Romans 8:18-21

What I have reflected on today... (if a funny looking word is in parentheses its Greek)

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Romans 8:18-21

As I read and analyzed these four verses I went from considering hopelessness to having certain hope (elpis).

Verse 18 basically says that the sufferings we are experiencing cannot come close to being compared with the glory God will inevitably reveal to us because they are not eternal. Our sufferings last mere seconds compared to eternal glory in heaven with our Father, if we could compare the two. Concerning suffering I came across a thought that suffering prepares us to participate in the glory to come, and is a tool used to conform us into His image. This refreshed my view of suffering. I so easily forget that suffering as Christ did, for His sake, is a privilege. Suffering is not meant to harm us (Romans 8:28) but to strengthen us for our good, for our God. I think if I remembered this on an hourly basis others would see my delight in the Lord.

I misinterpreted verse 19 when I first read “sons of God” and thought Jesus alone. Jesus is the Son of God but here the idea read earlier in verse 14 is remembered, that we who believe are His children. We are the sons of God. I also thought of the “eager longing” as impatient rather than an earnest expectation (apokaradokia). Realizing what is being eagerly longed for changes the view of the nature of the longing. What is being expected is of God, the only expectation we should ever have (Psalm 62:5). James 5:7 reminds us to patiently wait. Apekdechomai, to patiently but expectantly wait. Creation is expectantly awaiting God to reveal us in our glorified bodies. “The revealing of the sons of God” (apokalupsis) is when the uncovering of the fully mature sons of God will take place. That is something to eagerly long for!

Verse 20 threw me for a loop. When sin entered the world so did corruption and therefore futility. Nothing that exists here on earth is as God intended it to exist. God did subject creation to futility (mataiotes) it did not choose this, “for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,” but why? Sin. And because of sin creation can never achieve the state of perfection it originally was on its own. Here hopelessness entered stage left. I began to question the purpose of my efforts to do right for others and for the environment. Why do we even try when nothing we do will ever make it better? Then I remembered love. We were not made to make everything better. We were made by God, for God, to showcase who He is and in that love others. I guess I felt hopeless because I always desire to fix things, and when I say this I don’t mean flat tires. Relationships, broken hearts, grief those are things I make feeble attempts at fixing. I needed to be reminded that I alone cannot reconcile relationships, mend broken hearts, and heal those plagued with grief. But God can. And with this came not just hope but certain hope (elpis).

Verse 21 finishes what 20 started in explaining what is to be hoped for. “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.” What is to be hoped for is freedom. Freedom that can be seen. Eleutheron means it will be set free and will be shown to be free. God will set creation free and creation will be restored to the way He originally intended for it to be. Being reminded of how God is in complete control and then remembering this is necessary.

During my study I came across a great commentary that included a wonderful insight of Martin Lloyd-Jones:

I wonder whether the phenomenon of the Spring supplies us with a part answer. Nature every year, as it were, makes an effort to renew itself, to produce something permanent; it has come out of the death and the darkness of all that is so true of the Winter. In the Spring it seems to be trying to produce a perfect creation, to be going through some kind of birth-pangs year by year. But unfortunately it does not succeed, for Spring leads only to Summer, whereas Summer leads to Autumn, and Autumn to Winter. Poor old nature tries every year to defeat the "vanity" of the principle of death and decay and disintegration that is in it. But it cannot do so. It fails every time. It still goes on trying, as if it feels things should be different and better; but it never succeeds. So it goes on "groaning and travailing in pain together until now." It has been doing so for a very long time.... but nature still repeats the effort annually. But, it will be set free one day from this corruption "into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

For me I compared this thought of the four seasons in nature to the seasons we as believers experience. Just as Ecclesiastes 3 states, “To everything there is a season…” and as we journey through each season of our lives we shouldn’t allow room for discouragement when we fall short. Even when we feel a cycle of high and then low seasons occurring we must remain humble and remember the greater purpose for all that we do.

^“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14