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Sunday Sermon Manuscript, March 8th
- Bkumc 열린교회
- 3월 6일
- 7분 분량
From Tribulation to Hope
Romans 5:1–11
“What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” – How Culture Talks About Suffering
There is a song I sometimes listen to that became a hit when it was released in 2007. It is Kelly Clarkson’s “What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger).” If you hear it, you have probably heard it at least once before.
As the title suggests, the song carries the message that if the hardships we encounter in life do not destroy us, they will instead make us stronger.
In fact, the first person known for expressing this idea was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. His famous line, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” has been widely used as a saying meaning that trials can make us tougher and stronger.
When you listen to Kelly Clarkson’s song that carries this phrase, the melody feels as if it lifts a discouraged heart and fills it with new energy. Especially when you listen to it as the morning sun rises, it feels like it gives you courage to face the day with strength.
Not only the song but the phrase itself can be very comforting. Literally translated, it says, “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” Though it sounds like a stern declaration, it can give us the strength to stand up again by telling ourselves, “This will make me stronger.” For those who are accustomed to discouragement or who constantly face hardships, it can be a very encouraging sentence.
In a sense, this saying may be a kind of insight that humanity has gained through the long journey of history.
In Greco-Roman mythology, Hercules becomes a hero by completing twelve impossible labors, and Odysseus returns as a wiser king after ten years of painful wandering. Stories about someone who becomes stronger after enduring great hardship have been passed down for generations, and at times we feel as if those stories somehow spill over into our own lives.
The Story of Abraham’s Aqedah
The Bible also records a story in Genesis 22 known as the Aqedah, where Abraham is told to offer Isaac. The Hebrew word Aqedah means “binding.”
When God told Abraham to offer his long-awaited son on Mount Moriah, the Bible does not dwell on Abraham’s inner struggle. Instead, the story moves forward with a simple sentence: “Early the next morning Abraham got up and set out.” Entrusting everything to God’s sovereignty, Abraham acts in obedience. Scripture captures this moment with the word Aqedah—the binding.
Here we notice not only Abraham’s faith but also Isaac’s obedience as he walks with his father while bound. Perhaps the biblical writer intentionally used the word Aqedah to highlight Isaac as well—the son who silently allows himself to be bound and led up the mountain by his aging father.
For both Abraham and Isaac, this event was a profound hardship. Yet through it Abraham’s faith grew—from “my Isaac” to “God’s Isaac,” from believing in the promise to trusting the One who made the promise. Experiencing “Yahweh-Yireh,” the Lord who provides, Abraham’s anxiety and attachment were removed, and God’s peace filled his heart.
In this way, just as the world often sees suffering as a necessary step to becoming a hero or building virtue, the stories of people in Scripture also show how faith grows through hardship.
Does Hardship Always Lead to Growth?
But then we must ask an honest question: Does every hardship truly lead us to growth? In reality, when we face suffering in our lives, we often become vulnerable to a cynical attitude: “Is there really anything left to hope for?”
We sometimes say, “What’s the point of trying? Things will only get harder again,” or “Why bother having faith? One test and it will collapse anyway.” When we hit such limits, the situation can become even more serious.
Cynicism and negative thinking spread quickly. Even within the church, a small seed of cynicism can create a discouraging atmosphere. People may begin to think, “What’s the point of praying?” or “What’s the point of worshiping here?” and the community becomes weakened.
The root of this problem is the illusion that we must endure everything by our own strength and will. When we struggle, we must be able to reach out and ask for help. And when someone reaches out, we should not ignore that hand—we should pray together and walk through the hardship together.
Especially when the church faces such difficulties, we must not neglect gathering together to pray, share our hearts, and comfort one another.
Paul’s Description of “Tribulation”: Pressure and Loss
Paul uses a word that is deeper than the suffering we usually talk about. He uses the word tribulation, pointing us to the deeper and more essential reality of the hardships we experience in life.
The word translated as “tribulation” in verse 3 is the Greek word thlipsis. Its original meaning is pressure or crushing. It refers to the process of pressing grapes with a heavy weight to extract the juice.
Tribulation is not simply training that makes us stronger. Paul describes it as something that can take away precious things from our lives—our health, our relationships, our reputation, even the economic security we have built.
When Paul wrote this letter, the Christians in Rome were under the pressure of social rejection and persecution. They were so overwhelmed by life’s burdens that they did not even have the energy to tell themselves, “I must become stronger.”
Our lives are not so different. Tribulation often makes us feel powerless before it ever makes us stronger. In those moments, cynicism rises in our hearts: “If God exists, why is this happening?” “Even if I hope, won’t I just be disappointed again?”
Paul begins his message right there—in the place of loss. Without denying the crushing pressure of tribulation, he explains how that pressure can lead us somewhere new.
Paul’s Astonishing Declaration: Tribulation Produces Hope
In that crushing reality Paul makes a remarkable declaration:“We also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance; endurance produces character; and character produces hope.” (vv. 3–4)
The word translated as “character,” dokimē, refers to tested gold—gold that has been proven pure through fire. Tribulation burns away the impurities of our lives and leaves behind a heart that longs only for God.
The world says, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”But Paul says, “What doesn’t kill you leads you to hope.” Hardship does not simply make us tougher; it reveals our weakness and turns our hearts toward God’s hope.
This hope does not come from positive thinking. As verse 5 says, it springs from the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
If we rely only on ourselves, endurance is the end of the road. But those who experience the love of the Spirit move beyond endurance and arrive at hope. Can you imagine that?
This hope is no longer based on the expectation that circumstances will improve. It stands on the unshakable foundation of Christ, who died for us.
When I look back on my own life, I realize that the best way to overcome hardship was not to repay what I had received or to strive for visible success.
Rather, it was to do my best with what had been entrusted to me and to carry out my calling quietly, depending on God’s help. In those moments, God gave me comfort and hope.
Even now, many of the hardships we have shared in our Wednesday Bible study, youth gatherings, and Thursday evening study remain unhealed and unresolved.
Sometimes when I fall into those questions, I too feel the pull of despair and cynicism.
When we become absorbed in cynicism and predictable narratives, that is where we end up.
Perhaps this was the situation Paul faced in Rome—people overwhelmed by suffering, blaming one another, and living in a community atmosphere filled with tension and even danger.
Yet to that very church Paul speaks about hope.
Since childhood we have heard about faith, hope, and love. We think we understand faith and love, but we often fail to grasp hope deeply. Paul says that hope is the ability to hold on to hope even in the midst of severe tribulation.
In other words, everything seems hopeless. Problems multiply and solutions are nowhere to be found. Yet those who believe in Christ possess a unique power—the ability to generate hope in the darkest moments.
We are familiar with saying, “I am saved because I believe in Jesus.” But we are less familiar with saying, “Because I believe in Jesus, I can discover hope in the most difficult moments.”
That is why we gather here—to worship God as people who have experienced the love of the Spirit and who carry hope.
Why do you come to church? Why are you here worshiping today? Is it just habit?
Remember one thing today: we are not people who overcome hardship by our own strength. Through God’s power—through endurance that leads us to experience the Spirit’s love—we are people who live in the mysterious grace of hope.
The Hope Born from the Cross: His Death Gives Us Life
Paul grounds this hope in verses 6–8:“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In worldly hero stories, the one who survives receives glory. But in the gospel, we receive glory because someone else died for us.
The phrase “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” ultimately pressures us to prove our own strength. But the cross says something different: “Christ’s death has given you life.”
The tribulations we experience often kill our pride and our illusion that we can live by our own strength. Paradoxically, in that place of dying we encounter God’s life.
If God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son while we were enemies, how much more certain is our salvation through His resurrected life.
Boasting in God Even in Tribulation
Finally, Paul declares in verse 11 that our boasting has changed:“We also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
At first we want to boast about ourselves—our perseverance, our wisdom, our endurance.
Think about how men often talk when they gather—they tell stories about their military service. Eventually it becomes a competition about who suffered more. Such boasting comes from the satisfaction of saying, “I did it.”
But those who have passed through tribulation and arrived at hope no longer boast about themselves. Instead they boast about God.
Dear brothers and sisters, are you facing a tribulation that is pressing down on you right now?
Do not trust your own strength. Trust the love of the One who came to you when you were weak, when you were a sinner, when you were an enemy of God.
When the love of the cross is poured into our hearts, we can finally sing even in the midst of tribulation.
Tribulation produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces a hope that will never disappoint us. May you hold on to that hope this week and live in victory, boasting in the God who loves you.
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