Romans 8:16-23 – The Groaning & The Glory
16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Charlie Brown illustration. Charlie was about to kick a field goal and Lucy held the ball. When Charlie kicked, she moved the ball. He kicked so hard that he flew into the air and landed flat on his back with a groan, "Aaaaargh."
We all groan while in this body for a variety of reasons.
In the Scripture, three things are groaning: The whole creation, we ourselves, and the Holy Spirit. Today we will consider the first two. Next week we will look at the groanings of the Holy Spirit.
I. The suffering is not worth comparing with the glory:
a. Paul knew a lot about suffering.
i. II Cor. 11:23-28 “23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
b. One of three things he wanted to know
i. Phil. 3:7-11 “7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
c. Acts 16:16ff records an event the Philippians would have remembered from the time Paul was in their town.
i. The Church was composed completely of women. V. 13. Every congregation needs some men. God gave Paul and Silas an opportunity to evangelize a jailor.
ii. But they paid a great price in suffering to do it. 22-24. They endured the kind of beating Jesus went through in the movie, "The Passion."
iii. He could say it was worth it because the groaning is not worth comparing with the glory.
d. There will come an end to all suffering. Things are not now as they will be.
i. I Jn. 3:2 “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
ii. Think about this verse when you are aching in body and groaning in spirit because of sickness or injury.
iii. Think of it when you visit someone in the hospital or nursing home.
iv. When some brother or sister in Christ breaks your heart, slanders you, betrays you.
v. Think, "This is a child of God. What he will be, we don’t yet see, but . . ."
e. There is great glory awaiting us.
i. The word translated "in" can mean in, to, into, among, for, throughout, toward. Make your choice or choose all of the above.
ii. We will be involved in the glory to be revealed.
iii. We now read of God’s glory in the Bible. His power, majesty, beauty, love, etc. One day we will be directly involved in it.
iv. Like the difference between looking at pictures of a beautiful landscape and being in it.
II. The glory involves freedom from the bondage to decay.
a. Bondage to decay is something with which we are all familiar: Scientists call it "the second law of thermodynamics" or "entropy."
i. To the best of my understanding, it means energy spreads out if we don’t do something to stop it. A hot pan gets cold when you remove it from the stove. It’s why light bulbs burn out and pastures need fertilizer.
ii. If a tree dies, it doesn’t become bigger and more beautiful. It rots. If you sit a 1950 Volkswagen in a field and leave it a hundred billion years, it won’t evolve into a Lexis. It will rust away.
iii. It means we are all getting old and will one day perish. When we do, our bodies won’t become stronger and more attractive.
iv. The entire creation is struggling in this bondage. Things are getting worse, not better.
b. Some day we will be freed from this.
i. Imagine a car that will never wear out, clothes that will last forever. Like those the children of Israel wore in the wilderness. Roses that never fade, tires that never wear out, a house that never needs dusting.
ii. All the frustration and decay is God’s choice. His sentence on man for sinning. He can change it and He will one day.
iii. None of that is important. What is important is new glorious bodies that will never die or get old, a home in glory that will never rot away, eternal life.
iv. I Pet. 1:3-6 The law of entropy will one day be abolished. God can do it.
1. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
III. Glory involves the redemption of our bodies: 23
a. Our adoption as children of God is not quite complete.
i. Our souls have been redeemed, but the redemption of our bodies from the grave is yet to come.
1. Here’s another encouraging verse from Paul:
2. Phil. 3:20-21 “20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
3. We groan inwardly, waiting for this.
4. "Wait eagerly" translates a word that literally means, "stand on tiptoe and stretch the neck."
5. Remember, entropy will be suspended forever.
6. I Cor. 15:51-55 “0 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
ii. Imagine coming to homecoming and finding everyone exactly as they were fifty years ago. No one is sick, or fat, or older.
iii. More than that, no one has died. No empty places at the tables.
iv. The entire creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay. That will be real freedom.
b. Illustration: The joy of coming home to family from your journey
