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There is only one book that explains life and this world as it really is. It’s not the Koran or the Book of Mormon or Origin of Species or any other religious writings. No, it’s the Bible. Without the truths of the Bible, we are like the people in H. G. Wells’ short story, “The Country of the Blind.” The poor people were blind for fourteen generations and had no idea they were blind. People without the Bible in their hearts are blind like people without eyes in their heads.
How does the Bible explain life and this world? Before we look at our fascinating passage this morning, I want to summarize four overarching truths that cover the entire Bible and explain all of life. The world has its lies to deny each one.
FOUR OVERARCHING TRUTHS
CREATION, or how we got here, is the first truth. The Bible clearly tells us God created everything in six days. The world says no, everything came into existence by time and chance and somehow something came out of nothing and here we are some 13.8 billion years later. Ken Ham, a Christian apologist and founder of Answer in Genesis, warns of Christian leaders like Norman T. Wright, Frances Collins, and William Lane Craig spouting their belief in billions of years. No, Genesis 1-2 are history, six literal days, and you can take it to the bank.
Second, THE FALL of man happened and that is why things are the way they are now. Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience caused a spiritual and physical devastating explosion resulting in our Genesis 3 world. Everything is different since Genesis 3. We get sick, we suffer pain, and we die. Acts of God wipe out whole towns and villages, tsunamis sweep hundreds of thousands of people into eternity, evil people do all kinds of evil things. No sooner had Adam and Eve rebelled against God than their first-born son murdered his brother! The world’s lie says man is not sinful, but basically good and should be given opportunity to experience any pleasure he or she pleases. The world says there’s no such thing as sin and guilt, only guilt feelings. Progressives believe we’re headed toward a utopian world, like the Beatles song Imagine, with no heaven, no hell.
Third, REDEMPTION is God’s plan to deliver us from the penalty, power, and ultimately presence of our sin. God’s eternal plan began unfolding in Genesis and appeared on the stage of human history in Jesus Christ. Our Creator entered the human race, lived a perfect life, died in the place of guilty sinners, and now is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to God the Father except through Christ. The world says no, we don’t need to be saved and every religion will get us to whatever God there may or may not be.
CONSUMMATION is the fourth overarching truth. We’re headed somewhere. We are not just spiraling aimlessly through time. We are not just material beings who cease to exist when we die. No, human beings are eternal, made in God’s image. There’s a final judgment coming where all men will give account of their lives, and justice will be served. There’s an eternity for each of us, either under the wrath of God or in the glory and joy of God’s presence.
Our passage this morning deals with all these truths, but focuses on the second truth, living by hope in a Genesis 3 fallen world. So far in Romans Paul has extolled the glories of justification by faith alone and the greater blessing of adoption into the family of God as sons and daughters. We are heirs and glory-sharers together with Christ. But we are suffering. We’re hurting. People are dying. Friends are coming down with cancer. God’s people are being persecuted around the world for the name of Christ. Paul here reminds us, though we are justified and adopted in Christ, we must remember we live in a fallen Genesis 3 world. And lest we lose heart, he gives us three perspectives to help us live by hope.
PERSPECTIVE #1 – PRESENT SUFFERING BUT FUTURE GLORY
Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Paul knew about suffering in “this present time.” He was stoned and left for dead outside Lystra. He spent years in prison. He was beaten times without number, three times shipwrecked, spent a night and a day in the deep. For you who have a hard time sleeping, he said he endured “many sleepless nights.” He finally had to submit to the Roman sword. And he knew these Roman believers, as well as all believers, would suffer.
Paul calls them the “sufferings of this present time.” Suffering is real. Christ suffered. God has not promised us a trouble-free world. You can expect sufferings of one sort or another, and suffering is real. Christian Science denies sin, sickness, and pain – “it’s all in your head; it’s not real.” There’s a story about a Christian Science follower who fell down his stairs, broke his ankle, and repeated, “It doesn’t hurt, it’s not real!” But his bewildered dog scurried away barking, “Error, error!”
Paul knows all God’s people will suffer in “this present time.” Peter says these trials can be exceedingly distressing (1 Peter 1:6). Ask Job who lost everything in mere moments. Ask John Calvin who endured excruciating pain from kidney stones. Spurgeon agonized over his gout. Joni Eareckson Tada took one dive into the Chesapeake Bay as a seventeen-year-old teenager and has spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic, plus dealing with cancer.
You too have your aches and pains. We live in a Genesis 3 world, and we must face it squarely. Our bodies are under the curse of sin. Diseases wrack the bodies of believers and unbelievers. Aging parents experience dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Christ brings us peace and joy and blessings but not freedom from troubles, harm, pain, afflictions, and heartaches in this world. We watch loved ones succumb to early deaths. God in His good providence uses these present time sufferings to help us grow and look forward to His return, but we must never think God owes us a painless, comfortable, trouble-free life in this present Genesis 3 world.
But then Paul says that our suffering can’t be compared with coming glory. Our suffering here looks horrendous, and it is hard. But as we stand back and measure it in the light of our future glory, it is a drop in the ocean. It’s like Paul puts his sufferings on one side of a scale and it goes down with their burdens and heaviness. But then he places future glory on the other side and the sufferings rise and seem light as feathers and the coming glory side goes down, revealing the greater value and importance of the glory to come. Suffering in this world can’t compare to the eternal glory to come. He said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, where he calls these present sufferings momentary and light compared to the eternal weight of glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17, For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
What is this glory to be revealed? Paul said in Romans 5:2, “We exult in hope of the glory of God.” Whatever this glory is, it will be so incredible, so wonderful, so overwhelming, so heart and soul satisfying and exhilarating and eternal, that this thin slice of suffering and afflictions, as horrible as it can be, will evaporate into a thin wisp of a memory. We’ve got to remember this life is a pilgrimage. We’re just passing through. Even the worse possible torturous death in this world will usher us into the glory-blazing, welcoming celestial city with all our loving, smiling, heart-melting loved ones who have preceded us, and especially the presence of Jesus Himself there with his hands and feet pierced, His eyes radiating glory, welcoming us home forever! “Oh that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me. When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me!”
PERSPECTIVE #2 – CREATION ANTICIPATES THE FUTURE GLORY OF GOD’S CHILDREN
Romans 8:19-22, For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
The creation itself is all excited about our future glory. This defies belief, but creation here means all the universe, from this physical earth with all its animals and vegetation and trees and coal and natural gas and everything else, as well as the 200 billion trillion stars out there. The heavens declare the glory of God! The earth and all it contains is the Lord’s! God had a purpose when He created the earth. Somehow all the created universe anticipates the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan in bringing many sons to glory (v. 19).
Notice in verse 19 that creation is anxiously longing and eagerly waiting for this future unveiling to happen. “Anxious longing” is a sesquipedalian word of seven syllables – a-po-ka-ra-do-ki-a – and has the idea of watching with head stretched out looking intensely. “Waits eagerly” has the idea of going out the front walk and looking with great anticipation down the road for a coming blessing. When our children were young and grandparents were coming for a visit from eastern Pennsylvania, there was great anticipation in our home. The trip took about 12 hours and around 6 pm our children knew grandparents had to be getting close, so they’d hop on their bikes and race down the road, around the corner, and even down to the next corner hoping to get their first glimpse of Grammy and Pop Pop’s car. They were anxiously longing and eagerly waiting for their grandparents’ arrival, including all the goodies Grammy had in her bags. That’s what waiting eagerly means.
Paul personifies creation here waiting for the realization of this glory. The earth, sun, moon, planets, milky way, all of it, “We can’t wait for you guys to be revealed in your redemptive glory and the whole universe gets glorified.” Today in this Genesis 3 world, God’s people are marginalized, minimized, mocked and worse. But soon God will display His redeemed people to the entire universe. He will unveil who every true believer is, and all creation will rejoice! We’ll shine like stars in the firmament (Daniel 12:3).
Meanwhile all creation is under the curse of sin and subject to futility. The moment Adam sinned the entire universe came under the curse of sin. Verses 20-21 are Paul’s commentary on Genesis 3:17-18, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” God’s common grace keeps things going. The sun keeps shining, gravity keeps working, the rain keeps coming, but sin’s effects are seen all over the planet. You may remember December 26, 2004, when that tsunami in southeast Asia displayed its power in rocking and destroying massive ships like two-inch toys and sweeping away about 200,000 helpless people. We view horrendous scenes when tornadoes rip through towns and villages, earthquakes swallow humans, and volcanoes spew out deadly lava. The moon and planets with all their craters look like someone was using them for nuclear target practice. Thank God for earth’s protective shield from incoming meteorites!
The universe isn’t evolving into ever higher forms. It’s corrupting, decaying, wearing down. It takes more faith to believe in evolution than that our dog Rico and your cat Goldy could learn to sing the Hallelujah Chorus within the next five years, fifty years! Evolution is ridiculous. The universe is wearing out and winding down, all because of the curse of sin in Genesis 3. Sin has temporarily hijacked God’s glorious creation.
Verse 21 says creation will finally be freed from the curse! All creation exists in hope of coming freedom when Christ returns and frees His people completely from the corruption of sin and brings them, us, into all this glory God has planned for them. It’s going to be beyond all imagination. Remember, we are joint heirs with Christ. Will there be animals in this future glory? Probably dogs. I’m not sure about cats. We do know there will be animals in the millennium.
Isaiah 11:6-9, And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. 7 Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14 adds, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” All creation will be transformed. In Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” Revelation 22:3 says in the new heaven and earth there shall no longer be any curse. When all this glory will be revealed is hard to pin down. We do know there will be glory around the globe during the millennium, but the final curse of sin will not be lifted until after the Great White Throne Judgment, when the heavenly Jerusalem in glory comes to earth and all the universe will sing praise to the glory of God in freedom from all vestiges of sin and corruption. No wonder the biblical authors were excited about the blessed hope of Christ’s return! What a day that will be when our Jesus we shall see. Isaac Watts looked forward to this coming glory in Joy to the World: “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”
Until that time, verse 22 says all creation is groaning and suffering the pains of childbirth right up until now. But notice they are the pains of childbirth, not death pains. Paul is telling us the best is yet to come.
PERSPECTIVE #3 – BELIEVERS GROAN WITH EAGER HOPE
Romans 8:23-25, And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
God has already secured us by putting His Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, in us as first fruits. “First fruits” means more good stuff is coming. When the spies checked out the land of Canaan, they brought back huge bunches of grapes, figs, and pomegranates (Numbers 13:23). We’re groaning because while God has adopted our spirits, our body hasn’t been adopted yet. Like creation, our physical body is still under the curse of sin. We are dying. That’s why we’re waiting eagerly in great hope, knowing at some point He’ll break through the blue sometime soon, and God will finish His redeeming work in us. We’ll get our new glorified bodies. We’ll be changed in a twinkling of an eye! We’ll be glorified just like Jesus body! No more funeral homes, hospitals, surgeries, needles, crutches, wheelchairs, health insurance, life insurance, or car insurance. When Christ returns in power and great glory the world will be transformed and the glory of the Lord will cover the earth!
We are groaning in hope, waiting eagerly because the best is yet to come. You probably heard about the lady who asked her pastor to be sure to put a fork in her casket so everyone could see it at her funeral service. “Why on earth would you want a fork there?” She said whenever she went to a nice dinner and the server told her after the main course to keep her fork, she knew dessert was coming. The best was still to come. And that is certainly true. That’s why verses 24-25 tell us we’ve been saved in hope. We don’t have it all now. What we have is good, but the best is still to come. We hang in there with perseverance and eager waiting, knowing God will make good on His promise. He’ll transform our bodies to become just like Christ’s glorious body. We live by hope. It’s not just a “Well, I sure hope I make it!” No, our hope is a confident expectation based on God’s promise. We have a living hope, with Christ already there and coming again in great glory and power.
Are you living with that hope? When the suffering of this present time hits you full force, where do you look? Do you compare your present sufferings with your coming glory? Through all the afflictions of this world, keep in mind – the best is still to come.
This gospel song has it right:
While we walk this pilgrim pathway
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when trav’ling days are over
Not a shadow not a sigh.
When we all get to heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory.