“God’s Love Has Been Poured Into Our Hearts”
Romans 5:5
Rev. Min Chung
(Lock-In, July 31-August 1, 2015)
Introduction
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Some feel hopeless tonight. I pray that you find hope through this verse. Some feel a lack of growth - frustrated because you are not growing in your spiritual life –, you don’t change. I pray that you find strength and hope through this verse tonight. Some can’t feel the love of God. You’ve talked about it two nights ago to someone, but you can’t feel, you can’t experience the love of God – it’s been a while since you’ve experienced that. I hope you experience his love through the meditation of this verse. Some feel powerless as you minister to people – you talk to people, you pray for your family members or your small group members, your friends, your coworkers – you really feel like you are powerless. I hope you will find hope and power as you meditate on this verse. Some of you feel like God is distant from you. It doesn’t feel like He’s close or real. I pray that God becomes close to you as you meditate on this verse- that you would see the reality. I’m not even trying to convince you, this verse is stating the reality. This is what it is. Whether you think differently or not, whether you feel differently or not, what the Bible says is the reality. That’s why it takes faith to see and experience the reality. You don’t need faith to make it happen. You need faith to see the reality. You experience the inevitable. So these verses, as you read the scripture, correct your thinking because that is the reality. So as you meditate on this verse, I pray that your thinking pattern will be corrected – to feel, know, and experience these things. You might not know how to relate to God, but I pray that we’ll learn it though this verse. Some of you feel lost, you don’t know what to do about the future. How can I be led by God? I pray that you will find some answers from this one verse. There are a lot of promises about raising our expectation from this verse, but that’s what this verse somewhat talks about in different ways. So we’ll look at seven things from this verse and meditate on it.
I. Hope
The first word is hope. The “hope does not put us to shame”. Hope does not disappoint us, that’s what it means. What is hope? For us, it’s ‘I wish it happens’ – we’re not certain about whether it will happen and there’s uncertainty about what we want. But as we look into Romans, hope has a totally different meaning. We need to look at this verse in context. There are 16 chapters in Romans.
- Summary of Chapters 1-4- Justification [Romans 5:1]
Chapter 5:1 summarizes chapter 1-4. “Therefore,” - we are born as sinners. We are sinners whether we are Gentile or not – Jews with the law, Gentiles without the law. We know we are sinners – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But the Old Testament says, because they were looking forward to Jesus Christ, they are saved; they are justified. This summarizes the first four chapters of Romans. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
- Preview of Chapters 5-8- Glorification [Romans 5:2]
Verse 2 is the preview of the new section that is coming, chapters 5-8. It’s about glorification. It says, “through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace,” now we are justified, now we have this faith, now we are entering into this incredible grace, “in which we stand and we rejoice in hope” there’s that word we like, just to define that word, “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
So the word hope is not just uncertainty, hope is about God’s glory and his glory coming into us – something that did not happen yet, but will happen. God is going to be glorified, and he’s going to be glorified in us and through us. Hope is the certainty that it will happen. It’s about glory to God and glory to God by glory in us. Hope, it’s about our growth as we become like Jesus, his glorious beauty and weight, and holiness coming into us and we become like Jesus Christ. He is going to be glorified in us and through us as we become like Jesus. People will see God through us. The word hope always has that nuance in Pauline epistles. He always has this in mind.
- Summary of Chapters 1-8 [Romans 8:29-30]
So, we see, in chapter 8:30, as he ends the section, he summarizes the end of both sections: “Those he justifies, he also glorifies”
Now how is he going to be glorified? How does he glorify us? Why is it in past tense? Because he began this process of glorification inside of us. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, spirit’s nature is born again by the Holy Spirit. We were born with sin nature only, sinful desires only, but because of our faith in Jesus Christ, a birth took place inside of us, we have spirit’s nature inside of us, we have new desires. Our lives start to change, but we have dual nature.
How does he justify those who are glorified? Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” that’s the glorification process. Because of our Spirit’s nature we are going to grow. When did your life start to change? When this happened, that’s why it started to change. We sin but we cannot comfortably sin because there is dual nature inside of us. But as we become like Jesus there is always sin tempting us. So a Christian is not someone who does not sin, but someone who struggles and fights sin. But he’s glorified as our hearts change, we become more and more like Jesus. This is his plan for those that are saved. For those who are justified, we are going to grow, we are going to grow to become more like his son. Now how does God do this – through the means of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we feel hopeless. What does it mean? This passage talks about hope, talks about Jesus. Those people who are hopeless, depressed, worried, living in fear, who have panic attacks, there is something wrong with their hearts. Hopeless means I might not get what I want, or I might get what I don’t want. You might not get your pleasure, or you might get pain. When that prolongs, when there’s no light in the light of the tunnel, the longevity of it leads to hopelessness. So the opposite of hopelessness is hopeful.
Hopeful means you’re going to get what you want. For example, you want money. But through that money what do you want? You want pleasure! If you get the money, but you don’t get pleasure, you become hopeless again. It’s not the item that we want, but the pleasure that it gives. But that’s all in our sin nature, we want temporary pleasure.
But this hope is talking about getting what you want, you’re not going to get what you don’t want. In our Spirit’s nature all we want is eternal pleasure. In our sinful nature that’s all temporary pleasure. That’s why I always say we need to live for what will matter in 100 years. All you will have when you have your spirit’s nature is God. When you have God, you have unmatchable pleasure. More of Christ leads to eternal pleasure, eternal joy. That’s why you should live for God. That’s what this passage is talking about - hope of the glory of God, the hope of eternal pleasure.
II. The Holy Spirit
How does that hope come through the Holy Spirit? Hope does not disappoint us, “hope does not put us to shame, because it has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So God works this out through the Holy Spirit, a person. A few things we have to understand:
- A person
Holy Spirit is a person, not a cloud or power of God. Although through Holy Spirit we receive power. Holy Spirit is a person with all the faculties of beings. Similar to human beings but without physical body, without limitations of human beings, without flaws of sin. The faculties are:
- Emotion, intellect, and will [desire and volition]
Emotion – Holy Spirit has feeling. The Holy Spirit thinks on its own. Holy Spirit has its will, desire, and volition.
- God- Equality, distinction of personhood, different function, healthy hierarchy, oneness/unity, love relationship
Holy Spirit is God. All the attributes of God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy Spirit has. We believe in three persons in one God – we call it trinity. Each person has distinct emotion, intellect, will. What does that mean, we don’t completely know, because there’s nothing else like it. There’s equality of persons, distinction of personhood, they have different functions, but there’s a healthy hierarchy, and there is oneness. There’s an incredible love relationship.
III. Given
- Once and for all
The third word is given. Hope does not disappoint us or put us to shame because the hope has been poured into us by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Given here means once, once for all. He’s not going to be taken back. He’s not going to leave. Once you have the Holy Spirit, you’re stuck to him. You can never leave him, and he will never leave you. Just like the unity between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, you are part of the unity once the Holy Spirit is given to you.
- Personal relationship vs. location change
Now when you talk about this Holy Spirit given to you, we’re talking about a personal relationship, not locational change. Meaning – Holy Spirit was over there, now he’s in my heart.
We use that language, but think about it. God is omnipresent, that means Holy Spirit was over there and also over here even when you were an unbeliever. We use that language “he has come into my heart”, what we really mean is now our heart has a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
- How do you receive the Holy Spirit? Justification- Faith in Jesus Christ. Rebirth
This happens when we are justified, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ - rebirth took place.
- But condition of the heart can change- be filled with the Holy Spirit
Now even though Holy Spirit has been given to you, because you have dual nature, sometimes the condition of your heart can change. If you’re dwelling on your sinful nature, you can be less filled with the Holy Spirit. So, condition of the heart can change. You can have more or less empowerment that can happen at that one given moment. But once you are a believer he will never leave you or forsake you. Always know this.
IV. Love
The hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit. We have hope – of our growth, of our change, of becoming more like Jesus. How does that happen? Through the person of the Holy Spirit who has been given once. And from the moment he was given to you, he has been pouring his love into our hearts. Now the phrase is “God’s love”
A. God the Father
The word ‘God’ here is talking about God the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, God the Father is pouring love into your hearts. How do you know? Paul is very distinct about understanding different persons of God.
- Romans 1:1-4
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” now which God is this? This is God the Father. How do you know? Because verse 3 says “concerning his Son,” and then verse 4 says, “according to the Spirit of holiness” – the Holy Spirit. Mainly, when you look at the whole book of Romans, it’s really the good news and the gospel of God the Father. When he talks about love – the Father’s love for us because of Jesus, in Jesus, through the means of the Holy Spirit.
God has eternal love for the son, and that love is what we have because we are in Jesus Christ. God the Father loves us in Christ through the means of the Holy Spirit. It’s his fatherly for you as he loves his own son. So what does it mean to love?
B. Love
It is at least emotional love, but it’s a lot more than that emotional love. It is at least, because God is a person, he has emotions for us. But it’s so much more than feelings. Feeling love is just Hollywood love.
God’s love is more like Jerusalem love, His love in Jesus Christ, - who died on our behalf, who received the wrath-, now all that love on Jesus is on us.
It’s infinite love that he has for the son that he puts on us. That’s why his love on us cannot increase -because it’s maximum. His love cannot decrease, even when we do bad – not because he forgives us and it’s nothing, but because Jesus died on our behalf for those sins.
His love is a cannot decrease love, cannot increase love, an unending love. His love is justification love, but it is also glorification love.
It’s the Father’s love that gives birth and growth. His love means it’s actually going to happen because of Jesus. You’re going to grow and you’re going to become like Jesus. When we fail we can go to him again and again. And as we do we’ll fall in love him more and more and more. That’s love. We have this hope of eternal growth because of Jesus.
V. Poured
- Romans 5:2-5
There’s something about our relationship to God, that it’s his love being poured into our hearts. The word pour is important. The word ‘pour’ is constant. Ever since that moment, the effect continues until now constantly, because of that one time happening. ‘Has been poured’ means again and again, the effect continues until now. We might not have emotion, but we have desire. That happens independent of circumstance and hardships and difficulties. Look at verse 2 and verse 5 - it’s like bread. Verse 3 and 4 are like the meat. It’s like a sandwich. Look at the bread: what surrounds verse 3 and 4, is