that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
Show the surrounding paragraph
Romans 8:21-23 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
Parallel Translations
-
that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
-
For the very creatures shalbe delivered from the bondage of corrupcion into the glorious lybertie of the sonnes of God.
For we knowe that every creature groneth with vs also and travayleth in payne even vnto this tyme.
Not they only but even we also which have the fyrst frutes of the sprite morne in oureselves and wayte for the (adopcio) and loke for the delivraunce of oure bodyes.
Show all 3 translations
-
Because the creature also shall be deliuered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God.
For we knowe that euery creature groneth with vs also, and trauaileth in paine together vnto this present.
And not onely the creature, but we also which haue the first fruites of the Spirit, euen we doe sigh in our selues, waiting for the adoption, euen the redemption of our body.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (34)
- Philippians 3:20-21 (v23) For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change the body of our humiliation…
- 2 Corinthians 5:2-5 (v23) For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed being clothed, we will not…
- Hebrews 9:28 (v23) so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting…
- Titus 2:13 (v23) looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- Jeremiah 12:4 (v22) How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? Because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals…
Show all 33 cross-references
- Ephesians 1:14 (v23) who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
- Ephesians 4:30 (v23) Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Romans 7:24 (v23) What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
- Galatians 5:5 (v23) For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.
- 1 John 3:2 (v23) Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for…
- Romans 8:19 (vv21, 23) For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
- Jeremiah 12:11 (v22) They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no one cares.
- Luke 20:36 (v23) For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
- Philippians 1:21-23 (v23) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don’t know what I…
- Luke 21:28 (v23) But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”
- John 16:21 (v22) A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish…
- Romans 8:15-16 (v23) For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The…
- Romans 8:25-26 (v23) But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we…
- Galatians 5:22-23 (v23) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things…
- 1 Peter 1:7 (v23) that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in…
- Revelation 22:3-5 (v21) There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face,…
- Romans 5:5 (v23) and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Ephesians 5:9 (v23) for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
- Colossians 1:23 (v22) if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard,…
- 2 Timothy 4:8 (v23) From now on, the crown of righteousness is stored up for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to…
- Acts 3:21 (v21) whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
- Romans 8:20 (v22) For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
- 2 Corinthians 7:5 (v23) For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was…
- 2 Peter 3:13 (v21) But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
- Revelation 21:1 (v21) I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
- Mark 16:15 (v22) He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Psalms 48:6 (v22) Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
- Revelation 12:2 (v22) She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth.
33 distinct cross-references across this passage (34 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. Because the creation itself, etc. He shows how…
21. Because the creation itself, etc. He shows how the creation has in hope been made subject to vanity; that is, inasmuch as it shall some time be made free, according to what Isaiah testifies, and what Peter confirms still more clearly. It is then indeed meet for us to consider what a dreadful curse we have deserved, since all created things in themselves blameless, both on earth and in the visible heaven, undergo punishment for our sins; for it has not happened through their own fault, that they are liable to corruption. Thus the condemnation of mankind is imprinted on the heavens, and on the earth, and on all creatures. It hence also appears to what excelling glory the sons of God shall be exalted; for all creatures shall be renewed in order to amplify it, and to render it illustrious.
But he means not that all creatures shall be partakers of the same glory with the sons of God; but that they, according to their nature, shall be participators of a better condition; for God will restore to a perfect state the world, now fallen, together with mankind. But what that perfection will be, as to beasts as well as plants and metals, it is not meet nor right in us to inquire more curiously; for the chief effect of corruption is decay. Some subtle men, but hardly sober-minded, inquire whether all kinds of animals will be immortal; but if reins be given to speculations where will they at length lead us? Let us then be content with this simple doctrine, — that such will be the constitution and the complete order of things, that nothing will be deformed or fading.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21–23 From the corruption which they are now subject to,…
From the corruption which they are now subject to, they shall be delivered and changed into that blessed state of incorruption, which shall be revealed when the sons of God shall be advanced to glory.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered…
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Ver. 21. Because the creature itself] See Mr Wilcox’s discourse upon these words, printed, together with his Exposition of the Psalms, Proverbs, &c., in folio. The creature is said to be subject to vanity and bondage of corruption, 1. As corruptible. 2. As teachers of men, and they will not learn; so that they lose their labour. 3. As they are instruments of man’s punishment. 4. As they are forced to serve wicked men’s turns and uses, who have no peace with the creature, and should have no service from them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv21–23 If this verse be understood of the heavens and…
If this verse be understood of the heavens and the earth, and the things therein, the meaning is, that the creatures, in their kind, and according to their capacity, shall be partakers of that liberty and freedom, which in the children of God is accompanied with unspeakable glory; they shall not partake with the saints in glory, but of that liberty, which in the saints hath great glory attending it, and superadded to it. The creature, at the day of judgment, shall be restored (as before) to that condition of liberty which it had in its first creation; as, when it was made at first, it was free from all vanity, bondage, and corruption, so it shall be again at the time of the general resurrection: see Act 3:19,21; 2Pe 3:13. Those that by the creature would understand the Gentile world, give the sense of this verse: That the very heathens also shall, by the gospel and grace of Christ, be rescued from those courses of sin and corruption, to which they have been long enslaved, into that glorious condition not only of free-men, redeemed by Christ out of their bondage to sin and Satan, but even of the sons of God, to have right to his favour, and that never fading inheritance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v23 And not only they; that is, all the creatures…
And not only they; that is, all the creatures in this visible creation, join in this, they groan together; they do not some groan, and others sing; some travail in pain, and others in pleasure. But they all groan and travail together in pain until now, that is, until the glorious manifestation of the sons of God; but not only do they groan, but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, &c.
Observe here, 1. A special description of God’s adopted children; they have the first-fruits of the Spirit; that is, they have the Holy Spirit in its sanctifying gifts, and graces, and comforts, in some measure; called here first-fruits, because of the smallness of their quantity.
Read full note →
The first-fruits were but an handful, a little portion in comparision of the whole crop; yet was it an evidence and pledge that God would give them the full crop. Thus grace is an earnest of glory, it is a pledge of everlasting life; the beginnings of grace here are certain forerunners of the accomplishment of glory hereafter.
Observe, 2. The actions attributed to the fore-mentioned persons: they groan, they wait.
1. They groan, We who have the first-fruits of the Spirit do groan; they groan under the burden of sin and affliction:
the guilt of sin, the pollution of sin, the sad remains of indwelling sin, make them groan;
their proneness and inclination to evil, their backwardness and indisposition to good, make them groan;
their too frequent backslidings, their daily infirmities make them groan;
their sufferings also from God, and from man for God’s sake, cause them to groan;
but it is added, We groan within ourselves; that is, secretly to ourselves, undiscerned by the world, and in a manner peculiar to ourselves, as persons influenced by religion and grace: as Christians have joys and comforts, so have they griefs and groans, peculiar to themselves.
2. For the redemption of their bodies; that is, for their resurrection, for their redemption from mortality and corruption, for the redemption of their whole man, soul and body, do believers wait; their bodies were members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, instruments of, and companions with the soul in holy duties; and accordingly, the hour is coming, when the complete redemption both of soul and body shall be fully and finally perfected; but in the mean time they groan and wait for it.
Learn from the whole, That all sanctified Christians, who have received the first fruits of the Spirit, do groan and wait for a much better state than what they do at present enjoy.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Because the creature itself also,.... The phrase in hope,…
Because the creature itself also,.... The phrase in hope, which stands in our version, at the end of the preceding verse, should be placed in the beginning of this, and be read in connection with Rom 8:19 being a parenthesis, thus: "the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption"; and so it is placed in some copies, and in the Syriac version: that is, "the Gentiles" earnestly wait and expect a larger number of converts among them, in hopes that ere long the whole Gentile world will be freed from
the bondage of corruption, under which it at present groaned; by which is meant, the bondage they were in, not only to their sinful lusts, but to Satan the god of this world; and particularly to their idols, by which they corrupted themselves, and to which they were enslaved: they hope for a deliverance from hence,
Read full note →
into the glorious liberty of the children of God; which designs either the liberty of grace the children of God have here; and which consists in a freedom from the dominion of sin and Satan, from the law and bondage of it, in the free use of Gospel ordinances, in liberty of access to God, and a freedom from the fear of death, and a glorious liberty it is; or the liberty of glory the saints shall enjoy in the other world, which will lies in a freedom from the prison of the flesh, from the body of sin and death, from all sorrows and afflictions, from all reproaches and persecutions, from the temptations of Satan, from doubts, fears, and unbelief, and in the full vision of God through Christ, and in a free conversation with angels and saints.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv21–23 The creation itself shall be delivered - Destruction is…
The creation itself shall be delivered - Destruction is not deliverance: therefore whatsoever is destroyed, or ceases to be, is not delivered at all. Will, then, any part of the creation be destroyed? Into the glorious liberty - The excellent state wherein they were created.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Verse 21. Because the creature] This and the preceding…
Verse 21. Because the creature] This and the preceding verse should be thus connected: in hope THAT (οτι) the creature itself also shall be delivered. The word φθορα denotes, very frequently, sinful corruption. So, 2Pe 1:4: Corruption through lust, της εν επιθυμια φθορας. 2Co 11:3: Lest your minds should be corrupted. 1Co 15:33: Evil communications corrupt good manners. The sense, therefore, of the apostle in this place seems to be: the Gentile world shall, in time, be delivered from the bondage of their sinful corruption, i.e. the bondage of their lusts and vile affections; and be brought into such a noble liberty as the sons of God enjoy.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv22–23 Rom 8:22. For we know that the whole creation…
Rom 8:22. For we know that the whole creation — Ever since the first apostacy of our nature from God; groaneth — Suffers a variety of miseries; and travaileth — Συνωδινει, literally, is in the pains of childbirth, to be delivered from the burden of the curse; until now — To this very hour, and so on to the time of deliverance. “According to some commentators, the words πασα η κτισις denote the whole creatures of God, animate and inanimate, which, as they were cursed for the sin of the first man, may, by a beautiful rhetorical figure, be represented as groaning together under that curse, and earnestly wishing to be delivered from it. Such figures indeed are not unusual in Scripture. See Psa 96:12; Psa 98:8. Nevertheless, Rom 8:21, where it is said that the creature itself shall be delivered, &c., into the glorious liberty of the children of God; and the antithesis, Rom 8:23, not only they, but ourselves also, show that the apostle is speaking, not of the brute and inanimate creation but of mankind, and of their earnest desire of immortality. For these reasons, and especially because (Mar 16:15) preach the gospel, παση τη κτισει, means, to every human creature, I think the same expression in this verse, and η κτισις in the preceding verses, signify mankind in general, Jews as well as Gentiles. The same expression, also, Col 1:23, signifies every human creature.” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Because - This is the ground of his hope,…
Because - This is the ground of his hope, and this sustains him now. It is the purpose of God that deliverance shall be granted, and this supports the Christian amidst the trials to which he is subjected here. The hope is, that this same renewed man shall be delivered from all the toils, and cares, and sins of this state.
The creature itself - The very soul that is renewed; the ransomed man without essential change. It will be the same being, though purified; the same man, possessed of the same body and soul, though freed from all the corruptions of humanity, and elevated above all the degradations of the present condition. The idea is everywhere presented, that the identical person shall be admitted to heaven without essential change, 1Co 15:35-38, 1Co 15:42-44. That this is the hope of all Christians, see 2Pe 3:13.
Read full note →
From the bondage of corruption - This does not differ materially from “vanity,” Rom 8:20. It implies that this state is not a willing state, or not a condition of choice, but is one of bondage or servitude (see Rom 7:15-24); and that it is a corrupt, imperfect, perishing condition. It is one that leads to sin, and temptation, and conflict and anxiety. It is a condition often which destroys the peace, mars the happiness, dims the hope, enfeebles the faith, and weakens the love of Christians, and this is called the bondage of corruption. It is also one in which temporal death has dominion, and in the bondage of which, believers as well as unbelievers shall be held. Yet from all this bondage the children of God shall be delivered.
The glorious liberty - Greek, The freedom of the glory of the children of God. This is,
(1) “Liberty.” It is freedom from the bondage under which the Christian groans. It will be freedom from sin; from corruption; from evil desires; from calamity; from death. The highest “freedom “in the universe is that which is enjoyed in heaven, where the redeemed are under the sovereignty and government of their king, but where they do that, and that only, which they desire. All is slavery but the service of God; all is bondage but that law which accords with the supreme wish of the soul, and where commands accord with the perfect desires of the heart.
(2) This is glorious liberty. It is encompassed with majesty; attended with honor; crowned with splendor. The heavenly world is often described as a state of glory; Note, Rom 2:10.
Of the children of God - That the children of God shall enjoy.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v23 Redemptionem corporis, i.e. complete happiness, says St. John Chrysostom,…
===============================
[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Read full note →
Redemptionem corporis, i.e. complete happiness, says St. John Chrysostom, p. 119. Greek: toutesti ten apertismenen doxan.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Because the creature itself also--"even the creation itself."
Because the creature itself also--"even the creation itself."
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption--its bondage to the principle of decay.
Read full note →
into the glorious liberty--rather, "the liberty of the glory."
of the children of God--that is, the creation itself shall, in a glorious sense, be delivered into that freedom from debility and decay in which the children of God, when raised up in glory, shall expatiate: into this freedom from corruptibility the creation itself shall, in a glorious sense, be delivered (So CALVIN, BEZA, BENGEL, THOLUCK, OLSHAUSEN, DE WETTE, MEYER, PHILIPPI, HODGE, ALFORD, &c.).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. Because—Or, rather, that. In hope that.
21. Because—Or, rather, that. In hope that.
The creature itself—Or rather, this same creature, and not merely the successive generations of nature.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. because] Better than “that,” as in some translations.…
21. because] Better than “that,” as in some translations. St Paul justifies the “hope,” by stating the fact in which it will be realized.
itself also] As well as the children of God; though in other modes from theirs.
Read full note →
the bondage of corruption] “Corruption” here (as in 1Co_15:42; 1Co_15:50,) is probably decay; physical, not moral, detriment. This, to creation, is “bondage,” in that it represses and foils its fulness of peace and splendour.
the glorious liberty] Lit., and better, the liberty of the glory; i.e. connected with the glory; attendant on it, involved in it. The period of that glory is to be (not only for the saints, but, in another mode, for the new heavens and earth,) a period of “liberty;” of developement in undecaying power and bliss.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 (21) Because the creature.—The reason for the hope which…
(21) Because the creature.—The reason for the hope which survives through the degradation of nature; what creation is to be.
Because.—Perhaps rather “that,” to be joined on to the end of the last verse, “in hope that creation, also,” &c. So Meyer and Ellicott.
Read full note →
Delivered from the bondage of corruption.—The state of decay and ruin into which the world by nature has fallen, is regarded as a servitude opposed to the state of liberty into which it will be ushered at the Coming of Christ.
Glorious liberty of the children of God.—Translate rather, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God—i.e., into the state of liberty or emancipation which will attend the appearance of the Messiah and His redeemed. Their state will be one of liberty, and in that liberty the whole creation hopes to share.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv22–23 Vers. 22, 23. For we know that the whole…
Vers. 22, 23. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, lout 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. The present unwilling subjection of the whole visible creation to evil is here still more forcibly expressed, and spoken of as being what is known a subject of experience to all who observe and think; and it is added that this state of things continues still it is "until now." The yearned-for deliverance has not yet come; and therefore we should not be surprised if we too, the regenerate, while in the body, are not yet exempt from our share in the universal groaning. For we have but the first fruits of the Spirit as yet, not its full triumph; cf. "the earnest of the Spirit", (2Co_1:22) and "the earnest of our inheritance". (Eph_1:14) Its being said that we still wait for our adoption as sons is not inconsistent with other statements, (as in Eph_4:5-7, and above, ver. 14, etc.) to the effect that we are already adopted, and are already sons; for uiowesia here denotes the final realization of our present sonship, when the sons of God shall be revealed (ver. 19). Similarly, our redemption (apolutrwsiv) is here regarded as future. In one sense we are redeemed already; in another we await our redemption, i.e. the full accomplishment thereof. It is the consummation called by our Lord h paliggenesia , (Mat_19:28) and by St. Peter, apokatastasiv pantwn . (Act_3:21) cf. 2Pe_3:13, and Revelation generally. "Of our body" seems to be added with reference to what has been seen above as to our present "mortal bodies" being both the organs of the lust of the flesh and the hindrances to the proper development of our inward spiritual life.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v23 Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit…
Rom_8:23
Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit … groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Read full note →
The firstfruits of the Spirit
I. What they include.
1. Pardon.
2. Regeneration.
3. Communion with God.
II. What they inspire.
1. Hope.
2. Aspiration.
3. Patience.
III. What they promise.
1. Final adoption into the family of heaven.
2. The glorification of the body.
3. The beatific vision. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The groaning believer
If our action upon and relation to the creature cause the creature to be subject to so much travail and pain, so, in return, the creature acts upon us, causing us to groan under a burden which it is hard to bear. The action is reciprocal, and our present life appears, for the time, to be a life of vanity and vexation of spirit, and is only partially mitigated by the prospect of the final redemption. Here, then, we have just the counterpart of the picture presented in Rom_8:22.
I. A description of believers. We who have the Spirit as the firstfruits, or the earnest of our inheritance. Take man as man; compare his rich endowments with the shortness of his existance and the vanity of his occupation. And if we pass to the Christian man endowed with the fruits of redemption, what we see of his present life only still more impresses us with a feeling of its vanity. For only look--
1. At the endowments he possesses--the firstfruits of the Spirit. Not merely high mental powers, but the rudiments of a Divine nature fitting for communion with a holy God and fellowship with the pure intelligences of heaven.
2. At the expenditure by which these endowments have been secured. The wisdom of God, the work of Christ, and the operations of the Holy Spirit, are all involved in lifting any one up from the level of mere humanity to that of the family of God.
3. At the consciousness of the endowment as already possessed by us--awakening within us aspirations to do the work that angels do, having a desire to depart and be with Jesus--a training that seems to unfit for the low occupations of earthly life. Who has not wished always to be employed in some heavenly service when he has found himself tied down by the necessity of labouring for the bread that perisheth.
II. Their present sorrowful condition--groan within ourselves.
1. There seems here a kind of retributive action. We have to do with earthly things, and as we have abused them so they seem to press upon us, and so to resent the wrong we have done them. There are sins that God has forgiven, but the effects upon our temporal condition can never be repaired.
2. The discrepancy that seems to exist between the endowment and the service to which it is here devoted. John Howe speaks of a man clothed in scarlet being set to feed swine to express such discrepancy. And, no doubt, if such were the will of God, a loving servant would yield, but then scarlet is not the proper livery for such a service. It may be a discipline for the servant, though it spoil his clothes.
3. It arises from the actual sufferings to be endured, and no affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. We are not Stoics, nor does God wish us to be.
4. There is the liability to temptation and sin. We may, after all, be overtaken by a fault, and whilst we are so exposed we may well groan.
5. There is our proximity to the evil around us. Righteous Lot vexed his soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
III. Their coming deliverance.
1. This is called the adoption, because it will be, not the initiation into the family, but the public inauguration of the heir, on reaching his majority, into the inheritance.
2. It is called the redemption of the body. Redemption is, in Christ, already complete. But in us it is progressive--
(1) There is, therefore, now no condemnation.
(2) Death, when the soul is emancipated from all pollution.
(3) The resurrection, when the body itself shall be emancipated (Php_3:21).
The subject teaches a lesson--
1. Of patience. It is Gods order. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have suffered the will of God.
2. Of hope. Look on. Seek not your rest here. (P. Strutt.)
The inward groaning of the saints
Note--
I. Whereunto The Saints Have Attained.
1. We have, not we hope sometimes we have, nor yet possibly we may have, nor we shall have, but we have. True, many things are yet in the future, but we have already a heritage which is the beginning of our eternal portion--the firstfruits of the Spirit, i.e., the first works of the Spirit in our souls--repentance, faith, love. These are called the firstfruits because--
(1) They come first. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the graces which adorn the spiritual life are the first gifts of the Spirit of God in our souls.
(2) They were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, they were to him so many proofs that the harvest was already come. So, when God gives us Faith, hope, charity, whatsoever things are pure, lovely, etc., these are to us the prognostics of the coming glory.
(3) They were always holy to the Lord. The first ears of corn were offered to the Most High, and surely our new nature, with all its powers, must be regarded by us as a consecrated thing.
(4) They were not the harvest. No Jew was ever content with them. So, when we get the first works of the Spirit of God, we are not to say, I have attained, I am already perfect. Nay, they should but excite an insatiable thirst after more.
2. What the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. For the reason that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. Did you hear that groan? It is a traveller lost in the deep snow on the mountain pass. Hear another. The traveller has reached the hospice, is perfectly safe, and is exceedingly grateful to think that he has been rescued; but yet I hear him groan because he has a wife and children down in yonder plain, and the snow is lying so deep that he cannot pursue his journey. Now, the first groan was deep and dreadful; that is the groan of the ungodly man as he perishes; but the second is more the note of desire than of distress. Such is the groan of the believer, who, though rescued and brought into the hospice of Divine mercy, is longing to see his Fathers face.
II. Wherein are believers deficient? In those things for which we groan and wait.
1. This body of ours is not delivered. As soon as a man believes in Christ, his soul is translated from death unto life, and the body indeed becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost; but the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. The greatest piety cannot preserve a man from growing old, nor deliver his body from corruption, weakness, and dishonour. Nor is this little, for the body has a depressing effect upon the soul, and its appetites have a natural affinity to that which is sinful. The body is redeemed by price, but it has not yet been redeemed by power. Now this is the cause of our groaning. The soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered, it sighs to think that its poor friend should still be under the yoke. If you were a free man, and your wife a slave, the more you enjoyed the sweets of freedom, the more would you pine that she should still be in slavery. And so, again, with the saints in heaven. They are free from sin, but a disembodied spirit never can be perfect until it is reunited to its body. They do not groan, but they long with greater intensity than you and I for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.
2. Our adoption is not manifested (cf. verse 19). Among the Romans a man might adopt a child privately; but there was a second adoption, when the child was brought before the authorities, and its ordinary garments were taken off, and the father put on garments suitable to the condition of life in which it was to live. Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; that is, God will dress us all as He dresses His eldest Son. Cannot you imagine a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator, saying to himself, I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed, and be robed as becomes my rank. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. So it is with us.
3. Our liberty is incomplete. As to our spirits, we have liberty to soar to the heavenly places with Jesus Christ; but as for our bodies, we can only roam about this narrow cell of earth.
4. Our glory is not yet revealed, and that is another subject for sighing. The glorious liberty may be translated, The liberty of glory. We are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. They are waiting till their Lord shall descend from heaven, and the whole of the blood-washed host, wearing their white robes, and bearing their palms of victory, shall march up to their thrones. After this consummation the believing heart is groaning. Let me show you again the difference between a groan and a groan. Go into yonder house: there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. Go to the next house, and there is another much more painful than the first. How are we to judge between them? We will come again in a few days: as we are entering the first house we see weeping faces, a coffin, and a hearse. In the next there is a smiling cherub, and a mother who joys that a man is born into the world. There is all the difference between the groan of death and the groan of life. It is not the pain of death we feel, but the pain of life. We are thankful to have such a groaning. The other night two men working very late were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, Ah, theres a poor Christmas day in store for me. He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift. Now, his fellow workman also groaned. On being asked why, he said, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house, I do not like to be out of it. So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed home, and groans to get to it, and there is more joy in the groan of a Christian than in all the mirth of the ungodly.
III. What our state of mind is. A Christians experience is like the rainbow, made up of drops of the griefs of earth, and beams of the bliss of heaven.
1. We groan within ourselves. It is not the hypocrites groan, who wants people to believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things. We keep our longings to our Lord.
2. We are waiting, by which I understand that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, Let me die, nor are we to sit still and look for the end of the day because we are tired of work. We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself.
3. We are hoping (verse 24). Conclusion: Here is a test for us all. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth, some because of their great losses or sufferings. But the man that yearns after more holiness, that is the man who is blessed indeed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian experience and aspiration
That this passage is a magnificent one few would deny. The complaint we are likely to make of it is that it is too magnificent; that it transports us into an atmosphere which scarcely any one but a saint or apostle can be expected to breathe. We need, we think, not grand anticipations of a future, but some help in combating the petty temptations of each day. But if we look at these words again we perceive that the man who wrote them must have been more, not less, conversant than we are with the sufferings which common men are experiencing. He had shut himself in no cloister. He hears arising from all creation a groan coming from the sense of actual misery; and the clearest, fullest interpretation of these words may be found in our daily walks. The streets of London can tell us more about the sense of them than all the folios of commentators.
I. St. Paul tells the Roman Church that he and they were waiting for their adoption, or their full recognition as sons of God. There has been a proclamation to men that God has claimed them, without respect of race or circumstances, as His children in His only-begotten Son. And any message less than this has been powerless to satisfy the necessities of men, and has produced no permanent moral effect upon them. If we use all arguments of fear, all arts of rhetoric to convince men that they ought to take care of their souls, a few may be startled out of a sleep to which they will return again. But the mere part will feel that you are bidding them forget the real earth for the sake of a heaven which they can only dream of. But if we will recur to the old and simple scriptural phraseology of the hearth and home--if we will bear witness to men of a Father who has sent the elder Brother of the household to bring them into it, to endow them with the highest rights of children, we shall find that it can bring forth as clear a response from the men of the nineteenth century as from the men of the first.
II. The question how this condition of sonship is consistent with sorrow could be answered by those who believed the Son of God to be the Man of sorrows. In the light of Christs passion all suffering became transfigured. It was the filial token (Heb_13:8). But St. Paul did not intend that they should hug pain and sickness, because a deep truth might be learnt from them. He admits them in themselves to be discords and anomalies. He could not bear to contemplate it, if he were not sure that they were no parts of its original order; and that not being parts of it they were to cease. The revelation of the Son of God in weakness and pain and death, had vindicated the title of sons of God for creatures enduring weakness, pain, and death. The revelation of the Son of God in the glory of His Father would reveal them in the glory for which they had been created.
III. But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Not simply that no sufferings are worthy to be compared with final rewards. The sufferings of the present time are those of the whole creation, of which man is the head, to be excluded from which would be to be excluded from human sympathy, from fellowship with the great Sufferer. So far from being exempt from them, Paul knew more of them than any, but the blessing of the firstfruits of the Spirit; is the possession of a clearer, stronger hope than others. Yet that hope is not a hope for himself, but for his kind.
IV. for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same. Here is the apostles explanation of the puzzle which has tormented men ever since evil entered into the universe. That the guilty will be punished is reasonable, in this our consciences acquiesce. But there is a guiltless part of creation which endures misery. How can that be just? St. Paul feels the difficulty, and this is the refuge. The creation has been made subject to vanity; a very fitting phrase to express the apparent frustration of the end for which it has been called into existence. He frankly admits that the bondage which the mere animal undergoes is not its own fault, and that it has a Divine origin. But in doing so he affirms two mighty propositions--
1. That the innocent, involuntary creature is made the victim of vanity and death for the sake of that higher being who has broken loose from that will which he was created to serve.
2. That this subjection is temporary, and contains the promise of a future emancipation, when the end for which it was ordained has been accomplished. Less than this such language (verses 20, 21) cannot mean--that all the sufferings to which the earth and those that inhabit it are liable, are permitted and designed for the education of those who bear the nature which the Son of God bore; and that no suffering which contributes to this end is, in the judgment of the All-good and the All-wise, excessive or wasted, not even the sufferings and death of the Innocent, the Holy One. But this end being attained, all the forms of physical evil will also be overcome; the involuntary creation will be delivered from its fetters and its shame; the whole regenerated world, in its primal order and harmony, will offer up its sacrifices, through its High Priest and Restorer, to His Father.
V. His teaching, taken fully and literally, involves a renewal of the whole animal creation. If there is to be a restitution of all things, such as God, who cannot lie, promised by His holy prophets since the world began, I cannot understand how that element should be wanting to it. Must the creatures which have ministered to mans wants and delights be shut out from the renovation of our race, by whose degeneracy they are so deeply affected? From these thoughts others are nearly inseparable. The idea of a redemption of nature as consequent upon a redemption of man has often dawned upon the man of science and upon the artist. The one has seen that the laws of the universe can only be fully vindicated when the self-will which has set those laws at defiance has been extirpated; the other, from his deep sense of the sympathy between man and the forms which he contemplates, has been certain that such a revelation of loveliness awaits the purified vision as the highest prophet has only guessed of.
VI. The redemption of the body which St. Paul waited for, must include the removal of whatever hinders the senses from receiving clear and satisfactory impressions of the world with which they are intended to converse. But there is a more obvious force in the expression. The body is enslaved to disease and pain. These are the signs that Death has rights over the body, and that he will assert his rights. St. Paul says that there is another who has an elder, stronger right over it; that Christ by going into the grave and rising out of it has asserted and made good His right; that He will fully exert it. This redemption St. Paul felt that he was sent to proclaim to men because he was sent to proclaim their sonship to God. And so his teaching assumed a profoundly practical character. Fully believing in this redemption men are never to confess Death as a master. Our homage to Christ, our faith in our Divine sonship, implies that we expect a victory for the body; that it was not made so fearfully and wonderfully for nothing; that it shall at last he made like to the glorious body of Him who will subdue all to Himself. (F. D. Maurice M.A.)
The aspirations of a Christian soul
It is impossible to deny the splendour of the idea contained in this passage. But we are tempted to question the possibility of ever realising it. We fancy that such lofty yearnings rise too far above the common highways to give us any strength in meeting the temptations and work of the everyday world. Such aspirations might thrill the spirit of an apostle or a lonely saint, but they are too unearthly to be realised by us. We need some more homely teaching to enable us to meet the temptations of their career. But Paul was no solitary saint, and the men to whom he wrote were surrounded by earthly temptations of the fiercest kind. And yet this practical apostle tells those tempted men that both they and he were praying for the redemption of the body, And in our day such aspirations, instead of being too lofty for our common life, are the only safeguards against its prevalent snares. Note--
I. Their nature. In illustrating this we must dwell on the two phrases on which this nature depends. Firstfruits manifestly refers to the Jewish custom of presenting to God the earliest ears of corn or fruit as a thanksgiving and a prayer. The influences of the Spirit therefore are not merely a promise of the future, they are the actual commencements of the golden harvest of eternal glory. The other phrase, groaning for the adoption, even so far as unto the redemption of the body, means that we are adopted now, but that the body in the bondage of corruption stands in the way of the full realisation of our sonship, and therefore the firstfruits of the Spirit are a cry for its perfect deliverance. Note then--
1. That the firstfruits of the Spirit are a prayer for perfect adoption. We know thatnow we are sons of God; but the more we realise that fact, the more profoundly do we feet that the full manifestation has not yet come. Let us illustrate this by looking at three great firstfruits of the Spirit, experimentally. The Spirit reveals to us our adoption--
(1) By revealing the love of God. There are times when we feel that He loves us; and this feeling clothes life in splendour, and brings into the heart the balm and music of heaven, making poverty, toil, sorrow, endurable things. But is not that always a longing, a prayer? The very greatness of that love--the very feebleness of our emotion in responding to it, make us pray to feel it more.
(2) By the gift of spiritual power. The sign of a son of God is that he is no more in bondage to the passions and habits of the old life. But are we ever kings over ourselves as supremely as we would be? And there, again, the firstfruits of the Spirit are a longing for a perfected adoption.
(3) By the gift of Divine peace. But because that so soon fades, who does not long for the sabbath of eternity?
2. We can now see how these aspirations rise, as Paul says, into a prayer for the redemption of the body. Our present body is the grand hindrance to the attainment of perfect sonship: thought wears out its energies; deep emotion exhausts its vigour; its infirmities, sicknesses, decays, hinder the prayers and aspirations of the soul. And then, above all, the power of the body to perpetuate the influences of past sin renders it a hindrance to the man who feels the firstfruits of the Spirit. And thus it is that we who have the firstfruits must cry for the redemption of the body, because we know that until then we can never reach the love, power, and blessedness, which belong to us as sons of God.
II. Their prophetic hopes. We hope--
1. For the redeemed body; not for the departure of the present body, but for its redemption. We pray not for the death of our present powers of sight and hearing, but for their purified and intensified life. And now mark the prophetic cries which lie hid in that hope. Because it is a firstfruit of the Spirit, it foretells that every bodily power shall come forth, not crushed, but made stronger and brighter from the touch of death.
2. For the redeemed world. This world with all its beauty is fitted rather for a school of discipline than a home of purified spirits, and hence we hope for another and purer world for our final abode. Now mark again how this hope is prophetic of what shall be. Paul, in the context, affirms that the pain and death of the creature form one loud prophetic wail for redemption, i.e., the whole creation joins the Christian cry for a world in which suffering and evil shall have vanished.
III. Their present lessons.
1. We need them all. Let a man lower his hopes and limit his aspirings, and he will easily decline into a low spiritual life in which he will be like a reed shaken by the wind, before temptation. Only he who daily claims the whole eternity of hope as his own is guarded against the snares and pollutions of the world.
2. We must live them all. (E. L. Hull, B.A.)
Christian privileges and prospects
I. The description which is given of Christians by their present privileges. In this chapter we have a remarkable distinction of character. Those in a state of nature are described as in the flesh, aa carnally minded, etc. Those in a state of grace are said to be of the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to be spiritually-minded, to be led by and to walk in the Spirit.
1. Their character, therefore, is formed by the influences of the Spirit (Eze_36:26-27). Our Saviour stated the necessity of being born of the Spirit, and he told His disciples that He would send them the Spirit of truth, etc. The apostle says that we are to be washed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, etc. By this the earthliness of the affections is refined, and the whole soul is changed into the image of God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
2. Those who have the Spirit are placed in a high and beautiful relationship. They have adoption into the family of God (verse 14-16; Gal_4:4-6 : 1Jn_4:1-2). The heir of God has to remember that much of his good is future, and he must sketch out to himself those prospects where faith will be lost in sight, and hope in endless praise. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Whatever blessings the Spirit has bestowed, or whatever characters He has impressed, are pledges of the future possession. Has the Spirit destroyed the love of sin, induced a desire for purity--inspired faith, hope, love? These are all to be regarded as pledges of what you shall be in the future; your heaven begun upon earth. These are the seeds of the harvest of glory; the roots of the future tree of blessedness; the embryo of the perfect man; the outline of the picture which shall be finished in eternity; the first streaks of light; the first gleams of that dawn which shall brighten into the splendour of meridian glory.
II. The state of mind in which they are confessed to exist. We groan within ourselves, etc. These emotions are to be considered in connection with similar emotions through the creation. The whole creation is represented as longing for the glorious period when all its misery shall be over, as if in the throes of a new birth. Yes! and man and brute, hills and valleys, earth and ocean, times and seasons, are passing onwards to a glorious deliverance. Yes! and every cloud that darkens, and every affliction that troubles, and every injury which brute sustains from brute, and the rolling of the storm, and the belchings of the volcano, and the commotions of the deep, and the tremblings of the earthquake, are to be all considered as the pangs of nature passing onwards to that end. Oh, when shall these pangs cease! Then the apostle speaks of the children of God, and he declares that they are not in a higher sphere. We are all in this respect in one mass, we also groan, etc.
1. Our state of mind is one which involves--
(1) Pungent sorrow on account of present imperfection.
(a) Sorrow on account of what we see in the world around us. I look on the world around me; it came from the hand of God; it abounds with beautiful views; but still it affords cause for mourning. Look at its sinfulness. It is a world of wickedness. See its misery. Because there is sin there is sorrow. We witness the groanings of poverty, the wasting of disease, the scorn of contumely, the oppressions of power, etc.
(b) Sorrow when we consider our own characters, and our individual experience. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from sin? Who has not cause to exclaim with Paul, I delight in the law of God, after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, etc. Again, we are not only sinners but sufferers. We have much to enjoy, but we have also much to endure; and who among you is not ready to say, we ourselves groan within ourselves, and long for wings, that we might flee away and be at rest?
(2) Earnest desire as to the future. We wait for the adoption, etc. Civil adoption was private and public. Now every child of God is adopted privately at the time of conversion; but there is a day appointed for his public adoption when he will be declared as a son of God. We as Christians wait for this. The time when this shall be is not revealed. But the time shall come when all the redeemed shall appear with Christ in glory.
2. The emotion in reference to this fact, we wait for it. We stand like men on the summit of a lofty mountain, taking a transient view of the intermediate landscape and looking to the distant horizon for our intended dwelling. We wait for it, our minds are fixed upon it, our desires are influenced by it. Prove that you wait for it--
(1) By avoiding the pollutions of the world.
(2) By refusing to place your affections on the world. If ye then be risen with Christ, etc.
(3) By showing in constant and active exertion all the principles of the vocation by which you are called. Are you called to love? then love; are you called to vigilance? then be vigilant; to zeal? then be zealous.
(4) By anticipating with joy the time of your departure from the world. (J. Parsons.)
The yearning of the good for deliverance
1. That is groaning, which is here again considerable two manner of ways.
(1) For the simple passion: we groan. Where that which we may observe from it is this, that even the children of God themselves do groan while they abide here in the world.
(2) There are two things especially which are the ground and occasion of this groaning, whereof we now speak, in the children of God; and that is, first, the burden of sin. The stain and defilement of sin. The proneness and inclination to evil which is in the heart. As proneness to evil, so on the other side indisposedness to good. Distraction in duty and weakness and imperfection of performance. The sins of daily incursion, as we commonly call them for distinction sake, in opposition to greater miscarriages; these slips and failings which we fall into before we are aware in every business.
2. Seeing Gods children do thus groan under their sins, let then all men take heed how they do at any time upbraid therewith them. This serves to confute that opinion which prevails with some kind of people, as if a justified person were exempted from all grief for sin. But secondly, as the servants of God groan under sin in the stain of it, and so far forth as it defiles, so likewise under the guilt of it, and so far forth as it exposes to punishment. The second is taken from misery and the affliction which they meet with here likewise. This proceeds, first, from the consideration of their common nature. Secondly, it proceeds also from grace, forasmuch as they have a real apprehension of deliverance which belongs unto them. This is that which puts them upon groaning to be delivered, because by faith they know that there is One that hears their groans and takes notice of them. Thirdly, it is sometimes also from weakness and want of faith, especially there where it is in the excess and extremity of it. This teaches them accordingly what to expect while they live here below. This world is a vale of tears, wherein the best that are are subject to fighting and groaning. The second is in the additional illustration. And that is in ourselves. Under which phrase and manner of expression we have divers things intimated to us as concerning this sighing and groaning of the children of God, three things especially. First, that it is secret and hidden, it is not always discerned; we groan in ourselves, that is we groan to ourselves. This groaning, it is such as all men are not sensible or apprehensive of nor do take notice of it. That which is done within a man, it is done without the privacy of another, because no man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is within him. This is the dispensation of Gods children to be mourning and humbling of themselves for the sins and miscarriages of others, while the parties themselves that occasion it are little sensible or apprehensive of it. Thus does many a godly parent groan for the miscarriages of his children. This, it proceeds from a kind of modesty in them, as in all things else as suitable to the principles of religion. They pray in secret, and give in secret, and grieve in secret, The second is hearty and serious. In ourselves, that is from ourselves. The groanings of Gods children they are not slight, or perfunctory, or superficial; but such as proceed from a deep sense and apprehension of their misery, and the condition in which they are. The third thing implied in this expression is the propriety or peculiarity of their grief. In ourselves, that is by ourselves. We groan within ourselves; that is within our own compass and in our own capacity. We groan not only as beasts do, which are acted only by common sense; nor we do not groan only as men do, which are acted only by natural reason; but we groan moreover as Christians, which are acted by religion and grace, and so have a grief in that respect which is proper unto them. This peculiarity of grief, and so consequently of groaning in Gods children, is founded in these considerations. First, their peculiarity of employment; they have such businesses wherein they are exercised, as none have but they. Peculiar employments breed peculiar distractions and cumbrances which are attendant upon them, because they have still some miscarriage which these are liable unto, and miscarriage is a cause of grief. Now Gods children they have other businesses and employments than other men have, and which they seriously give themselves to. Secondly, peculiarity of contentment; every different comfort has a different grief annexed unto it, either in the deprival or straitening of it. The more delights that any man has in any condition, the more crosses is he likewise subject unto from that condition when these delights shall be suspended. The children of God they therefore grieve by themselves because indeed they joy by themselves. Thirdly, peculiarity of design; they have proper and peculiar ends and aims which they propound to themselves. Look, as any mens desires are, the more oftentimes are their griefs, because desire and hope disappointed it makes the heart sad. Now Gods children they have their peculiar desires and aims and ends: as the glory of God, the good of the Church. The crossing of which unto them is an occasion of greater grief in them. Not so neither. For, first of all, as a Christian has peculiar grief, so he has peculiar joy and comfort which attends it. Secondly, this proper grief of a Christian is a cause of greater comfort to him. His joy is not only joined with his sorrow, but flows from it, according to that of the apostle (2Co_7:1-16; 2Co_8:1-24; 2Co_9:1-15; 2Co_10:1-18). And so now I have done with the first action attributed to believers in this text, and that is groaning, with the amplification of it; We ourselves groan within ourselves. The second thing here attributed to the godly and true Christians is waiting, in these words, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Where we have two things exhibited to us. First, it is an expression of their patience. They wait, that is, they stay (2Co_4:8). The ground hereof is first of all this in the text, because they have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, which though they do not altogether satisfy them, yet they do at least very much qualify them, and occasion this patience to them. Secondly, because they have a spirit of faith whereby they see all those things which do at present befall them working good unto them. The second is earnest expectation. Gods children they do wait for their redemption, that is they do look and long for it (thus Tit_2:13). First, their present evils and afflictions. They wait because they groan, as it is said before of the creature in verses 19, 20 of this chapter. Secondly, their present feelings and pre-apprehensions. They have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and these beginnings do so much the more increase these desires in them. Thirdly, love to Christ. They desire it and long for it as a bride does for the coming of her beloved. Lastly, from the condition of a believer in regard of grace, which is here very weak and imperfect. This waiting of the saints thus declared, it is useful to sundry purposes to us: First, for the intent to which it is brought here in the text, and that it is to assure us that there is such a thing indeed as this is, namely, a time for Christian redemption from their present bondage, and enjoyment of a glorious liberty which shall be bestowed upon them. This it does appear from hence because the children of God themselves do desire it. Secondly, here is a discovery of mens conditions what they are. Those who are indeed Gods children, they do not only groan, but wait; not only mourn under present misery, but also pant after future glory, etc. A worldling is all for the present and to have his contentments here; but a Christian is not so satisfied. Thirdly, Let this quicken us to this groaning and heavenly disposition, and make us labour to find it in ourselves. First, for the object propounded, and that is adoption. Adoption in Scripture-language is of a various consideration, and is taken three manner of ways. First, for the adoption of election, whereby God, before ever the foundations of the world were laid, did appoint us, and set us out to be in the number of His sons and daughters. The second is the adoption of vocation, whereby we being effectually called by the preaching of the gospel, and justified by faith, are by the spirit of adoption incorporated into Jesus Christ and confirmed in the inheritance of sons. The third is the adoption of glory, whereby we shall fully at last obtain the glorious inheritance of children together with Christ. The second is the particular exposition, to wit, the redemption of our body. The redemption. This likewise, as well as that other term of adoption, does admit of a different signification, either namely, as taken for the paying and laying down of the price, or else for the receiving of the thing itself for which the price is paid. Of our body. This is expressed, rather than of our souls. First, because our souls are in their actual redemption already before that time. Secondly, it is here said of the body, because all miseries and afflictions in this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole person. That which we may more particularly observe here is this, that there is a day coming wherein the bodies of all the saints as well as their souls shall be freed from bondage and corruption. Thus it follows upon these special considerations: First, as they are the instruments of a sanctified and regenerate soul, whereunto also they have been companions in duty. Secondly, as members of Christ, who is the Head and redeemed before them; Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (1Co_15:20). Thirdly, as they are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who still abides and dwells in them as His own, and accordingly will raise them (Rom_8:11). Lastly, as together with the soul they do make up the whole person which God hath taken into court with Himself (Mat_22:32). The consideration of this truth is very comfortable to the servants of God. First, in all corporal infirmities and disparagements which are incident to the body here in this life, of sickness and distempers, and restraint and persecution, and the like. Secondly, as to the horror of the grave, and the dreadful apprehensions of that from rottenness and putrefaction, our bodies shall at last be freed from all corruption (Hos_13:14). (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Adoption still future
1. As embracing the whole man.
2. As consisting in absolute deliverance from bondage.
3. As including manifestation and public acknowledgment.
4. As belonging not merely to individuals, but to the Church as a body. (T. Robinson, D.D.)
The redemption of the body
I. The Christian is a man gathering firstfruits. The harvest is not come. He looks out upon the beauty of nature, and he sees a firstfruit of a renewed and perfect creation. He has a happy thought, it is a firstfruit of an endless and universal joy. He tastes the delights of a pure affection, it is the firstfruitof a world where all is love. He catches a glimpse of Christ, it is a firstfruit of an eternal presence. He plucks from the tree of truth a holy feeling, it is the firstfruit of the rich abundance of a matured saintliness. To him, everything is a firstfruit. If it is not the full glow of summer yet, it is not winter, If the early grapes be so sweet, what shall the vintage be?
II. A man untaught might say, surely those who gather firstfruits at least will have an immunity from sorrow? St. Paul said, We which have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves. I do not find that the Church has less suffering than the world without, only I find it more inward. This inward groaning, what is it, and whence? As soon as a man really receives one of the firstfruits of the Holy Ghost, immediately a very great change takes place in that soul. But how with the body? Is it altered? Some little degree of physical refinement may grow out of the spiritual change; but in the main the body is the same. It prompts the same desires, it leads on to the same sins. Sometimes it inflames us, sometimes it drags us. And so it will be to death, the changed soul in the unchanged body, the redeemed in the unredeemed. Now here is all the con-flict. Of all our misery this is the painful element, the inability of the body to carry out the higher aspirations of the soul. Other things may bring the sigh, the tear, but this brings the groan, When shall I be holy? When will the contest cease? O wretched man that I am, etc. So--
III. Because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. The moment of death comes, the body and the soul are parted for a while. From that date the redemption of the body begins. It dies, it dissolves, it lies hidden, God works in it as He pleases. Presently, it comes forth; it is another, and yet the same, identical to be known, to be loved, to be embraced, and yet how changed! It is in sweetest harmony with the soul; it is not a whit less spiritual and heavenly than that which once it thwarted. It has taken the image of God; it perfectly reflects Christ. And then, and not till then, its redemption is complete. Hero is the great result of the travail of the believer. Conclusion;
1. All you have to do now with the body is to hold it down and keep it under. And that effort will be your groaning. But only till He comes. His second advent will perfect the reformation of your body, as His first did your soul.
2. There is probably a very close analogy between the redemption of the soul and that of the body. The seed of life sown in death, the long hidden process, the dying first before there is life indeed, the maintenance of the original character, where, nevertheless, all is new, the likeness to Christ in both, the intention of all to serve, in all the perfect sovereignty of God.
3. The focus of faith and hope to all is the coming of Christ. The groaning soul of the believer, carrying the burden of the flesh, looks there. The emancipated spirits of the departed longing to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven, look there. Even while they wait in paradise the redemption of that body, still perfect, is going on, and they stretch on with ardent desire for the moment when He shall bring forth the whole man in the integrity of his being. And in those at this moment who lie in the grave, out of our sight, it is that holy, blessed work which is going on. For that reason we gave them up. We ourselves groan within ourselves till we see them again. But we shall see them lovelier than before, but still the same, more ours, more His, the needful absence for the needful work done, no absence more, all ours and all one for ever. Wait on; He hears the groans of the waiting. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
Insufficiencies accessories of beauty
Heaven does not take perfect beings and make them more perfect. It takes fallible and incomplete ones, and glorifies them. Even time and the discipline of pain are beforehand in this, turning the very defects of Christians into graces. It is a paradox of art that our glassmakers can only reproduce now the perfection of the ancient stained glass by reproducing its imperfections:--Singularly enough, examinations made of the painted windows, so celebrated as works of artistic genius and skill, of the old cathedrals of England and continental Europe, show that their superiority really consists in the inferiority of the glass, its richness in the poverty of its constituents, in the very perfection of its uneven thickness, and in the imperfections of its surface and its body, all covered, as they are, by the accumulating dust of ages, and honey-combed by the corroding effect of time. Like the facets of a diamond or ruby, each little wave and thread and blister becomes, by interference, refraction and reflection of the light which plays upon it, a new source of the gem-like brilliance, harmony, and beauty which distinguish the painted glass of former centuries. So the inferiorities and insufficiencies of Gods children become accessories of beauty when the rays of His heavenly glory play upon them. The culture of eternity must complement the trial and wear of this lifetime to bring out every charm that here lay in disguise.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. Because the creature itself shall be delivered. The…
21. Because the creature itself shall be delivered. The Revision reads, “The creation was subjected … in hope that the creation itself also,” etc. Though “subjected to vanity,” it still retained the hope of final deliverance. Bondage of corruption. Decay and death. Into the glorious liberty. “The liberty of the glory.” The present state is “bondage to corruption.” The hope is deliverance from the bondage into “the liberty,” etc. In the day of the revelation of that glory, “all things shall become new” (Rev. 21:5).
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. “Therefore, indeed, pursuant to hope, the creature itself…
21. “Therefore, indeed, pursuant to hope, the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” The plain meaning of this verse is that my body is to be gloriously delivered from all the humiliation and suffering of this mortal life, rendered imponderable So it can fly with angelic velocity, transfigured into the unutterable similitude of my Savior’s glorious body. This is the inspiring hope thrilling my poor, mortal body, and rendering it felicitously oblivious to all my toils, cares and disappointments.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v23
Romans
THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY
Read full note →
Rom 8:23.
In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have received ‘the Spirit of adoption.’ They become sons of God through Christ the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from God through Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as that new life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers have received ‘the Spirit of adoption,’ and by it they cry ‘Abba, Father.’ But the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of sin. It is sluggish and inapt for high purposes; it still remains subject to ‘the law of sin and death’; and so is not like the Father who breathed into it the breath of life. It remains in bondage, and has not yet received the adoption. This text, in harmony with the Apostle’s whole teaching, looks forward to a change in the body and in its relations to the renewed spirit, as the crown and climax of the work of redemption, and declares that till that change is effected, the condition of Christian men is imperfect, and is a waiting, and often a groaning.
In dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, we note-
I. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give definiteness and solidity to the conception of immortality.
Before the Gospel came men’s belief in a future life was vague and powerless, mainly because it had no Gospel of the Resurrection, and so nothing tangible to lay hold on. The Gospel has made the belief in a future state infinitely easier and more powerful, mainly because of the emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection and a future bodily life. Its great proof of immortality is drawn, not merely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility of earthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave, nor from the intuitions and longings of men’s souls, but from the historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of His Ascension in bodily form into heaven. It proclaims these two facts as parts of His experience, and asserts that when He rose from the dead and ascended up on high, He did so as ‘the first-born among many brethren,’ their forerunner and their pattern. It is this which gives the Gospel its power, and thus transforms a vague and shadowy conception of immortality into a solid faith, for which we have already an historical guarantee. Stupendous mysteries still veil the nature of the resurrection process, though these are exaggerated into inconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personal identity; but if the choice lies between accepting the Christian doctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spirit disembodied and yet active, there can be no doubt as to which of these two is the more reasonable and thinkable. Body, soul, and spirit make the complete triune man.
The thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the longings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes from unwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. As Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, ‘Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.’ All thoughts of the future which do not give prominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly and uninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel those who are accustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they feel that they cannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was their servant and instrument, through all the years of their earthly consciousness.
II. ‘The body that shall be’ is an emancipated body.
The varied gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the Christian Church served to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of that indwelling Spirit which were yet to come. Chief amongst these our text considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritual body. This transformation our text regards as being the participation by the body in the redemption by which Christ has bought us with the great price of His blood. We have to interpret the language here in the light of the further teaching of Paul in the great Resurrection chapter of 1Co 15:1 - 1Co 15:58, which distinctly lays stress, not on the identity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with ‘the body of glory,’ but upon the entire contrast between the ‘natural body,’ which is fit organ for the lower nature, and is informed by it, and the ‘spiritual body,’ which is fit organ for the spirit. We have to interpret ‘the resurrection of the body’ by the definite apostolic declaration, ‘Thou sowest not that body that shall be. . . but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him’; and we have to give full weight to the contrasts which the Apostle draws between the characteristics of that which is ‘sown’ and of that which is ‘raised.’ The one is ‘sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.’ Natural decay is contrasted with immortal youth. The one is ‘sown in dishonour,’ the other is ‘raised in glory.’ That contrast is ethical, and refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in relation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to the ideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the appetites. The one is ‘sown in weakness,’ the other is ‘raised in power’; the one is ‘sown a natural body,’ the other is ‘raised a spiritual body.’ Is not Paul in this whole series of contrasts thinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ appeared before him? And had not the years which had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended Christ the prophecy and the pattern of what His servants should become? We have further to keep in view Paul’s other representation in 2Co 5:1 - 2Co 5:21, where he strongly puts the contrast between the corporeal environment of earth and ‘the body of glory,’ which belongs to the future life, in his two images: ‘the earthly house of this tabernacle’-a clay hut which lasts but for a time,-and ‘the building of God, the house not made with hands and eternal.’ The body is an occasion of separation from the Lord.
These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to decay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and no refreshment of sleep. ‘The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,’ suggests strength constantly communicated by a direct divine gift. And from all these negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes. The two young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem as young if we saw them to-day.
Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for communication with the external universe. We know that the present body conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take cognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes and telescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our ear hears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is silence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call ‘inferior’ seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. Balaam’s ass saw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in the body. It is possible that that body which is the fit instrument of the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply, thinking more wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely, remembering more firmly and judging more soundly. It is possible that the contrast between then and now may be like the contrast between telegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity, between photograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness, between a full-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completeness of the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self.
But, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires which may lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid cares and weary toil. ‘The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.’ The redeemed body will have in it nothing to tempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the spirit and a source of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, it has its weaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. We must not be tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to ‘How do the dead rise, and with what body do they come?’ But we can lift our eyes to the mountain-top where Jesus went up to pray. ‘And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling’; and He was capable of entering into the Shekinah cloud and holding fellowship therein with the Father, who attested His Sonship and bade us listen to His voice. And we can look to Olivet and follow the ascending Jesus as He lets His benediction drop on the upturned faces of His friends, until He again passes into the Shekinah cloud, and leaving the world, goes to the Father. And from both His momentary transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we can draw the certain assurance that ‘He shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’
III. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ’s indwelling Spirit.
It is no natural result of death or resurrection, but is the outcome of the process begun on earth, by which, ‘through faith and the righteousness of faith,’ the spirit is life. The context distinctly enforces this view by its double use of ‘adoption,’ which in one aspect has already been received, and is manifested by the fact that ‘now are we the sons of God,’ and in another aspect is still ‘waited’ for. The Christian man in his regenerated spirit has been born again; the Christian man still waits for the completion of that sonship in a time when the regenerated spirit will no longer dwell in the clay cottage of ‘this tabernacle,’ but will inhabit a congruous dwelling in ‘the building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’
Scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a merely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to be satisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to both elements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second. It lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body as well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between the two, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that the process must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that the spirit must first be transformed, and then the body must be participant of the transformation.
All that Scripture says about ‘rising in glory’ is said about believers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They who have the Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it receive the glorified body which is like their Saviour’s. It is not enough to die in order to ‘rise glorious.’ ‘If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ The resurrection is promised for all mankind, but it may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living and no glory, nor any beauty and no blessedness. But the body may be ‘sown in weakness,’ and in weakness raised; it may be ‘sown in dishonour’ and in dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised a living death. ‘Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ Does that mean nothing? ‘They that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.’ Does that mean nothing? There are dark mysteries in these and similar words of Scripture which should make us all pause and solemnly reflect. The sole way which leads to the resurrection of glory is the way of faith in Jesus Christ. If we yield ourselves to Him, He will plant His Spirit in our spirits, will guide and growingly sanctify us through life, will deliver us by the indwelling of the Spirit of life in Him from the law of sin and death. Nor will His transforming power cease till it has pervaded our whole being with its fiery energy, and we stand at the last men like Christ, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit, ‘according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv21–23 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from…
that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God .
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v23 Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.
adoption
Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v23 The sighing hope of the Christians and the Spirit’s…
The sighing hope of the Christians and the Spirit’s intercession:
v. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Read full note →
v. 24. For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
v. 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
v. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
v. 27. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
But not only so, not only does the whole creation groan and long for deliverance, but also we ourselves that have the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves sigh within ourselves, longing for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We Christians, having received the Spirit of God from above, have the first-fruits of the future world, of the heavenly glory, in our hearts, as a definite guarantee of the full bliss which shall be ours in the future, Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22. And yet sighs arise from the depths of our soul, groans and cries for deliverance. We Christians are deeply affected, painfully touched, by the woes and miseries of the present world. And therefore our sighing incidentally represents and expresses our anxious, eager longing for the full revelation of our sonship. We are children of God even now, by faith, through the working of the Spirit. But we long to enter into the full possession and enjoyment of our inheritance above, into the redemption of our body, the complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin. All eyes and all hearts are directed toward that blessed hour when Christ will finally and completely deliver our mortal body from the bonds of vanity and of death, when He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Php 3:21.
The Christians are sure of the final participation in the deliverance of the body and of the full enjoyment of their sonship. But meanwhile the present time, the time in this world, is a time of waiting and hoping. We have the glories of heaven in expectation or prospect: salvation is a blessing which we have in hope, which we are sure of possessing in the future. For if the object of hope, the full enjoyment of our adoption, the perfect deliverance from sin and its consequences, were a matter of the present time and possession, then we could not speak of hope; for if one sees a thing before him, why should he yet hope? Hoping and seeing exclude each other. And so the apostle concludes regarding the peculiarity of hope, its essential feature: If we hope for that which we see not, then we wait through patience and endurance, we steadfastly and longingly wait for it. At the present time we Christians are placed under the obligation of patience, under the necessity of anxious expectation. Knowing the certainty of our future bliss, all the affliction of the present time and life cannot shake our hope. "Salvation, in its fullness, is not a present good, but a matter of hope, and, of course, future; and if future, it follows that we must wait for it in patient and joyful expectation. " (Hodge.)
Having shown that all creation longs for deliverance, and that the Christians are likewise groaning and sighing for the full revelation of their salvation and its glorious blessings, the apostle now states, for our further encouragement, that the Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our infirmity. Although we Christians have the knowledge which pertains to our salvation and are sure of the final revelation of the glory of God in us, yet we are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of our faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. The divine assistance, therefore, is so necessary because we Christians have not the proper conception of the manner and importunity of prayer for the things that we are in need of; our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance: He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christians finally converge, the salvation of our souls. And not only that, but He Himself intercedes for us with sighings and groanings that cannot be clothed in the speech of man. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers’ hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body. And then their tottering faith is renewed in strength, then a new joy and consolation takes possession of their hearts, and the believers may again look up to God in believing confidence. All such inarticulate sighs in the hearts of the Christians, although they are not and cannot be clothed in the words of human speech, are nevertheless fully intelligible to God. He that searches, investigates, the hearts is fully conscious of, perfectly acquainted with, the mind of the Spirit. The omniscient God knows what the Spirit has in mind in those groanings whose content cannot be expressed in the words of human language. For the Spirit intercedes for the saints, as the believers are fitly called on account of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ which they have experienced, in a manner which agrees fully with the will and with the glory of God. With holy, godly zeal, in full accordance with the immeasurable, divine content of our hope, with the fervor of divine love He intercedes before God in our behalf, to insure to us the glory which has been prepared for us in heaven. Thus the unspeakable greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us, and for our possession of which the Holy Ghost adds His interceding pleading and groaning, is a source of permanent, glorious comfort to the Christians.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v23 who have the firstfruits of the Spirit
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit
Paul compares believers' receiving the Holy Spirit to the firstfruits and vegetables of the season to grow. This emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is only the beginning of what God will give to believers. AT: who have the first of the gifts God gives to us, namely, the Holy Spirit" (See: Metaphor)
Read full note →
waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body
Here "our adoption" means when we become full members of God's family, as adopted children. The word "redemption" means when God saves us. AT: "waiting for when we are fully members of God's family and he saves our bodies from decay and death" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)
For in this certain hope we were saved
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "For God saved us because we hoped in him" (See: Active or Passive)
Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he can see?
Paul uses a question to help his audience understand what "hope" is. AT: "But if we are confidently waiting, that means we do not yet have what we want. No one can confidently wait if he already has what he wants" (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
firstfruits
Holy Spirit
adoption
redeem
confidence
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22–23 8:22 The pains of childbirth is a metaphor for…
8:22 The pains of childbirth is a metaphor for the longing of creation (see also Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8; John 16:20-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.