hearts who seek for pleasure at other hands than those of the crucified One!Albert Lee.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. . . . hope.Hope, joy, and peace, form a triad which represents the attitude of the Christian in looking towards the future, and so far as that future is reflected on the present. Hope may be taken as including the other two, as it is upon the certainty of the Messianic promises that they all depend, just as it is through the constant energising power of the Holy Ghost that they are kept alive.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13, 14. In these two verses the apostle, in view of this unity, prays for the Roman Church, and expresses his joyous trust in the excellence and perfectness of their Christian union.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13. Now In view of this predictive unity I offer this prayer.
God of hope To the God of hope he prays that they may abound in hope, both of the accomplishment of this predicted unity on earth, and of the perfected unity above.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.’
Having described the hope that the Gentiles will have in the Messiah (Rom 15:12), and the confirmation of the promises to ‘the circumcised’ (the Jews – Rom 15:8), Paul now speaks of God as ‘the God of hope’. In Rom 15:5 He was the God of patient endurance and encouragement (comfort), now He is seen as the God of hope. It is from Him that all His people receive their hope, and it is He Who will, while bringing that hope to completion, fill them with all joy and peace in believing (in the Messiah – Rom 15:12), so that they might abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. For the feature of being under the Kingly Rule of God is righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17), as we look forward with confident hope to the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:23-24) in the day of final transformation.
The work of the Holy Spirit was first introduced in Rom 5:5 as shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts in a passage where hope was prominent (Rom 5:2); was underlined in Rom 8:1-26, as He carries out His transforming work in our lives, and makes intercession for us, where again hope was prominent (Rom 8:23-24); was probably in mind in Rom 12:11 where He is the source of our fervency and zeal; is the source of the righteousness, and peace and joy which is a feature of the Kingly Rule of God in Rom 14:17, and is now here in Rom 15:13 the inspirer of our hope through His power. In Rom 15:16 He is the Sanctifier of the Gentiles who believe, and in Rom 15:19 He is the source of the power which brought about the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, and through the power of signs and wonders. In Rom 15:30 He is again the inspirer of our love.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 15:13 . As Rom 15:1-4 passed into a blessing (Rom 15:5-6 ), so now the hortatory discourse, begun afresh in Rom 15:7 , passes into a blessing ( ), which forms, at the same time, the close of the entire section (from chap. 14 onwards).
] God, who produces the hope (of eternal glory), namely, through His Spirit; see the closing words of the verse. This description of God (comp. on Rom 15:5 ) attaches itself formally to , Rom 15:12 , [18] but rests upon the deeper substantive reason, that the becoming filled with joyfulness and peace here wished for is not possible without having hope as its basis, and that, on the other hand, this becoming filled produces the rich increase of hope itself ( . . . .).
. . . .] with all, i.e. with highest joyfulness. Comp. Theile, ad Jac . p. 8; Wunder, ad Soph. Phil . 141 f. and (peace through concord), as Rom 14:17 .
] in the believing , to which without and the fruits would be wanting, and without which no and could exist. Comp. Rom 14:17 .
. . . .] Aim of the . . .: in order that ye, in virtue of the power (working in you) of the Holy Spirit, may he abundant in hope , may cherish Christian hope in the richest measure (comp. 1Co 15:58 ; 2Co 8:7 ; Phi 1:9 ; Col 2:7 ).
[18] An attachment which, since then addresses the church , does not suit the view which holds the latter to be a Jewish -Christian one (Mangold).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1922
THE HOLY GHOST THE AUTHOR OF HOPE
Rom 15:13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
CHRISTIANS, even in the purest ages of the Church, have been too ready to indulge a spirit of bigotry and contention. The Jewish and Gentile converts in every place were much addicted to it. St. Paul, studious to counteract it in those at Rome, shews that Christ, though a minister of the circumcision, intended to incorporate the Gentiles into his Church; and prays for both parties, that, as the means of restoring union among themselves, they might be endued with more grace. His words shew us,
I.
The privileges of true Christians
The world forms a very false estimate of the Christians portion; and Christians themselves too often live below their privileges. It is their privilege to be be filled,
1.
With lively joy
[No one in the world has so much cause for joy as they The man healed by Peter and John fitly, though imperfectly, represents their state Nor is their joy like that of sinners, which soon expires in spleen and melancholy [Note: Ecc 7:6 and Pro 14:13.]. They may rejoice evermore, and without ceasing.]
2.
With abiding peace
[It would be thought by many that peace should have preceded joy; but the experience of Gods people accords exactly with the Scriptures [Note: Compare Isa 55:12. with the text.]. Being freed from the torment of a guilty conscience, they have peace with God [Note: Rom 5:1.]. Christ has both purchased for them, and bequeathed to them, his peace, which passeth all understanding [Note: Joh 14:27 and Php 4:7.]. Their peace may well be as a river, since their righteousness is as the waves of the sea [Note: Isa 48:18.].]
3.
With assured hope
[This is the fruit, rather than the root, of peace and joy. They have the promise and oath of God on their side [Note: Heb 6:17-18], and have already received in their souls an earnest of their inheritance [Note: Eph 1:14.]. Well therefore may they enjoy a confident expectation of the promised land. All indeed are not sufficiently studious to walk thus in the light: but, what the Apostle prayed for on the behalf of all, it is the privilege of all to possess.]
The Apostle further directs us,
II.
How we may attain the enjoyment of them
In this short and comprehensive prayer we are taught to seek them,
1.
From God as the fountain
[God in himself is a consuming fire: but in Christ he is the God of hope and the source of all good [Note: Jam 1:17.]. It is he who provided for us the Saviour, and accepted him in our behalf; and has promised to cast out none who come to him in his Sons name. In vain will be the use of other means, if we apply not to him in prayer. But nothing is too great for God to give to the believing suppliant.]
2.
By faith as the means
[God has treasured up a fulness for us in Christ Jesus; and out of it we receive by faith according to the full extent of our necessities. By faith we resemble an infant at the mothers breast However favoured we are, we can receive nothing but by the exercise of faith [Note: Jam 1:6-7.]; but in believing we shall be filled with joy and peace. It is faith that enables us to realize invisible things, and, by discovering Christ to the soul, to rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and glorified; and, by experiencing this joy of faith, our hope is augmented and confirmed [Note: Rom 5:5.].]
3.
Through the Holy Ghost as the agent
[There is no power less than his that will produce these things. The whole work of grace is, not by might nor by power, but by Gods Spirit [Note: Zec 4:6.]. He will afford us clear discoveries of the heavenly glory. He will witness to us our adoption, and seal us with Gods image [Note: 2Co 1:22.]. And thus while he forms us to a meetness for heaven, he gives us also a foretaste of it in our hearts.]
Infer
1.
How much happier is the Christian than others even in this world [Note: Deu 33:29.]!
2.
How happy will the Christian be when he shall receive these communications from the Deity, not through the narrow and obstructed channel of faith, but immediately at the fountain head [Note: 1Co 13:12.]!
3.
How deservedly will they be left destitute of this happiness hereafter, who now give the pleasures of sin their decided preference [Note: Pro 1:22-31.]!
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Ver. 13. Fill you with all joy, &c. ] Note here that joy and peace are the means whereby faith worketh hope.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] The hortatory part of the Epistle, as well as the preceding section of it ( Rom 15:5 ), concludes with a solemn wish for the spiritual welfare of the Roman church.
The words connect with of the foregoing verse, as was the case with . in Rom 15:5 .
. , as the happy result of faith in God, and unanimity with one another; see ch. Rom 14:17 .
Rom 15:14 to Rom 16:27 . ] CONCLUSION OF THE EPISTLE. PERSONAL NOTICES, RESPECTING THE APOSTLE HIMSELF ( Rom 15:14-33 ), RESPECTING THOSE GREETED ( Rom 16:1-16 ), AND GREETING: TOGETHER WITH WARNINGS AGAINST THOSE WHO MADE DIVISIONS AMONG THEM ( Rom 16:16-23 ); AND CONCLUDING DOXOLOGY ( Rom 16:24-27 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 15:13 . Prompted by , the Apostle closes this section, and the body of the epistle, by calling on “the God of hope” to bless those to whom it is addressed. For the expression cf. Rom 15:5 : it means the God Who gives us the hope which we have in Christ. The joy and peace which He imparts rest on faith ( ). Hence they are the joy and peace specially flowing from justification and acceptance with God, and the more we have of these, the more we abound in the Christian hope itself. Such an abounding in hope, in the power of the Holy Ghost (Act 1:8 , Luk 4:14 ), is the end contemplated in Paul’s prayer that the God of hope would fill the Romans with all joy and peace in believing. For the kind of supremacy thus given to hope compare the connection of Rom 15:5 with Rom 15:2 in chap. 5.
The rest of this chapter is of the nature of an epilogue. It falls into two parts: (1) Rom 15:14-21 , in which Paul, while apologising for the tone which he has occasionally employed, justifies himself for writing to the Romans by appealing to his vocation as an Apostle; and (2) Rom 15:22 ; Rom 15:33 , in which he explains to them the programme of his future work, including his long-deferred visit to them, and begs their prayers for a successful issue to his visit to Jerusalem.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Romans
TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM
JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING
Rom 15:13
With this comprehensive and lofty petition the Apostle closes his exhortation to the factions in the Roman Church to be at unity. The form of the prayer is moulded by the last words of a quotation which he has just made, which says that in the coming Messiah ‘shall the Gentiles hope.’ But the prayer itself is not an instance of being led away by a word-in form, indeed, it is shaped by verbal resemblance; in substance it points to the true remedy for religious controversy. Fill the contending parties with a fuller spiritual life, and the ground of their differences will begin to dwindle, and look very contemptible. When the tide rises, the little pools on the rocks are all merged into one.
But we may pass beyond the immediate application of these words, and see in them the wish, which is also a promise, and like the exhibition of every ideal is a command. This is Paul’s conception of the Christian life as it might and should be, in one aspect. You notice that there is not a word in it about conduct. It goes far deeper than action. It deals with the springs of action in the individual life. It is the depths of spiritual experience here set forth which will result in actions that become a Christian. And in these days, when all around us we see a shallow conception of Christianity, as if it were concerned principally with conduct and men’s relations with one another, it is well to go down into the depths, and to remember that whilst ‘Do, do, do!’ is very important, ‘Be, be, be!’ is the primary commandment. Conduct is a making visible of personality, and the Scripture teaching which says first faith and then works is profoundly philosophical as well as Christian. So we turn away here from externals altogether, and regard the effect of Christianity on the inward life.
I. I wish to notice man’s faith and God’s filling as connected, and as the foundation of everything.
Further, this relation of the two things suggests to us that a consequence of a Christian man’s faith is the direct action of God upon him. Notice how the Apostle puts that truth in a double form here, in order that he may emphasise it, using one form of expression, involving the divine, direct activity, at the beginning of his prayer, and another at the end, and so enclosing, as it were, within a great casket of the divine action, all the blessings, the flashing jewels, which he desires his Roman friends to possess. ‘The God of hope fill you . . . through the power of the Holy Ghost.’ I wish I could find words by which I could bear in upon the ordinary type of the Evangelical Christianity of this generation anything like the depth and earnestness of my own conviction that, for lack of a proportionate development of that great truth, of the direct action of the giving God on the believing heart, it is weakened and harmed in many ways. Surely He that made my spirit can touch my spirit; surely He who filleth all things according to their capacity can Himself enter into and fill the spirit which is opened for Him by simple faith. We do not need wires for the telegraphy between heaven and the believing soul, but He comes directly to, and speaks in, and moves upon, and moulds and blesses, the waiting heart. And until you know, by your own experience rightly interpreted, that there is such a direct communion between the giving God and the recipient believing spirit, you have yet to learn the deepest depth, and the most blessed blessedness, of Christian faith and experience. For lack of it a hundred evils beset modern Christianity. For lack of it men fix their faith so exclusively as that the faith is itself harmed thereby, on the past act of Christ’s death on the Cross. You will not suspect me of minimising that, but I beseech you remember one climax of the Apostle’s which, though not bearing the same message as my text, is in harmony with it, ‘Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ And remember that Christ Himself bestows the gift of His Divine Spirit as the result of the humiliation and the agony of His Cross. Faith brings the direct action of the giving God.
And one more word about this first part of my text: the result of that direct action is complete-’the God of hope fill you’ with no shrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock, but a great exuberance which will pass into a man’s nature in the measure of his capacity, which is the measure of his trust and desire. There are two limits to God’s gifts to men: the one is the limitless limit of God’s infinitude, the other is the working limit-our capacity-and that capacity is precisely measured, as the capacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gauge on the outside, by our faith. ‘The God of hope’ fills you in ‘believing,’ and ‘according to thy faith shall it be unto thee.’
II. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of the God of hope on the believer’s soul.
He that believes has found the short, sure road to joy and peace, because his relations are set right with God. For these relations are the disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity, and like the skeleton at the feast in all earthly joy, and a man can never, down to the roots of his being, be at rest until he is quite sure that there is nothing wrong between him and God. And so believing, we come to that root of all real gladness which is anything better than a crackling of thorns under a pot, and to that beginning of all true tranquillity. Joy in the Lord and peace with God are the parents of all joy and peace that are worthy of the name.
And that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angels into the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith brings right relations with ourselves. For our inward strifes stuff thorns into the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with the sweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys. If a man’s conscience and inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder as by wild horses. If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning after unattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there. If a man’s little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passion and appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity. But if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry hearts are satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and the conscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber of the spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified by the faith and fear of God.
And the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our relations with other people, and with all externals. If I am living in an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, nor have exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit. But there will be the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, ‘as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.’ For the joy of the Christian life has its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour drops of sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like the fabled fire that burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be bright in my heart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress.
And so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fill the heart which trusts. Only remember how emphatically the Apostle here puts these two things together, ‘joy and peace in believing.’ As long as, and not a moment longer than, you are exercising the Christian act of trust, will you be experiencing the Christian blessedness of ‘joy and peace.’ Unscrew the pipe, and in an instant the water ceases to flow. Touch the button and switch off, and out goes the light. Some Christian people fancy they can live upon past faith. You will get no present joy and peace out of past faith. The rain of this day twelve months will not moisten the parched ground of to-day. Yesterday’s religion was all used up yesterday. And if you would have a continuous flow of joy and peace through your lives, keep up a uniform habit and attitude of trust in God. You will get it then; you will get it in no other way.
III. Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of joy and peace.
And the truest basis on which that hope can rest is the experience granted to us, on condition of our faith, of a present, abundant possession of the joy and peace which God gives. The gladder you are to-day, if the gladness comes from the right source, the surer you may be that that gladness will never end. That is not what befalls men who live by earthly joys. For the more poignant, precious, and, as we faithlessly think, indispensable some of these are to us, the more into their sweetest sweetness creeps the dread thought: ‘This is too good to last; this must pass.’ We never need to think that about the peace and joy that come to us through believing. For they, in their sweetness, prophesy perpetuity. I need not dwell upon the thought that the firmest, most personally precious convictions of an eternity of future blessedness, rise and fall in a Christian consciousness with the purity and the depth of its own experience of the peace and joy of the Gospel. The more you have of Jesus Christ in your lives and hearts to-day, the surer you will be that whatever death may do, it cannot touch that, and the more ludicrously impossible it will seem that anything that befalls this poor body can touch the bond that knits us to Jesus Christ. Death can separate us from a great deal. Its sharp scythe cuts through all other bonds, but its edge is turned when it is tried against the golden chain that binds the believing soul to the Christ in whom he has believed.
So, brethren, there is the ladder-begin at the bottom step, with faith in Jesus Christ. That will bring God’s direct action into your spirit, through His Holy Spirit, and that one gift will break up into an endless multiplicity of blessings, just as a beam of light spilt upon the surface of the ocean breaks into diamonds in every wave, and that ‘joy and peace’ will kindle in your hearts a hope fed by the great words of the Lord: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,’ ‘My joy shall remain in you, and your joy shall be full,’ ‘He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
hope, hope = the hope.
fill. App-125.
in, in. App-104.
believing. App-150.
that, &c. = unto (App-104.) your abounding.
through. App-104.
power. App-172.
the Holy Ghost. App-101.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] The hortatory part of the Epistle, as well as the preceding section of it (Rom 15:5), concludes with a solemn wish for the spiritual welfare of the Roman church.
The words connect with of the foregoing verse, as was the case with . in Rom 15:5.
. , as the happy result of faith in God, and unanimity with one another; see ch. Rom 14:17.
Rom 15:14 to Rom 16:27.] CONCLUSION OF THE EPISTLE. PERSONAL NOTICES, RESPECTING THE APOSTLE HIMSELF (Rom 15:14-33),-RESPECTING THOSE GREETED (Rom 16:1-16), AND GREETING: TOGETHER WITH WARNINGS AGAINST THOSE WHO MADE DIVISIONS AMONG THEM (Rom 16:16-23);-AND CONCLUDING DOXOLOGY (Rom 16:24-27).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 15:13-27. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God. That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed. Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another mans foundation: but as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company. But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are.
For these Achaians and Macedonians had received the gospel from the saints in Jerusalem. The Gentiles had been made partakers of their spiritual things, so it was their duty to minister to the poor Christian Jews in carnal things.
Rom 15:27-28. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit,-
That is, when I have delivered the money, and obtained a receipt in full for it; when I have discharged my duty in this matter,-
Rom 15:28-29. I will come by you into Spain. And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
He was sure of that, but he did not know how he would go in other respects. He did not know that he would go to Rome as a prisoner; he could not foresee that he would be sent there as an ambassador in bonds; and little, I wean, did he care in what manner he would go, so long as he had the absolute certainty that he should go in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Rom 15:30-31. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;-
For there were some saints in Jerusalem who were very narrow-minded, and who hardly thought it right to accept anything from Gentiles. They had not got clear of their Jewish bonds, and Paul was a little afraid lest what he was taking to them might not be acceptable, so he asked the Romans to pray about that matter. Is there anything about which believers may not pray? If there be, then we have no right to have anything to do with it. Bring everything before God in prayer, for all right thing way lawfully be prayed about. So Paul asked the Christians in Rome to pray about that matter of his journey to Jerusalem, and also to pray for his return,-
Rom 15:32-33. That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Rom 15:13. , of hope] Comp. they shall hope, in the preceding verse and immediately after, in hope. The God of hope, a name glorious to God; a name heretofore unknown to the Gentiles. For Hope had been one of their false divinities, whose temple, Livy mentions in the 21st book of his history, was struck with lightning, and, again in the 24th book, was burnt with fire.- , with joy and peace) We may look back to ch. Rom 14:17. Concerning joy comp. Rom 15:10, Rejoice ye; concerning peace, ibid. with [His people].- ) construed with .
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 15:13
Rom 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope,-Paul, having referred to the Gentiles hoping in Christ, with one of his characteristic divergencies, prays that God would fill all, both Jews and Gentiles, with hope and peace through their faith in God, that they may have the joy that abundant hope gives. [The Greek word for filled is a very strong and graphic word, originally applied to the feeding and fattening of animals in a stall, used also of the multitudes fed with the loaves and fishes. (Mat 14:20). It expresses complete satisfaction.]
in the power of the Holy Spirit.-Through the Holy Spirit which God had given as an earnest to strengthen their faith and enable them to have hope in Jesus.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the God: Rom 15:5, Jer 14:8, Joe 3:16, 1Ti 1:1
fill: Rom 14:17, Isa 55:12, Joh 14:1, Joh 14:27, Gal 5:22, Eph 1:2, Eph 5:18, Eph 5:19, 2Th 2:16, 2Th 2:17, 1Pe 1:8
abound: Rom 5:4, Rom 5:5, Rom 12:12, 2Co 9:8, Heb 6:11
Reciprocal: Num 6:26 – give thee 1Sa 1:18 – went her Psa 31:24 – all ye Psa 39:7 – hope Psa 40:4 – Blessed Psa 71:5 – For thou Psa 86:2 – trusteth Psa 119:49 – upon which Psa 143:10 – thy spirit Pro 3:2 – and peace Pro 10:28 – hope Isa 54:13 – great Mat 12:21 – General Joh 14:16 – another Joh 14:26 – Holy Ghost Joh 15:11 – your Act 2:4 – filled Act 9:31 – and in Act 13:52 – were Act 16:34 – and rejoiced Rom 2:10 – and peace Rom 5:1 – we have Rom 5:2 – and rejoice Rom 8:24 – saved 1Co 13:13 – hope 2Co 6:10 – sorrowful 2Co 13:11 – be of good Gal 4:15 – the blessedness Eph 1:12 – who Phi 1:25 – joy Phi 2:1 – any consolation Phi 4:7 – the peace Col 2:2 – their Col 3:15 – the peace 1Th 1:3 – and patience 1Th 1:6 – with joy 1Th 5:23 – God 1Ti 4:10 – because 2Ti 1:12 – believed Tit 2:13 – blessed Heb 1:9 – oil Heb 3:6 – rejoicing 1Pe 1:3 – unto 1Pe 5:10 – the God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE GOD OF HOPE
Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Rom 15:13
This hope is the handmaid of faith. The Apostle speaks of those dead in trespasses and sins as being without hope and without God in the world. The two facts are closely interwoven.
I. Once grasp the idea that God presides over and controls the affairs of men, and that His object is their salvation and perfection, no matter how far beyond our understanding the means He uses may be, then we may hope for the future. In the language of the text, He becomes to us The God of Hope. He cheers and comforts despondent hearts, and bids them look forward to that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
II. No better word could be chosen to more correctly express our attitude towards the future. It holds within it a carefully adjusted balance of thought. It is expressive of certainty, mingled with uncertainty. There are not a few people in the world who would tell you that your faith is defective, if you were to say that you hoped to be saved, and that nothing less than absolute certainty ought to satisfy you. But does it not savour of presumption to say that we can be sure about anything, much less of a thing that depends on our own conduct. Only they that endure to the end shall be saved.
III. The uncertainty which surrounds every action and relation of our present life does not hinder us from enjoying that life moderately and rationally. The fact that death may occur at any moment, whilst it acts as a healthy restraint upon the follies and indulgences into which we are prone to fall, yet it is not intended, and indeed does not rob us of the beauty and enjoyment of life. So in Gods fatherly dealings with us in preparation for eternity He saves us from gloom and despair by revealing Himself to us, through His Son Jesus Christ. He does not flatter us by too much confidence. And yet withal, to those who listen to and obey His voice, He fills them with joy and peace in believing. He makes them to abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Rev. C. Rhodes Hall.
Illustration
All through the Bible it is the men of hope who stand out as heroes, because it is the men of hope who discern the Divine purpose, and fall into line with it, from Abraham, who rejoiced to see the day of Christ, who saw it and was glad, who, against hope, believed in hope; all along the line of worthies, the clear-sighted of every age, who died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them; down to those of the new Covenant, who owned that if in this life only they had hope in Christ they were of all men most miserable; St. Paul, rising from height to height of spiritual glory, as outward things looked more untoward, and John, in exile and tribulation, crying wistfully, Come, Lord Jesus. Yes, it is the men of hope who stand out conspicuous, and call out to us to take sides with them. And it is the abandonment of hope which marks the utmost reach of murmuring and sin in Gods people of old.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
:13
Rom 15:13. No apostle had been in Rome when this epistle was written, and hence no spiritual gifts were possessed by that church. The power of the Holy Ghost (or Spirit) was exerted through the word of God which is the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17). By believing this word, the brethren could be filled with joy and peace, all of which would give them their hope.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 15:13. Now the God of hope, etc. Most aptly is God here called the God of hope (comp. the similar repetition, Rom 15:4-5), the God who produces the hope they possess. As Rom 15:1-4 passed into a blessing (Rom 15:5-6), so now the hortatory discourse, begun afresh in Rom 15:7, passes into a blessing, which forms, at the same time, the close of the entire section (from chap. 14 onwards). (Meyer.)
With all joy and peace. These are based on hope, but are the direct fruit of believing.
The end of this being filled with joy and peace is the increase in turn of hope: that ye may abound in hope; and this not by their own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. Believing, is the subjective state, but this is the objective means, the inworking power. As the Holy Spirit is the author of peace, and as faith and hope, peace and joy, are the greatest helps to true unity, this benediction is a fitting close to the exhortation respecting mutual forbearance and true fellowship, which forms the most striking passage in the practical part of the Epistle. The Apostles main task is now completed; he prepares at once for the conclusion of his letter.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. How the apostle closes his exhortation to brotherly concord and unity with a pithy and pathetic prayer; his example herein is instructive.
Observe, 2. The title or appellation which he gives unto God in prayer, The God of hope; sometimes he styles him the God of peace, sometimes the God of patience; here the God of hope; he being so objectively, the only object of our common hope, and also effectively, as he is the author and producer of hope in us.
Observe, 3. The mercies he prays for: 1. That they may be filled with all joy and peace in believing; that their hearts may overflow with peace from God and one towards another; and with all that joy which results from both.
2. That they may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost, where by hope understand the good hoped for, namely, heaven and eternal life, a firm expectation of which is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
Learn, 1. That God is the object of a Christian’s hope, and if so, the sin of despair is a most unreasonable sin; for why should any despair of his mercy who is the God of hope, who commands us to hope in his mercy, and takes pleasure in them that do so? Psa 147:11
Learn, 2. That the grace of hope, together with joy and peace in believing, are wrought in the Christian’s heart through the power of the Holy Ghost, that is, through the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost enlightening the understanding, inclining the will, rectifying the affections, and reducing all the rebellious powers and faculties of the soul (in concurrence with our endeavours) under the government and dominion of reason and religion.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 15:13. Now the God of hope A glorious title of God, but till now unknown to the heathen; for their goddess Hope, like their other idols, was nothing, whose temple at Rome was burned by lightning. It was indeed built again not long after, but was again burned to the ground. It is with great propriety that Jehovah is termed the God of hope, for there Isaiah , 1 st, In his nature and attributes; 2d, In the relations in which he stands to mankind in general, as their Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Governor, and Judge; and to his own people in particular, as their Redeemer, Saviour, Friend, and Father; 3d, In what he hath already done for them in giving his Son for their redemption, and in sending them the gospel light, and his Spirits aid; and, 4th, In what he hath promised still further to do for such as do not reject his counsel against themselves; there is, in these particulars, a most sure and glorious foundation laid for the most firm, lively, enlarged, and blessed hope, for all who will be persuaded to come to it and build thereon, by true repentance, living faith, and new obedience. And we may assure ourselves beyond a doubt, that
No man too largely from his love can hope, If what he hopes he labours to secure.
He is also called the God of hope, because, by raising his Son from the dead, and bringing life and immortality to light by the gospel, he hath presented to our view the most glorious object of hope possible to be presented to us; and because, by adopting believers into his family, regenerating them by his grace, constituting them his heirs, and giving them an earnest of their future inheritance in their hearts, he hath begotten them again to a lively hope of an incorruptible inheritance, an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. Fill you with all joy True spiritual joy, at all times, Php 4:4; and in all things, 1Th 5:16; 1Th 5:18; joy arising from the sources mentioned in the note on Rom 14:17 : and peace, of all sorts, in believing In or by the exercise of your faith in God and Christ, and the truths and promises of the gospel. That ye may abound in hope In a lively expectation of eternal life, felicity, and glory, and of continued, increasing grace, to help you in every time of need And of all things necessary for life and godliness. Through the power of the Holy Ghost Enlightening and quickening, renewing, strengthening, and comforting you.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with every kind of joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit!
God is described here as the God of hope, evidently in relation to the last words of the preceding quotation: In Him shall the Gentiles hope. The apostle could not more clearly designate his readers as former Gentiles, than he does by this connection.
The richer the possession of present blessings (peace and joy) which the believer derives by the ever-renewed act of faith ( , literally, by believing), the more does his soul rise to the lively view of future blessings, and according to the expression of the apostle, superabounds or overflows with hope.
The last words: the power of the Holy Spirit, point out to the reader once more, as in Rom 14:17, the true power which they ought to seek, in opposition to the factitious power by which one exalts himself so easily above others. The former unites, for it strives to serve (Rom 15:1), whereas the second disunites.
From the very marked connection of this whole last passage with the apostle’s ministry, it forms at once the conclusion of the didactic part of the Epistle to the Romans and the transition to the epistolary conclusion in which Paul proceeds to treat of the present situation of his apostolic work.
The reasons alleged by Baur against the authenticity of the first part of this chapter have appeared to us without force. The spirit of conciliation in regard to Judaism, which Baur judges incompatible with Paul’s character, never ceased to be that which inspired his work. It was because he felt the need of keeping up union with the Twelve, that after each of his missions he returned to Jerusalem, lest, as he says himself, Gal 2:2, he had run in vain. The collections which he made in the churches of the Gentile world in behalf of the Judeo-Christians of Palestine had the same object. This was also the object of the personal concessions of which he speaks 1Co 9:21-22, and by which he became to the weak as weak, exactly as he recommends to the strong in this passage. Hilgenfeld rightly says: What is looked upon as not possibly Paul’s, to my conviction only proves one thing: that since the days of Marcion there has been formed an inexact idea of the apostle to which it is still sought at the present day to conform the real Paul (Einleit. p. 323). It will be seen that this observation applies equally to the criticism of Baur and Lucht in regard to the second part of this chapter.
According to Schultz, it is from Rom 15:7 that the real Epistle to the Romans recommences, to which the whole moral treatise, Rom 12:1 to Rom 15:6, was originally foreign. It would follow therefrom that the wherefore of Rom 15:7 was immediately connected with the end of chap. 11. There is something seductive at first glance in this combination. The mercy shown both to the Gentiles and to the Jews (Rom 11:32) is well adapted to justify the invitation to the mutual receiving spoken of in our Rom 15:7. But it is nevertheless true that this relation is factitious1st. Because the object of chap. 11 was to justify God’s dispensations toward the people of Israel, and not to endeavor the union of Jews and Gentiles in the church; 2d. Because Rom 15:7 is in evident, and we might say literal correlation, not with any saying whatever of chap. 11, but with the first three verses of chap. 14.
Finally, we have an inference to draw from this whole piece, Rom 14:1 to Rom 15:13, as to the composition of the church of Rome. We appropriate the observation of Hilgenfeld, who declares that in this passage, as nowhere else, there is revealed the true composition of this church; but we apply it in a very different sense from his. While confessing, indeed, that Paul is addressing the Roman Christians in a body as strong (Rom 14:1 and Rom 15:1), this critic refuses to conclude therefrom that the majority of the church were Pauline by conviction and Gentile-Christian by origin. How does he escape from this consequence, which is yet so evident? By supposing that Paul expresses himself thus: as conceiving good hopes of themthat is to say, describing them here not as they are, but as he hopes they will become. This critical subterfuge will deceive no one.
M. Reuss experiences no less embarrassment in view of our passage. In his Histoire des crits du N. T. he expressed himself thus: This passage is cleverly turned, so as to make believe that the freer opinion was dominant at Rome, while the contrary was assuredly the case. Reuss thus ascribed tactics to the apostle unworthy of his character, rather than abandon his preconceived opinion of a Judeo-Christian majority in this church. In his Commentaire sur les ptres pauliennes he expresses himself somewhat differently: It is thus evident, he says, that the author considers the Christian community of Rome as not being exclusively composed of Jews. That is certainly very evident, and no one ever denied that there were at Rome other Christians than those of Jewish origin. But this confession is altogether insufficient. Instead of not exclusively, he should have said not essentially, to deal fairly with the text before us. The violent expedient attempted by Mangold, in his desire to evade this conclusion, demonstrates it better than anything else. And when Schultz, acknowledging that the strong are Paulinists, and at the same time that they form the majority in the church, concludes therefrom that the whole passage, Rom 14:1 to Rom 15:6, cannot have been addressed to the church of Rome, seeing that the majority of it was Jewish-Christian, he will allow us to regard this simply as a naive confession of the falsity of the latter opinion, and to conclude by saying, to the contrary effect: As this passage cannot have been written to a Jewish-Christian church, and as it is addressed to the church of Rome, the majority of this church was not Jewish-Christian.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. [The apostle concludes the hortatory part of his letter with this solemn petition for his readers’ welfare. Note what beautiful names for God are derived from the attributes which he inspires. “God of hope,” “God of patience” (Rom 15:5), “God of peace”– Rom 15:33]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
13. And the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, in that you may abound in hope through the dynamite of the Holy Ghost. Dynamite, translated power in E. V., is Pauls definition of gospel (Rom 1:16), being the irresistible power of the Holy Ghost, by which all sin is blown out of the human heart, and the soul lifted up on the eagle pinions of superabounding hope, even bringing heaven down in prelibations.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
15:13 {7} Now the God of {i} hope fill you with {k} all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
(7) He seals up as it were all the former treatise with prayers, wishing all that to be given them by the Lord, that he had commanded them.
(i) In whom we hope.
(k) Abundantly and plentifully.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse concludes the section dealing with the practice of God’s righteousness (Rom 12:1 to Rom 15:13). It is another pious wish (cf. Rom 15:5).
The mention of hope points forward to the future. Throughout this epistle Paul kept referring to the fact that God had not finished His saving work in his readers’ lives. They were still under construction as Christians. There was more to God’s salvation than they had experienced yet. In closing his treatise on God’s righteousness the apostle focused his readers’ attention on the rest of their sanctification and final glorification.
The God of hope is the God who inspires hope in and provides hope for His redeemed ones. Christians can be joyful because of what God has already done for us and is doing for us. We can also be peaceful as we realize what He is doing for us now and what He will do for us in the future. It is possible for us to abound in hope because the omnipotent Holy Spirit is at work in us (cf. ch. 8).
"The achievement of all God’s purposes for the spiritual welfare of His children comes from the power given by the Spirit of God. What a fitting closing reminder to the apostle’s discussion of Christian living." [Note: Witmer, "Romans," p. 496.]
This concludes Paul’s exposition of the theme of the righteousness of God that constitutes the heart of this epistle (Rom 1:18 to Rom 15:13). Paul showed man’s need of God’s righteousness (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20), how God imputes it to people who trust in His Son (Rom 3:21 to Rom 5:21), and how He imparts it to those to whom He has imputed it (chs. 6-8). Moreover he demonstrated that God is consistently righteous in doing all this (chs. 9-11). He ended by urging his readers to practice their righteousness in their most important relationships (Rom 12:1 to Rom 15:13).