Our text today is going to be chapter 8, verses 18 through 25. About six weeks ago, the U.S. News and World Report celebrated its golden anniversary and as part of that had a special issue dealing with what they anticipated to happen within the next 50 years by 2033. In the introduction to that section of the magazine, they said, a decade ago, doomsayers painted a chilling picture of a planet ticketed for disaster. Those ominous predictions of apocalypse have not come true.
Indeed, as this magazine looks into the future on its golden anniversary for a glimpse of what the next 50 years will bring, its editors come away from talks with hundreds of experts with a clearly optimistic vision. While lies ahead could well be a renaissance for the U.S. in political prestige and technological power, people will live to a healthy old age of 100 or more as super drugs cure diseases like cancer and senility. Genetic techniques will expand food production and curb pollution.
Space colonies will orbit the earth and the moon will be mined for its wealth. Robots will do household and factory chores and cars will be programmed to avoid accidents. Among many social changes, a woman, a black or a Hispanic, could well become president. People will have three or four careers in their work lives. With home computers and other electronic marvels, families will tap into enormous sources of data and entertainment.
As the revolution in high technology gains momentum, an economic boom will give tomorrow's citizens the highest standard of living ever known. Floating cities will house thousands of people. Levitating trains will travel at 250 miles an hour. With exotic new energy sources, the U.S. will no longer depend on foreign regions for oil.
Yet, just as the Club of Rome was wrong in 1972 in its predictions that the world would run out of gold in nine years and oil in 20 years, optimistic forecasts can prove equally foolhardy. The great ship Titanic was said to be unsinkable. Japan, U.S. officials insisted, would never attack Pearl Harbor. Slums would disappear from American cities and highways would be free of traffic jams or so experts predicted at the New York World's Fair of 1939.
Looking ahead, no one knows for sure when and if California will indeed have that devastating earthquake that so many forecasters say is inevitable. What guarantee is there that some new and unknown plague won't emerge to destroy whole populations just as lead poisoning insidiously infected the ancient Romans and helped to topple their powerful empire?
Nor does anyone really know, despite reassuring words from many experts, if mankind will be wise enough to avoid the ultimate catastrophe, nuclear war. In short, prediction is at best a risky business. Of course, that's true because man does not know what the future holds. He cannot. He is finite. He is limited in his knowledge. He is limited by time. But this morning I have a message to present to you that far transcends anything that U.S. News and World Report could predict.
And that is the glory that is to come for the sons of God. And that is what the Apostle talks about in our text. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it 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. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope, or for in this hope, we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for white is one also hope for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. The Apostle Paul was riding to a church undergoing suffering.
Although the full blow of persecution was yet to fall ten years later under Nero. Yet even at this time, in the mid to late 50s AD, there was social ostracism because of the difference of lifestyle between the believers and the pagans in Rome. That created economic hardship due to the frequent loss of employment and income. There was religious pressure because of the prevalence of pagan idolatry.
Within families there was rejection and misunderstandings because some became believers while others retained adherence to their paganism. The sufferings the Church in Rome was undergoing are the same kinds of sufferings, for the most part, that Christians undergo today. These are subtle pressures, quiet sufferings, which all godly Christians endure from time to time.
In verse 17, the Apostle introduces this dual theme of suffering and glory to come by saying, If indeed we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. The if here is not a conditional, it's an assumption. It literally could be since indeed we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. The Apostle says really three things about suffering in that brief sentence. First of all, the suffering is sure.
To Timothy he would write, near the end of his own life, yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not some, all who choose to live godly will suffer persecution. To the Thessalonians, in the midst of their trials, he wrote to encourage them, you know that we were destined for this. Christians are destined to suffer in this world, as their Lord did.
And the Apostle Peter wrote to the believers in Asia Minor, and said, do not think it strange this fiery trial which is to try you. In other words, it's something that we should expect, fiery trials of suffering. Suffering is sure. Secondly, suffering is shared. We do not suffer alone when we suffer, for we suffer with Christ if we suffer in a godly way. It's possible for us to bring suffering on ourselves by foolishness. That's not the suffering we're talking about here.
This is the suffering that comes to us uniquely because we are believers in Jesus Christ. When we suffer that way, we suffer, as he says in verse 17, with Him. When Christians suffer, Jesus suffers. Just as He suffered in the world for our sins, we suffer in the world for His glory. Our suffering cannot atone for our own sins. His suffering at the cross was the expiation, the atonement for our sins. But our suffering now is in His place, since He is in heaven. But yet He suffers when we suffer.
An example of that is when the church was suffering under the persecution of Saul. Jesus met him on that road to Damascus and said, Saul, why are you persecuting whom? Me. Not, why are you persecuting those Christians down there, but why are you persecuting me? You see, when the church suffers, our Lord suffers. We suffer with Him. And that's an honor. Philippians 1.29 tells us that it has given us as a privilege to suffer for Christ. And then we see also that suffering is significant.
When we suffer as believers, it is never without purpose. There is always some significance to it. The apostle tells us in general here that it is that we may be glorified with Him. For just as travail leads to the joy of birth, so our suffering now will lead to future glory. Again, we do not suffer in a meritorious way so that we earn points with God by how much we undergo. But our suffering now prepares us for the glory that is to come.
The glory itself is a free gift, but the capacity we will have to enjoy it, folks, is enhanced and imparted through the trials that we endure now. The apostle alludes to this in 2 Corinthians 4, and I invite you to turn there with me for a moment as we look at a parallel passage to Romans 8. He explains to these Corinthian believers the kind of pressure that he feels himself. He says in 2 Corinthians 4, 8, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.
You will notice that Paul says what his suffering is, and then he immediately goes on to say he is not overwhelmed by it. He says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. I like that spirit, don't you? He says, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our flesh, in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. I believe the apostle is suggesting physical death here. He is saying that every day he in a sense is being delivered over to physical suffering and the possibility of death because of his faithful ministry in life. From time to time, every Christian who lives godly in Christ Jesus will know exactly what the apostle is talking about here.
Verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. We like to deny that the outer man decays, don't we? We do our best to keep it in shape, and we should. We sometimes paint it up or get it tucked in. We try to do everything we can to make it appear like it's still young and vibrant, but all of us know the truth that the outer man is going downhill. It's decaying. But the inner man doesn't have to decay.
That's what the apostle says. Sometimes the outer man decays because of suffering and persecution. Have you ever seen pictures of Christians who have been in the slave camps of Russia or Bulgaria to see their emaciated bodies, their bulging eyes because, appearing bulging because their faces are so thin? And yet, though the outer man decays, the inner man knows renewal, and that's something the world does not understand.
The world cannot understand why a Christian will not give in or give up his beliefs when he's tortured or when he's put into prison. I read the other day about a dear brother in Christ who, back in the early church, was sewn up in skins and thrown to wild dogs in the arena. He refused to recant his faith and suffered that kind of indignation and death for Jesus Christ. Why? Because he didn't give up. Though the outward man goes downhill and decays, not the inner man. He goes on.
He says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 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, the things which are not seen are eternal. You notice what he says in verse 17. He says, God has set into effect a certain ratio.
It is that as you and I suffer faithfully through our moments on earth in light affliction, that that is producing for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The suffering that you endure now is significant. It has purpose. Whether your suffering is because you are a Christian, or your suffering today may be because of disappointment, hardship, uncertainty, and pain that comes to all men. In the midst of your suffering, be careful not to forget what God has in store for you.
When we do forget, we begin to suffer from spiritual myopia, near-sightedness, and we see what we are going through and fail to have the long distant vision of the glory that is to come. When we lose that focus, we lose our perspective and can lose our faithfulness. I want us today to check our distant vision and perhaps to sharpen our focus a bit as we consider the culmination of God's calling in our lives as his sons. Paul did that. In verse 18, he says, I consider, I reckon.
That word means I have come to this settled conclusion after careful analysis of the total situation. He says, I consider, I conclude that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. That glory, my friend, is the consummation of our sanctification, which the Bible calls our glory or our glorification. That time will be made like Christ.
Now, considering the coming glory with Christ and the blessed hope that we have, I would like for us to look at two truths that the Apostle tells us in our text about it. The first truth is that this glory is the hope of creation. And secondly, it's the hope of the Christian. In verses 19 through 22, we have what may be called cosmic soteriology. That is, salvation of the universe. Do you notice that he tells us that the creation itself is anxiously longing for something?
That word means to be outstretched in the neck. It's like when you go to a concert down a symphony hall and you're in one of those seats where you can see part of what's going on but you can't see the whole thing, and you strain out trying to see more of the performance. Or you're in the ballpark and you want to see the play, and so you strain, you stand on your tiptoes, as it were, to anticipate what's going to happen. Well, the Apostle says that the creation is that way.
It is anxiously longing, it is waiting eagerly, expectantly for something to happen, and that is the revealing of the sons of God. That's the hope of creation, my friend. Your glory. Creation is longing for you to be glorified with Jesus Christ. That's its hope. You say, why is creation concerned about that? Well, because the creation is suffering. The creation was subjected to futility, as he says in verse 20. That word means frustration.
It has to do with seeking something and not being able to find it, of desiring a certain goal and being unable to reach it, of coming short of a potential. That's the way creation is today. It is coming short of its intended purpose. And with that load, that frustration, it groans in suffering. You say, well, why is creation that way? You remember back in Genesis that God created, and several times God said, it is what? It's good. You see, God created the world as a perfect environment.
There was nothing out of place. There was nothing to pollute it. As much as we know, there was not even any death in those animals today that are carnivorous and that kill other animals to live. At that time, apparently, it ate grass. There was not death in God's creation, but man fell into sin. I'd like you to turn back with me to Genesis chapter 3 to show you specifically why creation is suffering today.
God came to fallen man and woman in the garden and had a little conversation with them with the serpent. He says in verse 17, after talking to the serpent and to the woman, then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat from it. Dust is the ground because of what? Because of you, for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. To return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
In pronouncing the curse of death upon Adam and his descendants, God also places a curse upon the ground, upon the physical earth, so that it would produce from that time on thorns and thistles which would interfere with man and plague man and dandelions and all those things that we put up with today. At that point, apparently, animals began to be carnivorous. Fear entered into creation. Up to this point, there was no fear. Adam could walk out among all of the animals, and they were in unity.
But at this point, fear came, and the environment drastically changed. Man began to suffer, and it says again back in Romans chapter 8 that the creation itself was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it. Now, there's been question by commentators as to who the him is, and I think the best answer is this God. God caused the creation to be subjected to frustration and to suffering. Why did God do that?
Because the creation was originally given to Adam for his dominion, and now because of Adam's sin, his dominion shared in the consequences of his sin. I think, furthermore, so that man would still be able to have a certain rule over the creation, it was subjected to futility. For man would be miserable, fallen man would be miserable in a perfect environment. So God made the environment to fit a fallen king. Why do animals suffer? Have you ever been asked that question?
Sometimes children ask that. Why do my dog have to die? My cat. Sometimes parents are not so upset with that question, but children are. Why is there suffering in the animal world? I'll tell you why. Because of man's sin. We are the fault of it. The animals did not sin. The ground did not sin. We sinned in Adam. And because of that sin, the environment is the way that it is. But that's not the whole story here.
He says that in verse 21, the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption. That word set free is the same one used back in verse 2 about our being set free from the law of sin and death. It means liberation. The creation itself is going to be liberated from its slavery to corruption and to decay. And it says that it too will have freedom of the glory of the children of God. You know why the creation is groaning in anticipation of your glorification?
Because when you are glorified, it's going to be set free. That's why. And that is why it is so anxiously longing on its tiptoes as it were, looking for you to experience your destiny. When is that going to be? When is the creation going to be set free? Well, I believe the answer to that is during the millennial reign of Christ. Jesus talks about that time as being the regeneration, Matthew chapter 19 verse 28.
Not spiritual regeneration there, but physical regeneration of the earth seems to be in view. It's the period of restoration of all things, Acts 3, 21. It's the time that Isaiah spoke about when the deserts would blossom forth with flowers. When the lion and the lamb would again lay down together, one would not then be the predator, the other the prey. When the child will be able to play with a poisonous snake and not be alarmed.
During the millennial reign, peace will come back to the groaning frustration of nature, of creation. And so creation, which was made good, now groans, but awaits its glory. And that glory is the glory that you are going to know, and that's what we come to next. For the second truth of the glory that is to come is that it is the hope of the Christian. He says in verse 23, not only this, but we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan.
Notice that he says that we have the first fruits of the Spirit. That's an agricultural term. It's a term that implies the first of the harvest. The Jews had a feast of the Lord that was called the feast of first fruits fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. And on that feast occasion, they would go out to their fields of grain and take down a sheaf of it, the first of the harvest, and bring it back to the tabernacle of the Lord and there wave it before the Lord as an offering to him.
That was the first fruits. It was a pledge. It was a symbol of all of the harvest that was to come, being dedicated to the Lord. This term first fruits is used of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15-20 where it says, now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. In other words, his resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of every believer in the future.
It's used of Christians in James 1-18 where it says, in the exercise of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be as it were the first fruits of his creatures. And then the same term is used of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will go throughout the world in the tribulation period preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Of them it says in Revelation 14-4, these have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
They apparently will be among the first saved after the church is taken out in the rapture. It will be the first fruits of those who are saved during that tribulation period. But here in Romans 8, first fruits is not used of Christ or of Christians, but rather of the Holy Spirit. He talks about the first fruits of the Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is given to you and to me as a guarantee of our future glorification with Christ.
As it says in 2 Corinthians 1-20, God also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. Ephesians 1-13 and 14, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who has given us as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, you and me, to the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a promise from God that he will one day take us to be with Christ and we shall be fully like him in every way.
The Holy Spirit is a foretaste of glory to come. That's one reason we groan. We do groan in pain, don't we? You may have groaned when you got out of bed this morning. We do groan because our bodies are decaying. But I think here the groaning is a groaning of anticipation. Because you and I have a foretaste of glory in the person of the Holy Spirit, we anticipate the full inheritance that we have as sons of God. That's why he says we are waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons.
That adoption legally has taken place already as we saw in verse 15, but it's not been fulfilled yet completely. We have not received the consummation of it. That consummation will be the redemption of our body. That seems to be the leading feature of it all.
I'm glad that when I die, if I should die before the Lord comes, which I don't really anticipate, but neither do a lot of other people who are now in heaven, but I'm glad that if I should die before the Lord comes that my spirit would be with Christ. I know that. I don't fear the result of death. I don't really look forward to the experience of dying, but the result of it does not frighten me because I know that to be absent from the body is to be what?
Present with the Lord. But I'm glad that my hope doesn't stop there. You see, I'm rather attached to this body. Literally I am, but emotionally I'm kind of attached to this body too. As frail as it often is and as uncomfortable as it sometimes gets and sometimes it's in pain, it's still a pretty nice body. I'm glad I have it. I don't really look forward to being without it.
I believe that during that interim time between the death of the Christian now and the resurrection of the body that God gives us a temporary covering. I think 2 Corinthians 5 indicates that. But there's a day coming, folks, when the bodies in which you and I now live are going to be raised from the grave. Now they won't be quite like they are now. Thank God for that. They're going to be perfected. They're going to be bodies of glory like Christ's own body.
Fitted for eternity, suitable to travel throughout God's whole creation. Those bodies will be something else. That's part of our hope. That's why it goes on to say, for in this hope we have been saved. Without hope, the hope of the adoption of our bodies, our glorification, when our bodies will be changed to be like Christ. That's part of our hope. By hope he doesn't mean that's our uncertain desire. He means that is our certain anticipation. Now we don't have our hope at this point.
We wouldn't call it hope if we did. You don't hope for something that you have. For something you anticipate is still out there in the future, you have hope. He says that's our hope that our bodies will be redeemed. One commentator said, the salvation given us at conversion had implicit in it promises which have yet to be fulfilled.
Contrary experience may now bombard the believer's senses, but it cannot reasonably invalidate his glorious hope because its fulfillment essentially lies in the future. I tell you, we'll never get more salvation than we have now. But we're going to realize more of it in the future when we will be fully like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says in verse 25, if we hope for that we do not see. With perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Want to think about that in closing?
There are some people who get so excited about the future glory that they decide to cash in all their chips. That's a bad analogy to make. They decide to give up serving the Lord now and to put on their robe as a word and go to the house top and sit there waiting for Jesus to come. And that is not God's will. We are to be expecting his coming every moment. We are to anxiously anticipate his coming, but it's to be with patience, with perseverance. How can we wait that way?
Let me give you five suggestions. You and I wait eagerly with patience when we first of all reckon our suffering as did Paul. It's easy to get antsy about the coming of the Lord in the middle of suffering and to get discouraged and despondent when the Lord doesn't come and get us in the midst of trial. So like Paul, you and I need to get the balance out. And on one side we need to put all of our suffering.
And then on the other side put what the word says about the future glory that we shall have as sons of God and see that the glory far outweighs the sufferings. And when we reckon it that way, we will not get discouraged in the middle of the battle. We will not want to give up in the middle of the trial. So if you want to eagerly wait for Christ's coming with patience, then recognize that your suffering now has a purpose. It's working for you even more glory.
Number two, be diligent in your ministry to others. In St. Corinthians 5-10, the apostle looks forward to the coming of Christ. He speaks about the judgment seat. He says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give answer for what we've done in our bodies, whether it be good or bad. That's the judgment of Christians not to see if we get to heaven but for our rewards. That's part of Christ's coming.
And as the apostle anticipates that, he goes on to say, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And my friend, the hope that we have in Christ is not only a glorious hope and a blessed hope, it's a terrifying hope. Because our entrance into that glory will be, as it were, through the fire of an examination before Jesus Christ.
And so if I want to wait eagerly with patience for that glory, then I will be sure that I am faithful to Christ now in this life so that I don't have to be ashamed before Him in His coming. That beam of seat judgment creates an intense desire within the believer to be approved of Him. Thirdly, stay in the Word. The Word of God will give you a perspective in your suffering. It will bring into sharp focus the issues that you face. Too often we are like Elijah.
We get to feeling sorry for ourselves and we say, I am the only one left, Lord. Elijah forgot that there were 7,000 others in Israel who were faithful. God's Word brought that to him. He was encouraged. God's Word will bring encouragement to you too. It reminds us too that there are times of sowing and there are times of reaping. As we serve the Lord and suffer for Him, we sometimes get discouraged because we don't see more things happening in our lives. But remember something.
That the Word of God tells us there are periods of sowing and then comes the harvest. And right now you may be in one of those sowing periods. Be patient for the harvest that is to come, as James 5 tells us. So stay in the Word. Allow the Word of God to give you a perspective in your suffering so that you will wait eagerly with perseverance. Fourthly, practice spiritual breathing. If you were here several weeks ago, you know what I mean by that.
Keep appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit to enable you. One aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is patience. And so if you want to wait eagerly for the coming of Christ and for the future glory that is yours, then allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen you to enable you to wait with patience. And finally, and maybe most important of all, develop a romance with Jesus Christ. If you would wait patiently for Him, preserve the flame of devotion in your heart to Jesus alone.
As Jude says, keep yourselves in the love of God. He doesn't mean that we have to keep ourselves so that God will love us. He's saying keep yourselves loving God. Keep yourselves freshly in love with the Lord Jesus. Maintain a romance with Him. When you love somebody, you're able to wait. That's why some of you wives this morning could patiently wait in your car and probably honk your horn once or twice as your husband finished getting dressed and coming out to the car, right?
Or maybe it was the other way around in some homes. You can patiently wait on somebody you love. Do you love Jesus? Are you falling more in love with Him? If so, then you can eagerly anticipate with patience His return to receive you. Folks, someday this hope that we see before us in this passage, this glory that's to come, is going to be ours. There's no doubt about that. But right now you and I have a tremendous job to do.
And maybe these five suggestions we've given will assist you in your walk with God so that anticipating that hope eagerly, you can do it with patience and be faithful. Let's pray. Father, that is our desire. We don't want to be so heavenly minded. We're no earthly good to you. We recognize you have us in this world for a reason, and we want that reason to be accomplished. I pray that you will give us an unfulfilled desire that we might be in love with Jesus more and more.
Never let us get satisfied thinking that we love you enough. May we have a fervent devotion to the Savior. There may be some of us today, Lord, who have to confess coldness. Something's come in to our lives. Another love has come. And we have forgotten who we are as sons of God and what's in store. For those of us in that condition, I pray that you will get us on the right focus today, that we might have the distant vision and not suffer from spiritual nearsightedness.
And Father, if there be someone here today without Christ altogether who's not saved, who has no hope and no glory, but only the fear of certain judgment, I pray that that one today would trust Christ and be saved. In Jesus' name, amen.