The Groaning of the Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Romans 8:17-25
Romans 8:17-25
17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
Introduction:
Cemetery on the way to the beach - “these are your people”
Touring cemetery in Edinburgh = Greyfriars Kirkyard
**Interesting what people put on their tombstones - much of it how they are connected to people - especially parents and children.
"He died in bed." — Tombstone of renowned gunfighter Doc Holliday (1851—1887)."
“Here lies John Yeast. Pardon me for not rising.”
Tombstone of Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), British director."For a good time, dig.""
"I told you I was sick." - William H. Hahn Jr., buried in Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ.
What we choose to write on the stones above our final resting places say so much about how we understand our identity. What is it that we want to be remembered for when it’s all said and done?
This is a 1st question of spirituality: Who am I? A question of identity.
v17: “Since we are his children.”
Reality: When we acknowledge Jesus as the supreme authority in our life and choose to follow him the Scriptures teach us that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:14 “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
Romans 8:16 “16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.”
John 1:12 “12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
Now what does it mean to be a child of God?
Now adding to these in our passage today:
As children of God, we are Connected to Jesus and all that belongs to him - in other words - Inheritance.
Romans 8:17 “17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.
Heirs - image of oldest son. The lion’s share of wealth, power, and influence so the estate of the Father isn’t diluted.
But what is the inheritance we receive?
In God’s unbelievable generosity ALL believers will receive the lion’s share of the Father’s glory.
We will be glorious, beautiful, as Christ already is.
Remember we are “image bearers” - Made in his image.
How would you think about yourself differently if you really believed, really imagined, that there will be a day in your future where you will be beautiful, pure, perfect, bright, magnificent, and glorious just like Jesus?
As Children of God, we are also Connected to each other.
-Our Father - Jesus taught us to pray.
“When our trust in God erodes, so does our intimacy with others. Adam and Eve, once ‘naked and unashamed, instinctively started covering up with fig leaves. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray the scandal wasn’t only the name he chose for God. He didn’t teach them to pray to “my Father.” He said, “Our Father”, a claim about not only who we are to God but equally who we are to one another - sister and brother. All of us, siblings in one family, one bloodline. I so easily forget the sacredness of the people I encounter in my everyday routine, treating them as extras in the background of a feature film in which I play the lead. My wife and children, the coworkers at my office, the people I meet with, the people I briskly rush past on the sidewalk and sit next to on the city bus- all of them, extras. When our trust in God is fractured, so is our intimacy with one another.” - Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Stanton
As children of God, we are Connected to the Creation - or rather the creation is connected to us:
Romans 8:19–22 “19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
People ask, if God is good, why is the world such a messed up place? Why are there “natural” disasters? The reality is there is nothing natural about the chaos and death in the world. All is not right in the world.
v20 “against its will, all creation was subjected to futility (ESV).
World is marked by death and decay. - NOT OF ITS OWN DOING
v22: So the creation is “groaning” crying out - all is not well.
The glory - the magnificence and beauty and radiance and power of God will be revealed not just to us but through us . v19 “all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.” -public uncovering
(future day when God will reveal who his children really are) will be so magnificent, so all-encompassing, so powerful that it will literally overwhelm all of the created order.
“We will bring nature with us into a renewed, restored, redeemed reality.”
Creation - the ground, the mountains, the oceans, the trees, the flowers, the grass, the animals - all are “waiting eagerly” for a moment when God publicly uncovers who we are - in the radiance of the glory God made us to reflect we will be rightly restored as image bearers and stewards (caretakers) of the creation. This was the original intention. And when the order of authority is rightly restored - all of creation will reflect the glory it was also made to reflect.
NT Wright put it this way: “Creation will, be set free from its slavery to decay; and this will happen when the Messiah’s people are glorified, raised from the dead and thereby given their always-intended authority over the world. This is the glory that will be revealed upon us in verse 18. This is the revelation of God’s children from verse 19. The proper translation of verse 21 is therofre something like what I have offered: creation will in that new day ‘enjoy the freedom that comes when God’s children are glorified.” (NT Wright, 127)
What does it cost to be a child of God?
2 Kinds of Suffering involved in being sons and daughters:
1. Discipline:
Good Father’s discipline - root word of discipleship by the way - not to punish - but to protect, provide, guide - like a good shepherd.
Hebrews 12:6–7 “6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” 7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?”
Image of Psalm 23 “A psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. 3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. 4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. 6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”
2. “if we are to share his glory, we must also share in his suffering.”
We share in the suffering of Jesus.
Rejection of Christ. We should expect the same.
When we live for him and represent him in the world we should expect the same response from a world that is opposed to him, but desperately needs him.
1 Peter 4:13 “13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”
How then should we live?
Romans 8:23–25 “23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)”
What is this saying?
As people who know that our best day is in yet in front of us and one day all of our painful days will be behind us.
We live in the Now and Not Yet reality of the King of light and glory who has broken into the darkness and despair of the world - and is coming to finish things once and for all.
In the meantime some truths:
We are a grieving, mourning people. A word on grief and lament. It’s the way to real life!
Mourning our sinfulness.
Mourning all that is not yet right in the world.
God is with us. v23: “We have the Holy Spirit within us”
We have tasted eternity “as a foretaste of future glory” - when we experience a bit of his presence, his love, his kindness, his peace, his forgiveness in the smile of a loved one, in the swaying of trees and chirping of birds, in the forgiveness of a friend or spouse - we’ve tasted eternity.
We are a people of longing.
Release from bodies that are weak and poisoned by sin, sickness, pain, and death.
But we are a people of EAGER HOPE!
We cling to the promise that because of Jesus we will one day experience what it’s like to live with the full rights of his adopted children - including new bodies! Resurrection is embodied hope!
We wait confidently and patiently!
To Christ be the glory.
Amen
What is God’s project in the world?
He is making all things new through the finished work of his son Jesus.
What does this Good News mean for us?
What this Good News mean for the creation?
Who are we as followers of Jesus?
a. v16: we are children of God
How do we know?
The Spirit himself bears witness (what does this mean?)
b.Who are we?
heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ
What does it mean to be an heir?
To inherit what belongs to the Father.
2. What does it mean for us to be an heir?
Suffering and Glorification.
a. First, suffering: crucifixion, death
b. What does this look like in the life of a Jesus follower?
c. What does suffering look like in the whole of creation?
i. “for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly” (ESV)
ii. Futility teaching
3. Glorification
Glory
Our thoughts on glory: old glory, going to glory
For Paul and the Hebrew scriptures: glory refers to rule or power
royal term symbolized visually in crowns with bright light streaming in all directions.
The bright light isn’t the glory itself. - the light tells you about the glory
the honor of the person being glorified is symbolized by the bright light
It means that god’s creative power and wisdom will as we say shine out visibly all around
Double Meaning of Glory
God’s reign and power and full presence
The two bifurcated parts of the creation coming back together - heaven and the earth - the place where God dwells and the place where we currently dwell becoming one place filled with the radiance of his wisdom and creative power at the center.
But second the divine glory and the human glory coming astonishingly together.
“those who are declared sons of God are given the human glory, dignity and authority of being set under God and over the world.
The very purpose of humanity is wrapped up in the story of God returning to rule - under right authority and our right God given role as stewards of the creation - right authority over creation.
Bottom Line: What are we waiting for?
Sufferings of this present time.
state of the world
relationally
physically
spiritually
Not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Glory
Our thoughts on glory: old glory, going to glory
For Paul and the Hebrew scriptures: glory refers to rule or power
royal term symbolized visually in crowns with bright light streaming in all directions.
The bright light isn’t the glory itself. - the light tells you about hte glory
the honor of the person being glorified is symbolized by the bright light
It means that god’s creative power and wisdom will as we say shine out visibly all around
Double Meaning of Glory
God’s reign and power and full presence
The two bifurcated parts of the creation coming back together - heaven and the earth - the place where God dwells and the place where we currently dwell becoming one place filled with the radiance of his wisdom and creative power at the center.
But second the divine glory and the human glory coming astonishingly together.
“those who are declared sons of God are given the human glory, dignity and authority of being set under God and over the world.
The very purpose of humanity is wrapped up in the story of God returning to rule - under right authority and our right God given role as stewards of the creation - right authority over creation.
Unpack Psalm 8
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Divine glory isn’t just something we witness, rather it is something that comes upon us.
Receiving our inheritance which is our right rule over the creation
Ramifications for the creation itself.
Subjected to God’s curse which is better defined as futility
Define futility = subject to decay - not able to fulfill the purpose for which it was created
need an example here
But now the creation itself will be “will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (ESV)
Again an image of inheritance. As the children of God join the Messiah in receiving his inheritance and participating in his reward so does the creation join the children of God in a right reordering of things with humans re-installed as wise, good stewards of the whole earth.
This is ultimately a vision of humans being the “royal priesthood” (Revelation 1:6 “and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” charged with stewarding the place of God’s presence which is meant to be the whole of the created order.
“Creation will, he declares, be set free from its slavery to decay; and this will happen when the Messian’s people are glorified, raised from the dead and therby given their always-intended authority over the world. This is the glory that will be revealed upon us in verse 18. This is the revelation of God’s children from verse 19. The proper translation of verse 21 is therofre something like what I have offered: creation will in that new day ‘enjoy the freedom that ocmes when God’s children are glorified.” (NT Wright, 127)
Notes on text:
VERSE 18:
What we suffer - pathos
our experience of suffering
that which befalls a man
reference to suffering of Christ
Luke 22:15 “And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
1 Peter 4:13 “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
Now - in the present time - the only time we can actually exist. The past and the future belong to God. We can access past and future through memory and imagination but can only truly exist as finite creatures in the present.
Maybe a short teaching here on finitude.
not worthy of comparison - “not of comparable value”
Doxa - glory - quality of splendid remarkable appearance.
Apocalepto - aka apocalypse - to take out of hiding, to reveal, to cause something to be fully known
later - future
Short teaching on “the best is yet to come” or “our best day is yet to come when we are followers of Jesus”
VERSE 19:
creation - the universe - reference to the Creator
Maybe a short teach on the congruence of creation and restoration. - both the work of the Father, Son, Spirit (as opposed to the teaching that the Father is wrathful and the Son is gracious)
waiting eagerly or with expectation - pregnant with hope
future day when God will reveal (one word): apocalypse derivative; unhiding, uncovering, revealing, image of pulling back the curtain on reality.
VERSE 20:
against its will - opposed to its self determination
the world and all that is in it
subjected to God’s futility
The Lexham English Bible Chapter 8
20 For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
HOPE.
Greek understanding:
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament A. The Greek Concept of Hope.
But hope is easily deceived11 and is dangerous. Only a god does not err in his expectations,12 and men’s ἐλπίδες are uncertain
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament A. The Greek Concept of Hope.
It can comfort the individual in distress: ἀπορίη ξυνὴ τῆς ἑκάστου χαλεπωτέρη· οὐ γὰρ ὑπολείπεται ἐλπὶς ἐπικουρίης (help) (Democr. Fr., 287 [II, 120, 5 f., Diels]). Thus the old fable10 tells us that Zeus gave man a vessel full of all good things but that man, filled with curiosity, lifted the lid, so that all the good things escaped to the gods and when the lid was put back only ἐλπίς was trapped, man’s present comfort.
Hebrew Understanding:
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament B. The OT View of Hope.
There is here something characteristic. In the OT there is no neutral concept of expectation. An expectation is either good or bad and therefore it is either hope or fear. Hope itself is thus differentiated linguistically from fear of the future.28 Hope as expectation of good is closely linked with trust, and expectation is also yearning, in which the element of patient waiting or fleeing for refuge is emphasised.
Hope is thus hope of the good, and so long as there is life there is hope (Qoh. 9:4). But this hope is not a consoling dream of the imagination which causes us to forget our present troubles, nor are we warned of its uncertainty, as in the Greek world. The life of the righteous is grounded in hope. To have hope, to have a future, is a sign that things are well with us.29 This hope is naturally directed to God.30 It is naturally referred to most frequently when man is in trouble and hopes that God will deliver and help him.
The point is that for the Greeks (half of the church in Rome, hope is rooted in a pagan understanding of deity that is not benevolent towards humans and that hope is subjective and therefore uncertain. In contrast, the Hebraic understanding is that hope is rooted in good things that come from God and should be expected if a person is rooted in right relationship with God.
VERSE 21:
Creation or universe
looks forward (with hope)
to the day (point in specific forward time)
when it will join
God’s children
in glorious remarkable appearance (changed materially)
in freedom (where the Spirit of the Lord is present and there is no longer domination, or a person is not dominated or inordinately constrained)
from the slavery of decay (the trajectory post Eden - East of Eden)
VERSE 22:
For we know that all creation
has been groaning
as in the pains of childbirth (tie back to identification with children of God)
All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way?
I wonder if my life could really change at all?
All this Earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos, life is being found in You
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
Oh, you make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
Making me new
You make beautiful things (you make me new)
You make beautiful things out of the dust (you are making me new, You make me new)
You make beautiful things (you are making me new)
You make beautiful things out of us (you make me new)
Oh, you make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
