Today’s Groaning, Tomorrow’s Glory

If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've probably asked the question, even if you've never said it out loud. If God is good, and if I belong to him, why is life so hard sometimes?

Maybe you've watched a friend get cancer or sat in your kitchen at midnight with a stack of unpaid bills, wondering when the squeeze is going to ease up. Maybe you've prayed the same prayer for the same person for fifteen years and watched nothing change.

The Christian life was supposed to be different, wasn't it. We trusted Christ. The Spirit moved in and started teaching us to call God "Father." And then the days kept coming, and some of them were brutal, and we found ourselves asking what so many believers ask in the dark hours. Is this what salvation feels like?

Last week we looked at verses 12 through 17, where Paul told us we are adopted children of God, joint heirs with Christ. He ended with one phrase we might have wanted to skip past. "If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."

Today Paul picks up that phrase and stays with it for the next few verses. He's not going to pretend the suffering isn't real. He's going to put it next to something much bigger.

Let’s take a look at Romans 8:18-25

Romans 8:18–25 NKJV

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Let’s go back to verse 18. Paul picks up the idea of suffering.

YOUR SUFFERING IS NOT WORTH COMPARING TO YOUR GLORY (v. 18)

Romans 8:18 NKJV

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Paul opens with a calculation. He's done the math. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

GREEK NOTE: The word "consider" (logizomai) is an accounting term. It means to reckon, to count up, to figure out. Paul has weighed two things on a scale. On one side, present sufferings. On the other side, future glory. And he's telling us how the scale tips.

Paul’s used that word reckon already.

The scale isn't close. Paul says the sufferings of this present time aren't even in the same category as the glory that's coming. The future glory dwarfs the present pain.

Now let's be careful here. Paul is not making light of suffering. This is the same Paul who in 2 Corinthians 11 listed beatings and shipwrecks that nearly killed him. The same Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 1 that he despaired even of life. Our pain matters to him, and he is telling us our pain is not the last word.

Paul puts it more clearly in 2 Corinthians 4. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Light affliction. Eternal weight. That's the calculation.

Some of you are walking through something today that doesn't feel light. The diagnosis you got last month or the funeral you didn't see coming. Paul is standing beside you with the same Spirit you have, and he is saying that what's coming is so good it will make this look small in comparison`.

Sticky statement: Today's groaning is tomorrow's glory.

Let’s look at the next verses.

Romans 8:19–20 NKJV

19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;

ALL CREATION IS GROANING FOR THE SAME DAY YOU ARE (vv. 19-22)

Paul does something surprising in verses 19 through 22. He turns from us to the world around us. The whole created order, he says, is groaning too.

When Adam sinned, the curse fell on more than Adam. It fell on the ground he walked on. Thorns and thistles. Decay and death. The whole created order came under the same brokenness we feel in our bodies. Genesis 3 says God cursed the ground because of Adam's sin.

GREEK NOTE: The phrase "eagerly waits" (apekdechomai) is used seven times in the New Testament, and every single time it's used of the return of Christ. Paul uses the word three times in this passage alone (verses 19, 23, and 25). Creation and the believer are all pointed at the same horizon: the day Jesus comes back.

J.B. Phillips paraphrased verse 19 like this. "The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own." Picture creation on tiptoe. The mountains and the rivers, stretching up, waiting for the day God's children are revealed in glory.

Then in verse 22 Paul gives us his clearest picture. Let’s look at verse 21-22.

Romans 8:21–22 NKJV

21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

The image is labor. A woman in childbirth. The pain is almost unbearable, and no one is pretending it isn't happening. But the pain is going somewhere. It ends when the child arrives.

That's what Paul says is happening in the world right now. The cancer and the funerals are not random misery. They are the labor pains of a world being born again. When Christ returns and the children of God are revealed, creation will be delivered. The curse will be lifted, and the new heavens and new earth that the prophets saw will come.

If you've ever been in a delivery room, you know what labor sounds like. And you moms. You know personally what it feels like. But you also know that no mother in her right mind walks out partway through. She endures because she knows what's coming.

That's the world we live in right now. The labor is here. The end is coming.

Sticky statement: Today's groaning is tomorrow's glory.

YOU WAIT FOR WHAT YOU CAN'T YET SEE (vv. 23-25)

In verse 23, Paul brings the picture home to the believer.

Romans 8:23 NKJV

23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

We groan too. Even with the Spirit living in us. Especially with the Spirit living in us.

GREEK NOTE: The phrase "firstfruits of the Spirit" (aparche tou pneumatos) comes from the Old Testament harvest. A farmer would bring the first sheaf of his harvest to the temple as an offering, and that first sheaf was both a thanks for what God had given and a promise of the full harvest coming behind it. Paul says the Spirit in us is the firstfruits, the down payment on a much bigger inheritance.

When you bought your house, you probably put earnest money down. The earnest money is small compared to the price of the house, but it secures the sale. The Spirit in you is earnest money. The body that aches today is the body God is going to redeem, and the world that grieves today is the world God is going to remake.

But for now, we wait. And Paul says the waiting itself is part of salvation.

Romans 8:24–25 NKJV

24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Hope, in the Bible, is confident expectation. It's a settled certainty that what God has promised, God will do. You don't hope for things you already have. You hope for things you don't have yet but you trust are coming.

That's where the Christian lives. Between the firstfruits and the full harvest. Between the promise and the day Christ returns. We wait, and we wait with confidence, because the One who promised is faithful.

Joni Eareckson Tada has lived in a wheelchair since 1967, paralyzed from a diving accident when she was seventeen. She has written and spoken about suffering for over fifty years now. In one of her books she wrote that the only way she's been able to face decades in that wheelchair is by knowing that one day her body will be raised and glorified, joined to Christ in a way that makes today's wheelchair look like a chapter in a much longer story.

That's the hope Paul is talking about. The wait remains painful, but the hope changes what the pain means.

Sticky statement: Today's groaning is tomorrow's glory.

APPLICATION

So what do we do with this?

Start by being honest about the groaning. Some of us have learned to act like Christians shouldn't groan. As if faith means you smile through every loss and pretend you're fine when you're not. Paul says creation groans, believers groan, even the Spirit groans (we'll see that next week). Groaning is the sound of someone who knows this world is broken and is waiting for it to be made right.

Then learn to put the groaning next to the glory. When you feel the weight of this week or this exhaustion, don't shut your eyes to the pain. But don't shut your eyes to what's coming either. Paul has done the math. The glory is greater than the pain, and that changes how you walk through today.

Here is one specific thing to do this week. Pick one piece of pain you've been walking through, and write next to it in your journal or on a sticky note these words: "not worthy to be compared." Let Paul's math sit in front of your eyes for seven days. The pain is here. The glory is greater.

If you've never trusted Christ, you have no hope to wait for. The firstfruits of the Spirit aren't yours yet. The redemption of the body isn't yours yet. But Christ is offering it today. Come to him, and your sufferings will be folded into the same story Paul is describing. Today's groaning, tomorrow's glory.

VISION (CLOSE)

Picture a church full of people who know how to groan and hope at the same time. A church that doesn't pretend suffering away and doesn't drown in it either, because Christ has risen and we know what's coming.

Picture a congregation that sits with the grieving without rushing them, that walks into hospital rooms with peace because they know the body in that bed will one day be raised. Picture a people who can face the diagnosis and the funeral and say, "this is not the last word."

That's the church Paul is describing. That's the church we get to be.

And one day, when Christ returns and the children of God are revealed, all of creation will exhale at once. The labor will end, and the new world will arrive. Every believer who walked through pain in this life will look at the glory and understand what Paul meant.

Today's groaning is tomorrow's glory.

Let's pray.