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 (Isaiah 55.12).
The story of the Bible is largely an account of the progress of redemption. In between the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and the establishment of the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21 is the history of salvation. The Christian is living in the last chapter of this divine narrative and as such he lives with an inescapable tension between the “already and the not yet.” As a biological descendant of Adam he is heir both to the strengths and foibles of the first man; as one who is twice born, he is heir to the inheritance of the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15.45). As a new creation in Christ he is hopeful for what awaits him in heaven (2 Corinthians 5.6-10). Paul captures something of this tension when he writes of both believers and the creation longing and groaning for what is coming.
Two weeks ago we noted the importance of suffering to the apostolic call of Paul (Acts 9.15-16), as well as its centrality to the New Testament. Obviously, it is evident in the passion of Christ, as well as in Jesus’ call to discipleship, which involves a willingness to suffer (Matthew 5.11-12; Luke 9.23-24). We observed that the power of the Holy Spirit was often exhibited through the suffering of the church: For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1.4-6). Though Christians were often the objects of persecution and suffered many injustices, Paul contends that such suffering is insignificant compared to the glory that awaits them in the resurrection: For this slight 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 (2 Corinthians 4.17-18).
CREATION SUBJECT TO FUTILITY
Creation itself suffered the effects of God’s judgment on Adam’s sin. Paul writes that creation itself awaits the revealing of the sons of God that it might be freed from its bondage to decay and receive its freedom. The idea of the creation (non-personal, viz. not fallen angels, nor celestial beings nor any other sentient creature) being linked to mankind’s fall and, redemption is not an unfamiliar thought in the Old Testament (cp. Genesis 3.17; Psalm 96.11-13; 98.7-9; Isaiah 24.4-7; 55.12-13). Thus, it is natural for Paul to echo this sentiment. While the world suffers from the effects of sin, it awaits its own eschatological deliverance. The trauma of suffering is not permanent. As the prophet Jeremiah consoled the Israelites: For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men (Lamentations 3.31-33). So too Paul assures the believer that his suffering is a temporary thing (8.18; cp. John 16.20-22; Revelation 21.1-8) and, along with the believer’s redemption, creation will be restored (cp. Revelation 21.1). God has already begun the eschatological work of redemption by sending his Spirit to live in the hearts of believers (cp. John 14.15-17). It is the indwelling Spirit who creates a yearning for Christ’s glory to be revealed. So every Christian who walks in the Spirit has a hope for heaven (cp. 1 Peter 1.3-12).
While the believer has been justified by faith and is presently being sanctified by the inward working of the Holy Spirit, his body has not yet been redeemed. This will not take place until the resurrection at the last judgment (1 Corinthians 15.35-49) at which time the body will be redeemed. In the meantime the Christian longs to be free from the constraints of a body that is subject to sinful passions. That is the reason Paul cautions the reader not to let sin reign in his body: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness (6.12-13). Paul’s rationale for this statement is based on the conflict between sin’s desire to gain a foothold in the believer’s life and the experience of the indwelling Spirit that constrains the Christian to consider himself dead to sin (6.11). However, the present reality is that of a world subjected to the futility resulting from Adam’s sin.
William Barrett, an American philosopher, in his book the Death of the Soul, focuses on an essential problem facing man in the postmodernist age (or any age, for that matter), namely, the loss of his immortal part. He rightly identifies the angst that ensues when one forsakes the thing that sets him apart from the rest of creation, namely, the breath of God: And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being (Genesis 2.7). Dust is something, but it is as close to nothing as one can get and still be something. What sets mankind apart from the rest of creation is God’s breath and the image of God which that breath wrought in man. The imago Dei, as you may recall, consists of at least four things: personality, morality, spirituality, and corporeality. Though created in God’s image, man remains someone whose physical components are from the earth: All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust return (Ecclesiastes 3.20; cp. Job 34.15). The frustration (NIV) of which Paul writes has a similar connotation in the Old Testament. The creation that had been intended as a blessing for Adam is perverted by sin and becomes a frustration to him (Genesis 3.17; cp. Isaiah 24.4-13; Psalm 126.5). Ultimately, the dust of creation represents death: By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out if it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3.19). This is God’s judgment on sin and it is the great frustration for the unbeliever who cannot escape the great judgment. God has subjected all of creation to the futility of decay. As the Psalmist writes: As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower in the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more (Psalm 103.15). The wise person keeps the end of his life ever before himself; like Job, he remembers: I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more (Job 7.21; cp. 17.13-16).
CREATION’S FUTURE GLORY
Creation itself looks forward to a time when the total effect of sin will be done away with. At that time creation will truly display God’s glory as he originally intended it. The coming glory is far greater than anything imagined by man: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2.9). Job describes something of his perception of God: He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them. He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud. He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke. By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab [a symbolic enemy of Yahweh]. By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? (Job 26.7-14). The glory of God will be revealed. But for the moment the whole of creation struggles like a woman giving birth. We know that what is coming is very great indeed, but that does not lessen the present agony. Yet, when the joy of that day comes the pain of birth will fade: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (John 16.20-22).
THE BELIEVER’S FUTURE GLORY
Christians too groan for what is to come. Paul is not speaking of the mournful cries of sin’s repentance; rather, he has in mind the wistful longing for what lies ahead. The believer has already received the firstfruits of the Spirit; he is awaiting the adoption and the redemption of his body. This groaning is not a verbal articulation of a doctrinal truth, it is the deep sighing of the spirit that longs for the coming day when he will see his Savior face to face. Paul lived out this tension between continuing in his apostolic calling or going on to be with Christ: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account (Philippians 1.21-24; cp. 2 Corinthians 5.1-5, 8). So, while a believer shares in Christ’s suffering at the present time, he also has some inclination of what is to come and he is anxious for that day to arrive. He has tasted the heavenly gift, and shared in the Holy Spirit, and has tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come (cp. Hebrews 6.4b-5). “The Spirit, then, functions to join inseparably together the two sides of the ‘already-not yet’ eschatological tension in which we are caught. ‘Already,’ through the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit, we have been transferred into the new age of blessing and salvation; but the very fact that the Spirit is only the ‘first fruits’ makes us sadly conscious that we have ‘not yet’ severed all ties to the old age of sin and death. A healthy balance is necessary in the Christian life, in which our joy at the many blessings we already possess should be set beside our frustration at our failures and our intense yearning for that day when we will fail no more – when ‘we shall be like him’” (Douglas Moo, Romans, p. 520).
FUTURE HOPE / PRESENT REALITY
In Genesis God breathed into man’s nostrils and he received life; in John’s Gospel Jesus breathed on his disciples and they received the Holy Spirit (20.22). It is the new birth, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, that guarantees the believer’s salvation. So the Christian waits with fortitude and endurance for his complete salvation and in that day the earth itself will be fully redeemed: 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, and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (Isaiah 55.13; cp. Revelation 21.1-8).
