There are a whole lot of things that people are hoping for
as we near the Christmas season. Children are hoping for specific gifts,
parents are hoping for a little R&R, families are hoping to reunite,
friends are hoping to find time together, people are hoping to hear their
favorite song on the radio, churches are hoping for big attendance at services
and events, etc. There is so much to hope for and yet, in the midst of these
preoccupations we must never forget or make light of the greatest hope of that
we have as believers. In Romans 8:18-25 Paul reveals how important hope is for any
church and he also explains that the greater the hope, the greater the capacity there is for perseverance for any believing community. Today, as we persevere through
our study of this passage we are going to come across three comparisons that
highlight the incredible persevering hope that believers enjoy in the Spirit.
a. Suffering and
Hope-8:18
In Romans 8:1-17 Paul discussed how life in the Spirit
affords the believer freedom in Christ (freedom from the condemnation of the
law, the power of sin, and the hindrance of the flesh). Next, Paul discusses
how living the Spirit also provides persevering hope. Hope that perseveres is
necessary for anyone living in this world, especially the people of God who
have citizenship in another world entirely. Internal and external pressure,
discouragement, negativity, persecution, tragedy, grief, temptation, deceit,
etc. all of these potentially inhibit a believer’s joy, leading to despair.
Paul was no stranger to tribulations and obstacles in his
own life. In fact, he provides a little compendium of what he went through as
he was serving the Lord in 2 Corinthians 11:24-29-“Five times I received from
the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I
was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on
frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers
from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in
the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers
among false brethren; I have been in labor and
hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst,
often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external
things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern
for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who
is led into sin without my intense concern?”
Surely some of these episodes were on Paul’s mind as he says
in 8:18, “For I consider the sufferings of this present time,…”.
However, In spite of all that Paul had gone through or would
go through, in spite of all the pressure the church in Rome was facing in their
brave new world, and in spite of anything that could come against God’s people
today, Paul says that these “are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
is to be revealed to us” (8:18b). In other words, what believers have to look
forward to and hope for is so glorious, awesome, and assured that the troubles
one faces in the meantime pale in comparison. What is it that the believer has
to look forward to? Paul refers to this end-goal and destiny with “the glory that
is to be revealed to us.” This glory has a name—Jesus.
1 Thess. 4:16-17-“For the Lord Himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet
of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and
remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one
another with these words.”
Phil. 3:20-21-“For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will
transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of HIs
glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to
Himself.”
In many cases, the better the goal someone has, the more perseverance
and stick-to-it-ness he/she has to reach it. This phenomenon is nowhere more
clearly witnessed than here. Paul indicates that because believers have the
greatest and most glorious of all things to look forward to (seeing Christ and
entering into eternity with Him), not even the most acute trial can deter their
perseverance to that end! When it comes to what believers can expect, comparing
the future to the present is apples and oranges. What is coming is quite
literally out of THIS world. This is why Paul encourages elsewhere, “Set your
mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2) and “While
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen
are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
b. External and
Internal Groanings-8:19-23
That said, because the believing community is not there yet,
there is a great deal of tension (groaning) that is witnessed both externally
and internally. Paul Tillich believed that this tension came because believers
are “essentially good though existentially estranged.” Estranged from what? Estranged
from their glorified body, the new heaven and the new earth, and from
uninterrupted communion with God. Paul identifies this tension in verse 8:19, “For
the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons
of God,…”. Here, creation itself is described as waiting on pins and needles
for the time when the sons and daughters of God reach their full potential. One
commentator has said “the whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful
sight of the sons of God coming into their own” (Phillips).
After all, creation itself is waiting for a similar
transformation—“for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but
because of Him who subjected it” (8:20a). “Because Adam disobeyed by eating the
forbidden fruit, God had cursed the ground (Gen. 3:17-18; 5:29). The full
redemptive work of God includes the reversal of this curse” (Mounce, Romans, 184). Sin is the reason that
mankind and creation itself exists in this tension in the first place. God saw
fit to punish man’s sin by making man work through thorns and thistles to yield
his produce. However, this curse and the tension that it has created is not
permanent.
“The physical universe
was frustrated by Adam’s sin, yet there is hope. Verses 21 state the content of
that hope” when it says “in hope that the creation itself also will be set free
from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of
God” (8:21) (Mounce, Romans, 185).
In the meantime, creation, like mankind, lives in tension—it
awaits a future recreation and yet suffers in the meantime. Paul uses labor
pains to describe this strain when he says “For we know that the whole creation
groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now,…” (8:22). Just
as believers have hope in a glorious future to help them persevere through
trials and tribulations, creation has the hope of a new birth to provide
perseverance through the painful contractions that it has, is, and will
continue to experience.
The wonder and joy of a newborn is a beautiful prize that
helps a woman find motivation and perseverance during the pains of childbirth. So
too is the hope of a recreation motivating to the anthropomorphized creative
order that is reeling under the pain of corruption and groaning for relief. In
both scenarios, the pain is not meaningless but “carries with it the hope of
new life for all creation” (NIVSB not on 8:23).
The external tension witnessed in the created order is
parallel to the internal struggle within individuals. Paul continues by saying,
“And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves” (8:23a). “In the Old
Testament firstfruits consisted of the initial portion of the harvest that was
given in sacrifice to God (Exod. 23:19; Lev. 23:9-14). Paul used the term in
reference to the gift of the Spirit as an eschatological pledge.” This is
similar to what he says in 2 Cor. 5:5-“Now who prepared us for this very
purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” In other words, the Spirit
provides present confirmation to believers of what they will one day be.
This same Spirit was said to also confirm that believers are
sons and daughters of God—“For you have not received a spirit of slavery
leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by
which we cry out ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit
that we are children of God,…” (8:15ff). However, Paul says in verse 23 that
believers are “waiting eagerly for [their] adoption as sons.” What could this
mean?
Believer are adopted (papers signed, rights and privileges intact,
full-fledged children of God) though not yet picked up from the agency/group
home (they have not yet vacated the premises of the world as it exists and been
taken to their new home in the glories of a new heaven and new earth).
When will this occur? When will believers be picked up? The answer
is “at the redemption of our body” (8:23). This is salvation future—the believer’s
glorification.
1 John 3:2-3-“Beloved, now we are children of God,
and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears,
we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who
has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
In 1 John as in Romans 8, this hope of future adoption and
relief from the external and internal tensions both believers and this world
face provides the “stuff” necessary for God’s people to persevere. After all,
as tense as things may be now, believers have the hope that one day this
tension will be satisfied! Praise the Lord!
Just as creation will be freed from corruption and decay, believers
will on this future date be freedom from their sinful flesh. It is interesting
to point out how connected the fate of humanity is with the fate of the world.
It was mankind’s sin that landed the world in disrepair and it will be mankind’s
glorification that will trigger creation’s great re-creative transformation.
c. What is Seen and
What is Unseen-9:24-25
All of this persevering hope stems from the believer’s
salvation—“For in hope we have been saved” (9:24a). The perfective function of
this past-tense (aorist) verb means that the present and ongoing implications
of a believer’s salvation are in view. One of these present and ongoing
implications of salvation is “hope.”
Hope is a curious word that has unfortunately suffered
dilution over time. Today people “hope” to win the lottery and “hope” to avoid
certain people over the holidays and “hope” that the bill for their car repairs
is lower than expected. However, this understanding of hope reduces the
original meaning of the word down to a mere wish or desire. Hope in Romans 8 (and
in most other New Testament contexts” is a confident expectation of a future
reality that is good and beneficial. Hope according to this definition is a
sure thing—as good as already present.
However, hope also implies that it is not yet visible—“But
hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?” (9:24b).
The answer to this question is “No one!” Once what is hoped for has occurred,
there is no need to hope any longer—it has been realized!
Instead “if we hope for what we do not see, with
perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (9:25). Hope provides perseverance to
those who have it. As believers enjoy the greatest hope of all—the end of
suffering, the relief of tension, adoption as sons, etc.—they have the greatest
capacity to persevere in this world of sin and death.
So What?
There is a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks as we
approach Christmas, New Years, time with family, friends, etc. However, I
wonder how many might not see much beyond that. I wonder how many either don’t
know or have forgotten that there is more than just another year, season,
cycle, available to them in the end. Believers who are living in the Spirit
enjoy the greatest hope of all and as such are given the ability to persevere whatever
the world may throw against them! Because believers have the greatest thing
coming they are able to endure the worst stuff around them. Do you know that
today? Do you believe that today?
The church must be reminded of the hope that they have so
that they might find strength and inspire the hopeless. If we cannot make it in
this world of sin and death—we who are in Christ and living in the Spirit—who can?
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