Groaning in Eager Expectation :: Romans 8:18-23
Listen!
Do you hear it?
Creation is groaning. ... If you are listening you really can’t miss: Creation is crying out to be restored ... pleading to be made new. The earth is shaking, tornadoes are roaring, volcanoes erupting, fires raging, droughts sizzling, and floods surging. Creation is groaning.
Do you also hear the groans of humanity, too: War, murder, poverty, hunger, identity crises? Do you hear the fabric of society being torn in two? Do you hear the foundation of the family structure breaking apart? You should. It affects us all.
Humanity is groaning with all of creation. People are shirking marriage in search of their best life now. They’re distancing themselves from God’s Word. They’re killing their babies. They’re searching for themselves, setting themselves up as their own gods. They’re putting themselves on pedestals: Our land, animals, and family are more important, we say. We have a better way.
These are some of the groans of creation.
Do you hear them now?
5.
Listen then to God’s Word for us today. ... It interrupts our groaning with words only the Holy Spirit enables us to hear. In his epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul assesses the situation of our present suffering: He counts the cost of it all to help us recognize the truth.
God has liberated us in Christ ... He is Lutheran-izing you.
Having heard the same groans we hear, Paul takes an accounting of the health of the world and God’s people, and declares the Gospel to all who will listen ... The ensuing glory is beyond compare (v 18). You have died and your life is now hidden in Christ (Col 3:3). He gives us hope. And in eager expectation of receiving it (vv 19-20), creation itself will be liberated from the slavery of corruption and into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (v 21).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, lift up your heads.
Open your eyes and see. Open your ears and hear.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ...
EVEN AS ALL CREATION GROANS, WE CAN NOW EAGERLY AWAIT OUR LIBERATION INTO FUTURE GLORY ... THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODIES
This is our theme.
Paul begins this text with the promise of glory (v 18) and finishes it by giving us a picture of hope (vv 19–23). We have the promise of God’s future glory: The wonders of God ... our adoption as children of God ... liberated from slavery into freedom ... liberated by his means of grace.
And now we have an eager expectation: the redemption of our bodies. Thanks be to God.
4. We first received the promise of our redemption in the garden.
Creation has been in the process of decay ever since we fell there. When Adam and Eve sought to be like God, to become like God, they not only separated themselves from God, they separated themselves from each other and corrupted all of creation. They started hiding from their sin, refusing to confess their sin. We’ve been groaning in darkness ever since, pointing fingers at each other ... blaming each other for our own sin ... declaring it to be the devil’s fault, her fault, his fault, God’s fault, the world’s fault ... always someone’s fault.
And so we started groaning with creation. The ground became cursed with thorns and thistles (Gen 3:18). Our bodies became cursed ... bad knees, bad backs, bad heads, bad hearts. Here on the edge of the Great Plains ... or maybe I should say the Great Pains, women groan as they bear children ... men groan as they sweat and work the ground .... cursed ground ... In pain you will eat of [that ground] all the days of your life (Gen 3:16-19). We then numb ourselves: our minds, our bodies. We numb it with chemicals. We numb it by listening to our own word. I can do it better by myself, we say. If only we’d listen to God’s word and repent.
Original sin is not a slight insignificant smudge ... It is not a superficial stain. It is the source of our groaning. Who will liberate us from this body of death, we groan with Paul (Rm 7:24).
3. Thanks be to God, our Lord Jesus: He has heard your groans and released you from the slavery to sin through the cross.
To use the words of our Gospel reading: He has had compassion on us (Lk 6:36). Instead of finding us guilty of sin ... a declaration we definitely deserve ... he ensured that it was crucified with Christ. Instead of condemning us to death, he ensured it died with Christ on the cross. Instead of sending us to hell ... Our heavenly Father has forgiven our transgressions on account of our Lord Jesus Christ and given us life. While we intended evil for our brother in Christ, God used it for good (Gen 50:20). He who knew no sin became sin to bear the punishment you deserve. The Father heard your groans for mercy, and he has forgiven you on account of Christ ... his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension into glory.
It is on account of this good news, that we now have hope.
This is why Paul wrote: For I count that the sufferings of the present time are [not worth comparing to] the ensuing glory to be revealed into us (v 18). We ... the baptized children of God ... have been given a newness of life that leads us in eager expectation of the Gospel promises. God’s last word will not be judgment: It is redemption (v 23). God’s last word will not be condemnation for those who believe: it will be eternal life for all who believe. And in this word our hope rests. As Paul writes: the eager expectation of creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God (v 19).
2. He has liberated us by his means of grace.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can’t go back to the cross to see the wonder of what God has done. Instead, he came to you. God has delivered to you a new birth certificate, and with it the firstfruits of the Spirit. These fruits are not what we normally think of as our gifts to God, but the firstfruits of a compassionate God who not only hears our groans but does something about it. He delivers to us the firstfruits of eternal life: the living water of baptism and the eternal feast of forgiveness ... our Lord’s Supper.
These firstfruits point us to the glory that awaits those who are wide-eyed, on tiptoes, longing to receive this eternal feast every day with all the company of heaven. All of heaven rejoices when we celebrate the full Divine Service. So let us celebrate. Join your brothers and sisters in Christ and receive the means of grace every chance you can!
God is revealing something far greater than we can ever imagine with his gifts: New life free from groans as he nourishes and nurtures the faith in him. These words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, show us that in the sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. ... That is the firstfruit of redemption: life and salvation! In this, he leads us to the redemption of our bodies: the resurrection (v 23).
This gift of course was given to us first through our baptism, which has united us with the Lord in his death and resurrection, that we proclaim everytime we have the feast. This is why baptism is just as important as the Lord’s supper.
Are you starting to see how these things work together for your good and his glory? Therefore, there is now no condemnation for you who are in Christ. He has set you free. Our salvation is not in doubt.
1. And now, we have an eager expectation: the redemption of our bodies.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are all children of the living God who have all of his promises. Our Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you, who were once lost and condemned. He has done this, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death, so that we may be his own. You were bought with a price so that you could be set free. Redemption is yours.
And because you are now his children, relief is on its way! God has made you a temple of the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness. He intercedes for us through wordless groans that become prayers consistent with the will of God. He empowers us with a desire for grace and mercy. He leads us back to his Word and means of grace to be nourished. All the while he carries our burdens, that we can endure today’s groanings as finally he calls us to focus on the hope we have, the full adoption as the children of God.
Yahweh will fulfill his purpose for you. His covenantal love endures forever (Ps 138:8) ... in Jesus’ name!