Groaning Toward Glory
What does the Bible have to say about our suffering, our fallen world, and the future age to come? How are they related?
Listen to Pastor Jim’s sermon here, or read it below.
A Recap of Romans 8
Our current sermon series is a journey through the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Last week, Matt Sidley helped us to understand from chapter 8, verses 14-16, that one of the distinguishing marks of the real children of God is that they are led by the Spirit of God. And in fact, the first half of Romans 8 is a veritable showcase of a variety of ministries of the Spirit of God to us, the children of God. I just want to take a moment to briefly review what Paul has been saying about the work of the Spirit here in chapter 8:
In verse 2, Paul informed us, “The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death,” which is to say that the Holy Spirit has been active in God’s liberation of us from our slavery to the law and given us life in place of death.
Verse 4 tells us the Spirit of God enables us to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, which as we saw is love: love for God and love for people.
Verse 5 reminds us that because the Spirit lives in us, we can now live our lives with our minds set on doing what He desires.
In verse 9, the Spirit lives in us: he “indwells” us, which means that He takes up permanent residence in our lives, never ever to depart.
In verse 10, the Spirit gives life to our spirits which were dead because of sin.
Verse 11 tells us that one day the Spirit will be the One to give life to our mortal bodies, raising us from the dead.
In verse 12, the fact of the indwelling of God’s Spirit obliges us to live lives that are pleasing to Him.
Verse 13 then reminds us that it is the same Spirit who provides us with a new enablement to put to death the sins of our bodies—a new, God-given capacity to consciously and deliberately select obedience and reject disobedience.
In verse 14, the Spirit leads us as God’s children, and in verses 15-16 He bears witness with our spirits that the children of God is really who we really are —there is an internal confirmation, an inner communion, that is initiated by the indwelling Spirit and received by our spirits—our inner beings--that reassures us that this new identity that is ours in Christ is really, really real.
In verses 16-17, which will serve as the springboard for our thinking today, Paul goes a step further to say that the inner witness of the Spirit that we are the children of God implies, because we are His children, that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. What that means is that everything that belongs to our heavenly Father will one day be our inheritance, along with our brother Jesus, who is also our Savior and Lord. Notice that Paul says we are “fellow heirs” with Christ. And if you allow all of that to sink in for just a few moments it will make your head explode. It’s such a massive assertion—such a mind-blowing promise—that we can’t even begin to fathom the fulness of all that it implies. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Groaning Toward Glory
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
I don’t want you to miss the context of Paul’s expression in this passage. In verse 17, the conversation pivots from the present ministry of the Spirit to the future glory of God’s children. Notice verse 23 for just a moment, where he says that the Holy Spirit is the “firstfruits” of that glory. For a farmer, the “firstfruits” of a crop is only the beginning, and looks forward to the promise of a fuller harvest that is yet to come.
In Ephesians 1, Paul gives us another window on this same, wonderful reality.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
What does “sealed” mean? Consider the function of a wedding ring. What Paul is saying here is that the Holy Spirit is given for a purpose similar to an engagement ring: it anticipates and serves as a reminder of a coming marriage – a fuller, more all-encompassing, more permanent relationship yet to come.
And as we will see, that’s important to the twin themes of this passage, which are suffering and glory: first the suffering and glory of the creation in verses 19-22, and second the suffering and glory of the children of God in verses 23-25.
4 Observations About Romans 8:16-25
I want to offer four general introductory observations that I think are necessary for us as we engage this passage.
The first observation: The life of Christian discipleship, the suffering and the glory are inseparable.
They belong together. It was true in the experience of Jesus Christ; it is also true in the experience of his people. Remember the words of the writer of Hebrews, that for the joy that was set before Him Jesus, “Endured the cross, despising its shame, and THEN, AND ONLY THEN, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus said to his disciples, “In the world you will have tribulation.” (John 16:33).
The apostle Peter, writing to encourage and challenge believers experiencing increasing persecution, wrote in 1 Peter 5:10:
…after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Come back with me to verses 16-17 of today’s scripture, where Paul writes:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
The word translated “provided” in verse 17 is translated elsewhere by the word “if.” It’s important that we understand what Paul is saying here. We could mistakenly read Paul as saying that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ IF we suffer with him. It is very possible to read this in the sense that we might not—probably will not—and on that basis God could therefore, in the future, reject us.
But the word in this context does not imply possibility, but actuality. A better rendering would be, “BECAUSE we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Paul is saying that a mark of the authenticity of your membership in the family of God is that you choose to suffer with Christ, to identify with Him by suffering with Him and for Him.
We choose to endure opposition and overt persecution from the world.
We wrestle with the temptations and accusations the Devil throws our way.
We experience the inner struggle between the desires of our selfish nature and the desires of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
We suffer with him now so that we may be glorified with him later.
There’s much we could say about that, but we’ll move on.
The second observation: The sufferings and the glory are markers for the two ages that the Bible speaks so much about: this present age, and the age to come.
Notice verse 18:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
There is a “now” and a “not yet” about our faith this side of heaven. As John Stott put it, we live now in a kind of “provisional, half-saved condition.” We understand quite well what is meant by the sufferings of this present time. But “the glory” is the unspeakable majesty and splendor of the eternal, immortal, unchangeable God.
Paul says THAT glory is going to be revealed. The ESV says the glory will be revealed “to” us. Other translations say it will be revealed “in” us. Both are acceptable, though they each imply somewhat different experiences. The disclosure of God’s glory will be made “to us” because we will see it, and it will be made “in us” because we will be utterly and radically transformed by it.
The apostle John described that transformation when he wrote:
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
To the Corinthians, Paul wrote:
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
The third observation: The sufferings and the glory can’t be compared. They can only be contrasted.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
As painful and as severe and even horrifying as the sufferings of this present time—this “now time”—may be (and Paul knew in his own experience the severity of suffering with Christ), he asserts that the glory to be revealed is infinitely greater and therefore incomparable by far. They can only be contrasted.
Again Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
As an old song-writer put it, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.”
The fourth observation: The sufferings and the glory concern both God’s creation and God’s children.
We might call Paul’s comments in the remainder of this section, “biblical cosmology.” He’s writing from a cosmic perspective, and we should sit up and take notice.
The current sufferings and future glory of the creation, and the sufferings and future glorification of the people of God are integrally related to each other; the future of the creation is inextricably intertwined with the future of redeemed humanity. Both are suffering and groaning together. Both will be liberated, set free together. And that’s why in verse 19 Paul says:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Paul paints a graphic picture with that statement. He personifies creation and has it craning its neck in order to see the event when it happens, and the children of God are revealed to be who we really are on that day when we see Jesus. JB Phillips probably captured Paul’s meaning best in his paraphrase of verse 19:
The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.
Romans 8:19, J.B. Phillips New Testament
And why is the creation waiting in eager longing for that moment? Because that will be the moment when the creation itself will also be liberated and revealed in all of its glory.
The Suffering and Glory of God’s Creation
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Again, Paul is instructing us here in biblical cosmology: the biblical view of the past, present and future of the created universe. We need to ask first, however, what Paul means by “the creation.”
Is he talking about angels? They are created beings, along with demons, but they don’t fit the descriptions Paul gives here.
Are the children of God included in his definition of the creation in this case? No, because he addresses us next in verses 23-25.
So what he’s describing is material, non-human creation—all that is described in the first six days of creation in Genesis 1, up to the creation of humankind.
Three Important Statements About The Creation
1. He says in verse 20 that the creation was subjected to frustration.
That’s the word the translators of the ESV chose. But the actual word means “futility,” “vanity,” “emptiness,” “purposelessness.” What it means in practical terms is that, though it boggles the mind when we view the beauty and majesty of the natural world, the creation does not now manifest the glory that it had when God created it, nor does it manifest the glory that it will when all of creation is renewed in the age to come. It is at present “empty” by comparison to what it was and what it one day will be again.
Paul adds in verses 20 that the creation’s subjection to frustration was “not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.” Who is that? Not Adam. And not Satan. Only God—the Creator and Owner—has that authority. So this has to be a reference to God’s judgment on the natural order as consequence of Adam’s sin in the garden. Remember? God said to Adam,
“Because you…have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…”
Next, Paul adds that God subjected the creation to frustration “in hope.” Even as God cursed the ground, he had future restoration and renewal in mind. Only God could entertain hope for a world that He himself had cursed.
2. Paul says in verse 21, from a negative perspective, that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to corruption.
The implication is that the universe is running down, that nature is helplessly enslaved, that the annual cycle of conception, birth, growth and death is really just a treadmill to ultimate destruction. Nature is a realm of pain and suffering. Everything in nature wears down and dies. Nature is currently a killer.
Positively, Paul says that none of this is the last word. Instead, in God’s time, creation itself will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Think about it. Nature itself will be brought out of bondage into freedom, out of decay into glory, out of corruption into incorruptibility. God spoke through the Old Testament prophets, anticipating that day.
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.”
3. Paul wants us to understand, until then, the creation groans.
It groans. But it groans in hope because it groans as if in the pains of childbirth. Jesus used the same expression in Matthew 24:8. As painful as childbirth is, it is a hopeful thing. The birth pangs are not meaningless, because the creation will one day be reborn, renewed, transformed into a brand new version of itself.
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus and said to them that God has, “A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10).
The apostle Peter wrote that “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).
At the close of John’s record of the revelation God gave to him for the last days, he testified about the fulfillment of God’s purpose, plan and promise.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… No longer will there be anything accursed.
This post is based on the transcript of Pastor Jim Hays’ sermon on August 4, 2019. Due to the nature of oral sermons, it may include thoughts and ideas from outside sources beyond those explicitly cited. If you have any questions or would like to know more about what he’s shared, please contact us or visit us this coming Sunday!