I was playing hoops yesterday with my regular group of guys and one of the young men commented that his legs were still sore from lifting weights the previous day. Justin has been trying to improve his strength and, in turn, his leaping ability. He’s already got hops, but I guess he really does want to jump out of the gym. I commented back to him with the old line, “No pain, no gain.” According to Wikipedia this popular catchphrase originated with Rabbi Ben Hei, who wrote in The Ethics of the Father 5:21 (known in Hebrew as Pirkei Avot): “According to the pain is the gain.” He was seeking to communicate a spiritual lesson: no pain in doing what God commands, no spiritual gain.
On this same theme, Romans 5:1-5 (NIV) shares an amazingly profound message with everyone in pain: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
Before Paul ever arrives at the “sufferings” of V3, he has already “been justified” (set right with God as if he never sinned) and has in the process gained a measure of peace, faith and hope. That’s the reason he is able to say in V3 “we rejoice in our sufferings.” He has already gained much, and as a result of the pain of sufferings, he knows he is about to gain much more. This passage has encouraged me on many occasions. There is something very comforting in knowing that “suffering produces.” The pain we experience in life is not pointless. As Rick Warren says, “God never wastes a hurt.”
Paul’s explanation of what is gained by pain [suffering] is nothing short of astounding: suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; character produces hope. I don’t know about you but I would like to skip past the suffering, perseverance and character-building stages, and go straight to the “hope (which) does not disappoint.” That would be nice, but that’s not how it works for any of us. The Rabbi got it right: According to the pain is the gain. While suffering is present in our lives, we can rejoice, as unrealistic as that may seem, because we know in time the pain will be replaced by gain.
Several chapters later, Paul writes: (8:18 NIV) “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” According to this verse the gain is glory. Glory is a word which if you’ve been around church for any period of time is often used and probably overused, to the point its meaning may not be real clear in your mind. To keep things simple, which always works best for me, my definition of glory is: ‘everything God and everything good.’ This is not a small thing, in fact, it’s huge! Waiting on the other side of suffering [pain] for each one of us is the glory [gain] of a loving God who is pouring “his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (5:5).
As I write these words today, I sense the Spirit of God directing me to share these next words. Someone reading this blog needs to hear this encouragement. The devil has been lying to you and you’re believing his lies. The liar and the father of lies (John 8:44) is telling you that God does not love you anymore. He's telling you the pain in your life is evidence God doesn’t care about you. The devil is lying. Here’s what God wants you to know: “You have never been more loved than you are right now.”
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