Romans 8:18-25
“The Entire Creation Groans”
By: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
Several weeks ago, I went hiking along the Chickamauga Creek in Soddy Daisy.
It’s an awesome trail, and it was a beautiful day!
The sun was shining, there was just a hint of crispness in the air, and the trees were at their height of Fall beauty.
I walked several miles through the woods, and climbed higher and higher as I went.
Finally, I came to a wooden staircase and I began to climb steeply.
I kept going and going, and suddenly, instead of thick trees all around me, I was standing on a slab of rock.
It was a view!
I was looking down, not only on the whole large woods but also on the towns beyond.
I could see other hills in the distance and smoke rising in between.
Half the county seemed to lie there before me.
Romans Chapter 8:18-25 is like that view.
From this passage we can see, in astonishing clarity, the whole plan of salvation for all of God’s creation.
And once you’ve glimpsed this view, you will never forget it!
In the beginning, the human race was put in charge of God’s creation, but we humans rebelled and creation fell as well.
In Genesis 3:17 God says to Adam, “Cursed be the ground because of you.”
Look again at verse 20: “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
When we look at the world of creation, we see a world in the same condition as the children of Israel were in when they were enslaved in Egypt.
Just as God allowed the Israelites to go down into Egypt, so that in bringing them out He could define them forever as the freedom-from-slavery people, so God has allowed creation to be subjected to its present round of summer and winter, growth and decay, birth and death.
It’s beautiful, yes.
Just like those Fall leaves that I enjoyed on my hike…
…but now those leaves are brown and many of us have been trying to keep them off our yards with rakes and leaf blowers.
The beauty of creation always ends in tears or at least a shrug of the shoulders.
Or what about earthquakes and active volcanoes?
In them, we can sense the awe of creations futile power.
Creation can sometimes seem like a caged lion…
…all that energy, and its not achieving anything!
And think of the wild animals!
What about that promise that the wolf and the lamb will be lying down together?
Is that happening now?
Is that just a dream?
“No,” says Paul in our Scripture lesson, “it isn’t a dream! It’s a promise. All these things are signs that the world as it is, though still God’s good creation, and pregnant with His power and glory, is not currently the way it should be.”
Something has gone terribly wrong!
The human race was put in charge of creation, but when we rebelled creation fell into disrepair.
Verse 22 reads: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
The entire creation is waiting on tip-toe…
…longing for us humans to again take our place under God and over the world, worshipping the Creator and being excellent stewards over the world!!!
What do you think of that?
There will come a day, and nature is longing for it, when sin’s dominion will be broken, death and decay will be gone, and God’s glory will come in its fullness!!!
Today is the first Sunday of Advent and Advent is the beginning of the Church Year.
It’s also a time of great tension because it’s mainly concerned with the Second Coming of Christ, and not, as our contemporary American commercial appetite would have it…
With that said, we now celebrate Advent as an expression for both the First and Second Comings of Christ.
It’s about the “already” of Christ having come in the flesh and the “not yet” of the consummation of all things in Christ at the end time.
It’s both a time of thanks for the gift of Christ to us and in us and a time of eager anticipation of Christ’s Second Coming.
Jesus Christ was born into this world like all of us…
…a little baby…
…and yet, Jesus was both human and divine.
God took on flesh and God lived with us.
He taught us how to live and believe.
He was tempted in every way we are, and yet was without sin.
Because of this, He is able to atone for our sins by His blood shed on the Cross.
And we who believe, who trust in His name will live with Him forevermore through His glorious Resurrection from the dead and ascension back to Heaven where He sits at the Right Hand of God the Father…
…forever to be praised!!!
When we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior we get a foretaste, a first installment, a preview, of the glory that shall be…
…and we are to long with all our hearts for the full realization of what adoption into the family of God means!!!
That final adoption will include the redemption of our bodies…
…in the state of glory!!!!
We all have aches and pains.
Some of us deal with terrible ailments and handicaps.
But we live in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us!!!
Verse 23 reminds us of this fact, “we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons [and daughters], the redemption of our bodies.”
In this world, every one of us have a body and a spirit.
In the world of glory, our total persons will be saved!!!
Our bodies will no longer be the victims of decay and instruments of sin.
We will have spiritual bodies.
No longer will we ache with pain.
No longer will we fight with temptation and sin!
Therefore, we can shout with joy, along with Paul when he writes in verse 18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
It is so easy to allow the present state of this world to load us down.
We can become easily depressed, frustrated, and miserable.
With the writer of Ecclesiastes we may be tempted to cry in despair: “Meaningless! Meaningless!...
…Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
And this is how much of our world feels.
Do you know that the second leading cause of death is suicide?
Why live, if everything is “Utterly Meaningless”?
Boy, did we have a great Evangelism Explosion last week as we took bread baskets to the homes of persons who live around our church building.
With the beautiful baskets, which included two loaves of home-made bread, a small pumpkin or gourd, a package of instant hot cocoa mix, and some candy corn was a card…
…it reads, “We’re glad we had the chance to serve you!
We hope this small gift brightens your day.
It’s a simple way of saying that God loves you—no strings attached.
Let us know if we can be of more assistance.”
After we were finished with one neighborhood, and back in the church van, an older woman came running up to us.
She was in tears.
“I just want to thank you,” she said.
“I was sitting at home having a pity party for myself.”
“You see, I’ve been so lonely since my husband passed away.”
“I just want you all to know that you brightened my day!”
Just think of all the lonely and sad people who surround us…
…it’s easy not to realize this…
…or to forget.
We do indeed live in a world which is encompassed by sin, death and decay.
And what the world needs more than ever is hope!!!
The ONE HOPE!
That this life is not the end!
For those of us who are in Christ, life is not a weary, defeated waiting.
Instead it is a vivid expectation!!!
Yes, we are involved in the human situation.
As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians Chapter 4, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
We do not live only in this world; we also live in Christ!!!
We don’t only see the world, we look beyond it to God.
We don’t only see the consequences of human sin; we see the power of God’s mercy and love.
Therefore the key to our lives is always hope and never despair.
We wait not for death but for life!!!
Paul writes in verse 24, “For in this hope we are saved.”
Do you see the view?
Have you been to the mountaintop?
The whole creation is in labour, longing for God’s new world to be born!
And we, God’s Church, are called to share that pain and that hope.
We aren’t set apart from the pain of the world; we are to be in prayer and service right at the place where the world’s pain is!
That is our calling…
…our incredible role within God’s purposes for the New Creation which will come when Christ comes in final victory and we feast at Christ’s heavenly banquet!!!
Are you looking forward to that day?
