Romans 15:13

‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.'

Having described the hope that the Gentiles will have in the Messiah (Romans 15:12), and the confirmation of the promises to ‘the circumcised' (the Jews - Romans 15:8), Paul now speaks of God as ‘the God of hope'. In Romans 15:5 He was the God of patient endurance and encouragement (comfort), now He is seen as the God of hope. It is from Him that all His people receive their hope, and it is He Who will, while bringing that hope to completion, fill them with all joy and peace in believing (in the Messiah - Romans 15:12), so that they might abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. For the feature of being under the Kingly Rule of God is righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), as we look forward with confident hope to the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) in the day of final transformation.

The work of the Holy Spirit was first introduced in Romans 5:5 as shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts in a passage where hope was prominent (Romans 5:2); was underlined in Romans 8:1, as He carries out His transforming work in our lives, and makes intercession for us, where again hope was prominent (Romans 8:23); was probably in mind in Romans 12:11 where He is the source of our fervency and zeal; is the source of the righteousness, and peace and joy which is a feature of the Kingly Rule of God in Romans 14:17, and is now here in Romans 15:13 the inspirer of our hope through His power. In Romans 15:16 He is the Sanctifier of the Gentiles who believe, and in Romans 15:19 He is the source of the power which brought about the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, and through the power of signs and wonders. In Romans 15:30 He is again the inspirer of our love.