• Romans 5:3 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
• 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:”
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As this evangelist has often drawn attention to, many of our modern words have lost their true original meaning, and as a result, we twist scriptures from their original mooring and interpretation. The word “experience” is another such example. The modern preacher and believer makes much of “experience”. When God’s authority and Word should be quoted and referred to, we often hear or say, “In my experience….” We boast that such-and-such a meeting hosts so many years of experience or a person has so many years of experience. It is true that the use of the word this way is in accordance with our modern usage of “experience”. One dictionary defines “experience” as “knowledge or mastery of an event or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.” However, God’s use of “experience” in His Word is different.

The English word “experience” is used 4 times in 3 verses: two times in two OT verses (Gen. 30:27 & Eccl. 1:16) and 2 times in 1 NT verse (our text). The two OT uses refer to something experienced, not mastery or skill, and the NT uses refer to a successful proving from trials. As seen in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the NT word means “test” and is used as the words “experience,” “proof,” and “trial.” The stress is on the testing and proving of trials, and even Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives various definitions of experience in this biblical way. We use the word “experiments” in this way. Once the believer recognizes the proper usage of “experience” in Rom. 5:4, we can properly interpret the passage. God is not praising one’s mastery or knowledge of events and subjects like how many years you have preached, but rather the proper view and handling of trials. The grace-filled believer accesses the grace we stand in by faith in Christ (Rom. 5:2). With this enabling grace, the believer then glories in tribulations knowing that they work patience (Strong’s defines as “cheerful endurance and constancy”). This proper handling of trials (i.e. cheerful, enduring, constant patience) through grace (vs. 2), produces biblical “experience” (vs. 3), or as the old timers would call it, “experimental/experiential religion”. These “proving grounds” result in biblical “hope” which is not “I wish”, but rather, “I fully expect” and “I’m confident” (Strong’s defines hope as “expectation” and “confidence”).

So, how does our modern definition of experience differ from God’s?

• #1 – While our modern definition refers to an accumulation of skill or mastery in any event, job, subject, etc…, God’s use of “experience” in the OT is merely experiencing an event, and in the NT is a successful proving and testing through trials and tribulations.
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• #2 – A preacher or a believer may have many years of “experience” in what they do or have been through, but many are not biblically experienced because they do not go through trials correctly. Merely going through a trial is far different than going through a trial righteously and graciously. True experience is going through trials in faith-dependence upon Christ’s ever-present grace, and coming out of such provings as gold. (I Pt. 1:7)