NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
ENGAGE
This week our country had plenty of opportunities to think about and witness suffering. On Tuesday, we observed the 17th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on our country where nearly 3,000 people were killed and another 6,000 injured. And this weekend, many along the east coast are suffering the effects of a massive Hurricane Florence and we won’t know for some time the total among of damages done by that storm both in terms of human lives and property damage.
And when that kind of suffering occurs, it’s interesting to watch how people try to explain it. This week, those on the left predictably blamed President Trump and global warming for the power of Hurricane Florence, much in the same way they claimed that President Bush somehow steered Hurricane Katrina toward New Orleans back in 2005.
And just as predictably, some Christians claimed that those same events were God’s judgment on our country for our sin – usually sins that they don’t particularly struggle with like homosexuality or abortion, but almost never sins like greed, covetousness, gossip, or other sins that they do struggle with. While I agree that our country certainly deserves God’s judgment, the question I want to ask those people is why did God only judge the people who were in those two buildings in New York or in the Pentagon or on the four planes that were used in the attacks on September 11? Or why did He only judge the east coast with Hurricane Florence or the Gulf Coast with Hurricane Katrina? Are they somehow more sinful than all the rest of us?
TENSION
I know that every one of us in this room this morning are personally familiar with suffering, either in our own lives or in the lives of our loved ones. Right now, some of you are struggling to make ends meet financially. Some of you have a horrible job situation. Some of you are having problems in your marriages or with other relationships. Some of you are heartbroken as you watch your kids fall away from their faith. And some of you are suffering through tremendous physical illness and pain.
And even if you’re not presently in the midst of some difficulty, unless you die and go to be with Jesus or He returns to this earth before then, you will undoubtedly find yourselve there in the future.
And just like people are trying to find answers about terror attacks and natural disasters, when those difficulties come, we usually want answers, too, don’t we? We want to know how a loving, all-powerful God can allow that kind of suffering in our world, particularly for those who have committed their lives to Him.
This is actually a question we dealt with not too long ago in our sermon series we titled “Hard Questions, Honest Answers”. But it’s such an important topic that it is well worth spending some more time discussing it this morning.
TRUTH
Last week, we left off in our study of Romans, with verse 17 of Romans chapter 8, where Paul wrote that God’s children are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Jesus “provided we suffer with him…” In the passage we looked at last week, we said that suffering with Jesus was one of the three ways that the Holy Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. And I promised that we would explore that idea in more detail today. So that’s what we’re going to do.
[Read Romans 8:18-25]
My original plan was to cover verses 18-30 this week, but as I began to work on the message I realized that there was a good reason that some of the pastors that I regularly use as a resource preached anywhere between 7 and more than 20 sermons on those 13 verses. While I’m not going to go into quite that much detail, I am now planning to spend the next four weeks on that passage because there is just so much here.
Today we’ll look at the biggest chunk of that section because the verses we just read all deal with the same big idea, which Paul lays out for us right at the beginning of the passage and which I’ve paraphrased like this:
The hurt of present suffering
is far outweighed by
the hope of future glory
In order to help us understand that idea, Paul addresses the past, the present, and the future, both as it applies to His creation and as it applies to those who are His children. So the way we’re going to analyze this passage is to break it down into its past, present and future components, and then we’ll see if we can’t make some practical application for our daily lives.
IN THE PAST:
• God subjected His creation to futility because of man’s sin
In verse 20, we read
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it,
At its inception, the purpose of God’s creation was to demonstrate and reflect His glory. That is why God looked at all that he had created and called it “good”. But according to Paul, at some point that creation was subjected to futility. So what was it that caused God’s creation to no longer be able to fulfill the original purpose of manifesting His glory? And the second question we need to answer is who subjected the creation to that futility?
We find the answers to both those questions in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve sinned, God proclaimed this curse to Adam:
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
(Genesis 3:17 ESV)
God’s judgment on Adam also included a curse on the entire creation. If you doubt that just turn on the latest episode of animal Planet. Before the fall there was not death, but now the animal world is characterized by great white sharks jumping out of the ocean to devour a seal or a group of lions hunting down an elephant at night.
So even though the creation itself did nothing to deserve that curse, because God created it to be under man’s dominion, when man sinned, creation fell into its cursed condition.
• Those who put their faith in Jesus were saved (justification)
As we’ve talked about before, salvation consists of a past, present and future aspect. And Paul addresses all three of them in this passage.
You’ll notice that in verse 24 he writes “we were saved” – past tense.
At the very moment that Paul and the other believers to whom he is writing put their faith in Jesus they were justified – which is just a fancy religious word that means that they were declared righteous and just before God. That is not because of anything they did, but only because God accepted Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for their sins. So now when God looks at them, and us, He sees only the righteousness of Jesus, and not our sin. So we were freed at that point from the penalty of sin.
IN THE PRESENT:
• The creation is groaning because it is in bondage
In verse 22, we find the first of three references to groaning in Romans 8. Today we’ll see that creations groans, and that we who are disciples of Jesus groan. And next week, we’ll talk about how the Holy Spirit groans.
The verb “groan” describes the utterances of a person who is caught in a dreadful situation and has no immediate prospect of deliverance. And that certainly describes God’s creation in the present, doesn’t it? It is not what it once was and is not what it will be again in the future. And yet, even though the creation is fallen, it still bears witness to the majesty and glory of the Creator.
So the next time you see a beautiful sunset, or see the stars in the night sky or take a hike and see the beauty of God’s creation, just think of how beautiful the new heavens and earth are going to be if this fallen creation is already so magnificent!
The good news in this passage is that there is hope for the creation that has been subjected by God to futility as a result of man’s sin. The creation waits with eager anticipation for the “revealing of the sons of God”, whatever that involves. We’ll talk more about that in a moment. That is consistent with what we see in verse 20 when Paul tells us that God subjected His creation to futility “in hope”.
But in the meantime the creation is in bondage to corruption. That means that we are going to have hurricanes, and floods and other natural disasters. It means that there are going to be evil people who will try to do harm to others. It means that there will be cancer and heart disease and car accidents. And the clear implication of this passage is that Christians aren’t immune to or protected from any of that.
• God’s children are groaning
Not only is the creation itself groaning, but as we see in verse 23, those of us who are children of God are also groaning inwardly as we wait for our adoption as children of God.
I think that this inward groaning is related to the idea of not being comfortable with our sin that we talked about last week. The reason that I say that is because Paul writes that we groan inwardly as a result of having the “firstfruits of the Spirit”.
When the Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in our lives when we put our faith in Jesus, as our firstfruits, He becomes our guarantee that God is going to give us everything he promised, including the future aspect of our salvation that we’ll discuss in a moment.
And as we saw last week, when that happens, the Holy Spirit transforms the way that we think. He gives us holy longings and desires and leads us to kill sin in our lives. And so we groan over the impact of sin on the creation as well as the impact of sin in our personal lives. Unbelievers don’t groan like that because they are very comfortable with the sin in their lives and they don’t understand the way that sin impacts God’s creation.
As we mentioned last week, this is the process of sanctification, the present aspect of our salvation where we are growing to become more like Jesus. In this process we are freed from the power of sin. In a couple weeks, we’ll be talking more about the role of suffering in that process.
• God’s children are waiting eagerly for the future
This is the key to persevering in the midst of our present suffering. While we are groaning over sin, we are also to look forward with great anticipation to what God has for us in the future.
The kind of waiting that is described here is not passive. It is not just “letting go and letting God.” It is, as we saw last week, constantly working to kill the sin in my life as I am enabled by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. And it is also intentionally thinking about the future that God has in store for me on a regular basis.
So what does that future look like? Let’s talk about the third and final aspect of our salvation.
IN THE FUTURE:
• The creation will be “reborn”
I have made quite a few hospital visits over the years, enough to know that there are two kinds of groans that you can hear. If I go the surgical floor or the oncology unit, I am likely to hear groans from people who are in horrible pain, and in some cases even in the process of dying. But if I go to the labor and delivery area, I can hear some groans that may not sound a lot different, but they end up with a new birth rather than death.
Paul says that the groaning of the creation is more like those groans – they are like the pains of childbirth. They are the groans of a creation that looks forward to being freed from its present futility as God creates a new heaven and a new earth that will once again manifest His glory.
And in much the same way that its original subjection to futility was a result of man’s sin, that process of rebirth is connected with the final culmination of man’s salvation. That is why the creation is waiting with eager longing for that to happen in much the same way that a young child waits eagerly for the arrival of Santa Claus. The child knows that the arrival of Santa will result in presents under the tree. In much the same way, God’s creation awaits the completion of man’s salvation knowing that means its rebirth is at hand.
• God’s children will be “revealed” = new bodies (glorification)
There are two phrases that Paul uses in this section that both describe the same future event that we are waiting for and that creation is also waiting for:
…the revealing of the sons of God… (v. 19)
…adoption as sons… (v.23)
Let me first speak to that second phrase. I’m guessing that some of you are probably thinking, “But aren’t we already sons of God?” From the passage that we read last week, it is clear that the answer to that question is “Yes, we are”. We become children of God and heirs at the very moment we commit our lives to Jesus. But we don’t actually receive the full inheritance until some point in the future. So there is a sense in which we have not yet fully obtained all that comes with being a child of God.
Paul explains what both these phrases mean at the end of verse 23 when he writes:
…the redemption of our bodies…
If you have committed your life to Jesus, then your soul has already been redeemed. So we’re not waiting for the redemption of our souls. But we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies. Even though we have become new creations, we are still locked in this unredeemed flesh.
That means right now we don’t look glorious. Physically, we look and we operate just like everyone else. We get tired and sick and die just like those who are not sons of God. So you can’t tell if someone is a disciple of Jesus just by looking at their bodies.
But there is a day coming when Jesus will transform these perishable bodies into eternal resurrection bodies and everyone will know who the sons of God are. Paul describes what those bodies will be like in 1 Corinthians 15:
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
(1 Corinthians 15:42–44 ESV)
The Bible doesn’t give us a complete picture of what our resurrection bodies will be like. But even from just this brief description here, we can see how magnificent they will be. And I know that many of us are looking forward to new bodies that won’t ache, that won’t get sick, that won’t limit our physical activity.
But even beyond that, I rejoice in what these resurrected bodies reveal about what life in the new heavens and new earth is going to be like. As I’ve shared with you before, if heaven means sitting around on a cloud playing a harp, that’s really not appealing to me. Now I know for Susan, that probably sounds great, but not so much for me.
But the idea that we’re going to get these prefect bodies that never wear out, never get tired, never get sick implies that we will be very active. We’ll be running and jumping, and I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if we won’t be able to enjoy many of the same things we’ve enjoyed on this earth - hiking or skiing or playing golf or gymnastics or bicycling. We’ll be able to enjoy the finest food, without worrying about heart attacks or needing to go on a diet. Now it will mean that Gerald and Amanda will be out of a job. For that matter it also means I’ll be out of a job, because who is going to come listen to me preach, when they can go be taught by Jesus.
For those of you who like to hunt and fish here on earth, I’m not sure if you’ll still be able to do that since it involves killing. But I do know that Isaiah does prophesy about a feast of rich food, well-aged wine and food full of marrow. So those steaks do have to come from somewhere.
In this third and final state of salvation, we will share in Jesus’ glory and we will freed from the presence of sin.
When we think about this glorious future, we can certainly see why Paul began this section by teaching us that…
The hurt of present suffering
is far outweighed by
the hope of future glory
If I could take all the suffering that I experience in this world and put it on one side of a scale, and take the future glory that God has for me and put it on the other side, it would be like a feather compared to all the gold in Fort Knox.
APPLICATION/ACTION
IMPLICATIONS FOR ME
1. Make sure I am a child of God
Many of you have probably heard me talk before about my friend Bill, who died from leukemia several years ago. I don’t know for sure whether Bill ever committed his life to Jesus, but I do know that as I sat in the hospital with his family the day that he passed away they were all completely devoid of even a shred of hope. That is because all they could see was Bill’s present suffering.
But fortunately, I’ve also had the privilege of watching others who are children of God suffer and even die, but who still have more joy in their lives than those who are not suffering nearly as much. That is because they were able to do what we’ve been talking about today and know that their present suffering is far outweighed by the hope of future glory. There are some of you right here in this room this morning that do that every day even in the midst of your suffering. And I’m proud of you and grateful for a God who loves us enough to make that possible.
So if you want to be able to endure the suffering that will surely come into your life because we live in a world that has been devastated by sin, then you must become a child of God. And the only way you can do that is to put your faith in Jesus alone and give control of your life to Him. If you’ve never done that, I want to encourage you to do that this morning. In a few minutes, I’ll give you some more detail about how you can make that decision.
2. Don’t be surprised when suffering comes
Because we presently live in a world that has been subjected to futility because of man’s sin, we should not be surprised when suffering comes. And children of God are not immune from that suffering. We should probably be more surprised when we aren’t suffering. In fact, there is a sense in which our suffering is actually intensified because we have the Holy Sprit dwelling within us, causing us to groan over sin. And that doesn’t even include the suffering that Jesus warned us we would encounter just because we’re associated with Him.
3. When suffering comes, focus on the future, not the present
This week as Hurricane Florence headed for the east coast, many people did what we all often do when we face suffering. They prayed and asked God to lessen the severity of the storm or to steer it away from land. And perhaps in response to those prayers, the storm was much less severe than originally forecast, although it still caused plenty of destruction and much suffering. But what about all the natural disasters that have still caused destruction and pain in spite of people’s prayers? Does that mean that prayer doesn’t work, or that maybe people just needed to pray harder or have more faith? When someone gets cancer and people pray for his or her healing and that person dies anyway, does it mean that God isn’t listening or that the people praying needed more faith?
I don’t think so. What those situations do show us is that perhaps when suffering is on the horizon or when we’re in the midst of suffering, we tend to focus on the wrong things. Our natural tendency is to focus on the suffering itself and on ways that we can either be removed from that suffering or somehow overcome it.
But what we have learned today is that the key to persevering, and even finding joy, in the midst of suffering, it to focus our thoughts instead on the glorious future that God has in store for His children that far outweighs even the most difficult and painful circumstances we might be facing right now.
The hurt of present suffering
is far outweighed by
the hope of future glory
INSPIRATION
For the most part, I enjoy watching the University of Arizona sports teams play even though that can be a stressful experience, especially watching the football team this year. Every time that the U of A fumbles, or gets stopped short on a 3rd down play or throws an interception or gives up a long touchdown to the other team, I worry about how that is going to impact the final score of the game and whether the Wildcats are going to be able to win the game.
Last Saturday, I fortunately had a men’s breakfast and an elders meeting, so I couldn’t watch the game when the U of A got killed by Houston. But my very considerate wife recorded the game for me so I could watch it later. But since I knew the final score I erased that recording before I ever watched the game. But Last night was a different story. We watched part of the game and recorded the rest since it finished so late. But because I know that Arizona won, I can go home and watch the last quarter without any stress at all, even if Arizona does make some mistakes along the way since I already know the final outcome.
I think that’s a pretty good picture of how God wants us to handle our suffering. Since we already know the final outcome, we can find joy in our suffering because we know without a doubt that…
The hurt of present suffering
is far outweighed by
the hope of future glory
Discussion Questions for Bible Roundtable
1. How does this morning’s passage help us to understand what Paul meant in verse 17 when he wrote about “suffering with Jesus”?
2. In this passage, Paul writes a lot about “hope”. How does the Biblical concept of hope differ from the way we usually use that word?
3. Paul writes that both the creation and the children of God “wait with eager longing/wait eagerly”. What does it look like to do that? Why does Paul connect the creation and the children of God like that?
4. Based on what we’ve learned today, how would you answer someone who asked, “How can a loving and powerful God allow suffering?”
5. Why is the future bodily resurrection so important in helping us to endure our present suffering?
