Romans 8:18 – 25 reads, “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for one what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
The apostle Paul was a realist. He wasn’t a pie-in-the-sky preacher or philosopher when it came to living out our lives on this planet. He knew what suffering was and he knew it was a very real part of human existence. That’s what we read today in Scripture. We hear that there are, “sufferings of this present time;” that we, along with all creation, are in a, “bondage of corruption” and that the whole creation, “groans and labors with birth pangs.”
It would not be hard to look around or look at our own lives and think of some of the suffering that others or ourselves have gone through. Not only has our sufferings and pain been physical but psychological and spiritual as well. The word for sufferings used here is the same word used for passion or intense feelings. The suffering that Paul is talking about here is not just any stubbed toe or wounded pride. Paul is talking about sharp and intense pain that we experience on all levels of our lives.
But despite the intense and aggravating pain we go through Paul tells us that these things we are going through are, “not worthy” or of, “comparable value” to the weight and majesty of God, that is – His glory. And to the Jewish hearers of Paul’s message they would agree that the righteous would suffer and eventually be rewarded. However, they took it a step too far. They thought that their suffering could atone or pay for the sins they had committed. They thought they would be able to bargain with God, thinking something like, “I’ll give you two hurt feelings for a forgiveness of lying….”
But Paul is clear. Our suffering is not any way to pay for our mistakes. Sure, we may suffer as a result of our brokenness. Our hearts may throb with pain that has been inflicted and the reality is that the human condition means that we will be continually experiencing weakness and suffering. YEAHHHHH! Isn’t that great? Thanks for the pep-talk Paul. It’s a good thing he doesn’t stop here. Paul reminds us that there is something to hold on to and that something is hope.
Christian author and scholar C.S. Lewis was once asked, “Why do the righteous suffer?” “Why not?’ he replied. “They’re the only ones who can take it.” It’s that part about, “taking it” that is tough isn’t it? But Paul tells us that all this intense and extreme suffering is, “not worthy” or “of comparable value” to God’s glory.
But what is so special about God’s glory? Is it that stuff we see shining off of cartoon halos? Is it God’s raw power? What is it? I want you to picture something in your mind. Think of or try to remember the first time you saw mountains or the Grand Canyon or one of the oceans for the first time. Imagine the sheer size of it. Maybe you didn’t realize how big it was until you got closer to it. But now I want you to imagine yourself going up to the base of that mountain, the edge of that canyon or the shoreline of that ocean. I want you to reach down and try to pick it up. That’s right, try to get a grip and lift it. Impossible you think? That’s right, it is. And that is what the glory of God is like. Vast, beautiful, amazing and of infinite weight. And guess what, that very same glory will be revealed in us when God comes again.
The question is, are we expecting it? Do we think it will happen? Paul tells us creation, that includes us believers, is in eager expectation and that we are eagerly waiting for that moment when we will be fully the children of God. But what will happen when He comes? Yes that awesome and majestic glory will be revealed in us by God, but what then? Paul tells us that creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption; we will be delivered into freedom as children of God.
The language that Paul is using here should sound familiar. Let me say a few words and give you a few things….”delivered,” “bondage,” “freedom,” “children of God,” “Moses,” “the Red Sea,” “Mt. Sinai.” You’ve probably guessed by now. Paul is using the same language from the time when God delivered His people from their slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt. He is using the same language when talking about the freedom His people will experience in the Promised Land.
You might be thinking, “What bondage?” “I’m not a slave to anyone?” You might think that you are not a slave to anyone but, as Paul puts it, we are all slaves to the, “bondage of corruption,” that is to the natural decay that our bodies are going through and the moral decay that explains our sinful nature. This has been the case since Adam disobeyed God in the garden of Eden. God had to give punishment for humanity’s disobedience but God didn’t stop there. God did give us hope. The hope that God will make us and His creation what it once was intended to be.
Most people then, as they do now, believed that Fate and decay reigned supreme. That life was just a throw of the dice, just so many things that came together in a big bang. But God has given us hope. The hope of freedom, the hope of being truly his children. The hope of being free from all these things that are rotting within and outside of us. The freedom from what is really killing our souls and bodies. But we know how hope can be fragile and very breakable. We have to remember that it is God who is giving us the reason to hope. Much like a teacher I read about.
There was a school system in a large city that had a program that helped children in the hospital keep up with their homework. One day a teacher who was assigned to that program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in class right now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall behind.”
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt as if she didn’t accomplish much. But the next day a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt like she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.” Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
We are sometimes like that child, emotionally burned and suffering, giving up because we think no one cares. But God does care for us. He knows that we are in pain, longing to go home, to be free from the pain of our lives and world. God hasn’t left us high and dry though, He has left us the comforter until that time. He has given us the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit is our guarantee, our pledge, our “firstfruit” form God as Paul says, that reassures us we will one day soon become God’s fully adopted son or daughter. But that time hasn’t arrived yet. At least I don’t see anyone who has disappeared from church yet this morning. So now we know that we will be free once God comes again. We know that we will have God’s majestic glory revealed in us at that time. But can’t we go now? Can’t we come home to heaven now?
What we are experiencing when we feel this way is the, “Already-not-yet” tension of God’s promise to us. We have already received the down-payment of the Holy Spirit in our lives and that has made us desire for the whole thing. We are now between what God has already done and what He has yet to do with us. We will continue groaning and sighing and longing for our complete redemption. Much like the creation.
Pollution, once more or less local, now pours across national borders, contamination the entire planet. Sulfur fumes from coal plants in Germany generate acid rain that kills spruce forests in Scandinavia. Aerosol-sprayed perfumes made in France increase the reported incidence of skin cancer – and perhaps crop damage – in Argentina and Chile. Peasants clearing forests in Mexico and Guatemala threaten extinction of the songbirds and monarch butterflies that summer in the United States, where there habitats are also shrinking.
According to the U.S. Severe Weather Meteorology and Climatology report the number of tornadoes hitting the United States has increased from a little over 600 in 1962 to more than 1300 in 2001. According to the University of North Dakota, volcano eruptions and activity have more than doubled this past year than the previous five years. Did you know that during this last 100 years in the United States, it has been only the last twenty-five years that the United States has seen two-thirds of its most severed floods?
Paul tells us, “that all of creation groans and labors with birth pangs together….” As believers, we intuitively know that something is coming. We’re expecting. But we can’t see it yet. And Paul knows that we can’t see it. He basically says, “Who hopes in what they can see?” Do you remember as a child when Christmas morning was coming and it was still Christmas Eve? Do you remember when you were waiting for the baby to be born but the labor hadn’t started yet? It is the same for us as we wait for God to reveal His true glory in us, to claim us as sons and daughters and to give us real freedom from our suffering.
But we must wait with perseverance. No where does Paul tell us to wait passively. To sit around on our couches and wait for His coming. Paul tells us we must eagerly wait with perseverance. We must be actively waiting for our goal of freedom.
What would you think of an athlete who only ran a little over nine miles in his entire career? Well, during a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and New York Giants, one of the announcers observed that Walter Payton, the Bear’s running back, had accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage. The other announcer remarked, “Yeah and that’s with somebody knocking him down every 4.6 yards!” Walter Payton, the most successful running back ever (and who was a Christian by the way), knows that everyone – even the very best – gets knocked down. The key to success, to our perseverance as believers, is that when we get knocked down – we get back up and run just as hard towards the goal of God’s freedom, knowing that He keeps His promises and we’re expecting our freedom in Him.
