Joy is happiness. The difference between joy and happiness is that joy is abiding happiness. It’s unshakable, true happiness that is at the depth of your soul. And Romans 15:13 shows us where it comes from: “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.”1
In this post:
- What Does Romans 15:13 Mean?
- Where Does Real Joy Come From?
- What Is the Difference Between Joy and Happiness?
- What Is the Peace of God?
- Why God’s Joy Beats the World’s Happiness
- How Do You Find Real Joy and Peace?
- A Feast of Joy and Peace
Redemption is a wonderful thing.
We are sinners who have incurred the just wrath of God. There was a debt so insurmountable that all of our efforts for all of our lives would not have eaten away at one small crumb of it. We had incurred a debt in a currency that we possess zero amount of, and the court of heaven would declare us guilty, guilty, guilty of infringement upon the glory of the Holy, Holy, Holy God.
But Christ paid our debt. The currency that we had none of was a priceless and precious currency, the blood of the Son of God. He paid in full to redeem us. Redemption is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Our guilt is gone.
But our guilt before God is not the only consequence of our sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were banished from the garden. Your body and soul, bottom to top, every aspect of who you are, was meant to depend closely on God, your creator. But sin has separated us. Our sin separates us from the Holy God that we were created to depend on (Isaiah 59:2).
Christ’s death must not only redeem us. If we are to be truly blessed to the fullest extent, his death must reconcile us to God. We need not only for our debt to be paid, but also to be reconciled with our Creator. Our souls need God.
The effects of sin mean that the soul of every person on this earth suffers from a lack of Jesus Christ.
And a soul that lacks Christ lacks joy, because he is joy himself.
A soul that lacks Christ lacks peace, because he is peace himself.
A soul that lacks Christ lacks hope, because he is hope himself.
Heart, mind, and soul are biblical terms that refer to one thing: your inner man. Your inner man is broken because of sin. Your affections, your thoughts, your soul are broken because of sin. The problems of the mind, heart, and soul are common to man because of sin.
They are real problems that the Bible identifies and defines, but more than that, the death of the Son of God has proven that they are also problems that God cares about. God cares about the state of our minds and hearts and souls. He cares to give joy to the joyless, hope to the hopeless, and to make peace where there was no peace.
My point is, God cares about the state of your soul. Christ’s death reconciled you to God so that life, joy, peace, and hope might reign in your minds and hearts.
If you are dealing with what feels like a difficulty in your inner man (depression, anxiety, grief), those are real problems of the soul. God cares about it. You can’t put those problems in their own box and say, “This is the box God doesn’t touch. I know he’s good and grand and wonderful, and he saved me, and salvation is wonderful, but it doesn’t have anything to do with this box over here.”
No, the death of Christ purchased reconciliation that brings healing to your mind, your heart, and your soul. If you have such a box, then you have made the death of Christ and the heart of God too small, far too small.
God is a big God whose love has no depths nor bounds, whose counsel is full and whose work is complete.
What Does Romans 15:13 Mean?
And so he can answer big prayers that have to do with big problems in our souls. One such prayer is 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.
Romans 15:13
There is something so particularly sweet about a blessing. When someone blesses you, they are addressing you. Look at the pronouns in this text: “May the God of hope fill you so that you may abound in hope.” Paul is talking to his readers, his hearers, to the Roman church. And what a loving thing to say to someone! But that is on the one hand.
On the other hand, he’s talking to God. This isn’t a request of the Roman church, but it is a request of God. It’s not passive speech. It actually is addressing, calling upon, making a request of God… and so, it’s a prayer.
That’s the particularly beautiful thing about blessings. What a way to fulfill the first and second greatest commandments, as you lovingly address God and man together!
I love blessings. I love that we end every Lord’s Day gathering by addressing God and you together, asking that he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. I love it so much that I do it in my own home.
One of the traditions that I have had with my children since they were born is that each of them gets a biblical blessing that I say over them as I put them in bed every night. My son Silas has the Aaronic blessing that we say most weeks for the benediction. My daughter has this blessing from Romans 15:13, because this blessing is very precious to me. Our son that will be born any day now will have the blessing from Hebrews 13:20–21. I love blessings. And in particular, biblical blessings.
Because if blessings are prayers, then they are meant to be made as Jesus taught us to pray: in Jesus’ name, in faith, according to his will. And with biblical blessings, like with all biblical prayers, we know that this is a prayer we can confidently pray in Jesus’ name, filled with faith that it is according to his will.
Here’s the one thing I hope you take away: God can and will answer this blessing. “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.”
To answer that prayer is God’s will. To pray that prayer in Jesus’ name is right. To have faith that God can answer that request is right. To believe that he will fulfill that request is right. We know that this blessing is a right blessing over God’s people.
Do you want to be filled with joy and peace? Just take a second to imagine the goodness of that.
You are not alone. If you desire joy and peace, you are not alone. Especially, hear me on this: if you lack joy and peace, you are not alone. Those are deep problems of the soul caused by the curse of sin. If you want an answer to why our souls are in turmoil within us, look no further than the first verse of Psalm 42.
The pains and problems of the soul can be summarized by the fact that, as a deer pants for flowing streams, our souls pant for God. Our souls thirst for God, the living God. Your mind and heart thirst for God.
Why is my inner man broken? Why is my heart distraught and my mind darkened? Because with every fiber of your being, you need God. And so you get an answer to your deepest pains: hope in God (Psalm 42:5).
Where Does Real Joy Come From?
What is the source of this great blessing in Romans 15? I want you to see it from the beginning to the end of the text. There is a reason why this is a blessing, an address to God. Where do joy and peace and hope come from? What is the source of the blessing?
It is the one being addressed.
“May the God of hope fill you,” he says. The Apostle Paul knows that the hope for every person in the church to have joy and peace is God himself.
Far be it from me to offer you a way to joy and peace aside from the God of hope.
I hope it is far from you to counsel people in need of joy and peace to receive it by any other means than the God of hope. I hope it is your heart’s desire, as it is the Apostle Paul’s, that those you know, those you walk alongside, those in your church that you have covenanted together with, would have joy and peace from God.
He is the source of this great blessing, and it is by his power that you may have joy and peace. So, he says, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
From the beginning to the end, this text is all about the work of God in you.
But why? Why is it God? Why is it him and him alone? Why is the prayer addressed to him? Why is it his power that must accomplish the work of filling us with joy and peace? Because what a needy soul requires is a miracle.
The problems of our minds, hearts, and souls are a result of sin. And true joy is not found, real peace is not accomplished, real hope is not gained, and real healing does not happen by any means other than dealing with the problem of the sin that has separated us from the one our souls long for.
Hence, we need to be reconciled by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence, we need to have the benefits of that reconciliation applied miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The problems of the soul require a miraculous work that none but God can do. None but God can do.
None but God. No one and nothing but God has the power to give real joy and peace to a needy soul.
You require nothing short of the fullness of the power of God to bring joy and peace to your needy soul. The power of sin cannot be overcome by anything but the power of the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, God will have glory for the work that he has done at the cost of the blood of his Son. If the healing of your minds and hearts comes at the cost of the blood of Jesus Christ, he will not have his glory attributed to another.
He wants the glory that comes from the healing of your minds and hearts. He wants the glory that comes from the benefits of reconciliation between God and men.
Hence, Paul addresses God and calls upon his power.
If the real problems of the soul, the deepest pains and difficulties of your mind, are in that box for you that God doesn’t touch, what do you think is the possible source of joy and peace? What is it? Where else are you going to look? By what power do you seek to fix your soul? By whose hand do you seek to find joy? By what strength do you seek to find peace?
Stop looking. Here’s your answer: God. Look no further.
God is the source of the blessing. He is the one and only source. He is the God of hope, and there is no other. There is the God of hope, and there are a thousand idols of false hope. There is the one fountain of true and everlasting hope, and there are a thousand broken water carriers of hope devoid of anything real. There is one who keeps every promise and a thousand who promise hope and break it every time.
When I was in high school, I would often spend a good bit of the summer on a small hobby farm that my step-grandparents owned, and I would do chores. One time I was given the task of mowing a field, and it was a large enough field that even with this nice lawn mower, it would have taken most of the day.
I needed to put some gas in the very nice zero-turn lawn mower and get to work. So I went into one of the barns, and there were a bunch of red gas cans there. I picked one up. It was full, so I carried it over and filled up the lawn mower. Only I was stopped by my step-grandfather, who told me, “That’s water! Don’t you see the big W written on the side of the can?!”
Look, I’ll let you decide who was right and who was wrong, but I was in a little bit of trouble, and I ended up having to mow the field with a push mower. That was a lot less fun… and a lot less possible. I did not get through the majority of that field in one day with a push mower.
One of the common sayings in the biblical counseling world is that the first person to explain yourself to you wins you over. The world is full of explanations for why you don’t have joy, full of explanations for why you don’t have peace. Boy, do they have answers! Those answers are gas cans filled with water.
As someone in need of gas, it seems like a solution. It gives you hope for a minute when you see the gas can, but you run out of hope when the machine stops working. Now you’ve got a bigger problem than the one you started with.
Not so with God. He is the God of hope. He can fill you with joy and peace. His power can make you abound in hope. He and he alone can fill up the tank of your soul. As the great Puritan Thomas Boston preached:
Nothing less than a God in Christ can ever satisfy the cravings of an immortal soul, a soul which was created capable of enjoying an infinite good. And nothing but the blood of the Redeemer will ever give solid peace to your consciences.
Thomas Boston2
Do you have to look anywhere else? He is the source of the blessing of the soul.
What Is the Difference Between Joy and Happiness?
Maybe you think, “That’s great! God can give me real hope for spiritual things, real spiritual joy, eternal peace. But I still think there’s some kinds of joy in this life that God can’t give. This text has to be talking about some very specific kind of joy and peace, right? God’s the source of the spiritual kind, but there’s another kind of happiness in this world that I should look elsewhere for.”
Let me point you to three words in this text: fill, all, abound.
“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.”
This blessing is full. It is overflowing. The joy and peace that God provides are boundless. There is no part of your soul, heart, mind, or life that they do not touch. There is no box of stuff up here that the power of God does not touch. And if you think there is… the words fill and all and abound ought to take a bat to that box like a piñata.
What good shall your God withhold from you? The fullness of joy and peace that come from the hand of the Father in Jesus Christ are beyond comprehension. God does not merely want to give you a taste. He wants you to be filled with all of it, that you may abound.
Joy and peace are real blessings that come from him.
So what is this joy? Is it just some ethereal thing that we don’t actually get to experience in this life? Can I be joyful toward God but not happy in any other way? That’s how people maintain that box a lot of times: to say, “Well, I have real joy in Christ, but that doesn’t mean I get to be happy over here. That doesn’t mean I get to have real joy over here.”
What is biblical joy? What is the gift and blessing of joy in Romans 15:13?
Joy is happiness. The difference between joy and happiness is that joy is abiding happiness. It’s unshakable, true happiness that is at the depth of your soul.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a book called Spiritual Depression.3 You can hear that and think that it’s a type of depression that is spiritual, but there’s a non-spiritual type that God doesn’t really get at. That’s not what that title means. Spiritual depression, as Lloyd-Jones used it, is depression that is so deep, it’s in the deepest parts of your spirit.
In that sense, God gives spiritual joy. Joy that is so deep and so true that it is at the deepest parts of your spirit. Joy that is so abundant and so wide that there is no part of your being that is not touched by it. The joy that comes from God is not a knock-off version of happiness. It’s real and deep happiness in your soul.
Happiness can be a facade. It can be faked. It can be temporary. It can deceive. You might be happy when you see that gas can, not knowing that it is filled with water. It’s fickle happiness. It will not last. God’s joy is a happiness that endures.
God cares about the state of your soul. His blessing of joy upon the soul is real, deep, abiding happiness based in truth, tied to such a strong foundation that the winds of the world cannot blow it away.
What Is the Peace of God?
And what about peace? Is peace something real that I can experience in this life? Is this talking about redemption only, peace with God, or is it talking about reconciliation, peace that I feel in my soul that comes from being with God?
The answer to that question is both. The peace that comes from God is boundless. He wants to fill you with all peace so that you may abound. Peace is real calmness, steadiness, and contentment that we have as the gift and blessing of God to the soul. It is real peace.
It’s peace that endures. Peace that goes to the depths of who we are. Peace that cannot be shaken by the world.
Do you see how that could connect to problems that you experience, to the turmoil of your soul? What would real peace bring to your troubled soul?
Why God’s Joy Beats the World’s Happiness
Do you see that these are real blessings? These are things that, if you had a taste of them, you would crave for the rest of your life. These are the real answers to the real problems of the soul, the deep problems of the soul, the problems that all men deal with.
These are not cheap knock-off versions of good things. This is not Great Value joy. This is not Harbor Freight peace. This is the real deal.
Everything else is lesser.
The joy and peace that come from God are the things that are most desirable and most replenishing to a soul in need.
The false joys, the false peace that we get by any other means can feel real to a needy soul in search of something, but it is so lacking. Yes, the world has answers, and they may give false hope, false peace, false joy for a moment. But oh, are they lacking.
The Puritan Stephen Charnock used the analogy that those who have never seen the sun are amazed at a candle. And if I might add, had I never tasted Dr Pepper before, I would think sparkling water is pretty good.
Another look back at my high school days: I was in a youth group at a megachurch where they would plan pizza parties and hype them up for weeks. Teachers did the same thing when I was in elementary and middle school. They would plan pizza party days and get the class really excited for them.
The thing that happened at the church and at the school is that I’d be really excited to get pizza, wait in line for it, only to get up there and realize that they had brought their own pizza cutters and cut the slices in half and limited you to two slices. You essentially got a single slice of cold pizza… an incredibly disappointing amount of pizza. Which is why I now always order way too much pizza whenever I have people over.
There are a lot of answers in the world for the state of your soul. A lot of hype and a lot of promises made, but the promises are not kept. They are:
- half slices of cold pizza
- sparkling water
- candles compared to the sun
- gas cans filled with water
God is the God of hope. The peace of God is better than the peace of the world. The joy of God is better than the joy of the world.
His joy and peace are more real, not less real. They are better answers.
Many believe God is not enough. Many believe that there are problems of the mind, heart, and soul that are beyond him.
Are you one of them? Or do you believe that God can and will answer this blessing?
“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.”
Is this blessing in vain, or is it truly in Jesus’ name and according to his will?
Is there a problem of the soul that is not answered by Christ’s reconciling work on the cross? Or can God fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope?
What do you think?
How Do You Find Real Joy and Peace?
The question that I would imagine you’re asking is: what do I need to do to get the joy and peace that come from God? In fact, maybe you’re thinking, “How do I really experience them, because I feel like I haven’t?” Maybe you feel like you have them sometimes, but not deeply, not in your day-to-day life. Let me begin with one encouragement.
I want you to know that if Christ died to reconcile you to God, then he has already purchased this blessing for you. There is nothing left for you to do, which is why, for all eternity, there will be no more sorrow or tears or pain or problems of the soul. Your soul will have its deepest need and longing for Christ satisfied forever.
But in this life, we can’t escape the effects of sin fully… That doesn’t mean we can’t find freedom from the effects of sin particularly. That’s very important.
Let me give you an analogous doctrine that I think will help you understand what I mean. You will not be free from sin until you die. I would be a terrible pastor if I told you that you can be perfect in this life. But there is no sin in your life that cannot be defeated. I would also be a terrible pastor if you were sitting in front of me confessing sin and I just said, “Until you die, that’s your lot.” No! There is no sin that has so much power over you that it cannot be defeated, because you are transformed from one degree of glory to another throughout your life.
So it is with the effects of sin upon the soul. Will you ever be free in this life fully and finally? No. You have that to look forward to in eternity. But is there a problem in your soul that you’ve identified that you cannot find freedom from now? No! Ought you to have hope that you can have real joy and peace now? Yes.
The Spirit is transforming you by his power. He can and will answer this blessing. So let me leave you with three things from this text that are an answer to the question, “How do I get this blessing?”
Prayer
First, look at what this blessing is again. Back to the beginning. It’s a prayer.
Why don’t we start there?
If it is truly God and God alone who can perform the miracle by his power of shining light upon souls longing for joy and peace, why not go to him? Why ask anyone else before we approach God? Is anyone more kind than God? Would anyone be as delighted as God to give you joy and peace? Is anyone as able as God to give you joy and peace? No, no, no.
If this prayer is in Jesus’ name, pray it in Jesus’ name. If this prayer is according to his will, pray it in faith. Pray it in believing. Do not grow weary of prayer. Do not grow weary of asking, searching, knocking. Pray, pray, pray. Go to God.
In Believing
Second, notice where joy and peace are. Look at the text: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”
Let me point you to where that joy and peace are. They are in believing. In believing.
Many people think that what you believe has nothing to do with the state of your soul. They are wrong. What you believe is the most important thing for the state of your soul. In particular, what you believe about God is the most important thing for the state of your soul.
Your mind and heart are affected by your doctrine. Doctrine is not insignificant. Counseling the truth of God’s word is not irrelevant. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever been tempted to think that giving people the truth of God’s word is not really relevant to the problems that they have, the pain that they feel, the joy that they lack, the peace that they need? Have you ever thought that?
It’s the opposite of the truth. Joy and peace are found in believing. Your doctrine can make your life joyful or miserable. What you know God to be can create chaos in your soul or bring peace to your soul. Your theology changes the state of your mind. What you believe about the truth affects your heart.
So, what is missed in secular counsel that takes no account of our beliefs about God? The most important thing! If you don’t take into account what you believe, you have made shipwreck of your counsel.
This is what J. I. Packer wrote:
What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the “eternal life” that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God… What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God.
J. I. Packer4
Or simply look a few verses earlier in our text:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4
Are you dealing with deep problems of the soul? Joylessness, lack of peace? Do you need hope? Get acquainted with the truth. Come to a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. Look deeply at his word, dwell on it, dwell in it, let it dwell in you. His word is truth that calms troubled souls. The knowledge of God is a knowledge that calms raging storms within us.
Hope
Third, notice that this blessing starts and ends with hope. It starts with the God of hope, and it ends with you abounding in hope.
God is the God of hope, not only because he gives hope, but because he is our hope.
Does God give hope? Yes. God gives hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope that is abounding. Hope that is overflowing. Hope that is certain and sure.
But when God gives you hope, what is the hope that he’s giving you? Himself. Jesus Christ is our hope. He is the answer. He is the one. He is everything. Christ is our hope in life and in death. He is our hope before the judgment seat, and he is our hope now. He is our hope for eternity, for our justification, and he is the hope for our blessedness. He is the hope for our redemption and the hope for our reconciliation. He is the hope for our soul’s eternal delight in God and the hope for true joy and peace now.
Christ Jesus is the answer, the one, the truth, the way, the life, the everything. The hope that we have is in Jesus Christ. There is no other hope. There is no other hope. The world can offer no other hope. The world can give you no other hope. There is no other answer. There is no other one. There is no other way. There is no other truth. There is no other life. There is no other name. There is no one but Jesus Christ who is the answer for troubled souls.
That is why we are passionate about biblical counseling: it’s Christ or nothing! It is the Prince of Peace or no peace at all, the fountain of joy or no joy at all. But he is real hope, and Jesus Christ is everything that we need. To have Christ as our answer and no other answer is not to lack a thing, but to have everything.
If someone is dealing with the deepest, most difficult problems in their mind, heart, and soul, and you have Christ to give them, you have everything to give them. That’s why you are competent to counsel. That’s why you can be mentors and disciple makers and counselors.
As Charles Spurgeon wrote:
He is not only one out of two good things, but he is both… You shall find in Jesus Christ everything that will be wanted between hell and heaven. All the way, from the bars of Tophet to the pearly gates of paradise every want of every pilgrim is met in him.
Charles Spurgeon
Many in this world will make promises they cannot keep, offer joy that does not last, and peace that cannot endure. The promises of God outweigh all of the promises of the world, and all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, our hope.
Again, I ask you: do you believe God can and will answer this blessing? “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.”
A Feast of Joy and Peace
I want to let the Puritan Thomas Boston close us out with a wonderful call that sits so well with this beautiful blessing. He said:
We would exhort all hungry hearts who are suing for satisfaction in the world and their lusts, and whose consciences have no solid resting-place, O! come to Jesus Christ in his covenant, and sit down to this feast prepared for you… Consider, if you will come, you shall be happy for time and eternity. When the lower table is drawn, you shall sit down at the upper. If not, you shall never know satisfaction, nor find rest to your souls.
Thomas Boston5
There is a feast at the table of Christ: a feast of joy and peace and hope, a world without end. Because we have such a table prepared for us for eternity, we sit each week at the table of the Lord’s death in remembrance of what it cost to provide such a bountiful meal.
If you are not in Christ, consider that call from Thomas Boston and come to Christ. Come to Christ now.
His death reconciled us to God. His death satisfied the wrath of God and paid the penalty for our sins. His death brought light to darkened minds, life to dead hearts, and peace to needy souls. The healing of our minds and hearts required nothing less than the blood of the Son of God, which he did shed in time, in history, in reality, for us before God.
His body was crushed so that we might be redeemed and find eternal life and life to the fullest. His blood was spilled so that we might be reconciled to God and quench every thirst of our needy souls.
Christ is coming again, and on that day we will have no more felt needs, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain. In Christ, we hope for that day with a true, certain hope.
- This post is adapted from my sermon on Romans 15:13, “God’s Blessing on the Soul,” preached July 26, 2026, in the Counsel the Word series at Cornerstone Community Church.
- Thomas Boston, “A Rich Feast Prepared for Hungry Souls,” Sermon VII, in The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, vol. 10.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (1965).
- J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), chapter 3.
- Thomas Boston, “A Rich Feast Prepared for Hungry Souls,” in The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, vol. 10.
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