Paul writes that our hope for judgment day shouldn't put us to shame, and the reason he gives for that is God's love. This is the first of many mentions of love in Paul's letter to the church in Rome, and we celebrate that.

Paul completes his chain in verse 4 by writing that endurance produces character, and character produces hope. We talk about how God uses suffering to mold us into tested people, which drives us to hope in Him.

After writing in verse two that we should rejoice in the glory of God, Paul starts verse three by saying we rejoice in our sufferings. How about that for a transition? We explain why we rejoice in our sufferings.

Paul tees up a series of verses on hope, so we tee up what exactly Paul meant by hope. The greek word that we translate to hope is so much more robust than how we use the word hope, and we talk about what we are to hope in.

Paul starts chapter 5 with a big word: Therefore. All of the things Paul wrote before leads up to this consequence, that through faith in Jesus, we can live in peace with God. We talk about how that differs from the peace of God, but how powerful peace with God truly is.

Paul closes chapter 4 with the central point that all of this righteousness is made accessible to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We talk about what Paul has covered in his first four chapters and where he's heading in the next four.

Paul writes that the same credit that Abraham stored up is available to us. How do we get this credit? How do we go from zero to one in the bank of Heaven? And does God then debit our account when we sin?

Paul shifts to conclude chapter 4 with several critical verses: that the right-standing with God that was credited to Abraham is not just there for Abraham; it's there for us too. How do we live with bold faith?

Paul writes that because Abraham has this genuine, unwavering faith, it was counted to Abraham as righteousness. We talk about genuine, unwavering faith, and we tell a George Muller story as an example.

Paul write that Abraham was fully convinced in the promise of God, even though his human mind initially thought it to be impossible. We talk about living lives of that kind of faith.