Romans 8:18-25
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
God’s Glory Is Greater than Our Groaning
How many times over the last 4 months have you said something along the lines of, “I just want this to be over,” or, “I just want life to go back to normal”?
Of course, for every one of us here, these last 4 months have been a once in a lifetime occurrence. None of us has ever seen anything like this. This truly has been unique. But I don’t know that the sentiment is.
I do know that, for me at least, this isn’t the first time I’ve felt emotionally exhausted. This isn’t the first time I’ve wished for something to be over. This isn’t the first time I have wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, which leads me to believe that even when, God willing, coronavirus is a distant memory there is going to be something else – globally, locally, personally – that drains us. There always is. And that’s a daunting reality. It’s exhausting to think about 80 or 90 years of living like this. But that’s kind of the point.
Paul started our passage for today by saying, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” The Romans were facing their own problems. It wasn’t a global pandemic, but in many ways it was much worse – religious persecution. The people were suffering. They were asking, “How long will this go on?” “How long can we keep living this way?” And to a group of discouraged Christians, Paul speaks these words of hope. He turns their attention from their groaning to the glory that God will reveal in us. And he starts in an unlikely way. He starts by talking about creation.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time because it was subjected to frustration; it was in bondage to decay. In other words, the world itself – the whole universe and everything in it – is not what God intended it to be.
When God created all things, he took a step back, saw all that he had made and it was very good. It was perfect! Everything that existed was exactly how God wanted it to be. But not long later, Adam and Eve ruined everything. They disobeyed the one command that God had given them and plunged the rest of creation into corruption with them. God cursed the very ground they walked on as a constant reminder to all mankind of sin and its consequences for every generation thereafter.
When announcing this curse to Adam, the only things that God mentions by name are thorns and thistles, but I’m sure you can see some of the other imperfections in the world around us to this day. How many animals have gone extinct or are at risk of it? What about viruses that make you feel like you’re living in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie? Crops that are flooded because of record amounts of rain. Hail that destroys whatever survived the flooding.
This world is not what God intended it to be. But there is still hope: Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
It almost sounds like creation is putting its hope in believers – and in a way it is, but not because believers are better for the environment than unbelievers. We are not the hope of creation. No, creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed because of what that will mean. It’ll be like seeing that first robin pulling worms out of your yard in April or May – that’s when you know Spring is here.
“When the children of God are revealed” is just another way to say that Judgment Day is here, i.e. the Last Day, the day that Jesus will come back to this world. And creation can get excited for that day, because on that day it will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
On Judgment Day, the curse will be lifted. There will be no more thorns or thistles. No more extinction. No more disease or death. On Judgment Day God promises to remake heaven and earth so that they are new and no longer subjected to frustration. Heaven and earth will be exactly how God intended them to be from the very beginning.
Right now, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. There is pain; there are problems. But they won’t last forever. A time is coming when God will erase them. And the mere thought of that future day gives hope to creation. Creation has been eagerly awaiting its liberation from decay, and, in a way, that’s how you and I can feel.
The fact is that we have plenty of reasons to groan. We still endure the consequences of Adam and Eve’s first sin every day. Just look how long our landscaping lasted before the weeds started popping through the mulch. Not even a month! That would never have happened in the Garden of Eden.
But then you add to it the catalogue of calamities that have taken place these last 7 months and we groan. We groan about the virus. We groan about the protests. We groan about the policies. We groan about the guilt that we carry. We groan for something better. Paul says, “Not only so, but we ourselves… groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Now, it’s worth saying that we are already children of God. We call him our Father by faith. But what Paul is talking about here is very much like your normal, everyday adoption story. Adoption is a process! It takes time and hard work.
I happen to know a few people who are working through that right now. They were approved ages ago. They’ve known which child will ultimately be theirs for months. They’ve given them names and sent them gifts. They get pictures and regular updates. For all intents and purposes, that child is already theirs, but you better believe they’re counting the days until they can hold that child in their arms. That’s what Paul is talking about when he references our adoption by God.
God has already claimed us as his own. He has put his name on us in baptism. He sends his Holy Spirit to live in our hearts by faith. We are his children right now! But we still eagerly await the day that that adoption becomes finalized and we get to live with our Father in heaven.
It is not wrong to groan about the pains and the problems we face in this world. It is good and right to yearn for that day when we can put the frustration and fatigue of this world behind us. God promises us something better and he says that it’s not even worth comparing with the suffering we face today. His glory is infinitely greater than our groaning.
It makes sense to wait in eager expectation. It makes sense to hope for something better, but the challenge for Christians is to groan without despair. The difficulty is to wait eagerly but patiently. That’s what makes Paul’s words to the Romans more than just vague optimism. This is hope rooted in Christ.
For in this hope we were saved.
Paul goes on to talk about the quality of hope. Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? If you want to have hope about COVID, you’re going to search the statistics. You’re going to comb the countries of the world to find one protocol, one practice, one positive story of success and then your thought process will sound something like, “If we can just do that, we might just have a chance (e.g. of getting back to school in September, visiting my mom in a nursing home, going back to the way life used to be).”
For Christians, though, the difficult thing is that there is no trend, no statistic, no positive outcome anywhere that tells us that things will get better. Everything we see in this world reminds us that there will always be something to groan about. Sure, we may escape this one crisis, but another one we haven’t even thought about is waiting around the corner.
And yet, God’s promise remains the same. Even for sinners who alienate themselves from their God, there is adoption to sonship. Even for us who feel the consequences of sin, there is the redemption of our bodies. We cannot see Jesus coming – and we won’t – but that doesn’t mean he’s not.
We hope in something unseen. We hope in a glory that can’t even be compared to any earthly thing. We hope in the promises of God, and even though we cannot picture them with our humble human minds, those promises give us perspective. They help us to understand that the groaning Paul talks about is the pain of childbirth not the despair of death. Like a mother in labor, we do face real pain here and now, but like that some mother, we know the pain will end. And when it does there will be something that’s not even worth comparing to that pain.
Christians, I don’t know the answer to “How long?” I can’t tell you whether life will ever “get back to normal.” But I can tell you that the heaven that God is preparing for you is way better than normal. And when you know that paradise is at the end of your story, it makes all the chapters in between all that less stressful. Whatever problems you face here and now, they end in heaven, and though you cannot see it, you can still hope in it, eagerly but patiently, because of God’s promise. The glory he promises you is greater than your groaning. Put your hope in him. Amen.