Glory in Tribulations: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 5:3-5
In a culture that seeks to escape suffering at all costs, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's exposition of Romans 5:3-5 presents a radically different perspective: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope." This counterintuitive approach to trials reveals a profound dimension of Christian experience that separates authentic faith from mere religious sentiment.
The Christian Paradox of Suffering
The proposition that believers might "glory in tribulations" strikes the modern ear as absurd, perhaps even masochistic. Our natural instinct is to avoid pain, escape difficulty, and pursue comfort—not to celebrate hardship. Yet the apostle Paul, writing from a life acquainted with extraordinary suffering, makes this very claim.
"There is no test which is more thorough going, more delicate, more sensitive than this particular test," explains Dr. Lloyd-Jones. "I have sometimes ventured to describe it as the acid test of a man's profession of the Christian faith."
The Doctor contrasts this Christian approach with how others face trials:
- Stoicism: "That's stoicism. Stoicism puts up with things, bears it, just manages not to give in with a tremendous effort of the will and of courage... That isn't the Christian's reaction."
- Passive resignation: "It isn't that he just grumbles and complains or feels he's being dealt with harshly or queries his faith altogether... It isn't in the second place that he merely puts up with them."
- Feigned enthusiasm: "It doesn't mean, of course, that we should actually be glad when these things happen to us. It doesn't mean that the moment these things happen to us, we begin to praise and to thank God thoughtlessly."
Instead, the Christian response transcends all these natural reactions. The believer "glories" or "boasts" in tribulations—finding in them not merely something to endure but something that ultimately serves God's good purpose.
The Acid Test of Faith
Why does Dr. Lloyd-Jones consider this response to suffering "the acid test" of authentic Christianity? Because trials reveal whether our faith is genuine or merely theoretical:
"There is no more important and no more subtle test of our profession, of the Christian faith and the Christian life than just this one. The way we react to the trials and the troubles and the tribulations of our lives in this world."
The Doctor identifies three ways in which trials distinguish true faith from counterfeits:
1. Trials Differentiate Christianity from Religious Cults
False religions typically promise immediate relief from problems, while true Christianity acknowledges that believers will face difficulties in this world:
"It is the cults that say, become a Christian and you'll never have any more troubles. You won't know yourself, you won't know the world. You'll walk with a fresh and a bright step and you'll never have any troubles again. It's the cults that say that."
Christ himself promised the opposite: "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The difference lies not in the absence of trials but in how we face them.
2. Trials Expose Emotional Experiences That Masquerade as Faith
Some mistake emotional religious experiences for true conversion. Dr. Lloyd-Jones observes:
"There are people who sometimes think that they've become Christians because they've had some feeling, they've had some experience in a meeting... But we have seen the same people a short time afterwards when something has gone wrong or when there have been difficulties and trials and they've renounced it all."
Genuine faith produces stability amid storms, while mere emotions evaporate when circumstances turn difficult.
3. Trials Reveal the Difference Between Intellectual Assent and Living Faith
Many assume that agreeing with Christian doctrines constitutes saving faith. Dr. Lloyd-Jones distinguishes:
"Trials and tribulations always differentiate between what we've so often described as believism or fideism and true faith... For the man who's merely got this kind of believism, when the trials and the tribulation come, he is found to fail altogether, he's got nothing to fall back upon."
True faith transforms how we interpret and respond to suffering, providing resources that mere intellectual agreement cannot.
The Divine Logic of Suffering
What enables Christians to "glory in tribulations"? Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that believers understand God's purpose in suffering—they have insight into the divine process that trials initiate:
"We can glory in tribulations because our faith enables us to view them in such a way as to realize that tribulations, far from being adverse to our hope, actually promote it and indeed further it."
The apostle Paul outlines this process: "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope." Dr. Lloyd-Jones unpacks each stage:
Tribulation Produces Patience
The first result of properly endured trials is patience—what Dr. Lloyd-Jones describes as "constancy... the ability to go on patiently enduring... steadfastness."
This develops through several mechanisms:
- Trials drive us to Christ: "The moment these trials and tribulations come, we realize anew and afresh our need of him... these things will make us go back to him."
- Trials reveal our true condition: "Trials and tribulations are very good for us in that they help us to know ourselves better than we knew ourselves before... We thought we could stand. We find we are shaking."
- Trials teach dependence: "It drives us back, I say, to a sense of dependence upon him. And therefore the result is that we've got a much better conception of the Christian life than we had before."
Through this process, we develop spiritual steadiness. We "don't get excited when [trials] come again. We've had this experience, and we now have got a true picture of the Christian life."
Patience Produces Proven Character
The second stage in this divine progression is what the King James Version calls "experience"—better translated as "proof" or "approvedness."
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains: "This patient continuance leads to a proof that we really are truly Christian and that we have been able to pass the test."
This approvedness manifests in several ways:
- Evidence of God's concern: "The very fact that God is trying us ought to be to us a proof in and of itself that we are God's children... Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth."
- Proof of genuine faith: "Trials and tribulations not only bring out God's love to me, but they're a very good test of my love to God. If I only love God when everything's going well, I'm not in the right position."
- Purification of character: "How do you purify gold? By putting it in a furnace, isn't it? It's the fire that burns away the alloy... everything that is dross is burnt away. And you're left with nothing but the pure gold."
Through this testing process, our faith is proven genuine—to ourselves, to others, and before God.
Proven Character Produces Hope
Finally, this cycle culminates in stronger hope—the same hope in which we initially rejoiced (Romans 5:2) but now with greater certainty:
"We started with this hope because of justification by faith. We did indeed rejoice or glory in hope of the glory of God... Then these things come, and they seem to be leading all away from it, but they don't. They bring us back to it. And they not only bring us back to it, they make us much more certain of it than we were at the beginning."
Dr. Lloyd-Jones summarizes this reciprocal relationship with a striking phrase: "Christian hope is both the parent and the child of patience." Hope enables patience during trials, and patient endurance strengthens hope—creating a virtuous cycle of spiritual growth.
The Love That Secures the Process
What guarantees this progression from tribulation to stronger hope? Paul concludes: "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" (Romans 5:5).
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that God's love, experienced through the Holy Spirit, provides the assurance that tribulations are working for our good rather than our harm:
"I'm much more certain that I belong to God. You remember we saw that... Yes, but having passed through the furnace of affliction, through the trials and the tribulations, I'm much more certain of that than I was before. So my hope is greater than it was at the beginning, the same hope. But I'm much more certain of it."
This certainty comes from experiencing God's faithfulness during trials: "We are more certain of God than we ever were before. Therefore, we glory because of these tribulations. On account of them, we thank God for them."
Questions People Ask About Romans 5:3-5
How can Christians rejoice in suffering?
Christians rejoice in suffering not because suffering itself is enjoyable but because they understand its purpose. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains:
"It doesn't mean that we should actually be glad when these things happen to us. It doesn't mean that the moment these things happen to us, we begin to praise and to thank God thoughtlessly... The apostle doesn't say that we should like these things. What he says is that we should glory in them, which is a very different thing."
This glorying comes through faith's insight into God's purposes—seeing beyond the immediate pain to the spiritual growth it produces. It is "not an automatic" response but one that comes "as the result of the application of our faith."
What good can come from suffering?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, suffering produces numerous spiritual benefits:
- Increased dependence on God: "The moment these trials and tribulations come, we realize anew and afresh our need of him."
- Greater self-knowledge: "We find we are shaking. We thought we'd got faith that could meet anything. And here we are badly shaken by something comparatively small."
- Purification of faith: Like gold refined by fire, trials burn away impurities in our character and faith.
- Evidence of God's fatherly love: "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He scourgeth every son whom he calleth."
- Proof of genuine faith: Our response to trials demonstrates whether our faith is authentic.
- Stronger hope and assurance: Successfully enduring trials increases our confidence in God's faithfulness.
Does God send suffering to Christians?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones acknowledges that Scripture presents trials as within God's sovereign purposes for believers. He quotes Hebrews 12, which presents discipline as evidence of God's fatherly love: "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He scourgeth every son whom he calleth."
The Doctor observes: "There is nothing more terrible for the Christian than never to have any trials. 'Woe is unto you,' said Christ, 'when all men speak well of you.'"
However, Dr. Lloyd-Jones distinguishes this biblical understanding from masochism: "The apostle is not teaching a kind of masochism at this point. That isn't what we've got here. There are people... who've thought that they've only been happy when they've been miserable in a sense."
Rather, trials serve God's purpose of conforming us to Christ's image—a refining process that demonstrates His concern for our spiritual development.
The Triumph of Christian Hope
Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes by celebrating how this biblical perspective on suffering enables Christians to face life's darkest moments with confidence:
"Though this gospel and the preaching of the gospel in a sense, has put me into prison, it's the thing that enables me to sing in the prison. I am not ashamed. I'm not disappointed. I'm not unhappy. I'm filled with a spirit of triumph."
This triumph isn't mere positive thinking or stoic endurance but the result of faith's vision—seeing trials within God's larger purposes and experiencing His faithfulness through them.
For the Christian, Dr. Lloyd-Jones affirms, tribulations ultimately strengthen rather than weaken hope: "God had already told me in his word that I'm his child, his son in Christ, who bore my sins. I believe that I've been given the assurance of it. But now he's given me this further proof... These things, by driving us back to the Lord Jesus Christ, by showing us God's love to us, by giving us fresh experiences of God's strength and grace and power... We are more certain of God than we ever were before."