For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly 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 also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.In verse 19, when we see the phrase “the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly”, this phrase literally means to look forward with and eager expectation. The creation refers to all of the creation outside of humanity. Whether animate or inanimate, all of creation is looking forward with an eager expectation. But notice what creation is looking forward to with such eager expectation: the revealing of the sons of God. And here we see Paul reveal for us the first of three different aspects of our rescue that results in a glorious future that provides us hope. And that aspect is that followers of Jesus have a glorious future that creation eagerly awaits. Paul here is revealing for us the timeless truth that all of God’s creation is looking forward with an eager expectation to the end of God’s story here on earth when followers of Jesus will become fully known and transformed into saints who never sin again that participate in the glory and splendor of God as they live in intimate relationship with Him.
Now a natural question that arises here is “why is all of creation looking forward with a confident expectation to the day when followers of Jesus will become fully known and transformed into saints who never sin?” Paul answers that question for us in verses 20-21 by explaining that the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but unwillingly. Paul here is revealing that creation unwillingly has been enslaved and dominated by something that has resulted in it being rendered useless and therefore without hope. Creation is enslaved and dominated by corruption, which is deterioration and decay. And We see this in the world on a daily basis, don’t we? Creation is marred by hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
And we can often tend to want respond to this reality in one of two ways. People often react by either blaming God; God this is your fault! Or by questioning God? God, why do these natural disasters occur? But this morning, these natural disasters reveal the reality that the creation is enslaved to the deterioration and decay. Deterioration and decay that is the result of the selfishness and sin of humanity. You see, as a result of Adam’s act of selfishness and rebellion, sin totally corrupted all of creation, not just humanity.
All of creation was created by God perfect, but is now flawed and broken as a result of selfishness and sin. God did not corrupt the earth so that natural disasters occur, the consequences of selfishness and sin corrupted the earth, resulting in natural disasters. God ordains and God works through the evil of natural disasters to reveal the stark contrast between selfishness and sin and His glory and grace. God ordains and uses what selfishness and rebellion desires for evil and destruction to advance His Kingdom and to enhance His reputation.
Paul then explains that all of creation looks forward with eager expectation to the day when followers of Jesus will be transformed into saints who never sin because that will be the day that creation will also be set free from the consequences that humanities selfishness and sin have caused. Paul does so with a vivid word picture in verse 22: the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Just as a woman endures and suffers the agonizing pain of labor by looking forward with an eager expectation to holding the precious new life that that pain produces, all of creation endures its decay and deterioration by looking forward with and eager expectation to being rescued and released from the consequences that selfishness and sin brought to the world.
Paul then reminds the members of the church at Rome that, as followers of Jesus who have received the Holy Spirit, we also groan under the consequences that selfish rebellion and sin produce. We groan because we have experienced God’s transformational activity in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit; and yet there are times that we still act in selfishness and rebellion. We groan while here on earth because while we are saints that have the Spirit of God within us, we still sometimes sin.
We groan because we want to be set free from our earthly bodies that have been corrupted by selfishness and rebellion so that we can fully experience life in the relationship with God that we were created for. That is what Paul is referring to when he uses the phrase “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies”. As followers of Jesus we eagerly await the day when we will be released from our corrupted earthly physical bodies and fully experience the relationship with God that we were created for as His children.
Paul reinforces this reality in verses 24 and 25. Our rescue from selfishness and sin through Jesus life, death, and resurrection, provides a confident expectation for the future that we are looking forward to. The very nature of hope, however, is that hope is placed in something that we are not currently experiencing. I mean who hopes for what they already are experiencing? But as Paul states in verse 25, when we are looking forward with a confident expectation to the future, we are able to persevere; we are able to hold out and bear up under whatever circumstances we currently face. And that glorious future, for followers of Jesus, is the day when we are transformed into saints who never sin again that participate in the glory and splendor of God as we live in intimate relationship with Him.
Paul then continues in this section of this letter by revealing aspect of our rescue that results in a glorious future that provides us hope. We will look at that aspect tomorrow.
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