52 | Romans | Romans 8:18-25 | What We’ve All Been Waiting For

INTRODUCTION

Last week, v12-17.

Because the believer has been set free from the flesh and given the Spirit of life, he owes the flesh nothing and now puts sin to death by the Spirit—not as a fearful slave, but as an adopted son and heir with Christ on the way to glory.

Glorious!!!

The last sentence of last week began …

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—hears of God and fellow heirs of Christ …

Glorious!!!

Then Paul throws us a difficult word again.

Here in this chapter of mounting glory, Paul situates us in our current reality.

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ …

… provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For all the relief of no condemnation.

For all the freedom of righteousness in Christ.

For all the joy of life in the Spirit.

The believer still suffers in this life.

Not that he may suffer, but that he must suffer.

Situated in current suffering … for all the hope of glory … future glory awaits.

PRAY

4:00

Read v18

So v18 introduces this tension of …

… current suffering as the way of Christ and all who are in him

… and future glory with him.

But he quickly resolves this tension by means of perspective.

When he compares contrasts current suffering with future glory …

THERE IS NO COMPARISON

not worth comparing

Present sufferings are real.

And the present sufferings are nothing compared to future glory.

When placed on the balancing scales to consider their weight:

2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

The point is not that we do not consider our present suffering.

It is not that we pretend that it is not there.

Quite the opposite, we consider the present sufferings.

And when considered, when weighed, even as we suffer with Christ in the present age …

… AND when we consider glory, when we the future glory into which we are coming by faith

… the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Despising the shame …

… our Lord looked to glory.

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The Glory

This is important for us to understand the remainder of this passage.

The glory described here is not the general glory of heaven.

It isn’t the general glory of the kingdom that is to come.

It is specifically the glory that is to be “revealed to us.”

It is something to be received at a specific future moment.

As we will see, it is the fulness of the glory of resurrection.

The glory which is the resurrected Christ’s today …

… and which is ours by right on account of our union with Christ today

… will be ours by possession on that day of revelation.

10:00

So these two things are true:

Already ours by right in Christ

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

We have been raised with Christ!

Our life is hidden in him.

This is our right in Christ.

So, when he appears, we will also appear with him.

Not yet ours by possession

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

That is where we belong, but it is not where we presently live.

How will we enter?

We await entrance into that glorious residence

… for the day when the Lord transforms our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

Our glorious residence in the glorious place of our citizenship awaits the glory of the resurrection.

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APPLY

Fellow pilgrim sufferer, have you considered your suffering in light of glory?

Do you await that day as one who will actually participate in glory?

2 Timothy 4:8 ESV

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

15:00

Read v19-21.

CREATION WAITING

Creation is waiting for something.

What does this mean?

First, it must mean that:

At present the glory is concealed.

But it will be revealed.

The Sons of God

What does it mean that the “sons of God” will be revealed?

John Murray Not till then will the children of God be made manifest to themselves and others in the plenitude of their status and privilege as sons, and not until they are all glorified together with Christ will the body of Christ be manifested in its integrity and unity.

To themselves and others:

This is both personal and corporate.

In that future day of resurrection glory …

… we will not only see and experience what it means to be fully alive

… we will also see what the fulness of the church looks like.

This church, this eternal collection of the redeemed from every time and every place …

… be gathered into their final glorified state

… and we will see her.

We will see the bride prepared for the Son.

Creation waits with eager longing to see the bride of its Maker.

The new Adam will gather to himself his new Eve.

And together, the new creation will no longer be subjected to the futility of the curse …

… but will be resurrected to the glory of redemption.

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Present Suffering of Creation: Subjected

to futility

frustration of corruption, decay and death

Every morning the dew falls upon the ground …

… and the seed presses out from the earth

… and strains toward he sun

… only to be scorched by its heat

… to become withered by disease

… and under the dark of night

… to decay again into the ground.

The mountains rise and crumble.

The seas are blown and tossed.

The creates of the air and earth rise and fall.

And all is vanity.

Subjected to futility.

20:00

not willingly

By whom was creation subjected to death?

neither creation, nor Satan, nor mankind

but byGod.

Yes, it was on account of the sin of Adam that sin came …

… but death was the active judgement of God himself set loose upon creation.

in hope

This is important, because, while God is the one who has brought down, not only on man, but on all of creation, the judgement of death with its futility …

… only the Lord could have worked this judgement in a manner as achieve its end—hope!

The Lord could have pronounced the sentence and finalized the judgement of death:

But creation, with all of mankind, lingers in this state of corruption and futility until the Lord accomplishes the fullness of his purpose in redemption.

So, when will creation know that all has been accomplished?

When will the futility end and death be no more?

When the sons of God are revealed.

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APPLY

Creation itself was made for the glory of mankind to live and rule in and over it.

Creation is fashioned to move toward this end.

If creation was made to endure to this end …

… how much more are we too also fit to wait to this end which is our own glory.

23:00

Read v22-23.

CREATION GROANING

Creation groans

What is creation here?

Creation is the “things” of creation as distinguished from mankind.

Creation is the rocks and the trees.

The mountains and the forests, the sky and the seas …

… and all the creatures that inhabit them.

Creation personified:

Isaiah gives us a similar image of creation’s rejoicing when Israel returns from her exile.

Isaiah 55:12 ESV

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

26:00

But we do not see creation rejoicing today.

We see creation groaning in the …

The Pains of Childbirth

Yes, pains. Groaning in the reality of pains.

But these are death throws. This is birth!

The pains are not indications of death, but life.

So, in the end, it is not futility but hope.

As a recent mother who has endured some of the greatest pain imaginable …

… so quickly smiles through tears to behold and embrace the beauty of the newborn child.

What of the pain?

Not worth comparing with the glory that is revealed.

28:00

Read v23.

Also we ourselves

It was in the midst of COVID that we began to say …

… after the readings of the words of institution:

… until he comes. Lord come quickly!

Revelation 22:20 ESV

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Firstfruits of the Spirit

We have the Spirit, and yet we groan for glory.

groan inwardly

Not merely groaning under the suffering, but toward redemption fully revealed.

29:30

For what are we waiting? What are we groaning toward?

awaiting

adoption as sons

adoption now WITH adoption THEN.

This is the already and not yet tension of living in hope.

resurrection of bodies

Imagine a resurrected body that agrees with the renewed mind, that the way of the Lord is good.

31:00

Read v24-25

SAVED IN HOPE

v24 - We were saved.

This is the salvation that the believer has already come into by grace through faith.

GOSPEL

We yet hope.

For in this hope we were saved.

The character and orientation of our current salvation is hope.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So how do we live?

What is our present disposition?

2 Corinthians 5:6 ESV

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

We are of good courage, but we are not yet home.

2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

We are of good courage, and we long to go home.

Why do we hope?

Because we have not yet taken full, realized possession of what will be ours when the glory is revealed.

Ah! But we do hope!

Because it is coming.

And it is worth the wait.

35:00

APPLY

A genuinely Christian imagination knows the reality of the pains of childbirth.

We know we really do live in the presence of real suffering.

And we know that the suffering will not be going away in this life …

… precisely because we hope for the time in which the birth pains will become the glory of resurrection.

We have these two confident assurances.

We expect suffering in this age.

We expect glory in the age to come.

You are not dying.

You are being brought into the new creation.

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