Romans 8:18-25 – How to Endure the Pains of Childbirth
(I would like to credit The Ultimate Blessing, written by Jo Anne Lyon, a Wesleyan pastor and married to one as well, founder of World Hope International, for a lot of the thought processes. As well, Eugene Peterson’s The Message for this section of scripture proved very helpful as well.)
A newspaper reporter phoned a story into his editor about an empty truck that rolled down a hill and smashed into a home. The editor was unimpressed and told reporter he didn’t want to run the story. The reporter replied: “I’m glad you’re taking this so calmly. It was your house.”
Today we are talking about difficulties in life, problems, sufferings. Today, we are picking up where we left off in Romans 8. Now, I’ve been calling this Romans 8 series What a Way to Live! You might be surprised, then, to see a discussion about suffering in a passage describing what true life is.
But you may not be surprised. You may already be very aware that suffering is a part of life. None of us escapes it. Christian thinker Oswald Chambers wrote this: “Suffering is the heritage of the bad, of the penitent, and of the Son of God. Each one ends in the cross. The bad thief is crucified, the penitent thief is crucified, and the Son of God is crucified. By these signs we know the widespread heritage of suffering.”
Every person’s suffering is different. Christians over the years have been doomed to die as sport in the arena. Others live under constant threat of being discovered. While it may or may not be in our futures for these types of suffering, each of us faces the grind of day-to-day of living. Some work monotonous jobs while they are being bombarded by their non-Christian and anti-Christian workers’ comments. Some face the torture of dreams going unfulfilled, and the loss associated with that. Some of you have wayward children, and that causes such a strain on your souls. Some of you don’t remember what it’s like to feel healthy. And some of you are lonely, perhaps because you have an unbelieving spouse or because you think no-one really understands who you are.
Whatever the source, we all suffer at least a little. Others may scoff at our sufferings, but they’re real to us. The apostle Paul is honest about sufferings in this passage, but he also presents a solution to the problem of pain. Let’s read v18-21.
I believe Paul makes 5 statements about pain in these 2 paragraphs. I only read the 1st one now, I’ll read the 2nd one in a second. These statements aren’t overly abstract, but they are God’s words to us. The 1st statement Paul makes is this: 1) Suffering is a part of life. Paul doesn’t say you shouldn’t be suffering. He doesn’t say you should, either. He just comments about suffering’s existence. It is part of our existence on earth. Which, by the way, is suffering too.
He says that all creation is subjected to frustration, too. The KJV uses the word “vanity”, which means uselessness, emptiness, idleness. It means that all around, creation is yearning for something more. You remember in Genesis 3 that the earth was cursed too. It would no longer yield good fruit easily. It would have to be worked at. And I feel that the world is in the mess it’s in today, partly because it isn’t designed to withstand the problems we’ve inflicted on it. It can’t handle pollution and overuse. It can’t support billions of people for extended periods of time. It’s feeling the strains of over-hunting, over-fishing, over-eating, over-using. As well, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, and polar melting are all groanings of the creation. It’s yearning to be fixed, and it’s waiting for the right time. Creation is suffering, right along with us.
Going even further, Paul compares the sufferings of creation with childbirth: v22-25. From this analogy, from this point of view of an expectant mom, Paul gives us the 4 remaining statements about suffering. The 2nd statement Paul makes about suffering is this: 2) There is an end to it. Suffering will not last forever. Just as pregnancy lasts only for a certain length of time, so does suffering.
Now, I understand not everything about pregnancy can be considered “suffering”. There are all the wonderful things that go along with it, too. But what Paul had in mind are the uncomfortable things about being pregnant. There are the pains, the discomfort, the cramps, and the contractions. There is also the emotional trauma: the fear factor, the helplessness, the uncertainly aspect of it all. These are the difficulties pregnant women face as they look ahead.
But these things end at some point. At some point, the baby will be delivered, and the pregnancy will be over. Folks, you need to know that no matter what suffering you face now, at some point it will come to a very definite end. At some point, you will no longer face a day filled with pain. Your job, that has been misery on this earth, will one day be through. That painful relationship will be fixed. That loneliness will be felt no more. All these things, that Paul would call the pains of childbirth, will one day be erased. That’s a good thing to remember when you don’t know how to face another day.
The 3rd statement Paul makes about suffering goes well beyond the simple truth of a simple end. No, much greater. The 3rd statement is this: 3) It is a glorious end for all involved. The end will not come in like a whisper but with a bang. A baby is not born without a sound. Rather, there’s crying and yelling and shouting. Some of it out of pain, some of it out of joy. But whatever the case, giving birth is not a subtle thing. No, seeing new life is being immersed in glory and wonder.
As will be the end of all things. V18 says glory will be revealed in us. V21 says that creation will join the children of God in the glorious freedom from death and decay. That is, our future is brilliant, grand, and extra-ordinary. These old bodies of ours will be rescued from our weaknesses and failures, our mistakes and shortcomings. It will be a time full of wonder, going beyond anything that we could ever dream or imagine. Folks, walking into the future that God has for us – new life – is being immersed in glory and wonder.
Well, what will this glory be like? Paul says this about it: v18. The 4th statement Paul makes about suffering is this: 4) the end is worth the means. What a woman goes through in a pregnancy is more than made up for when the baby finally arrives. All the morning sickness, the mood swings, the hormonal changes, the discomfort, the labor pains and the delivery – all this is more than compensated for when that baby arrives. The value of the reward is greater than the cost of the labor.
And Paul says the same for us. He says that what we go through here on earth is so small, compared to what out eternal futures will be. Even though our difficulties here on earth seem so serious – as well they might be – still, they are so small when stacked up against the glorious future that God has prepared in advance for us. That’s why Jesus could say in Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
He’s not saying that our problems are good. After all, some of the things go through are because of evil. Jesus is not saying that evil things are good. Rather, if we endure them as God wants us to, then our reward will be so much bigger than our problems ever were.
So how are we to respond to suffering? What are we to do when we face challenges and struggles that pierce our souls? How do we deal with disappointment and loss? What attitude do we adopt when we are confronted with sorrow and hurt? This brings us into Paul’s 5th statement about suffering in this passage, which is this: 5) We are to keep our hope in the unseen. Let’s read that 2nd paragraph again: v22-25. When Paul wrote this, women could not look into their wombs and see their unborn babies. They were driven by the hope that what was unseen would soon become seen, and they would finally lay eyes on what they had been carrying for 9 months. What was making them grow larger would be seen for the glorious blessing it was.
You see, we too are driven by something unseen. It is an invisible hope that keeps us going. We can’t hope in something we already have. By definition, hope is putting faith in something we don’t yet have.
Author Jo Anne Lyon, founder of World Hope International, wrote this in her book The Ultimate Blessing: “I had always loved the word ‘hope’, but the idea behind it was elusive to me. What is hope? How would you describe it? Finally I hit upon an analogy that helps me understand the concept. I envision my life as a train, set on railroad tracks, with an engine that makes it go. I see hope as the destination of the train. The tracks upon which the train moves are love, and the engine that makes it move is faith. The Apostle Paul referred to ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col.1:27). When I see my own suffering as a way of sharing in Christ’s suffering, I’m driven toward hope.”
That is what’s in store for us too. We are called to press on, even when life would love to throw a wrench in our plans to succeed. We are called to remember our role model, our hero, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 5:8-9 says this about Him: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” He became like us. He suffered with us. He is present in our suffering. This is the blessing that God has given to us as His children: that He is with us, even in our pain. And because He is in us, He is our hope of things getting better. The Holy Spirit in our lives is a down-payment for the glory that will one day be seen in each believer. That’s why we press on. That’s why we do not lose heart or hope. That’s why we can bear any kind of suffering here on earth.
Let me repeat Paul’s 5 statements about suffering. Suffering is a part of life. However, there is an end to it. It is indeed a glorious end for all involved. And the end is worth the means. So, put hope in the unseen. Trust in this truth, found in 1 Peter 5:10: ” And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
In closing, I’d like to share this quote with you. I couldn’t find the author’s name, but I had to share it with you anyway. “While my husband Frank and I were living in Pakistan many years ago, our six-month-old baby died. An old Punjabi who heard of our grief came to comfort us. He explained, “A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water. If you are an egg, your affliction will make you hard-boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable, resilient and adaptable.” It may sound funny to God, but there have been times when I have prayed, “O Lord, let me be a potato.”
