Exegesis of Romans 5:3-5. The Divine Gift of Suffering; the Pouring of Hope into Our Souls by the Holy Spirit. And personal testimony.

Exegesis of Romans 5:3-5. The Divine Gift of Suffering; the Pouring of Hope into Our Souls by the Holy Spirit. And personal testimony.

I am an amateur of Exegesis (the extracting of ideas from Scripture) and yet I have stumbled upon something of First Order Theology and a direct practical aspect of Faith.

Why is there suffering in the world? I don’t know if I can answer that in regards to pointless misery other than to say that maybe, just maybe there is no such thing. Because you see, I have come to appreciate that Suffering is God’s Greatest Gift coinciding with Creation itself. How can this be when it is so painful and acute and dull through the slow drag of existence, the slow drag of time.

For this we turn to Romans 5:3-5, where I will be using a hybrid translation of NT Wright’s New Testament translation and the New King James Version - this is for the maxim of effects:

“That’s not all. We also celebrate in our sufferings, because we know that sufferings brings perseverance, perseverance produces a well-formed character, and character in this like brings hope. Hope, in its turn, does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

[NKJV says ‘tribulations instead of suffering’] and [Wright uses ‘patience instead of perseverance’].

So why suffering? In short Suffering is the life mana that pours from God ‘the Pitcher’ into the Holy Spirit ‘the chalice’ then to our Souls ‘the lips.’ It is literally a form of destined hope, the life mana is hope, and this Hope flows directly from suffering.

And if you don’t believe me because you are currently inside of suffering. Just know, I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder at age 19 and Hospitalized three times, the first time against my will. Actually straight jacketed inside a rubber room for two days. And when I had regained sufficient ‘normalized’ consciousness as I lie in bed in the psyche ward/ (apportioned to exactly two weeks each of my three stays) I lied in bed thinking my life was over. My mind physically and mentally Schizzed or separated from reality, the disease name ‘Schizophrenia’ is a combination of Schism which means separation as in separation from reality and Phren meaning mind. So it is a mind separated from reality.

There is no sugar coating what it feels like to not only go through psychosis (which is like living in a waking nightmare where your personality hideously morphs into ugliness) but to have a prognosis which should in theory permanently put you on your back.

But guess what, I rank the experience of this suffering as the second most important Introspective Life Quality that I have; second only to the feeling of the Logos  (Christ) Inhereing inside me. I would not trade my illness and the experience it wrought for a clean bill of mental health; it is intrinsic now to my identity and very Faith. And to be honest it is this very experience that lifted me out of avowed Atheism to Faithful belief in God. But initially it felt like God was literally crushing me under his heel - I hallucinated this very thing and it felt real and damning.

But from Suffering Hope pours into our Souls. It may take years, as it took 8 years from my initial diagnosis for me to reach this point of view. Suffering may be long, but then, the Lord is LongSuffering too. What I would add to Paul that I think he would approve is that Hope brings Transcendence. And Transcendence is all of beautiful, meaningful, loved, and the light of the World for the Goodness inherent in Creation.

Peace and Blessings to you my friends. - Greg