Hope...and what are our eyes fixed on?

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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. Romans 5:1-5

Why does Paul end here on hope? Or better yet, why does God through Paul say that suffering leads to hope. A hope that does not put us to shame. I think it's important to look back a chapter and see how Abraham's faith and hope are spoken of. Romans 4:18 says, "In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.'" Also, James 1:2-4 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." In this passage God goes from trials and the testing of our faith to perfection and completeness. I believe God has been using this season of my life to refocus my eyes on the Gospel and to deepen my understanding of the relationship between hope, faith, trial, and sin.

Again, why hope? I think this passage, by context and according to Strong's Greek thingy, is relating hope and faith as basically the same thing. So, to recap we have suffering producing endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, which is like faith, which is tested and leads to our completeness in Christ! Yay! Ok...what do we do with that? Well, as most Christians know, faith is important. We take steps of faith, we seek to grow in our faith, we rely on our faith in the Gospel and God's promises, we pray in faith...faith, faith, faith! What is absent here?!.........WORRY, ANXIETY, FEAR. Also, we don't see in these passages God saying, "And you have to focus on your sin! Don't forget your sin!"

OK WAIT! I am in NO WAY saying that we shouldn't concern ourselves with sin, that we shouldn't take sin seriously, that we shouldn't HATE sin, and seek to have it eradicated from our lives! I am saying the exact opposite! Scripture says the opposite! What I'm talking about here very much has to do with sin and comes from a desire to not live in it. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, LOOKING TO JESUS, the founder and perfecter of our FAITH, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Lay aside EVERY WEIGHT AND SIN...RUN WITH ENDURANCE! This is calling us to do something! Something very hard! Otherwise it would be a walk in the park, not an endurance race. However, what are we to fix our eyes on? Our sin? The desire to be pure? The other runners? No...it's Jesus! The author and perfecter of our faith!

How often in my desire to please God, in my desire to be holy, I've let my eyes stray from the Gospel, stray from my hope. And when I have, fear and anxiety creep in. Even those things can seem to motivate us for a while...but not in this long of a race. I believe the only thing that will give me the strength and clarity I need to run this race is looking to Jesus. Looking to Him to transform my sinful desires that corrupt so much. A lot of us, including myself, need a more Biblical perspective of the serious of sin. The way some professing followers of Christ are living, they should read Ezekiel and gain a healthy fear of the wrath of God toward sin. However, I think many of us, again VERY MUCH including myself, have allowed a fear of sin to direct our faith...and I don't believe that's Biblical. I want Jesus to direct my faith. I want to run after Him. I need to be sooo much more often filled with faith and hope in the cross than I do fearing my sinful flesh. haha...even as God seems to be teaching me about this lately...it's hard to type these things. I have had such a tendency to focus on sin in my walk...and because of the abuse of license I've seen some take, I still fear saying anything that would even hint to someone that sin is something we 'shouldn't really fret over'. There are whole movements in the church that think like this! I hate that! But as God continues to grow me, I'm seeing that I must be firmly fixed on Him, and I can't live any longer in fear.