How can we be rejoicing in hope (Romans 12:12)?

“Rejoicing in hope” is a practical continuance of that same joy in hope of the glory of God which filled the heart at conversion (cf. Rom. 5:2). For the hope itself has not changed — in fact is nearer than when we believed: why then should our joy wane? Is tribulation sometimes the answer? “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” Let us consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. This will give us patient endurance and will not decrease our joy: but intimately connected with this is persevering in prayer, for joy and endurance are dependent things really — dependent upon communion with the Lord. Good for us not to let this lag, for a little carelessness here can have direful results.

(V. 12). The following three exhortations refer to the trials by the way. The hope of the coming glory will sustain us in trial, and enable us to be patient under the trial; while, in prayer, that casts all upon the Lord, we shall find support in the trial.

Next we have "rejoicing in hope." Alas, how the present, with its calls and duties, may interfere with that! We need continually to have our heads up and to be contemplating the unseen realities which are ours. Here we have a material for rejoicing which will never fail us, and which will carry us, as the apostle reminds us here, through tribulation itself. "In tribulation enduring"; still not without the need of realizing our dependence upon the One who carries us, and therefore "in prayer persevering." We need to realize that the prayer which may seem little effective, has nevertheless, always its answer from God. It may not be, of course, just in the way in which we imagine, but answered in some way, it surely will be.

Romans 12:12. "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." The beautiful moral connection of the three members of this verse is very apparent. In hope rejoicing, in suffering patient, in prayer persevering. The hope of the Lord's coming is the most effectual means of producing patience under present trials. The contemplation of the coming One, of His adorable Person, of our union with Him, of meeting Him in the air, of being introduced by Him into the house of many mansions, of seeing Him face to face, of hearing His voice, of beholding His glory, of knowing more fully the realities of His love and grace. Surely such contemplations are divinely fitted to soothe the troubled mind, and to sweeten the bitterness of sorrow. If we reckon, as the apostle did, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, we shall not be wanting in patience.

Further, the mention of the Lord and of His service appears to me the link in the mind of the Spirit with the bright future ("in hope rejoicing"), as this again very simply connects itself with present suffering ("in tribulation enduring"), and with the grand support of the soul, come what may meanwhile, "in prayer persevering." This portion concludes with the remembrance of the poor saints, which stands in a similar relation here, as the third clause to the two former in the preceding, verse, in which (we know from his own touching account in Galatians 2) the apostle was ever diligent, as well as the pursuit of hospitality, which the conventionalities of modern life should not enfeeble if we would be wise in the Lord.

The glory of God. — Further, as we think of Him who "was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification," the heart within us leaps with desire, and our new-born affections crave that we may behold Him who loved us and died for us. Like the cleansed Samaritan leper, like the renewed Gadarene, we would be with Him, at His feet, and behold some gleams of that glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. But why think such vain thoughts? Who are we to indulge such bold aspiration? How dare mortal man think to approach Him who sits on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens? Ah, it would indeed be becoming on our part to chide ourselves unsparingly for such presumption, had we not God's own sanction in His word for the longings of the new nature within us. We are permitted to expect "a bright tomorrow." Every justified one is authorised, because he is justified, to hope for the glory of God, not with the feeble vagueness which necessarily accompanies every human effort to peer beyond the present instant, but with the serene confidence that springs alone from the knowledge that the eternal God has spoken as to our future, and has irradiated the dark beyond with His coming glory. No wonder that in consequence we are filled with holy exuberance we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." We are transported with the prospect of it, and we love to let our very souls be flooded in anticipation with the life-giving beams of Christ in His coming glory.

And in the third place, as to the future, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We do not hope to be justified, or to have peace — these we have — but we hope, with rejoicing, for the glory of God. Is it not joy to our hearts to know that we shall soon be in the scene where all is to the glory of God, all suited to Him; all pure within and without? Yes, sinless purity suited to Him, when He who has redeemed us has come, and taken us to Himself. Can anything give our hearts such joy as this, to be with Him, and like Him?

This favour is a present reality. We shall never be more in favour than we are now, though our enjoyment of it will be greatly increased in the day when our hope materializes. Our hope is not merely glory but the glory of God. Who would not rejoice with such a hope as that!

We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and the more we take in, as enabled by the Holy Spirit, the wide extent of that glory, the brighter and the fuller our hope will be.

The believer feels in his body, no less than the unbeliever, the sufferings of the present time, and far more in his spirit. Yet he rejoices; yea, exalts. How can this be? "And not only so, but we rejoice [or, boast] in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." The Christian hope has received from the love of God a pledge that cannot fail, even the Holy Spirit; "and if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Thus the Christian hope is divinely warranted.