Latest / Reformed Thinking / Written for Our Hope: How Scripture Forms Endurance, Encouragement, and Unity (Romans 15:4)

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Written for Our Hope: How Scripture Forms Endurance, Encouragement, and Unity (Romans 15:4) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. Today we're doing a deep dive
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into something that, well, a lot of us might be guilty of
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overlooking. We're opening up a treasury
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that, for many, stays sealed and kind of dusty on the shelf.
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That's a great way to put it. Our focus today is really
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unified. It's centered on one verse,
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Romans 15.4, which is just this magnificent defense from Paul
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about the Old Testament's ongoing place and you know, it's
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use for the new covenant believer.
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Yeah, and it's almost like an axiom, isn't it?
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A rule for how we should approach all of scripture.
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It really is. And the sources we looked at,
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they immediately pinpoint this barrier we all face.
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They call it chronological snobbery.
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It's this tendency we have to think that just because
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something is old, it must be, I don't know, less developed or
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just not as relevant as whatever the latest new thing is.
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You see it everywhere for sure, but when you alley that thinking
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to God's revelation, it's just disastrous.
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It's the gateway to a serious spiritual problem our sources
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call functional Martianism. And we should be clear, this
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isn't usually the formal heresy from the 2nd century where
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people would just outright reject the God of the Old
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Testament. Right, it's more subtle.
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It's a practical rejection is where we say we believe the
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whole Bible, but our day-to-day spiritual life is basically, you
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know, unhitched from the Hebrew Scriptures.
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We treat it like it's an optional appendix or I don't
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know, maybe like that embarrassing relative you only
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have to acknowledge once a year at Christmas.
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And that neglect, it creates a real spiritual famine.
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It cuts us off and the deep historical and theological roots
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we need to get through the, well, the storms of life.
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So what do we lose specifically? Without the Old Testament, you
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lose the full picture of God's patience, you lose a right
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understanding of human sinfulness, and you lose the
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historical certainty of prophecy.
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Our view of God just shrinks. You know, He goes from being the
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sovereign king of history to, I don't know, a gentle modern day
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therapist. And that really gets to the core
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of our deep dive today. We have to figure out Paul's
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reasoning here. And this is Paul, the champion
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of the new covenant, the guy who fought against legalism, his
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whole ministry. Why does he insist on grounding
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Christian life and hope in whatever was written before?
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That's the mission, to pull out the central truth of Romans
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15.4, that the Old Testament is this providentially kept
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treasury, and it was designed by the Holy Spirit to produce very
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specific things, endurance and encouragement, which are the
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very things that anchor our future hope.
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It's a chain of logic, then, from an ethical command all the
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way to our final hope. It is a beautiful, unbreakable
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chain. OK, so let's unpack that logic.
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We need to set the scene by looking at the immediate
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context. We're starting right before
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verse four in Romans 15, verses 1 to 3.
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Right, Paul doesn't actually begin here with high minded
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doctrine. He starts with a very direct
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ethical instruction for the Church in Rome.
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It's all about unity and, well, charity.
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It is. He's talking to the strong
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believers. These are the folks with a
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clearer conscience on, you know, debatable things like eating
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certain foods or observing special days.
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And he tells them to bear the failings of the week.
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Stop pleasing yourself, basically.
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Exactly. The strong bearers are supposed
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to model Christ's selflessness. They need to seek their
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neighbors good for the purpose of building each other up.
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And to back up this command, which is, let's be honest,
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pretty counterintuitive for most of us, he doesn't just pull out
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a new idea, he does something very specific.
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He goes back. He finds his justification for
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this radical selflessness in the Angel Scriptures.
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He quotes Psalm 69, verse 9. The reproaches of those who
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reproached you fell on me. OK, so by quoting A messianic
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song, he's showing that Jesus's entire life was defined by this
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principle. He didn't please himself.
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He bore the burdens of others. Even the reproaches aimed at God
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the Father. And that quote leads directly
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into the logical hinge of verse 4.
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It's the small, often overlooked little word for in the Greek,
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it's gar. And that little word is the
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theological axiom for how the whole New Testament reads the
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old. It really is.
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Paul is basically anticipating a question from the Roman church.
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They'd be thinking, Paul, why are you using 1000 year old
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Jewish song about suffering to tell me, a gentile Christian in
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Rome, how I have to behave today?
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And four is the answer. 4 is the answer.
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The Old Testament wasn't just a history book for Israel.
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It was prophetically preserved and aimed directly at the New
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Covenant Church. So this one word shifts the
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whole conversation. It goes from a local dispute in
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Rome about, you know, food and holy days, to a universal rule
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for how to read the Bible. Yes, Paul is showing that
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Scripture is a coherent whole. The voice you hear in the Psalms
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is the authoritative voice for how to live like Christ, even
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now in this new age. OK, let's get into Part I, then,
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the authority. We have to look at the scope
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Paul gives the Old Testament, which is all wrapped up in that
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one phrase, whatever things were written before.
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The Greek here is ho Sagar peregraphe, and the first word
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hosa is so strategic. It's a comprehensive quantifier.
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It doesn't mean some things or the nice parts.
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It means everything. That or as many things as.
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So there's no wiggle room there for us to pick and choose.
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None at all. This isn't just Paul saying the
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Old Testament is inspired. He's affirming the plenary
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inspiration of the entire Old Testament Canon.
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Meaning the whole thing, Law, prophets and the writings.
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The whole thing. Every detail, every law, every
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difficult passage, all of it is part of this divine deposit that
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was meant to instruct God's people.
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Which means we have to deal with the parts we find difficult, or
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maybe even a bit boring. Yes, and that's often where the
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real test is for us. Think about, for example, the
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long genealogies and First Chronicles.
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They seem so tedious, right? Or the really detailed
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ceremonial laws in Leviticus about sacrifices and what's
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clean and unclean. So why do we have to read those
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parts? I mean, what's the point under
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Paul's rule? Here, because they're the
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necessary infrastructure for understanding Christ, those
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genealogies, they secure Jesus's legal claim to the throne of
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David. Without them, that claim is
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well, it's weaker. Those Levitical laws?
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They give us the essential categories of holiness,
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defilement and substitutionary atonement.
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Without which the cross doesn't make much sense.
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Unintelligible. You can't grasp the meaning of
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the new covenant sacrifice if you don't understand the purpose
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of the old covenant shadow it was fulfilling.
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That helps. So the scope is comprehensive.
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Let's talk about the nature of this revelation.
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The verb Paul uses is proigraphy, which means written
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before. Right.
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And this is a critical distinction.
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The revelation is graphy, it is written down, it's fixed, it's
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inscripturated. The authority isn't in some
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fleeting spiritual feeling, but in the objective words written
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down by prophets and scribes. This stands against that modern
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impulse we talked about earlier, right?
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The idea of elevating personal experience or some kind of slew
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of tradition over the actual text.
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It absolutely does. Paul is establishing the Old
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Testament as the foundational for right.
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It's the document that systematically sets the stage
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for the Gospel itself. And this lines up with, well,
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with the historic confessions of the church.
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It aligns perfectly when the Westminster Confession says that
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Holy Scripture contains everything needed for salvation
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and is given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith in
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life. That's a direct recognition of
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the authority of the pro egraphy.
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So the God who spoke from the burning Bush is the same God who
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speaks today through the written words of that event.
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There's no break in the authority of God's speech, only
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a change in how it's administered.
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OK, so let's move from the scope of this authority to its
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function. How does this everything act as
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a kind of doctrinal defense for our faith?
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It serves as a necessary wall against some very dangerous
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errors, both ancient and modern. The 1st, as we mentioned, is
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Marcinism. The idea of two different gods.
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Yes, this modern unhitching movement is really just a new
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version of that old heresy from the 2nd century.
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It tries to create this false divide between a supposedly
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wrathful, legalistic Old Testament God and a loving,
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gracious New Testament God. Just demolishes that idea.
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It utterly destroys it. Paul is insisting that the Old
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Testament is the essential training manual for the
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Christian life, for endurance and hope.
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So if you reject the Old Testament, you're rejecting the
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very instruction God ordained for the New Covenant Church to
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persevere. You're making God into a
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historical newcomer. Exactly.
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Instead of the Eternal Sovereign who's been working out his plan
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since the 3rd chapter of Genesis, the other Eric guards
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against is the kind of skepticism you find in a lot of
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critical scholarship. How so?
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Well, we have to stand against this liberal idea that treats
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these written things as, you know, evolving myths or just
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political propaganda written by the winners.
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We affirm that these are the oracles of God, that they are
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historically true and theologically authoritative
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because. If the history isn't real, then
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the hope isn't real. Precisely.
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If Adam wasn't a real person, if the Exodus didn't happen, if
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these are just fables, then the whole structure of Christian
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hope falls apart, because that hope is built on God's
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historical faithfulness. So tying this all together, how
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does this authority fit with the covenant of Grace?
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The things written before are the historical record of how
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that covenant of grace was administered over time, and the
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whole story is Christ centered. It traces the promise of a
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Redeemer from Genesis 3.15 through all the types and
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shadows, the ark, the temple, the bronze serpent, all the way
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to the suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
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So the Old Testament's authority is, at its heart, an evangelical
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authority. It's the story of salvation
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happening in real time. It's the preserved record of
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God's faithfulness to His covenant, and it's meant to
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anchor us, the new Covenant, Saints, in a history that has
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now become our family history through adoption in Christ.
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We're not standing on speculation.
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We're standing on the solid rock of whatever was written before.
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It's the difference between hearing a stranger's opinion and
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reading your grandfather's will. That's a great analogy.
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We are heirs to this history. The authority is unify.
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You just can't understand the fulfillment in Christ without
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the for writing that prepared the world for Him.
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Let's move into Part 2 then, which gets at the specific
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reason the Spirit preserved all this material for us.
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The purpose Paul says these things were written for our
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learning. The Greek is Ton Ton Hameter and
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data scalion. Right, and that little
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preposition is which is translated for or unto.
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It indicates direct intent. This is a massive theological
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claim. It means that the Holy Spirit
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was moving Moses to write down the details of the Tabernacle
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and moving David to write his Psalms with a Direct Line of
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sight to the New Testament Church.
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So even though Israel was the original historical audience.
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We were the intended final beneficiaries, the ones meant to
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possess it. And Paul really hammers this
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home with that possessive word Himadrin, which means our He's
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writing to a church in Romans full of Gentiles, and yet he's
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telling them that these Hebrew scriptures are now legally and
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spiritually theirs. It's a radical appropriation of
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Israel's heritage. This one word connects the God
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of Israel directly to the God of the church.
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The Old Testament is our instruction because the God who
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gave it is our God. If you are in Christ, Paul is
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saying you are a Co heir of this entire history.
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OK, now let's focus on that keyword, Scalia.
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This isn't just a casual word for learning is.
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It no. It's more of a technical term.
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It means doctrine or instruction.
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The point is that the Old Testament is not just a
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collection of nice moral stories or some, you know, historical
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background noise. It's a reservoir of robust
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theology, yes. The Old Testament instructs us
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in the very character of God, His Holiness, His justice, His
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mercy. It teaches us the sheer ugliness
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of sin and why atonement is absolutely necessary.
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This is the big aha moment for you as the learner.
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You simply cannot understand New Testament doctrines without
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these Old Testament categories. Can you give us a clear example
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of that? The doctrinal formation in
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action. Sure.
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Think about the doctrine of justification.
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It all hinges on the idea of a substitute taking our punishment
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well without the dida Scalia of the Passover.
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The urn blemish lamb, the blood on the door posts, the wrath
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passing over the New Testament statement that Christ is our
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Passover lamb would be well meaningless.
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Or think about total depravity without the clear dida Scalia of
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the fall in Genesis chapter 3. The whole idea of our need for
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regeneration, the catastrophic nature of our rebellion, it's
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all baseless. The Old Testament provides the
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essential theological grammar for the new.
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Which brings us to a really key point about the law itself.
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This confronts the idea of antinomianism.
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You know the belief that because we're saved by grace, the law is
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now irrelevant, right? We have to be very careful here
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about the law's function and the life of a believer.
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The law no longer binds us as a covenant of works to earn our
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salvation. Christ fulfilled that and took
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its curse, but the law is still completely valid as a rule for
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life. And this is what's known in
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reformed thinking as the third use of the law.
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Exactly. It's codified in the Westminster
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Confession, Chapter 19. This distinction is so crucial
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because it keeps the Christian life from becoming, you know,
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arbitrary or unstructured. It clarifies that for the
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believer, the dead Escalia of the Old Testament isn't there to
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condemn us, no. It's there to guide grateful
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obedience. When we read the 10
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commandments, we are learning what pleases the God who has
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already saved us. The moral will of God, which is
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rooted in his own character, doesn't change.
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So the Old Testament is still a lamp for our feet.
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And all of this instruction, it has to be understood through a
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Christological lens. I mean, how did the Spirit
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intend for all this ancient instruction to point to Jesus?
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The ultimate learning here isn't just moral, it's messianic.
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Jesus himself said it in Luke 24.
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The Law, the prophets, the Psalms, they are all
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fundamentally about him. So the instruction is a kind of
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pedagogy of types and shadows that all find their final
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meaning in his person and his work.
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So we have to read the history of Israel as a kind of preview
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of Christ. That's it exactly.
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When we read the story of Joseph, for example, we're not
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just reading a story about being resilient when you're tempted.
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We are seeing a powerful type of the Savior, someone who was
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rejected by his own brothers, sold for the price of a slave,
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unjustly thrown in prison, and then raised to a position of
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supreme power to save the very people who betrayed him.
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That is the D Das Scalia, and that knowledge moves us from
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historical trivia to saving doctrine.
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So this doctrinal learning, this instruction for the head, it has
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to come before the patience and comfort that Paul mentions next.
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It's the necessary precursor. You can't get lasting comfort
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from a God you don't really know or understand.
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If we skip over the DDA Scalia of God's sovereignty over
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Pharaoh, for instance, we rob ourselves of the intellectual
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foundation we need for our own spiritual resilience.
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True application always flows from true interpretation.
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OK, that sets us up perfectly for Part 3.
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The means we have the Old Testament's authority.
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It's everything and its purpose, its doctrine.
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So now how does this ancient text actually deliver this grace
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that sustains us? Paul says it's through the
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patience and comfort of the Scriptures.
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The grammatical key here is that little preposition dia, which
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means through. Paul says it's diatos,
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hypomanos, katos, paracles, sukhna, Grafton.
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This use of DIA is so significant because it tells us
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that these graces aren't just acquired randomly, they are
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mediated through a specific means.
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Which immediately guards against seeking grace in all the wrong
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places, like our feelings or subjective experiences.
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It guards against the constant temptation toward mysticism.
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It protects us from trying to get God's grace directly
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through, you know, subjective impulses or looking for new
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signs. The historic Reform principle is
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that the Spirit works verbo with the Word and per verbum through
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the Word. So God doesn't just bypass our
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minds and ZAP us with perseverance.
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No. He mediates it through the
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objective, knowable truth that's contained in the written Word.
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This is precisely why the Westminster Confession in
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Chapter 1 says the Holy Spirit, speaking in Scripture, is the
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supreme Judge in all controversies, because his
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ordinary way of strengthening and keeping his Saints is tied
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to that objective text. OK, so let's define the first of
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these two graces. Patience or hypomonies?
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The sources were clear. This is not a passive thing.
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Absolutely not. It's not just gritting your
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teeth and waiting for the bad thing to be over.
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The word itself, hypo, means under and menu means to remain.
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It paints a picture of active spiritual steadfastness.
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It's a soldier holding the line under fire.
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It's someone standing firmly under a crushing load without
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collapsing. And the Old Testament trains us
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in this by giving us real life examples.
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It gives us biographical case studies.
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You see this virtue in the flesh.
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Think of Joseph, sold into slavery, falsely accused,
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forgotten in a dungeon for years.
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His endurance wasn't passive, it was active fidelity.
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He resisted temptation. He managed the prison.
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He trusted God's timing while this crushing load was on him.
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Or job on the ash heap. Exactly.
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Not cursing God, but wrestling with him, affirming, though he
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slay me, yet will I trust him or Jeremiah in the cistern,
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sustained by the hope of a future restoration.
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These are historical proofs that the same God who sustained them
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under the load will sustain you today.
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The Old Testament becomes a training ground for our
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spiritual. It teaches us that God's plan
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often works on a very long timeline, which requires A
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virtue that's stronger than just simple impatience.
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It teaches us the rhythm of waiting.
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OK, the second grace is comfort, or Paraclegius.
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This word is theologically loaded, isn't it?
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It's connected to Paracletos, the name for the Holy Spirit.
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It is. It literally means a calling to
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one side. It includes exhortation,
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strengthening, advocacy. So if Hypomonius is the internal
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strength we need to endure the trial, Paracletius is the
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external encouragement and objective truth that makes that
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trial bearable. It's the spiritual morale
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booster. So comfort doesn't take away the
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pain, it changes our perspective on it.
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Precisely. We don't read the Old Testament
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to be told the bad thing isn't actually bad.
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We read it to be reminded of God's character while the bad
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thing is still happening. When we read about God's unseen
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sovereignty in the book of Esther, where His name is never
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even mentioned but His hand is everywhere, the Spirit comes
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alongside us and whispers the objective truth that God is
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still on the throne. So this objective truth, God's
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documented character, is the fuel for our subjective comfort.
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It's the only source of real comfort.
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And that brings us to the source itself of the Scriptures, Coon
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Grafton. Grammatically, this is a plenary
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genitive. It works in two ways.
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It identifies both the source and the content.
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OK, explain that. It's the patience and comfort
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contained in the historical examples, and it's the patience
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and comfort produced by the Spirit as he works through that
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written text. The source and the instrument
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are the same thing. This really reinforces the idea
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of the sufficiency of the Bible, doesn't it?
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It counters that modern craving for fresh words or new
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revelations. It's vital for today, Paul is
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insisting that real hope is found in what was already pro
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agraphy written before. We don't need a new prophecy to
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get assurance. We need to dig deeper into the
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old objective completed record. The means of grace are found
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completely insufficiently in the written word.
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And finally, these graces have to be seen as Christological
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realities. How does Jesus himself embody
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this patience and comfort? Well, Jesus is the ultimate
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definition of hypomonas. Yeah, his entire life was one of
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active endurance. He's the one who endured the
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cross, despising the shame. As Hebrews tells us, Isaiah 53
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sketches out the complete profile of our enduring Savior.
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He held the line. And he is the substance of the
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comfort. Yes, He's the substance of our
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paraclesias, the consolation of Israel.
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The patience and comfort we get from the Scriptures are at their
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core, the patience and comfort of the gospel itself, that the
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Son of God came alongside us, bore our load and secured our
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hope. So we move now to Part 4.
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The ultimate goal of all this, the theological tell us the
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result. All this instruction, all this
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endurance, it's aimed at one thing that we might have hope.
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This is the crescendo of Paul's argument.
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That little hyena conjunction means so that or in order that
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it declares the ultimate purpose of this whole process is the
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settled assurance of the future. The Old Testament is not a
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burden, it's the means to secure our peace about what is to come.
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And we really have to stop here and define the biblical word for
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hope, Elvis, because our modern English word hope is just so
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weak. It's been completely degraded.
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In English, hope implies uncertainty.
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I hope it doesn't rain. It's a wish.
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But Elvis in the Bible is the exact opposite.
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It's a confident expectation of a guaranteed reality.
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It's a theological no so not a hope so.
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And that confidence is grounded in something objective
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completely. Objective.
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It's grounded in the unchangeable character of God
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that has been revealed throughout the things written
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before. So how does this biblical elpis
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compare to, say, ancient Greek ideas of certainty?
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Well, Pagan hope was usually fragile.
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It was tied to luck, or the whims of the gods, or just a
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cyclical, meaningless view of the world.
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Pauline Elpis is radically different because it's grounded
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in historical evidence. The Old Testament provides the
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verifiable data that serves as proof that God keeps His
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promises. Give us some of those historical
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anchors, OK? When we read that God promised
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Abraham a son and then delivered Isaac against all biological
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odds, that's historical data. When we read that he promised to
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bring Israel out of Egypt after 400 years and then did it with a
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mighty hand, that is verifiable historical.
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Proof that historical track record is what guarantees the
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future. Exactly.
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It's the proof that God will fulfill his future promises, the
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resurrection, the second coming, the new heavens and new earth,
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just as literally and faithfully as He fulfilled all the past
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ones. Our hope is by its very nature
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eschatological. Then it anchors us in this
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already and not yet tension we live in.
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It does, and the Old Testament is filled with prophecies of a
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restored creation and a reigning Messiah whose Kingdom will never
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end. If we treat those promises as
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just spiritual metaphors, we completely erode the ground of
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our Elpis. The patience we have now is the
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waiting period. The comfort is the down payment.
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The hope is the certainty of the guaranteed inheritance.
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And this kind of hope is the essential counterweight to the
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despair and nihilism we see all around us in the modern world.
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Absolutely. Without Scripture, history is
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just chaos. It's just one accident after
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another, leading nowhere. The Old Testament imposes a
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linear, teleological narrative on history.
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It shows us the history is his story, and it's moving
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sovereignly toward Christ's final guaranteed victory.
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And of course, Christ is the substance of this hope.
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He is the sum of it, the hope of glory.
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The Old Testament prepares the way for him, predicting his
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reign. So when Paul says we have hope,
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he means we possess Christ. The elpis we get is the
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certainty of the gospel. Lastly, the verb he uses X-Men
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that we might have or possess. That implies this is a
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continuous, present thing. Hope isn't just for the future,
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it's fuel for today. It's the anchor for the soul
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that stabilizes the mind right now, a believer who has this
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settled hope because they know God's track record from the Old
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Testament is just fundamentally different from the world.
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They can endure suffering because they know the end of the
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story, and they can sacrifice their own comfort for the weak
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because they aren't living for this life alone.
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Let's move to Part V, Synthesis and Application.
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How would you define in Reformed terms how God preserves his
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people through this process we've been describing?
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God doesn't save us by grace and then just leave us to our own
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devices. He preserves His people by that
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same sovereign grace, but He does it through appointed means.
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The Christian is active and enduring, but that endurance is
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a gift from God. So God ordains the end, which is
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hope, and He also ordains the means to get there, which is
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endurance and scriptural encouragement.
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Exactly. Paul's logic is a perfect
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circle. God is the ultimate source of it
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all. He's the God of endurance and
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encouragement in the very next verse, and Scripture is the
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living ordinary instrument he uses.
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The Spirit of God ordinarily strengthens the people of God by
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the Word of God. OK, let's turn to some of the
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modern distortions that this text corrects.
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Let's start with that problem of practical martianism again.
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We have to reject our impatient neglect of the Old Testament.
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A church that throws out the Old Testament loses the scale of
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God's self revelation. It loses the truth that God
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often advances his purposes through suffering, conflict, and
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long seasons of waiting, not immediate success.
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And what about the corrective it offers to this novelty seeking
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spirituality we see so much of the constant craving for fresh
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words or new experiences. Right.
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That mindset basically treats the completed Bible as
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insufficient. It's always chasing a spiritual
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high. Romans 15.4 confronts this
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directly. It says the encouragement that
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produces guaranteed hope is found in the Scriptures.
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Novelty might feel good for a moment, but it can't build a
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kind of steady endurance you need for a lifetime of following
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Christ. Because endurance requires
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stable, objective truth. Truth that's still there when
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your feelings fade. And finally, it corrects
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pragmatism, this idea of replacing God's slow means with
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quick human techniques. The obsession with efficiency
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and quick results. Yes, pragmatism measures success
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by what's immediate, what draws a crowd, what produces a quick
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emotional response. But Romans 15.4 says God's aim
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is not efficiency, it's spiritual virtues, endurance,
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comfort, hope. And these are slow grown
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virtues, often forged under pressure and sustained by a
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steady diet of the written Word. So let's apply this to the life
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of the person listening to the head, the heart, and the hands.
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First, our doctrinal commitment to the HEAD.
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We have to hold fast to the integrity and the historicity of
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the whole Bible. You have to reject the
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temptation to give into the spirit of the age that mocks the
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historicity of Adam, or the global flood, or Jonah and the
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fish. A fable cannot generate genuine
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Elpis if you reject the historicity of whatever was
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written before you cut the nerve of your own comfort and hope.
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Next, the heart, the feet of our affections.
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Where do we turn when our patience is gone and our comfort
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has disappeared? When you feel buried by trials,
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illness, financial stress, whatever it is, where do you
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instinctively go? This text commands you to turn
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to the Scriptures, not to social media or other broken cisterns.
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Cultivate a deep taste for the Psalms.
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When you feel abandoned, sit with Psalm 88 in the darkness.
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When you're overwhelmed by the success of the wicked, read
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Psalm 73. The comfort of the Scriptures is
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the primary way the Spirit revives A fainting heart.
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You're finally the hands. Practical obedience.
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What do we actually do? The command is simple.
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Because these books were written for you, you have to read them
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systematically. Get a plan that immerses you in
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the whole counsel of God, and then apply this hope to the life
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of your church. Use your theological
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understanding not to be arrogant, but to serve others
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and bear with the scruples of the week.
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Just like Paul said, your patience with a difficult
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brother is the proof that the patience of the Scriptures has
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actually taken root in your soul.
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So we've traced the logic of Romans 15.4 and the conclusion
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is, I think, undeniable. The Old Testament is not a
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relic. It's the living voice of the
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Spirit, specifically curated for the learning of the New
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Testament church. The patience and comfort we get
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from these histories and doctrines are the very means the
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Spirit uses to empower us to stand firm today, securing A
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guaranteed hope that will never, ever disappoint.
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Here's what really stands out to me in all this, and why this
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Deep Dives matters for you right now.
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You've possessed the objective and earned record of God's
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faithfulness to His promises. And the choice is pretty stark.
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Either the entire written Word of God is your anchor, or your
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hope is built on shifting cultural sand.
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So here's the question. What specific, challenging Old
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Testament book? Maybe one you've always found
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too slow, like Judges, or two dense like Ezekiel?
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What book might you commit to reading this week to ground your
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scriptural anchor, ensuring your Elpis is built on God's
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completed, preserved record? That's where your deep dive
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truly begins.