As we did this morning, I ask that you turn to Romans chapter 8. Our text this morning was found in verse 18, where Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:19–28
Tonight we take up verses 19 through 22. Here Paul continues, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope Hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Introduction
This morning we saw something of what the Bible is speaking of. It speaks of the glory that is to be revealed unto us. As we saw, this is not just a glory of which we shall be spectators. It is a glory of which we shall be participants, as joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will reign with Christ as we saw on the throne of His glory. We shall be like Him in the image of His glory, and we shall see Him in the full splendor of His glory. This evening we're going to see that as Paul continues to unfold this theme, he sets our expectation of the glory which is about to be revealed against the background of a much larger scene. And he invites us to participate in a hope that is nothing less than cosmic in its scale.
The Cosmic Scope of Redemption
The terminology that he chooses is as broad as is conceivable. He speaks in this text of the creation. He is speaking of the material universe in all of its width, in all of its breadth, in all of its greatness. Earlier in this letter to the Romans, he uses the term cosmos.
But he is speaking on the largest conceivable scale, at least the largest conceivable to our senses and to our framework. His scale of thought is as large as all of material reality. But beyond this he sees another world. Beyond this he sees another reality.
And he indeed presupposes that Jehovah is actively engaged in fulfilling a grand all-embracing purpose for this creation in which we now live. As the scriptures describe it, it is nothing less than a transformation of the present universe into a new heavens and into a new earth. The work in which he is engaged is nothing less than the transformation of this present cosmos into a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. which will be so glorious that the scripture says the former creation will not be remembered or even come to mind. In this text, as Paul has described this work, he uses metaphorical language.
The universe doesn't have a soul. The universe has no voice. The universe has not literally grown in the sense of audibly expressing pain, it does not consciously hope for a better future. But yet Paul chooses to personify the present creation.
He uses a figure of speech and by this means he depicts the creation as if it were a person and he creates a more vivid picture A picture that is more effective than a mere description of the material effects of the fall of man into sin. He doesn't give us a scientific description. He doesn't even give us a moral description. He describes creation as though it were a person groaning in pain and in travail.
Cursed because of man's sin. Its future. Tied to man's redemption, the creation is to be restored, the scripture tells us, to its original purity, raised to the most sublime heights. It is to be made resplendent with glory far beyond anything that we now can see.
And indeed, it will never again be subjected to death and to decay. When God has finished this cosmic work, when He has finished this work on the whole creation, Everything will be restored to what it was before man's fall into sin, and far beyond that, the creation then will have developed to its fullest potential as well. Now previously in this letter, Paul had described the redemption of sinners. He has said that we are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
And though our redemption is indeed the crowning aspect of God's saving work, he again here is speaking of a larger picture, a larger redemption which includes the entirety of creation. The prophet Isaiah gives us something of a glimpse into this imagery as he describes the creation rejoicing in terms of its joining in with rejoicing with God's people because of our redemption.
Isaiah 35: Creation Rejoices
If you'll turn with me to Isaiah 35, this chapter, perhaps more than any other part of the scripture, takes up this theme. Here the prophet looking to the days when this work is accomplished, when God's people are redeemed. He says, the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.
The waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The prophet says these things, of course, to comfort God's people, to comfort us in our trials. It is to lift up the faint-hearted, to say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear. And that's Paul's purpose as well in Romans 8.
All of this is part of his encouraging God's people to be strong in their faith, strong in trusting Jehovah. to be strong in their hope that all that He has promised shall come to pass. We find many other passages like this in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 55: Mountains Break into Singing
I will direct your attention just to one more, to Isaiah 55, verses 12 and 13. After saying that His word shall go forth and accomplish all that He pleases, here the Scripture says, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace, and the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." In passages like this, the whole creation joins in with the rejoicing of the people of God, rejoicing at their redemption, rejoicing at our redemption.
Creation's Suffering and Eager Waiting
Now Paul's thought takes us a bit beyond that. For he speaks not just of the creation rejoicing with us, but he speaks of its suffering with us, and of its eagerly awaiting our final redemption, which shall be its redemption as well. The consummation of our salvation, the consummation of our redemption, the finishing of the good work that God has done in us, the good work that He is doing for us, finishing of all that He has begun is revealed in Romans 8 as the revealing of the sons of God. That is our manifestation, our being brought forth with the work finished. with all that God had purpose to do accomplished in us.
There will be the revealing of the sons of God even as the coming of Christ will be the revealing of the Son of God when all of His work is accomplished and all of His work is finished as well. Paul speaks in our text of the revealing of the sons of God in the word that he chooses. The term revealing means more, of course. than simply God's uncovering to our sight what is now hidden. There is that element to it.
But it also includes the idea of our understanding what we see, of our being able to perceive things that were hidden, not just to see things because they're brought to sight, but to understand what we are looking at, to understand what's been done. It speaks of revealing to our minds an accurate understanding. We read elsewhere. of our eagerly waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're told that when He comes, when He is revealed, that we will indeed see Him as He is.
But we're also told that we shall then understand the truth as it is in Jesus in a much fuller way. And this hope will be fulfilled. This will be fulfilled at His coming, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven. at the revelation of His glory. That day, the day of His revealing as the royal Son of God, will be the day of our revealing also as the royal children of God.
And it is a day when all that God is now doing, much of which is hidden from our eyes, the whole background of what we are experiencing, much of that is hidden from us. We do not see. We do not see the blowing of the Spirit. We do not see the coming and the going of God in His works.
But much of what is now hidden from our eyes will not only be complete, but it will be lavishly displayed and clearly understood to the amazement of all that is both of men and of angels to all who behold the sight. And what a day that shall be, not only to have the work finished, but to be able to survey the whole, to be able to see the whole, and to understand indeed all that God has been doing. But that is yet future. That's not our present experience.
Now we see through a glass darkly. But in the present, Paul says that the creation is marked by earnest expectation and by eager waiting. The reality is we do not now see all that there is to see, all that God will yet reveal, all that He will yet show. But we live in an age in which we are to be engaged in earnest expectation and eager waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.
Earnest Expectation Defined
Every word in these verses, it seems, is packed with meaning and packed with instruction. The term translated earnest expectation, it has something to the idea of watching with the head lifted up. It's a term that speaks of alertness and combined with it is this idea of constancy. So the picture is of the creation itself with its eager expectation as though it were waiting with head lifted up looking to see for the coming of its redemption.
Constantly looking, looking, looking to see what God will do in bringing his promises to fulfillment. The other term that is used here has the idea again of eager waiting as well. And so taking these terms together, Paul is saying that the creation, again it is metaphorical language, it is imagery, sure enough, but it is the idea of the creation now under the bondage of corruption. Now, under the curse of God, because of man's sin, looking up, looking beyond, taking hold of the promises of God, embracing them, eagerly expecting, eagerly waiting for what God is going to do.
Creation's Well-Grounded Hope
Now, why is the creation in such a heightened state of expectation? What is it, if again we can run with the personification and the figure, what is it that the creation knows that most men seem not to know? What is it expecting? Well, the answer is that the whole creation has a well-grounded hope of deliverance from its present condition, a well-grounded hope of total deliverance from its present condition.
Like mankind, Paul says, the creation has been subjected to futility. That is, put under a curse that keeps it from fulfilling its Maker's purpose in creating it. And we indeed see this, don't we? It's all around us.
There's no attempt made in Scripture to demonstrate that point. We are simply told that the ground is cursed for man's sake. And though we look around us and see the beauty of the creation, even in this fallen state, if we look close enough, we know that there is much that is not beautiful. There is much that is decay.
There is much that has the marks of death upon it. But the creation here is portrayed as knowing of a day that is coming when all of that is going to be put right, when all of that is going to be removed, when all of that is going to be taken out of the way.
Bondage of Corruption
The creation is now subject, whether it's the entirety or any of its parts, to the bondage of corruption like all the sons and daughters of Adam. Creation now is enslaved to death and to decay and ruin, and it's all because of man's sin. The Bible makes no effort again to demonstrate this, but as Paul says, we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Here is a fact demonstrated by our universal experience.
Further, creation, he says, was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Now again, the creation is not a person. The creation doesn't have a will. It doesn't have a mind.
And indeed, it cannot literally hope. But Paul is emphasizing the point that the creation, unlike man, exercise no choice leading to the curse under which it suffers. It was subjected to futility not willingly, but it has been subjected to futility. It has been subjected to the bondage of corruption, and that is solely a matter of God's sovereign will.
We may question, though we shouldn't, the rightness of God's doing that. But He has a greater purpose than we can imagine, and our duty is to submit to His wisdom and not trifle with the secret things that belong under the Lord our God. It is enough for us to know that the Lord is righteous in all the works which He does. And yet, though God has subjected the creation to futility, though it now groans under the bondage of corruption, The Bible says it has a well-grounded hope, it has a well-assured hope, for it is also God's will that it be delivered from that bondage into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
So that the day of our revealing is to be the day of its liberation. It is no wonder then that the Bible describes the trees clapping their hands and the mountains singing and the rivers and the deserts blooming, all of these descriptions of tremendous joy in the creation itself when God's great work of redemption is finished in us. Then in the language of Revelation 22 and verse 3, there shall be no curse anymore. Ponder those words for a moment.
There will be no curse anymore. Then instead of the thorn in the passage we read in Isaiah 55, instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, an enduring monument, a beautiful, pristine, perfect creation. which has now reached its potential, which is now freed from the bondage of corruption. This is one of the great memorials that God is raising to His own name. It shall be, Isaiah says, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
As I've looked at this passage over the years, I've never preached a sermon on ecology. Well, this is my ecology sermon. One time I thought about writing over the text, don't worry about the second law of thermodynamics. Some of you will understand that reference.
My wife was listening to a sermon the other day or sometime back on sermon audio entitled, All Dogs Go to Heaven. And I thought, that's interesting. It had nothing to do with real dogs, with spiritual dogs. Well, I don't know a lot about the second law of thermodynamics.
But what I do know is that because of what this text says, don't worry about that. That's one of the laws God will cancel. The creation has a well-grounded hope, a well-grounded hope of the redemption that is coming. Now in the verses that follow, and we can't follow this out tonight, but in the verses that follow, Paul again brings us to the subject of the relation of these things to our own hope.
Again, that's what Paul is doing. He's not simply expounding a cosmology. He's not simply opening up an isolated theme. All of this is woven together in order to encourage God's people to trust Him and to persevere in their faith in Him and to persevere in their walk with Him.
Three Notes: Futurity, Greatness, Certainty
But though we can't follow that out, I do want to take up just three very brief lines of thought coming out of verses 19 through 22, and then we'll be finished. Please consider with me that Paul underscores first the futurity, second the greatness, and third the certainty. of this work.
First: The Futurity of This Work
That it is future and not present is patent. Again, as I've said, all we need to do is simply look around us. If we look in to the creation that we can see and that we can experience with our senses, we see the marks of decay. We see the beauty.
We see the order. We see the glory still shining through the curse. But we see the curse. And if a view of that does not convince us that the creation now groans and prevails in pain, we simply need to look in the mirror.
And we see that age begins to take its toll. We see that change takes place in our bodies, and it's not for the best. And all of this is to persuade us, to remind us, We need a Redeemer. We need a Savior.
And Paul here brings these things forward to encourage us, to tell us, though it is not present, it is future. It will come to pass. Here is something that not only we but also the whole creation must wait for. And even as the work that has begun in us in the gospel by the Spirit is unfinished so that we groan now because of its incompleteness.
So the entire creation yearns for the day of our revealing. As Paul says later, we hope for what we do not yet see.
Second: The Greatness of This Work
But now second as to the greatness of what God is doing, that is far beyond anything that we can now think or imagine. Sit down tonight after you are back at home. Find a quiet spot and some quiet moments and try to wrap your mind around what God is doing. Not just in your life.
But expand your horizon to the entirety of the universe. To what God is doing to restoring it. To what it was and what it could have been prior to man's fall into sin. I can't wrap my mind around that.
I can't grasp all the facets of what God is doing. First Corinthians 2.9 says, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Only God's eye has seen what he's doing. Only he is able, if you will, to wrap his mind around all that he is doing.
And yet what He has revealed, though we do see through a glass darkly, it truly is amazing. The curse is to be removed, and that on a cosmic scale. There is no corner of this universe where the curse upon man's sin will be unrelieved. There is not one single place in this entire cosmos that will still be in the bondage of corruption.
Every corner of this earth, every corner of the heavens, every corner of however big this universe is, and who knows the answer to that, will be freed from the bondage of corruption. One writer has said that even as now the entire creation puts up a great symphony of size, So then there will be unbroken rejoicing, not a sigh to be heard, as God redeems His great work. Sorrow and sighing will flee away, and the creation will sing with us. The wilderness and the wasteland will be glad for us.
The desert will blossom as a rose. This is the greatness of what God is doing.
Third: The Certainty of This Work
And as to the certainty of these things coming to pass, the Bible speaks of the revealing of God's sons and the redemption of the creation as the goal that God is pursuing. This is His grand plan. He's not just set about to call out a people for Himself to save, as wonderful as that is. And that is wonderful, isn't it?
We are the beneficiaries of that aspect of His eternal decree. But He is doing something far grander, and it is the fact that He has pursued this from all eternity, that He has revealed in Scripture what He is doing, that gives us the certainty that He will fulfill it. Indeed, He works all things after the counsel of His own will, and none can stay His hand nor say unto Him, What doest thou? He will accomplish. all that he is purposed to do.
Therefore, brethren, be encouraged. Take hope. Let your faith be strengthened. Don't let your hearts be fearful.
Don't let your soul be downcast. As we look around us, we see so much that is wrong. Let us lift our eyes to this larger scale of what God is doing.
Application: Call to Christ
Now, unbeliever, do you long for such a day? Do you long for a day when the creation itself is delivered from the bondage of corruption? In some sense, many unbelievers do. They look around at the creation and they know everything's not right.
They can write quite eloquently, speak quite eloquently on things that are wrong in the present creative order. Though they don't understand it as a creative order, yet they see what's wrong. And they do at some level yearn to see all made right. Do you yearn?
Do you long for such a day when God's work in this world is finished? If you do not come to Christ, if you do not embrace Him in the gospel that is offered to you by Him, that is preached in His Word, that is revealed in His Word, if you do not embrace Him, then your future is not the liberty of the glory of the children of God, but it is the never-ending bondage of corruption. I don't know where hell is. All that Paul has said here about the redemption of the creation, of the removal of the curse, All of that notwithstanding, there appears to be some corner of reality that God has reserved where there will not be the mountains singing and the desert blossoming, where the trees will not be clapping their hands, where there will be no joy, where there will be no gladness, where there will be no redemption. where there will be no deliverance, where there will be no hope, where there will be no assurance, where there will be no grace, where there will be no forgiveness, and where there will be no forgetting, and where tears will flow forever, a never-ending bondage of corruption.
What a shame it would be to know of the work that God had done and to see it pass you by. There will be a high degree of understanding in hell. Not a participating in any of the blessings of the great redemption. But there will be knowledge of it.
And to know that that has transpired, and that multitudes have been brought into a new heavens and in a new earth in which dwells righteousness, and where there is no sorrow and there are no tears, and to realize to one's eternal loss, that has passed me by. And I could have had it. I could have had it. What the gnawings of conscience will be in that day.
Come to Christ. Don't play a form of spiritual Russian roulette with your soul. but come to Him and embrace Him. And the trees will clap their hands at your redemption. And the fir trees will sprout in joy.
And the deserts will blossom. And there will be rejoicing in heaven And you will know a joy that can never be eclipsed, never taken away, never lost, never forfeited, never removed, but as sure as God's promise that He will fulfill all His holy will. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we live in an age and in a generation where it is very popular to say that one is living in step with the universe. One is trying to be one with the earth or some such language. Lord, it is not conceivable to be more out of step with the very universe in which we live. And to turn away from your son and to turn away from your word.
And to turn away from the hope that is offered to us in the gospel. We pray, Father, that indeed this night you would encourage your people. with the reminder that you are doing this grand work, far more sweeping on a far grander scale, a far greater scope than their own salvation. We thank you, Lord, for what you are doing, though our minds are simply incapable of coming to grips with the greatness of what you're doing. Father, to have no part in that surely is the greatest tragedy that can befall us.
And so we pray, Lord, that you will look with grace upon the unbelieving. That you would shake out of their slumber and out of their ease those who do not wish to have you in their knowledge. That you will look with grace, even saving grace. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us.
Indeed, all of your works show your faithfulness in your greatness and your goodness and your love. We pray that you would encourage our hearts with these things and, Father, help us to live in such a way as begins to bring into you something of the glory and the praise that is due to your name. We thank you for the Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, and we ask that you will hear us this night in His name.