Rom 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
8:21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
8:24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
Introduction
Hope! Hope! Hope! It is a wonderful thing to have hope in your life.
Chris McGreal reports in The Guardian, Friday 13 February 2009:
Juliana Tafirei will probably die, while the pills that could save her life
lie on her bedside table. The drugs arrive each month with a batch of Red Cross food aid at her small conical house in the village of Muzondo in Masvingo, a sprawling agricultural province of about 1.3 million people, 300km from Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. But there are a lot of mouths to feed and the food runs out after a couple of weeks, three at best. After that, Tafirei and her six children eat only every other day, a meal consisting of a few boiled wild vegetables and sometimes a cup of maize begged from neighbours.
That is when Tafirei, 36, stops taking the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that prevent HIV from developing in to full-blown Aids. On an empty stomach they are, as one health worker puts it, like digesting razor blades. "We don't each much. The food they give us doesn't last. The children get hungry. It is hard to tell them they cannot have food when they can see it sitting there," says Tafirei, lying in bed eating a small plate of beans, her only meal of the day. "When I eat I feel a bit better. But when I get hungry, I'm really, really weak. I can hardly walk. I'm taking ARVs. Without any food I don't take them because it's very painful."
But intermittent use of the drugs, combined with immune systems weakened by a lack of food, makes ARVs virtually useless over time. Then Aids takes a grip.
Tafirei is not alone. The United Nations says that this month it will feed seven million Zimbabweans, more than two-thirds of the population still left in a country where drastic shortages have driven millions of the most able across the border to work illegally in South Africa.”
(From my Yahoo email: News February 13b Saturday, February 14, 2009 12:17 AM
From: "Barbara Goss"
To: zimbabwenews@googlegroups.com)
That’s the story of a people for whom the world holds out no hope.
Now think closer to home. I was amazed at the way many people told their stories who had just escaped from the devastating Victorian bush fires. How they gave their terribly sad accounts having only just lost loved ones. I was amazed that they had a tone of hope in their hearts.
“Well, we will just have to start again,” one man said.
Like many others, he was preparing to start rebuilding his shattered life. People like that do not determine to “just start again” for no reason. They are looking for something far better.
We all have to have a reason for living, and that’s what this passage is about: the Christian Hope: our reason for living.
Hope Makes it all Worthwhile
1. Hope says that we are waiting for something better. Something is coming that Christians are waiting for. Something good. We are told if we look at v 19, that creation eagerly waits for it. In v 22 creation waits for it with groans like a mother waiting for the birth of her child.
Verse 23 says we who have the Holy Spirit wait eagerly for the day of our redemption and v 25 says we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
In the Christian life we are waiting for what we know God cannot fail to deliver. Even though there is ever so much wickedness in the world and tragedies almost overwhelm us, God refuses to go back on His word. He will perform that which He promised for His people so long ago. What He promises us today, God promised His people way back in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
And from Paul writing to the Thessalonians: 1THES 5:24 “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
To hope in Jesus Christ means we will receive the ultimate reward.
Hope is one of the great themes of the Bible, because ever since that dreadful day when Adam and Eve committed sin in that perfect garden of Eden, so that it became instantly no longer perfect, God put hope into human hearts.
Ever since they were condemned for their actions and banished from Eden, even the creation was disastrously affected. It has been waiting in hope of restoration to that blissful state when God in His great love placed the first two humans in that idyllic garden.
Yes, creation itself, says Paul, waits for something important to happen and Paul says that it is the revealing of something: 8:19 “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” The GNB has: “All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.”
What’s he talking about?
First, there is a glory that will be revealed in Christians one day: (18). One day, a glorious change will happen to those who are faithful in Christ who have died and to those still alive at Jesus’ coming.
Secondly, creation earnestly expects and eagerly waits for the open declaration of this glory (19). The created order is affected.
Thirdly, he says: in v 21 “that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (GNB) This glory that will be openly declared and established is the permanent freeing of creation, and all who are God’s children, from the bondage of corruption that sin caused. (21) “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected in hope.” (20) So the Apostle is saying that we, as well as creation, will be finally and fully set free from being subject to corruption and all the effects of sin.
The future outcome for creation depends on God’s plan of redemption for His people, His own children. (See vv.15-21)
Creation will not reach the freedom it longs for without the church arriving at the day of redemption.
Paul says that day is the day of the full revelation of our freedom with God. (19)
Mysteriously, God has built into the created order a longing for the day of our completed salvation. It is called “the redemption of our body” in verse 23. The day when our bodies, minds and spirits will be made perfect in Christ.
Truly it will be a day of absolute freedom and deliverance from all that we have ever feared or been bound by.
For we are promised that we shall see Him and when we do, we shall be like Him.
1JN 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2)
That is what will be revealed on the day of our redemption.
It will also include the freedom or deliverance for the creation so that it desires with groaning for it to happen. (22)
2. Secondly, hope in Christ points us to glory. Glory to God and glory for us in Christ. Hope points us, like the stars at night point every observer to the Great Creator of the Universe. The stars say to everyone who looks at them with an open mind: “Don’t look at us, look at the One who made us! Look to Him, Look to Him!”
Verse 18 goes on to say that the glory He gives to us will be revealed in us. That is our future, in contrast to our present sufferings which he says are temporary and cannot be our main focus.
For we must, in the end, by faith, look away from our present cares and sufferings to Him who waits for us.
This is putting faith into action. This is hope in action.
He waits, like the father in the Prodigal Son story with arms wide open, coming to us, running towards the lost repentant one in love and with joy in His great heart to see us and embrace us.
“There and Back”
Perhaps you will remember what it was like when you were away from home for a while. Away on a long journey we often think of those we have left at home. As the time draws nearer for us to return again and meet with them, we eagerly await that event because we have missed them so much. The absence makes the heart grow fonder.
So it is for God. He eagerly waits to see you. God calls us to eagerly wait in living hope to see Him too. God is calling you to eagerly and actively wait the day of your redemption as your Christian hope. (23)
3. Thirdly, hope saves us (v. 24) in the same way that faith saves us. We have faith in Jesus Christ; we put our hope in Him. Hope is faith matured. Hope in Christ is a life of faithfulness or sustained faith if you like.
We are stretched to the limit at times, to be sure, but hope is faith that God has great purposes for us and for the world; purposes that He will ensure are completed perfectly. “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…” (PHIL 1:6)
That is mature, saving faith. We are confident not in ourselves or even in some sort of self generated faith, but in the One who draws us by grace to His side, implants faith in our hearts and protects us to the very end. We hope in Him.
It is this faith that keeps on trusting; that finally brings us to see the end of the Christian’s great hope: Jesus Christ in His glory.
(Heb 10:23 and Rom 5:3-4 ff. tell us about this)
Paul says in Ch 12:12 that we are those who are “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer…”
And that it is through reading the Scriptures that we find hope:
“that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15: 4)
Furthermore He is: “the God of hope” who can “fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 15: 13)
Here we are reminded that in the Apostle’s writings, hope is no side issue tacked on to make life interesting! Hope is such a central theme of the whole Bible that he comes back to it time and time again.
It is good that we look at these things desiring to know more and with a confidence that God has His purposes in working things out in our lives.
For example, God’s bigger plan of salvation is the main point of chapters 9-11 of this wonderful book and, God willing, we will come to that in due course. Take time to read ahead in Ch 9-11. You will be greatly encouraged and sustained in your faith.
Conclusion
What this section, Rom 8: 19-25, helps us to do is to see that temporary sufferings are well worth going through because:
1. Hope says we are waiting for something far better. Living in hope means waiting for something better than we could ever imagine: the fulfilment of God’s great purpose for us believers, the church and all creation.
2. Hope in Christ points us to glory. We will be glorified: He promises in I John 3:2 “we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” We will see Christ and be perfect and in bliss forever.
3. Hope saves us. Paul says in verse 24: “For we were saved in this hope…”
This teaches us that all God has promised us in Christ will be ours: salvation from sin, seeing Jesus and fellow believers, living forever in perfection and so much more.
We will experience the fullness which hope leads us to on the day when Christ returns.
As Paul has already said in Chapter 5: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (ROM 5:5) AMEN.
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