Good morning, church.
We are looking at Romans chapter 8 again this morning.
We're going to focus in on verses 18 through 22.
Let me invite you to turn there with me in the Pew Bible, Romans 8, verses 18 through
22.
The page number is in the bulletin if you need help finding that.
We're going to look closely at these words this morning, so it'll be helpful if you have
it open before you.
Romans chapter 8, verse 18.
As we come to God's Word, let me pray for us.
God, as we've just sung, we pray that you would, by your Spirit, give us a posture of humility
now as we come before you in your Word.
Lord, like Isaiah the prophet many years ago, we acknowledge that before you, our holy God,
we are an unclean people.
We are unclean in our lips, unclean in our hearts.
God, only by your grace are we cleansed.
So, as we come to your Word, we thank you for the grace that allows us to have ears that
are open and hearts that are soft before you.
We pray that your Spirit would take these words that you've inspired and that He would
bring them like a gardening tool deep into our hearts to dig up that earth and sow good
seed there, that it might bear much fruit in our life as a church.
Thank you for working, God, in our midst.
Thank you for being faithful to us, your people.
Thank you for not abandoning us.
Thank you for giving us this moment when you, God, speak to us.
Give us ears to hear.
We pray for Christ's sake.
Amen.
So, Romans chapter 8, we're going to pick up, we're going to begin in verse 16 to catch
some of the context for our sermon passage this morning.
Let me begin in verse 16.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer
with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the
glory that is to be revealed to us.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected
it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and
obtain the glory, the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until
now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown
inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved.
A hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees.
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
So, there are some passages in Scripture where you are allowed to step back and take in the
whole view.
There are some moments in the Bible where you get glimpses of the whole story in very short
scope.
And Romans 8 verses 18 and following is actually one of those places.
Up until this point in Romans 8, it's as if we've been following Paul on a trail through
a dense forest.
We've been going really slowly through this dense forest this fall, looking at all the
details.
And it's been beautiful in its own right.
The trees have been towering above.
The sunlight has been streaming through the canopy.
But here in verse 18, the trail suddenly comes out of the thick undergrowth.
And we find ourselves standing atop a cliff's edge.
And what bursts into view is a breathtaking sight.
A deep valley stretches out below.
You're up so high now that you can see whole towns scattered into the distance.
You can see smoke rising from chimneys.
You can see the cars driving on the interstate.
You can see for miles and miles into the horizon.
You can see mountains rising up in majesty.
You can see the ocean in the distance.
You can see the ocean stretching even further beyond, farther than your eye can see.
Here we stand in Romans 8, in this moment, taking in the whole scope of redemption and
breathtaking heights.
But this majestic view in Romans 8, 18 and following is here actually for a very practical
pastoral purpose.
Paul has just been describing in verses 14 through 17 how all those who believe in Jesus are made
God's children.
And if we are God's children, Paul says, then we are God's heirs.
Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
But if we are heirs with Christ, Paul says, then we will come into that inheritance in the
same way as Jesus our King did.
In other words, the road to glory will be marked with suffering.
Paul ends verse 17 by saying, provided we suffer with Christ in order that we may also
be glorified with him.
Suffering and glory were inseparable for Jesus, weren't they?
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, Hebrews says.
And it will be the same for us as followers.
1 Peter 5 says that it's only after we have suffered a little while that we will enter into
eternal glory in Christ.
And this suffering that Paul is talking about here is not just persecution for the name of
Christ, although it certainly includes that.
It also takes within its scope the whole host of hardships and afflictions and diseases and
broken relationships and heartbreaks that we will face in this life, in this age, in this
fallen world.
Being a child of God does not exempt us from these things in this age, you see.
And when that suffering comes, whether it's a chronic bad back from that injury so many
years ago, or whether it's cancer that takes your life, whether it's a friendship that's
strained or whether it's a marriage that's on the verge of meltdown, whether it's a season
of unemployment or a natural disaster that steals everything earthly that you love, your home,
your family, your community, when suffering comes, as verse 17 says, it will, what is it
that will keep us from walking away?
What will keep us from thinking, God, if this is how you treat your children, no thanks.
Paul has a very practical pastoral reason for leading us out of the woods to this high cliff's
edge so we can take in the whole breathtaking view.
Look at verse 18 again.
For I consider, Paul says.
I consider.
This isn't Paul's sort of private opinion.
This isn't sort of his ephemeral emotional response to some fleeting reality.
No, this is Paul using his mind and thinking deeply, reasoning deeply about what he knows to
be true in light of who God is and the gospel.
As if to say we're not to be blown and tossed by sloppy thinking.
No, Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Suffering and glory may be inseparable for the Christian, but they are not comparable, Paul says.
Put them on a scale.
That's a bit of what considering means.
Weigh them up.
Take the sufferings of this now time, this present age, and put them over here.
And now take the glory that is to be revealed to us and put it on the other side.
And Paul says, watch the scales tip so quickly that those sufferings suddenly seem so light
in comparison.
Now, what's Paul not saying here?
He's not saying that suffering isn't suffering.
He's not saying that evil is not evil.
He's not denying the harsh, awful reality of our existence in a fallen world.
He's not turning a blind eye to Alzheimer's or depression.
He's not saying earthquakes and hurricanes don't matter or aren't really that bad.
No, but he wants us to know.
Paul wants us to know how to face those things when they come.
And he says, put it on the scale.
There's a glory that's going to be revealed.
God is going to unfurl a beauty of such staggering dimensions in the coming age,
a breathtaking majesty of such proportion that the real sufferings of this present time will
not be worth comparison.
And this glory will not just be revealed to us as if we'll sort of see it from afar and that's it.
No, the word there actually means it will be revealed unto us.
We will be participants in the glory to come.
We will be swept up along with it.
What God has in store in his coming glory isn't going to be a sort of mere movie that we get to watch
in comfy stadium seating with a cup holder there and it sort of reclines.
Have you been to those movie theaters?
That's not what God has in store.
It's not going to be like watching a movie.
We know what's coming is going to be a drama for us to enact.
Each of us with a part in hand.
Each of us with a role to play.
God's glory will come and it will sweep us into it as his children.
So what is it?
What is this vision, this practical pastoral vision of glory that Paul lays out for us
so that when suffering comes on the path of discipleship, we won't give up?
Well, it's a vision of glory that has two interlocking parts.
The first part is a vision of God's creation.
The second part is a vision of God's children, of us Christians.
And they're interwoven, they're interlocked in this passage.
And we're actually going to spend two weeks in our morning service
unpacking this interlocking vision.
Today we're going to look at verses 19 through 22
and see what Paul has to say about God's creation, that first element.
And then next week Greg's going to pick up in verse 23
and we're going to consider what God has to say,
what Paul has to say about us Christians, about us as God's children.
So God's creation this week, God's children next week
in this vision of glory to come.
So what does Paul want us to see about God's creation
and the incomparable glory that's in store for us?
Well, first, before Paul actually gets into that,
he wants to teach us a little bit.
He wants us first to see that the present state of this world
is not how it was originally intended to be.
Let's get our thinking right, Paul says.
Look at verse 20.
Verse 20 says,
the creation was subjected to futility.
Now it's easy to look around the world and see futility, isn't it?
That same word futility is used in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes,
chapter 1.
Everything under the sun, the writer of Ecclesiastes observes,
it never seems to go anywhere.
Empires are built, empires fall.
The wise man builds up an inheritance,
but it's left to a fool.
Pleasures come and pleasures go.
Everything seems trapped in a cycle of decay and disrepair.
And as soon as you think you've made your mark,
the tides of history rise and wash it all away.
And those books you've labored long to write
are found in the dusty corners of a used bookshop somewhere
that will eventually go out of business thanks to Amazon.
It's easy to look around and see futility, isn't it?
Frustration, even emptiness.
But that's not how it began.
Creation didn't begin this way.
It's not how it's supposed to be.
You see, look carefully at what Paul says here.
The creation was subjected to futility.
Something happened along the way.
And here Paul's alluding to the opening chapters of Genesis,
where as a result of Adam's rebellion against God,
God didn't just banish Adam and Eve from the garden,
but God also cursed the ground.
God subjected creation to futility.
Now you have to see that God's intention for humanity,
God's intention for us as his unique image bearers,
he intended us to be stewards of creation.
This is why he made us and put us in the created order.
He put us there to joyfully unlock
and discover this created order's potential,
to unwrap its latent potencies and its treasures,
to unwrap them like a gift that we would offer back to God.
We were meant to sort of take our place in this created order
and to tune it like an instrument
so that it would sing the praises of its creator.
But as a result of Adam's sin,
and as a judgment on that sin,
God subjected creation to futility.
No longer would it yield its treasure,
now it would produce thorns and thistles.
And Adam and his descendants would extract the good from it
only by painful toil and sweat
until death claimed them
and they returned to the dust from which they had been taken.
What does all this mean?
Friends, it means that the present futility
futility of the created order
from the worst of natural disasters
to the weeds that choke out
your measly little vegetable garden
are a signpost.
The futility of creation is a signpost
declaring that our relationship with God
has been broken because of sin
and desperately needs to be repaired.
The futility of creation is like a giant hedge
on our self-centered path.
Because as fallen humans,
we want to live life without God, right?
We want to be our own lords
and our own saviors.
We don't want anything to do with God.
Thank you very much.
We want to seek our joy and life and peace
apart from God and apart from God's rule
on our own two feet.
We want to run things our own way.
But in God's severe mercy to us,
He subjects His good creation to futility
against its own will
so that we rebellious humans
will be constantly reminded
that our satisfaction can't be found
in created things,
but only in our Creator.
So that we would be constantly reminded
that we aren't in control
and we can't be the master of our own destiny.
And that if we keep trying,
a much worse fate awaits us,
an eternity without God.
So friends, if you sometimes get the sense
that this world isn't the way it's supposed to be,
that all the evil and suffering and chaos
isn't how it should be,
then there is a sense in which you are utterly right.
But are you listening rightly to the signpost
that creation was subjected to futility?
That's point number one,
that the present state of the world
is not the way it was originally supposed to be.
But here's point number two,
the present state of the world
is not the way it will always be.
Look again at verse 20.
For the creation was subjected to futility,
not willingly,
but because of him who subjected it in hope.
God subjected creation to futility
as a judicial sentence on Adam's sin,
but God did so in hope.
When God struck the ground,
he did so with a plan,
with a purpose,
with a goal in mind.
God subjected creation to futility
in redemptive hope.
What is the future?
This hope that God has in store for creation.
Look at verse 21,
in hope that the creation will be set free.
One day, Paul says,
creation itself will be set free.
It'll be liberated.
Its shackles will come off.
Its chains will be broken.
And what is it going to be set free from?
The creation will be set free from
its bondage to corruption.
That word corruption here means
decay and decline
and disintegration.
Of course, yes,
there is now still amazing beauty in the world.
There is now still life and birth
and growth and joy,
but none of these present graces
escape the cycle of decay
and disease and death now, do they?
Creation is enslaved to futility,
to disintegration,
but not forever.
One day, it will be set free
from the tyranny of decay.
That's what it will be set free from.
What will it be set free for?
Verse 21 again,
the creation will be set free
from its bondage to corruption
and obtain the freedom
of the glory of the children of God.
And it's here.
It's right here in this very moment.
This is the moment
when we step out of the forest trail
and onto the cliff's edge.
This is where we get the breathtaking view.
This is what, as verse 19 says,
creation is waiting for
with eager longing.
Paul says the whole created order
is standing on tiptoe,
stretching its neck,
craning forward.
That's the image of eager longing
in verse 19.
Creation is straining out its neck
to see with eager expectation.
What is it eagerly expecting?
What is it yearning for?
What is it waiting for?
For the revealing of the sons of God.
Or as verse 21 puts it,
for the glory of the children of God.
So friends,
if you've come to put your trust in Christ,
if you've put your faith in Him,
and you are a daughter,
you are a son of God,
and this verse is about you.
In Christ,
you have become one of God's children,
and God's purpose,
God's plan,
God's supreme hope for creation
is bound up with you.
When the children are revealed in glory,
it will bring all creation with them.
When Christ returns in this old age,
finally gives way to the age to come,
when the sun comes up
and drives away the darkness forever,
on that day,
all of God's children will be seen
as they truly are in Christ.
We will be raised imperishable,
incorruptible,
and we will take our place
with Christ as heirs,
as the regents of creation
God originally made us to be.
And then,
as the sons and daughters of God
take their place,
at long last,
creation will be set free.
And you just thought
you were coming to church.
This is how it was meant to be, friends.
You see, Adam,
Adam,
as God's image bearer,
was meant
to lead creation
into glory.
Adam was meant to be
at the head of the train,
leading the procession
of creation
into the never-ending joy
of God.
Creation from the very start
had a direction,
and Adam was the one.
Humanity were the ones
who were supposed
to take it there.
But Adam failed.
And we've all continued
to fail after him.
Yet,
where Adam failed,
Christ has succeeded.
That through his perfect life.
Do you think they were just
magic tricks
that Christ came,
healing creation in his wake
during his earthly ministry?
In his life,
he was showing us
that he'd come
to set creation free
from its bondage to decay.
But how would he ultimately do it?
In death,
he would destroy death.
He would bear the curse
of Adam,
and he would bear the curse
of creation,
and he would go down
and swallow it whole.
And three days later,
he would rise.
And a new creation
would begin.
And friends,
through faith,
by his Spirit,
those who respond
to the call of God
that goes out
with the proclamation
of the gospel,
those who respond
to Christ in faith
and put their trust in him,
are made,
his brothers and sisters,
are made,
co-heirs with him.
And we,
along with Christ,
will lead,
once again,
the procession
of the created world
into the never-ending
joy of God.
And it won't end.
That's what never-ending means.
Because if God is an
infinitely majestic God,
then there must be
infinite ways
in which we,
as his creatures,
can enjoy it
and explore it
and display it.
Do you see the vision here?
God isn't going to
scrap this world,
annihilate it,
and start over.
He's got a much
deeper plan than that.
He's going to liberate it.
He's going to take
this material world
and it's going to be
set free and transformed.
And this is something
that the New Testament
says again and again
and again.
This isn't just Paul
being a weirdo.
This is what the New Testament
says again and again.
Jesus himself spoke
of the new birth
of the world
at his second coming.
Peter talked about
the restoration
of all things.
Paul elsewhere
will talk about
the reconciliation
of all things.
And John will speak
of the new heavens
and the new earth
where God dwells
with his people.
And we don't just see it
in the New Testament,
we see it in the Old Testament.
The Psalms speak
of creation clapping
their hands
and rejoicing
when God comes to judge.
We read it earlier.
Elizabeth read it for us.
Did you get an echo
of creation set free
from its bondage
to decay
in that Psalm
at the end?
Isaiah says
that God will one day
create a new heaven
and a new earth
and out of the desert
will come streams
of water
and ferocious
poisonous animals
will end up laying down
in peace.
Death,
disease,
decay
will be forever cast off.
Isaiah says
it's like a sheet
that's been laid over us,
like a shroud
that's come down,
a veil.
But he says
one day
it will be torn off
and on the mountain
of God
will be a feast
of rich food
and wine
for us to enjoy
forevermore.
God's material creation
will be redeemed
and glorified
because God's children
will be redeemed
and glorified.
Now,
if you're sitting there
speculating
how on earth
that's going to happen,
how these molecules
are going to make
those molecules,
well,
I think it's probably best
to let God
work out all the details
of transforming this world
into the world to come.
There's going to be continuity
and discontinuity.
Clearly,
what God has in store
is beyond our imaginations.
Yet,
what's in store?
This glimpse we're given
is meant
to start engaging
our hearts now.
It's meant
to instill in us
a sense
of the incomparable
glory to come
so that all
of our present suffering
can be considered
in the right perspective.
And our third
and last point
is meant to do
that very thing
to help reframe
our perspective
on present suffering.
If our first point,
if Paul's sort of
first point
looked to the past
when God subjected
creation to futility
and this next point,
the second point
sort of looked ahead
to when creation
will be liberated
from its bondage
to decay,
Paul now brings us
back to the present
in verse 22.
He comes back
to the here and now.
in creation,
he says,
is groaning.
And we hear it,
don't we?
We feel it,
groaning.
But you see,
this groaning
isn't the meaningless
groan
of futility
that it will never end.
And this groan
isn't the groan
of despair
in the face
of disease
and decay.
No,
what does Paul say?
This is the groan
of a mother
in labor.
The whole creation
has been groaning
together
in the pains
of childbirth
until now.
Now,
you can probably guess
that I have not
given birth,
but I have been
present for three.
And I think
it is a safe
assumption
to say that
childbirth
is a painful
process.
Excruciating
and exhausting.
It takes
the whole of you
and it lays
you down
in pain.
But in the end,
it's exhilarating,
is it not?
At the end
of the day,
the pain
of childbirth
is not worth
comparing
to the joy
of holding
a new child
in your arms.
I have never
seen
someone
move
from
excruciating
pain
to limitless
joy
in such
a second
as when
my children
were born.
And Paul
says,
friends,
the world
in which we live
is not a
random,
directionless
mass
of atoms
fluttering
this way
and that.
It's the
good creation
of a good
God
who,
yes,
subjected it
to futility,
but did so
in hope
that one day
it would be
set free
when Christ
and all the
children of God
are revealed
and God
gives birth
to a new
world
that fulfills
the deepest
longings
and intentions
that this one
was always
meant to
fulfill.
I mean,
goodness gracious
friends,
why do we
as human beings
still have an
impulse to
make art
and music?
Why do we
still have an
impulse to
wake up in
the morning
and go to
our jobs?
Why are
any of us
crazy enough
to have
children given
the present
state of
the planet?
it?
Why would
you bring
children into
this world?
Because you
and all,
you and I
know
that God
subjected it
to futility
and hope
and the
suffering
that we
see now
is not
the final
word.
They're the
birth pains
pointing ahead.
They're
excruciating.
They're
exhausting.
But one
day,
they will
give way
to joy.
But here's
where the
rubber hits
the road,
friends.
If you're
going to
be a part
of that
renewed
creation,
and all
of us
are beckoned
in,
if you're
going to
be a part
of that
renewal
of all
things,
then you
yourself
need to
be renewed.
And that
brings us
to the
heart of
the gospel,
that God
wanting to
create
and recreate
His people
so that they
might lead
creation into
glory,
in love,
sent His
one and only
Son into
the world,
who died
in the place
of sinners
to take away
the penalty
of sin
that we
deserve,
and who
rose again
on the third
day to give
us new
life.
You see,
how was it
that God
could subject
creation to
futility and
hope?
How would
God save
creation from
the futility
that He
sentenced it
to?
How would
God rescue
creation from
Himself?
Where did
the hope
spring from?
God save
Him?
It sprang from
the eternal
counsels of
our triune
God,
because God
the Father
and God
the Son
and God
the Holy
Spirit had
planned from
eternity a
work of
redemption,
that where sin
abounded,
grace would
much more
abound,
and where
death reigned,
life would
give way to
final victory.
from the
moment God
struck the
ground,
He already
knew that He
was going to
strike His
Son so that
we could all
be set free,
so that everyone
who comes and
takes hold of
Christ would
have their guilt
of sin
released,
their hearts
made new,
and they might
be adopted into
God's family and
made heirs of
this new creation
hope that God
has always had.
So friends,
if you hear
God's voice,
don't harden
your heart.
Place your
trust in the
One who came
in love for
you.
To all who
received Him,
who believed in
His name,
He gave them
the right to
become the
children of
God,
and if
children,
then heirs,
heirs of
God,
and co-heirs
with Christ.
And here is
the good news
for all of
those who
have trusted
in Christ.
God's going
to renew
all of
creation.
This whole
thing is going
to be transformed,
set free from
decay,
and we will
enjoy it
forever,
and God
will give us
new bodies
and minds
and hearts
to be able
to enjoy it.
But the best
thing of all
is this,
all of the
ways in which
creation was
meant to
display God's
glory will be
repaired.
When creation's
futility gives
way to the
liberty and the
glory of the
children of God,
we will then
taste and see
that the Lord
is good in
ways that you
and I right
now can't
imagine.
Friends,
if a sunset
thrills your
soul,
imagine what
that sunset
will be like
when creation
is set free
from its
bondage to
decay.
If the
massive redwoods
of California
speak of the
majesty of God,
if the stars
and constellations
and galaxies
declare how holy
and powerful
God is,
if the waves
pounding against
the shore echo
God's faithfulness
and greatness
and steadfast
love that just
keep coming
and coming
and don't
stop.
Imagine what
God will show
us of Himself
in the new
heavens and
the new earth
when we can
enjoy it with
totally new
bodies and
selves.
then we'll
see that the
sufferings of
this present
age really
aren't worth
comparing to
the glory that
is to be
revealed unto
us.
So hold on,
brothers and
sisters.
Hold on.
One day an
incomparable
glory is coming
and you will be
at the front of
the procession
with Christ,
your King.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we need
Your Spirit to
come and
testify to
our hearts
that we are
indeed Your
children.
And we need
Your Spirit to
come and make
this vision of
glory real to
us.
Oh God, we've
lived in the
futility of this
creation for so
long that sometimes
it just seems like
a dream.
And yet,
Holy Spirit,
bring us back to
the resurrection
of Christ, to
the conquest of
death, to the
beginning of the
new creation in
Him.
And Lord, help us
to see and to
trust Your Word that
one day that will
be true of all
things and we in
Christ with it at
its head.
And Lord, help us
apart that, in the
midst of suffering,
to hold these
things tightly, we
pray.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
So I'll stand.
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Oh, praise Him, hallelujah
Thou burning sun with golden dew
Thou silver moon is often lean
Oh, praise Him, oh, praise Him
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Now rushing with my heart so strong
Ye clouds that sail in heaven alone
Oh, praise Him, hallelujah
Thou rising moon in praise rejoin
The lights of evening fire roar
Oh, praise Him, oh, praise Him
Hallelujah, hallelujah
And let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
Oh, praise Him, oh, praise Him
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son
And praise the Spirit three in one
Oh, praise Him, oh, praise Him
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah
¡Oh, praise Him, hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, hallelujah
we
praise praise our father
Oh
Well friends feel free to stick around up here for fellowship.
There's coffee hour downstairs.
Feel free to meet someone new and encourage one another down there.
If you would like to