IBS Application for Romans 15:13

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

I wanted to do this study with a bit of a broader emphasis than my more recent studies have been. It’s been kind of hard to come up with a broader, more practical application than the more recent ones have been because they’ve been more akin to coming to understand what a Scripture is saying by coming to see it in a new light, then realizing that God is asking me to walk in those truths. So, I will attempt to make use of the discernment that the Lord has given me and come up with a more practical application for this verse.

To start, this is from a section of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, towards the end of the letter. In this specific section he is trying to encourage these Romans to accept the comfort of the truths of the gospel. Having explained and espoused the essential doctrine that Paul desires for them to know, he now, at this point in his letter is moving on towards encouraging them to walk in these truths with peace.

To get a little more specific than this, he is saying to them here that Christ came and dwelt amongst the circumcised Jews in order to demonstrate God’s truthfulness to all people; to the Jews, He was a fulfillment of the promises God made to them concerning the arrival of the Messiah, and to the Gentiles, He represented the mercy that God is now showing to them through coverage by the blood of Jesus and being adopted into God’s family. For the Gentiles, among whom we too are counted, this can all be summed up like this: Jesus has brought forth the hope of the world in the fulfillment of the promises that God made to the Jews, and has extended the blessings of that hope to us, the Gentiles, as well.

We are now able to partake in the hope of the promise of salvation alongside the Jews, for Christ has obliterated all distinctions between Jew and Gentile. And this comes with a prayer from Paul that the Roman Christians may be filled up with joy and peace by the God of hope, that they may all abound in hope. This same request that Paul made to the Lord is also applicable to us. We too ought to pray to be filled up with that same joy and peace.

What’s more is that the fulfillment of all of the promises that God made to the Israelites by way of Christ show us that God has a heart for us to be blessed by Him. The same heart He showed towards Israel has now also been extended towards us. He wants to show us His love in a manifold display now that we have been adopted as sons and daughters. Not only can we abound in hope, joy and peace for the assurance of salvation, but also in the hope of the promises we have in God’s plan for us. For God desires to do good in our lives, as we see in Jeremiah 29:11. He has plans for blessing in our lives, both here on earth and later in heaven. In that we also have hope.


What more could I say to add to what Paul is saying here in this exhortation to be filled with joy and peace about where we stand with God? We have only but to hope in His promises, those already fulfilled and those yet to be fulfilled. My application will be a little different beyond simply praying for this joy, peace and hope to fill me up, though I will also be praying for this. I will also begin reading through the books of Jeremiah and Daniel in my devotional time, after I finish reading James, because that is what I am currently reading. The reason for this will be to get a better idea of the sorts of prophecies and promises that God made concerning Christ so that I can better appreciate the great lengths God has gone to to reinforce His faithfulness to us.

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