Are you weary of the cycle, promising to do better only to fall back into the same patterns? Tired of carrying the weight of guilt and shame from poor choices? Romans chapter 5 brings liberating news. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl reveals how Paul transitions from man's hopeless condition. to the stunning reality of what happens when Christ enters your life.
This isn't about trying harder. It's about discovering three immediate benefits that transform everything. For anyone drowning in self-condemnation, Romans 5 offers the lifeline you've been desperately seeking. Chuck titled today's message triumphant joy. Hope naturally would make you jubilate.
But tribulation? Look at verse 3. Not only this. But we also triumphantly rejoice. in tribulation.
Your old country preacher said when the Lord sends you tribulation, supposed to tribulate. But you know what? It's really. That's really not the best option. When he sends you tribulation, you're supposed to jubilate.
Supposed to jubilate.
Now, how can we jubilate? If we're pressured. How's that work? Obviously, we're not going to get it from other people. We're not going to get it from our jobs.
We're not going to get it from our circumstances. or the demands to adjust to whatever. Our jubilation will come from above. When we realize, don't miss this. that the pressure is all part of the plan of God.
To bring us to the place He wants us to be. as we grow toward maturity. I'll show you how it works. It's like dominoes sitting on the end, bumping up against one another. Look at the dominoes.
We exult in tribulation knowing That tribulation brings about perseverance. Stay right there. Houfo Monet is from two terms. One means under, the other means to abide. And in this case, this noun means Fortitude.
A triumphant fortitude. As I hold together through the power of Christ in this pressure, there is built within me an inner fortitude. An ability to abide Under. This isn't pretending, it isn't positive thinking. This is an actual.
experience within ourselves where we deepen We deepen and that perseverance allows us to handle the pressure. Instead of looking for a way to bail out or running ahead or running away, we abide under. Charles Hodge calls this Tried Integrity. When we get to the word perseverance, Bumps up. and creates proven character.
It's the idea of being put to a test and approved. It's the word used for taking the slag out of iron. It's the word for purifying metal until it no longer has its alloys. And it becomes increasingly more valuable. We have the word sterling to describe that.
Sterling character. When affliction is met with fortitude, we emerge out of the battle with sterling character or tried. integrity. Perseverance leads to reliability. that sterling quality of character.
I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity I've had, and that's to listen to some of the wiretape recordings of Churchill's speeches to the people of England. in the middle of the Second World War. On occasion, he would use words that just sort of popped. Punctuate. Back to me, an important statement about life.
One of them is character. He says it like this. Karata. Character. And he loved the word karaka.
I could just see him in front of the mirror practicing. CARICKA! And then when he go before Parliament, he'd deliver that. We are people of Canucka. In this case, proven character.
How great when you meet a Christian. with proven character. You know what? You want their counsel. You want to stay near them.
You want to read what they write. You want to listen when they speak. You want to be next to them. when life's coming apart. They've known pressure.
which has built within them fortitude, And it has led to proven character. You see the benefit of staying at it? By staying at it as the Christian can, it only gets better and better. And before long, you become a person of sterling character. And Then back to hope.
Full circle. It's a hope that doesn't disappoint. And here Paul reminds us of the gospel. Look closely. A hope that doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out.
Within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. You may be surprised to find out, as I was when I'm studying Romans, that this is the first time in the letter to the Romans that two great truths are introduced. The love of God, not mentioned before chapter 5, verse 5. And the Holy Spirit of God. not mentioned until verse five of Chapter five.
Here will begin a journey that will be cultivated by Paul in the logic of his letter to the Romans. You are introduced now to the love of God. That caused the Father to pour out to us. The power, the enablement of the Holy Spirit. If there is any area of misunderstanding and weird teaching, it is the teaching on the Holy Spirit.
Just as a brief little Theology 101 course. Always think of the Spirit of God as A person Don't call him an it. Lesson one. You have him living within you. There is the Father who is planning the events of life.
There is the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, who implements the plan. And then there is the Spirit of God, third member of the Trinity, who empowers it. empowers it. That includes your involvement and mine in life. He gives us gifts to be exercised in life.
He gives us strength we don't have in ourselves. He gives us illumination to understand truth. He gives us comfort. when we are in distress and under this kind of pressure. This comes to us and it gives us hope.
Knowing that we now have the love of God working for us and the Spirit of God working within us. How good is that? Which prompts the apostle to move into a Brief but very clear presentation. of the gospel. He goes to the past.
While we were still helpless, that's when we were lost. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Then he compares that death to the death of one person for another in our time. One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man some would dare to die. But God and memorize this eighth verse.
Learn it, learn it, quote it, use it. God demonstrates his own love toward us. There's that love again. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We weren't righteous, we weren't good, we were sinning, and at the time, Christ died for us.
Remember his words? Father, forgive them? They don't even know what they're doing. Father, into your hand I commend my spirit. As he had borne the sins of the world, paying the complete penalty.
He now gave himself back to the Father. He demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ. But it doesn't stop there. Listen, folks. Truth in the scriptures don't stop at the gospel.
Truths don't stop there. That's the beginning. of the Christian life and it only gets better. As you learn and discover and apply more of it. And here he's going to get into what he has in mind when he talks about the saving life of Christ.
Look closely. Much more than he likes that. He says it again in verse 10. Much more than, having now been declared righteous by His blood, that's conversion. We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
That takes us all the way to the final judgment, and we're saved from the wrath of God, so there's no insecurity. You're born into the family, you stay in the family. You have the name of Christ in your life. The name of Christ goes with you through death.
So you're delivered, you're saved from the wrath of God through him, but there's another salvation as well. There's another saving, another deliverance. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. What does that mean? A couple of things need to be clarified.
First, reconciliation. It means to bring amity where there was once enmity. It means Building a bridge where there was once a broken-down relationship. Understand this: God is not reconciled to us, we are reconciled to God. We're the one who broke down the bridge.
God, who is all love and grace and mercy, looks upon us and reaches out to us. through Christ. And we Because of Christ have a bridge built to God. marked reconciliation. The enmity is gone and the amity is present.
We are now. On up. basis of close relationship.
Now with that in mind We've got to deal with our own sinfulness, okay? Remember, justification, sovereign act of God, whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner while we're still in a sinning state. Meaning, we're still sinful, even though we are in God's eyes righteous as His Son.
So, sin wants to keep dominating us. It did all the way through until we were converted, all the way through our lives. Satan still wants to take control. He still wants to be in charge.
So we can be saved from that domination through the life of Christ. That's called sanctification. I love to quote the hymn: Then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we would be. Things that are not now, nor could be, soon shall be our own. And people go, What?
What is that about? Then we shall be where we would be. We would be in heaven. We'd love that. Then we shall be what we should be.
Constantly righteous, constantly fulfilling. Christ desires and commands, constantly walking in the light. We shall be what we should be, then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we should be, things that are not now. Nor could be. When we are with Christ, they will be our own.
What's not now? What could be? Or what can't be? Oh, we can't live without sin. We just drag it around in our bodies.
That's why you can leave a worship service just feeling so devoted. and so uplifted. And you have what some call the unction. And you leave with the big time tingles and you You're not in your car five minutes before you're yelling at the guy driving in your lane. And you go, what?
What's that about? What's the problem? It's sin. Or you answer back quickly or in an ugly manner to somebody that you love. What's that about?
It's sand. What do I need? I need to be sanctified. Sanctification is the yo-yo, if you will. Of relating to God and walking in fellowship and then dropping and then back in fellowship with Him and then falling.
How do I stay in that sense of fellowship? Sanctification. Here's what I wrote in my Bible. Jesus changed our status when He died for us. that status change is justification.
He changes our state through his risen life. Sanctification. When he justified us. He saved us from our sins. From the sin of Of our lives and condemnation as He sanctifies us, He saves us from sin's domination.
And that's what these verses are about. And he will get into that in chapters 6 and 7. In fact, I have some wonderful news for you, it just gets better and better. You can live more of your life free of sin than you think. You know?
People don't hear that. We're all taught 1 John 1:9, and we should be. 1 John 1:9 is a Christian's bar of soap. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's if we sin.
But how about living on a plane where you don't fall into that trap as often?
Now you can't be completely free of it. But you can live days of your life without sinning. You're looking at me like Oh, I don't know about that. Oh, I do know about that. That's why chapters 6 and 7 are such salvation for us.
in the letter to the Romans. Why yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin rather than instruments of righteousness to God? You don't have to yield. Sin doesn't have domination over you. Christ does.
The reason you yield is because you have a deep-seated secret. Longing. to do wrong. And the Spirit of God can empower you. to have a longing to do right.
That will overwhelm the urges to yield to sin's nature. That's what this is about. We will be saved by his life. That's why he lives on. He lives on.
That's one of the reasons he lives on to empower us to live above the drag of sin.
Now the last, verse 11. Not only this. But we exult, we jubilate in God himself.
Okay. I love that. We exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. The bridge is built. The relationship is there.
Grace is the territory. Victory is the lifestyle. And I exalt in a relationship with the living God. Paul wrote it this way in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. that I may become conformable unto his death.
The amplified Bible says that I may know him, that is, that I may progressively become more intimately acquainted with him.
Some of you were there. Most of you are not. Because most have never been taught that it's possible. Grace is our territory. And in it we stand.
And standing in it, we have a life of Christ that is reality. And it becomes for us. A jubilation. Triumphant joy.
Now, as I put all of this together, I come up with four rather simple words of application. Here we go. The key to Rejoicing is having the right focus. The key to rejoicing is having the right focus. Focus is no longer on myself or my circumstances.
My focus is now on my Savior. who has taken up residence in my life. and longs to have first place on the throne of my will. Focus. The right focus.
Here's the second. The willingness to focus means having the right attitude. The willingness to focus means having the right attitude. I want this, Lord. I don't want to keep living.
I'm weary of the carnal life. I don't like the consequences that follow it when I get my way. or when I push my will into it. Teachability, humility. gratitude, that's all part of the right attitude.
Third, The byproduct of the right attitude is Triumphant joy. When I cultivate this attitude of teachability and humility before God and gratitude to Him, there is a joy that begins to spread within me. It isn't a silly little happiness, it isn't fickle. It isn't grinning all the time like a possum eating briar. That's not what we're talking about.
That's silly. That's what you do with jokes. And there's nothing wrong with a funny joke. We all laugh at them, we go on, but it has nothing to do with joy. Joy is an abiding presence of seeing the hand of God at work and knowing He has a purpose.
that will bring him glory and bring me good, and I have joy. A triumphant joy. Fourth, The result of triumphant joy. is living above my circumstances. That's a great way to live.
living above. My circumstances. Circumstances are the pits. My friend Howie Hendricks asked a good friend of his, How are you doing, man? The guy says, Oh man, under these circumstances, it is terrible.
Hendricks says, What are you doing under there? How come you're under there? Oh, under circumstances at work, you just have no, what are you doing under that? You don't Live your life under that? Live above that.
Live above that. Former chaplain to the Senate Lloyd Ogilvy wrote these words a number of years ago. Listen. to his comment about that very point. This past year has been the most difficult year of my life.
My wife has been through five major surgeries. radiation treatment and chemotherapy. During the same year, I suffered the loss of several key staff teammates. whose moves were very guided for them, but a source of pressure. and uncertainty.
in my work. Problems which I could have tackled with gusto under normal circumstances seem to loom in all directions. Discouragement lurked around every corner, trying to capture my feelings. Prayer was no longer a contemplative luxury. But the only way to survive My own intercessions were multiplied by the prayers of others, friendships were deepened.
And I was forced to allow people to assure me with words. I had preached for years. Isn't that a nice way to put it? They reminded me of what I'd been preaching. And now they were turning it around and using it to encourage me.
No day went by without a conversation, a letter, or phone call giving me love and hope. The greatest discovery that I've made in the midst of all the difficulties is that I can have joy when I don't feel like it. Or Tesian joy. When I had every reason to feel beaten. I felt joy.
As prayers were being answered, as the Holy Spirit infused a seemingly limitless flow of joy. In spite of everything, He gave me the conviction of being loved and the certainty that nothing could separate me from Him. It was not happiness, gush, or jolliness, but a constant flow of the Holy Spirit through me. At no time Did he give me the easy confidence that everything would work out as I wanted it on my timetable? but that he was in Charge.
Isn't that good? One of the greatest truths I learned in all of my life is that I am not in charge. God is. Boy, that'll help you sleep like a baby. I don't worry about you.
I don't stay awake concerned over how you're doing. or whether you're listening. or applying this. First of all, I got a full-time job keeping up with me. But I now know the secret of rest.
That is saying to him, every morning, you're in charge. This day is yours. You're sovereign. You're the potter, I'm the clay. You're the master, I'm the servant.
You're the leader. I'm the follower. You're the mentor. I'm the disciple. You're going to be glorified.
And you're going to shape me into a person. that you want me to be. of sterling character and jubilant. Joy. Oh man.
Doesn't get much better than that, does it? Let's bow our heads together. Peace with God. Hope for the future. Joy for the present.
Those are just pipe dreams and You know, distant dreams for you and sort of out there in the Fogginess of the future, let me tell you, you can remove all the fog. By placing your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're surrounded by people who have done that. And there's not one of us who deserves it. But as a result, we know a peace we would not otherwise have known, and we live in a territory marked grace.
that would never have been ours to enjoy. We invite you to join. Come to Christ. Take him now. You can't afford to live your life in this pressured world without.
Divine Assistance. and a purpose. And what a future, then we shall be what we should be. then we shall be what we would be. Things that are not now nor could be.
Be Soon she'll be our own. Thank you, dear Father, for your plan, for your purpose. which spans all of time. Thank you for your hand in our lives. for patiently teaching us truth to live by.
Truth to die with. Thank you for your peace. for hope. for triumphant joy. We exalt.
In you. Through Christ. In whose name we pray. Everybody said Amen. With Chuck Swindahl's closing prayer, we conclude our study in Romans chapter 5.
titled Triumphant Joy. Stay with us because Insight for Living has prepared a number of helpful resources that are designed to enrich your understanding of this passage. we encourage you to take advantage of these great Bible study tools. The first is our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook for Romans. This edition for Romans comes in two volumes due to the length and depth of Paul's letter, and the first volume is available today.
Also, Chuck wrote a full-length commentary on Romans. It's hard-bound and it's from the Living Insights commentary series. Anyone who loves the Bible should own this resource from Chuck. In his approachable style, he helps us discover the rich theological treasures found in Romans. And finally, Insight for Living has produced a collection of audio files so you can listen to Chuck's sermons in their entirety at your own pace.
and so you'll have a permanent record of this hallmark study. To purchase this special trilogy of resources from Insight for Living, call us at 800-772-8888. or go to insight.org slash offer. Before we wrap up today, I'd like to extend a word of thanks to those who consistently support Chuck's teaching ministry. Insight for Living is made possible not through the sale of books and Bible study resources, but by the generous gifts of grateful friends like you.
And because of your generosity, this ministry is available to millions of listeners on the radio, YouTube, our website, our mobile app, and all the different digital platforms like Instagram, X, and Facebook. To send a contribution in the mail, you can address your envelope to Insight for Living. Post Office Box 5000. Frisco, Texas 75034. That's Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas 75034. To give a donation online, go to insight.org/slash donate. You can also call us at 800-772-8888. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Smindahl continues his study in the transformational book of Romans.
Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Triumphant Joy, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
