God's Glory Revealed | Romans 8:17–25

God is Glorify Is Revealed In All Things

God's Glory is Revealed in the Suffering and Redemption of the World (v. 19-22)

All of Creation is under the curse. When Adam fell sin destroyed not only Adam and his wife but because of their sin God cursed all of creation.

Genesis 3:17 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

But despite the fact that sin has broken creation, this does not mean that God is not in control. No in fact, scripture states that God is in control of all things in creation.

Nothing happens in all of creation, from the birth of a star to it's catastrophic explosion that God did not allow to happen. This includes all sorts of natural disasters on earth.

NOTHING HAPPENS IN ALL OF CREATION THAT GOD DOES NOT ALLOW.

Why He allows it to happen is a question we cannot answer (and should not try to), but we can say, on the testimony of Scripture, that God does indeed allow it or cause it to happen.

Job 37:3 ESV

Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

Job 37:6 ESV

For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

Job 37:10–12 ESV

By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.

Or

Amos 4:7 ESV

“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

Or finally

Isaiah 45:7 ESV

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

These things happen, and they happen under the watchful and sovereign eye of our God. And in these things God will ultimately be glorified. Now we may not see how or why here today. We most certainly will not see how he is glorified when they we are in the midst of the rubble of our homes following a hurricane or at the funeral of a loved one following the destruction of a tornado, but the scripture says here that all of creation joins us in mourning sins deadly effects and joins us in groaning for the coming of God’s deliverance from suffering.

One Day this world will be redeemed

God's Glory is Revealed in the Suffering and Redemption of Man (v. 23-25)

Romans 8:23 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Like creation, we have been subjected to futility. Our own bodies are corrupted by sin.

Psalm 90 begins with a triumphant proclamation of God’s Gracious provision

Psalm 90:1 ESV

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

But then in v. 3 it shifts in tone:

Psalm 90:3–10 ESV

You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Like creation, man is wracked by the effects of sin. From daily aches and pains to the cancers that wrack our bodies.

But Paul says that those who are in Christ has a special longing, a new suffering that we are experiencing: A longing for home.

As Christians we bring Glory to God by faithfully living in this fallen world for him as “firstfruits of the Spirit” and by eagerly waiting for our “adoption as sons”.

So what does this look like?

We live lives of Joy in the midst of Suffering in light of God’s Sovereign Grace and Mercy. (1 Thess. 5:16)

We serve others Faithfully as they mourn and suffer the effects of sin in a broken and fallen world (Gal. 6:9-10)

We point others to the Gospel the only answer for the suffering that is common to all men. (Romans 1:16)