For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed into us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth even to now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Hear we have it! We ourselves, whom the Holy Spirit indwells, are groaning inwardly because our bodies are still subject to worldly corruption, while we, being now Spiritual, still labor in the sun of time but while growing in grace!
Romans 5 through 8 is about the identity of the “born again” child of God. God has created a new Spiritual person including a new nature who has also acquired the spiritual capacity to commune and fellowship at the divine level. Romans 8 channels our “new born” focus on the Holy Spirit working within us. The law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death enabling us to walk out of the natural carnality of man’s depravity, crossing over and into the presence of the living God, into the glory of our Father through Jesus, on our bridge of faith.
Our new life in Jesus is a journey out from the frailty of Adam into the glory of the “new man,” in Jesus our Lord! This journey, out of the flesh of corruption, and into the Spirit of righteousness, is so profound it requires constant intentional faith choices in daily behavior. Faith is our bridge; grace is our Shepperd’s living culture as we walk over on our faith bridge.
Our daily faith-grace choices require our constant pondering, our reckoning, our deep, deep probing to know God, thus, entering into His agape love. We will grow into His revealed grace and glory but it is so huge, it is beyond our comprehension; yes, it is mysterious, but as real as the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the living water Jesus shared with the woman of Samaria in John 4:7-30.
As we “drill down” into the word of God, the Holy Spirit who is joined to our spirit, will wash us in Christ’s righteousness, so that, we become one with Him, holy and without blemish.
“For I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed into us.”
This first verse of Romans 8:18-23 instructs us to compare the hardships of bearing a load of sin in this flesh, contrasted with the glory to be revealed to us, as well as, into us.
But everything we experience in the flesh, as believers, is within God’s grace culture. In other words, agape love infiltrates our circumstances and enables us do and be what is unseen. In Christ Jesus, we possess the resurrection power of Jesus with the spiritual capacity to live above the bondage of corruption. God places us into His grace culture to train us and, yes, to discipline us into the righteousness of God’s holy Person.
Even Paul himself has a list of hardships including prison, a stoning, beatings, three ship wrecks and so on! And it is Paul himself who says the suffering of what he experienced here, in this corruption of sin, is not worth comparing to the glory he has experienced in flesh toward the Lord’s complete redemption for him. For we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
All things we experience in this flesh, we wear as a “light affliction” compared to the weight of glory we are to receive. In other words, the “weight” of our burdens in this world will be so little, of so little consequence, compared to the “weight” of the glory before us because we are in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior … Who is in us! We see through a glass darkly while wearing our flesh but our adoption as sons is completed upon the redemption of our physical body.
The creation itself is in a state of suffering looking to you and me whom are “sons of God” and who will fulfill God’s intended purpose as rulers when liberated as “children of God.”
“For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
This is an amazing statement! Not only is God’s original purpose for Adam to be realized in us, you and me, Adam’s progeny, but the redemption of the creation itself, the earth and trees, birds and monkeys will experience the benefits of our body’s redemption! The creation of earth with its life will obtain the freedom of the glory of the “children of God.”
Adam’s domain shared in Adam’s sin, but through a new Adam (Jesus), the old Adam’s domain would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain freedom through the glory our human salvation out of sin, and into, the redemption of our own human bodies!
Here is one of the best pictures of our hope on the divine level. Our hope includes our glory in Christ Jesus. God Himself subjected the creation to this judgment because God’s “hope” is that creation itself will be freed by the glorified “children of God.” This is our destiny, it is our “hope” because we are in Jesus Christ and He is in us! Our “hope” is the realization in experience what, in God’s eternity, has already been accomplished but will be our experience at the redemption of our bodies.
As Paul prayed for the churches of his letters, so we should pray also: to be filled with the fruits of righteousness, with all the fullness of God and the knowledge of His will, being filled with His Spirit! Amen?
As we “hope” into His “hope,” we will purify ourselves as He is pure! We now have the first fruits of His Spirit, but when we see Him we shall be like Him. Amen! Our hope (unrealized reality) is experiencing within us what is to happen before the creation itself experiences it!
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth even to now.
Childbirth is what we are now experiencing! We are redeemed, “born again,” we enter into our spiritual womb to develop into a child of God. What we are witnessing in our physical life of flesh, is the maturation process of becoming the Spiritual person who has become “born again.” We are still in the womb anticipating the glorious birth at the redemption of our bodies when we see “Him” as He is and be like him because He has loved us enough with agape love. We have now the “first fruits” of the Spirit.
It was not just Adam and Eve who suffered the consequences of sin. All of creation, Adam’s domain was also the object of Adam’s bondage to corruption. But God’s original intent at creation and before creation is still on God’s plan sheet to be completed!
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
This is a purpose statement for those who are in Christ Jesus, those of us who have become the bride of Christ. The Lord is now perfecting the church, the Bride of Christ. The Holy Spirit is within us giving us a foretaste of our coming glory while at the same time performing His work of sanctification. Paul put it this way to the church at Ephesus: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Our life in Jesus Christ right now is in the Spirit, it is not yet complete! We are secure in the Spirit; we cannot lose our salvation but we can grow in it! This is what sanctification is all about; it is becoming who we already are in the Spirit. The whole creation is groaning because of our sin, including our own selves! But we are all being changed from one degree of glory to another until we all see Jesus and be completely adopted in God’s family receiving also bodies of redemption.
“These verses pierce our humanity revealing into our soul the glorious light of God’s eternal kingdom. We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus; we are justified and loved by Jesus, accepted in the beloved as family in God’s eternal kingdom. We have become the wisdom of God thru Jesus; we have become His righteousness and are sanctified. Our salvation is eternally secure and our fleshly walk is taking us into the fulness of God’s glory.
But now we have choices to make. Are we going to consume God’s grace, to grow in God’s glorious grace and become whom He desires each one of us to be! We are in the way of glorifying Jesus and by faith in His grace, to be glorified in Him. But to do all this and be glorified means suffering the loss of normal human culture … which is no loss at all! “