Romans 8:11–23

God, the God of resurrection, raised up His Son Jesus from the dead. That same Spirit carried Him through this unclean world to the glory of God, and He was never stained by it. That Spirit was the guarantee that death could not hold Him... Now that same power lives in believers, because we have received the Spirit from the risen Christ. And since that is so, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies by that same Spirit. When only God and His Son are in view, the wording is "Him who raised up Jesus." When others are included, it is "He who raised up Christ." Jesus is His own personal name. Christ is the title of the last Adam, the Head of the family He has redeemed.

There are two things to say in reply. First, there is an "if" in the verse. But it is not "if we claim the fullness of the Spirit." It is "if the Spirit dwells in us" — and He does, if we are believers at all. Second, the question is not healing but the giving of life from God. Once the mortal body is made alive, it is no longer mortal. This has clearly not yet happened to any believer living on earth. If Paul's mortal body had been quickened, for instance, the executioner's axe could never have killed him. He would still be walking among us!

Even this mortal body will be made alive — not a new body created and handed to me, but this same mortal body changed. This is not simply a fresh creation. It is the most glorious proof of God's love and grace toward us. The mortal body will be raised because of His Spirit who dwells in us. The Holy One who lives in us now will never give up His claim on the body He lives in.

A day is coming when a change will take place. To that we are here pointed. In view of that day the Spirit receives a new title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." If that Spirit dwells in us, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies — because of His Spirit who dwells in us, not merely by Him. The body belongs to God. That of the Christian is precious to Him, since it is now a temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of that God will quicken it.

Verse 11 calls our bodies "mortal bodies." They must die; the seeds of death are in them from the start. At the coming of the Lord they will live again. The God who raised up Christ from the dead will do this by His Spirit... He lives in us in this character, and He is the pledge of the life to come. That life reaches some of us by resurrection of the body. It reaches others by the change God works in the bodies of believers who are still alive at the Lord's coming.

There is a third title: "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead." It is always the same Spirit, but with different results. Here my resurrection is the outcome of the Holy Spirit living in me. The body itself is set free... The cry, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" is fully answered. First we are set free in spiritual power. Then we are given objects that belong to that new life and suit it. Finally we are set free in a body of glory.

It is a settled and secure prospect, and faith can wait for it in quiet joy. So there is no need to be discouraged by the presence of sin in our mortal bodies. We should expect it until that blessed day. Still, it is our privilege to live above it, by the power of the Spirit who dwells in us.

The conclusion to be drawn from all that we have just been considering is that the flesh has no claim upon us whatever. It has been judged in the Cross. It is opposed to God, and can never be reconciled to Him. We are not "in the flesh." The Spirit lives in us, and we are "in the Spirit." So we are in no way debtors to the flesh, that we should live after it.

"So then, brothers, we are debtors" — this is clear, for everything shows that we are dependent creatures, and the cross of Christ above all else. But if debtors, it is certainly "not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." The flesh has been nothing but a thief, robbing and destroying. Do we owe it more than the dreadful toll it has already taken? No! Our debt is to the One who has redeemed us from the oppressor who wasted us... If I feed the flesh it is sure to be strong; if I do not feed it, it will soon become inactive.

The structure of the wording is unusual, but I believe it is admirably wise. The sentence looks unfinished and sounds as if another clause were needed to complete it... Used to the schools and forms of man, one waits for some statement to be added, such as that we are debtors to the Spirit or to Christ the Lord. This the inspired writer avoids saying. He knows how prone we are to legalism, and would cut off the excuse first. He would keep us in liberty, the full liberty with which Christ set us free.

The Apostle says, "we are debtors not to the flesh", but he does not say we are debtors to the Spirit. That would put us under a higher law — one even more impossible to keep than the law of Moses. It is not that we are not responsible to live after the Spirit, but that this responsibility is not carried out by legal obligation. It is carried out by the power of the new affections which the Spirit imparts.

Liberty is, indeed, the very emphasis of the passage. Christ has set the believer free from the law of sin and death. So he is no longer a debtor to the flesh, even in this present life. He lives to God in the liberty of redemption. This claim of liberty is life and joy to the spiritual man. But where Christianity is only a name and not a power, it is the searching edge of the word of holiness, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart... A Christian may abound much in practical holiness, or he may be very feeble and defective in this respect. But if he is alive to God at all, he cannot at the same time be alive in the flesh.

The Moabites had no real claim on Israel, and yet Eglon had set up his throne in the city of the palm trees... From that place of power he ruled Israel and made them pay him tribute. So what God alone had a right to claim was going to the king of Moab. How true a picture this is of the state of thousands of Christians. The flesh has no right to rule us, for "we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." We owe no debt to that evil principle within us which would make self everything and shut Christ out. We have every right to ignore its demands and to walk in the Spirit. And yet Christians often give time, thought and strength to the flesh, just as Israel gave Eglon what God alone could claim.

It is indeed our duty to live after the Spirit. But if we said that we are debtors, that would put man under a higher law. Keeping that law would then be even more impossible for him. The Spirit was the strength to live. That strength comes through the affections He imparts, not through an obligation to have them. If we live after the flesh, we are going to die; but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we shall live. The evil is there, but strength is there to overcome it.

If men live according to the flesh, they are on the way to death. It does not say that they will die. God's grace is always free to come in. But if it comes in, it takes one off the road to death. The verse does not speak as if sin were of no consequence. On the other hand, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, it does not say you are on the way to life, because there is no uncertainty about the result, but "you will live."

If I see a man going on with the world, I say, That ends in death; and if I walk after the flesh I shall die. God's Word is very plain about this. "If you live according to the flesh you will die," and I take that in its strongest meaning — you will be eternally lost. The end of that road is the lake of fire, and the end of the other road is the presence of God.

A person who is living after the flesh will die. He therefore cannot have the real thing. This passage is not a warning against having a thing and somehow perishing, but against having the signs of the thing and then perishing.

If our old nature were not still left ready to act, we should not need to put to death the deeds of the body. It is not putting the body to death, but the deeds of the body. The great thing to see is that it is through the Spirit.

As to our members that are on the earth, Scripture never says they are crucified. The old mortal body and its members, prone to evil, are still present, and we have to subdue them. Mortification is the process of bringing them under control… To mortify is to put to death. We cannot put to death what is already dead. Mortification, then, is a perpetual killing, if one may say so, of the members and of their deeds.

It is not by resolution. Do you understand now? Do you understand the difference between the Spirit of God and resolution? Resolution is the work of your own will. The Spirit of God is God's will… The Spirit in you is master of the flesh.

Putting the deeds of the body to death is the result of the Spirit's energy. He is the Spirit who produces the fruits of life in a person, when nothing hinders the gracious working of His love. This is expected only from believers in whom the Spirit lives. So there is nothing in verse 13 that need chill the confidence of the poor, weak-spirited, self-judging Christian in the least. Those who judge themselves most are the ones this warning touches least.

This word translated "led" has many uses, but the main idea running through them all is "to take care of." The Spirit takes care of us by leading us into right paths. Having such a guide shows that we are "sons of God." A young prince is always in the care of a tutor. The tutor knows how the prince ought to behave in his position. He must act at all times as the son of a king. In the same way the Spirit lives in our hearts, instructing us in the conduct that suits us because we are "sons of God."

The influence of the Holy Spirit shows itself in these things. But what is on the apostle's mind is not the influence of the Spirit only. It is the Spirit Himself. What is on the mind of the writer he answers is a state of soul. In Romans 8:16 the apostle says, "it is the same Spirit," or "the Spirit itself." And again, "the Spirit helps," "the Spirit makes intercession," the Spirit "dwells" in us.

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Here we begin to hear of our relationship, in contrast with the place of servants or slaves, which Israel had under law. It also opens the way for the Spirit to appear as a Person who acts, rather than only as what marks out our new nature and standing over against the flesh.

Being led by the Spirit is a favour common to all Christians. It is the principle on which God now deals in grace with His people. Outside the circle where God lives by His Spirit, Satan leads men. Under the law His people were in bondage, kept under a guardian. Now, as a Christian privilege, the Spirit leads: "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Galatians 5:18).

There is a further lesson here: we may be led by the Spirit. He is not only our power for keeping the flesh in check, for putting our members to death (Col. 3). He also enables us to walk, and so is our power for progress in the divine path. We must hold on to these teachings firmly. From them we learn that we have no natural resource of our own. We depend entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit for the fight and for the walk, as for every activity of the divine life.

I do not doubt this: if we walk with God and look to Him, the Spirit will put in our hearts the special things He wishes us to do. Only it is important that we keep the word of God in memory. It will then guard us against all our own imaginations. Otherwise the Christian who lacks humility will do his own will, and will often take it for the Holy Spirit.

We are told we have not received "the spirit of the world," which we know is taken up only with the things of earth, of time, and of the senses — things that death shuts in on every side (1 Cor. 2:12). Nor have we received "the spirit of fear," that spirit of dread and torment that always broods over painful doubts and gloomy fears about what is coming (2 Tim. 1:7). Nor have we received "the spirit of bondage again to fear," tied to keeping rules and religious ceremonies, which can never free anyone from the fear of death (Rom. 8:15).

They were Gentiles, and they were never put into the spiritual condition of believers in Old Testament times — above all of those under law, who through fear of death were held in bondage their whole life long. The gospel brought the Jewish believers out of that bondage. It met the Gentile just as fully, though he had never known the discipline of the law... The one as much as the other received a spirit of adoption or sonship.

Believing souls could not take up and enjoy their relationship to the Father until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. To be born again is one thing: a change God's power works through the word. To know that God is our Father is another thing, and we can enjoy it only through the gift of the indwelling Spirit.

Under the law we never find in Scripture that a Jew said "Abba" to God. Israel was connected with God as Father in a national way only. God had called Israel a son, but it was collective, it was national. No one then could ever say "Abba, Father" to God. But now, because Christ's work is finished, we have this liberty — a liberty that gives free access to the immediate presence of God... "Abba" simply means "Daddy." The Lord Himself said it only once, when He was in distress in the garden of Gethsemane.

The Spirit of the Son of God is sent into the heart of the believer, not to make him a son, but because he is already such (Gal. 4:6)... The cry, Abba, Father, is our own; but the Spirit of the Son produces it. We cry Abba, because we know Him this way; but the power of that knowledge is the indwelling presence of the Son.

You remember Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses — an Israelite adopted into the royal family of Egypt! She could not, however, put into Moses a spirit of adoption, so when he became a man he broke it all off. Now, in His rich grace, God has done more than adopt us as His sons, with all the rights, dignity, and glory that go with it, as the royal family of heaven. He gave us the very "spirit of adoption," so that we are truly joined to His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ — not merely given a position.

There is no such thing recognised in Scripture as a Christian doubting he is saved. And it is a completely false claim to humility. If my Father forgives me, and I doubt His forgiveness, I am not trusting Him... There is no such thing in Scripture as a Christian without the Spirit of adoption, crying "Abba, Father."

We are sons, and by the Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father," conscious of being so. The Holy Spirit Himself (here we have Him clearly as a distinct Person) "bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." It is a clear, definite testimony of the Spirit who dwells in us that we are such. It is not a matter of proving it by the word through examining ourselves — that is a false, unscriptural and harmful procedure. It is the testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself dwelling in us, which He bears to us as living in us.

This rules out all self-deception. Someone might copy others in calling God Father, but the Spirit also produces the inward consciousness of the relationship. It is important to notice that it does not say, bears witness to our spirit. If that were the wording, we might be waiting for some distinct testimony at a given moment to assure us that we were now God's children. The apostle says, "with our spirit." The indwelling Spirit produces in us feelings and affections that suit the relationship God has brought us into, and He leads us into the enjoyment of it. The child of God now knows the Father. He does not doubt that he is a child, because he carries within himself the assured consciousness of his relationship.

This passage, which causes no difficulty in experience, causes one when it is a question of saying what it means. If I separate the witness of the Spirit of God from my spirit, I am left with no witness at all. If I receive the witness of the Spirit, then I have two: I have the certainty in my own spirit that I am a child of God, and I have besides the witness of that Spirit who works in us as the Spirit of adoption. It is the Spirit of God in us who gives our spirit the strength to say that we are children of God.

How is this witness borne to our sonship? The very fact of His presence within us testifies to it. By His presence He also forms within us affections suited to our relationship. He gives us desires after the enjoyment of the Father's love. He enables us in the holy intimacy of our filial place to cry, Abba, Father. He confirms to our souls the word we have trusted... No, it is not an audible testimony. Our spirit alone discerns and grasps it. But that makes it no less real — it makes it all the more real, because it is a living secret between ourselves and God.

Remember that the strength and clearness of His testimony will depend on conditions... When we are led, walking in simple, loving obedience and dependence, our spirit will discern His testimony to our sonship most clearly. But if we walk in a way that grieves Him, we shall listen in vain for His testimony, because we shall have grieved Him into silence.

He does not leave the child's feeble voice alone. We are often tempted to doubt the testimony of our own renewed hearts, because it is often very feeble. Sometimes it is only the cry of a child. But the Spirit joins His mighty testimony to the feebleness of ours. He bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and gives His value to both testimonies. Can we then doubt?

To understand this well, remember that all saints from Adam onward have been children of God. Until the cross of Christ, they did not have the position of sons of God. The Greek words in verse 14 and verse 16 are clearly different. The word in verse 16 implies birth. The word in verse 14 refers to the dignity of the position of the adopted... But the gift of the Spirit is a witness to us — within us — bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Old Testament saints did not have this witness. We enjoy the relationship of children today in the same measure that we pay attention to the witness of the Spirit.

A Christian is an heir, as well as a child, an "heir of God" and a "fellow heir with Christ," Rom. 8:17… The inheritance goes with our being children: "if children, then heirs." The moment a person is in the position of a child, there is an heir.

His witness to our spirit is this — that we are children of God. But if children, we are His heirs. This accordingly leads, as connected with the deliverance of the body, to the inheritance we are to possess. The extent is what God Himself, so to speak, possesses — the universe of God, whatever will be under Christ: and what will not? As He has made all, so He is heir of all. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

We shall see that God shows the church not only as enjoying the present blessing of communion, but also as joint-heir with Christ of His coming inheritance. When believers look at the glory of Christ, they are looking at their own glory, since they are "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." We see a picture of this in Eve. Eve was not a part of the creation, nor was she lord of it as Adam was; but she shared with him everything he inherited.

Note, though: this is suffering with Christ, not for Him. To suffer for Christ is a privilege, a special gift of God; Phil. 1:29. You cannot be a Christian without suffering with Christ. How could the Spirit of Christ give us a different mind from the mind that was in Christ as He passed through this sad world?

This suffering comes from having life in Him while we pass through a world where everything is against Him… Divine life here is surrounded by all that works out its own misery, estrangement, and rebellion against Him. So if suffering is the necessary result of that, it is an immense privilege to suffer with Christ, cheered along the road by the prospect of sharing His glory.

Our reigning with Christ does not depend in any way on our present suffering. Instead, suffering here is the appointed path for those who will share Christ's kingdom with Him.

The glory comes in again. Tribulation is the present thing, but the bright glorious future is coming. To me it seems impossible for a Christian not to suffer with Him… This goes beyond having glorified bodies; that happens when the Lord comes, but this at His appearing. When He comes to be glorified in His saints, we shall be glorified together before the eyes of the whole universe. What a future opens up before us! Glory upon glory! It is a privilege to suffer with Him — all privilege.

Christian sufferings may be great. They often are. Yet see how he estimates them. He weighs them in the sober balances of divine truth against the glory to be revealed. He compares present sufferings with eternal glory. Weighed like this, the momentary trial of faith and patience proves to be as nothing. There is no doubt in his mind. It is a deliberate measurement of truth with truth. He sets real suffering against most real, most certain, eternal glory.

Who was ever better able to reckon on this matter than Paul? Bonds and imprisonments awaited him in every city. His was a life of constant suffering with the One he so loved to serve. Yet he says the sufferings are nothing next to the glory. What a solution of the perplexing paradox of all creation! The groans of battlefields shall cease. The misery, poverty and degradation of the multitude shall come to an end. So shall the sufferings of creation.

Co-heirs, co-sufferers, co-glorified — this is the order of Christian life and hope. And notice: we have the whole inheritance of God. So this suffering flows from the glorious position God has brought us into. It flows from our sharing in the life of Christ Himself.

The day of His glory will be a great day for us; we shall see Him glorified, and we shall be glorified as His companions. He says to His Father, "The glory that you have given me I have given to them" (John 17:22). And the world will see us displayed in that glory. By this the world is to know that the Father sent the Son, and has loved us as He has loved Him.

From that point till we reach verse 27 we find ourselves in an atmosphere charged with groaning. That word occurs three times in these verses. No surprise: the present age lies in the "bondage of corruption," and the age to come will bring the "liberty of the glory."

His mind is full of the future — absorbed with tomorrow. He is like a schoolboy waiting for a holiday, who can think of nothing else. The glory is so present that he calls the affliction momentary. The present sufferings had lost their hindering power, because he saw the power of God in them.

Knowing God as our Father only deepens our sense of the sorrows and miseries of the world we pass through. So does the blessedness of the glory ahead. But these sufferings cannot compare with the glories that are coming. The sufferings are passing, the glories are eternal.

"Earnest expectation" is only one word in Greek. It means "watching for something you expect, with your head stretched out." This word appears only here and in Philippians 1:20... One writer says it means "to expect on and on, to the end."

Creation did not fall into emptiness by its own choice, of course. It happened because of the one who subjected it. Man was set by God as the head of the lower creation. When he fell, creation shared his ruin. When Christ appears and the sons of God are revealed, we shall have proof that God made creation depend on them, and that its hope of freedom is not empty. If it was right that creation fell into emptiness when its head fell, then see how fitting it is, and how worthy of God: He redeems His children and heirs, and creation's glorious recovery follows!

The creation fell with its head Adam... But God had His eye on everything, and the fall of man did not take Him by surprise... If the creation fell under one head, He knew how to recover it under Another.

Notice: creation does not wait for the revealing of the Son of God, but of the sons of God. He has already been revealed; they have not. When the sons of God appear in glory, the groaning creation will find relief. That will be the signal for its full deliverance. Its time of bondage runs on until then.

On the outside, His sons look no different from other people in body, power, or glory. They may be weak, they may suffer, and they fall asleep or die while the Lord waits on high. But at His coming, after the resurrection or the change, they will appear in glory with Christ when He appears too. Creation also awaits this happy moment. Its deliverance from its present misery depends on them and their revealing.

Creation lies in the misery and corruption that came from the fall. It will stay that way until the sons of God appear in bodies of glory. For creatures the question is not souls that need redeeming, but bodies that decay... Creation cannot receive grace, but it will share in the glory that brings outward blessing to this world of sorrow.

Preaching, profession, or even the real faith of believers will not free creation from the emptiness it has lain under since the fall... How will this be brought about? If the deliverance of the creature depends on the manifestation of God's sons, the answer is certain. It is not in this age; for all through, our life is hidden with Christ in God. It cannot be in eternity; for that will not be until the heavens pass away with a great noise... It is between the two.

We wait to go in; the creation waits until we come out.

Creation was not made (as it now is) in decay, degradation, suffering, death. It would be hard to accept that God first designed it to be in such confusion and misery. The Scriptures teach the opposite. Creation lies under its present disorder because of man's guilt and ruin. Yet it does not long in vain for deliverance. It waits in hope for His revelation in glory. The very struggle of everything for life and against sickness witnesses that it is fallen to rise.

It is not "in relation to man generally" that the apostle tells us "he is a captive not by any choice of his own." Man is, sadly, a willing captive. It is still the lower creatures who have fallen with man, not of their own will, but as linked to him who was appointed the head of creation.

But the creation did not of its own accord — "not willingly" — become subject to vanity. It was not a moral question, as it was with man. All creation has suffered because of man's sin; the subjection is "by reason of" man, "who has subjected it."

Man was set by God as the head of the lower creation. When he fell, creation shared his ruin. If it was righteous for creation to fall under vanity with its head, how worthy of God that its glorious recovery should follow the redemption of His children and heirs!

It was God. Someone has said it would have been unthinkable for the head to fall and the creature to stand above him. So when Adam fell, God subjected the creature to the same vanity as its fallen head. Its freedom will be public when the sons of God are revealed in glory, and it must wait until that time.

Its fall, because of the transgression and fall of its head, has not been beyond remedy or beyond hope. It has been allowed to fall under one head so that it may be recovered under another. It has been made subject to vanity in the hope of being delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

It was not by the will of the creature that it became subject to vanity, but through the folly of man. But the glory is coming, so if the creature is subject to vanity, it is so in hope of deliverance from the bondage of corruption. If it cannot share in the liberty of grace, which sets free from sin and judgment, it will share in the liberty of glory. That liberty lifts every pressure from these bodies.

People around us form themselves into associations for the benefit of the creature, seeking to improve its lot and lessen its woes. All this may be praiseworthy enough from a human standpoint. But I say the creature expects nothing from such means. It waits for the moment when the heavens will open and the sons of God will appear with Christ. Then its woes will end, but until that day its groans must continue.

There is no reason to be surprised at such a link with men. Creation was made subject to vanity, not by its own will, of course, but because of him who made it subject. God set man as the head of the lower creation. When he fell, creation shared his ruin. The sons of God will be revealed when Christ appears. That will prove God made creation depend on them, and that its hope of freedom is not in vain. It was righteous that the fall of its head should bring creation under vanity. So how fitting and worthy of God that its glorious recovery should follow the redemption of His children and heirs!

"The glorious liberty of the children of God!" People talk of glorious liberty now. And it is indeed wonderful, blessed liberty, into which grace has now brought us. But the passage before us is literally, "The liberty of the glory of the children of God." It is the liberty of grace in which we believers stand at present. The glory revealed in us will show that we are the sons of God. That happens when Christ appears, and we appear with Him in glory. It is into the liberty of this glory — the liberty which the glory of Christ and His saints will give to the world we will reign over — that the creation itself will be delivered.

So it is not grace that the creation needs, but the redemption of power... Then creation, which was forced into corruption by man's sin, will be identified with the glory of the children of God.

It is God's honour for Christ in this creation. As man's sin dragged it down with himself into ruin, so will the Second Man raise it out of its degradation and misery. But the inheritance cannot be delivered before the heirs.

And when will its hopes be fulfilled? We answer: when the sons of God are revealed. When the children of God step into their glory, the whole creation will step with them into the liberty of that glory. Then a proclamation of liberty will go out through all the land to all its inhabitants. Then the forfeited land will be redeemed. Then men's toil and labour will cease and they will eat what the field produces (see Lev. 25:10-13). It will be the true and final year of Jubilee.

Creation will also be delivered. Now it groans, and travails in pain. Now we groan also — we who have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves... Creation waits, and we wait. Creation waits to enter into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. We wait for adoption, the redemption of our body... But God's purposes will not be fully accomplished until creation gets full deliverance. And that cannot happen until the new heavens and the new earth appear.

So the Christian is not in ignorance of the misery of the groaning creation. Led by the Spirit, believers have the mind of Christ and can say, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." Those who reject the fall blame all the misery of a groaning creation on natural causes. In their folly, they imagine they can remove the misery by their own efforts.

First of all, "the whole creation" groans together in the pains of childbirth. The first reference here is to the lower creation, which the fall of man dragged down. God gave Adam dominion over all, and by his sin he ruined all. He was, so to speak, the top link, joined to the Creator with understanding, and every other link in the chain hung on him. When he fell, all creation fell with him; animals became wild and destructive. We may not have ears to hear the groan of the lamb as the leopard pounces on it, or of the fly caught in the web as it feels the spider's bite. But the groaning is there.

There rises up to God a moan from His suffering creatures on this earth, a chorus of sorrow from its four quarters, as day by day passes by.

As Christians we are not fooled by appearances, nor by the mind and will of man. Man would like to hide the evidence of his own guilt and ruin in the wretchedness of a creation dragged down by his fault. For we know that it is all in groans and pains until now. Neither Christ's coming in grace and humiliation, nor the gospel preached in the power of the Spirit sent down from heaven, set this aside. Instead they called believers to glory above it, and to virtue despite it.

The passage states plainly that this universal groan will only cease at the time spoken of here. Then, and not until then, creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God. … How, my friends, can the world enjoy a time of universal rest, and peace, and freedom from evil, while the whole creation groans in the pains of childbirth? Impossible!

The Lord gives wars, famines and earthquakes a very significant character: they are the beginning of birth-pains. It is as if nature were pressing on toward the birth of a new and better time, and could not rest content with the present evil. … Everywhere there is an unrest that cries out for Him. He alone has said — He alone could dare to say — "Come to me, and I will give you rest." And the cry sounds in His ears, and will find its answer.

But our groaning is not a complaint, the fruit of discontent, but the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Spirit directs our eye to the glory, where we shall have no more reason to groan. He leads us to feel, according to the love of God, the suffering of a creation under bondage. At the same time we feel it ourselves, because by our bodies we still belong to it.

What brought creation into the bondage of corruption? How did it get in? Through us. And how will it get out? Through us, when the glory comes! It is a beautiful thought! … We brought them into it, and shall bring them out of it.

The firstfruits were offered up in Israel as the pledge and foretaste of the coming harvest (see Lev. 23:10, 17, 20), so in the Firstfruits of the Spirit we have the pledge and foretaste of the redeemed body and the glory that is ahead.

The firstfruits of the Spirit suggest that what we have in this way is only a pledge of what is still to come. So we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan for that very reason. Our hope of a state so different from the present only makes us groan more over the present.

You see, the Christian is still linked to the old creation, and the link with it is his body.

It is the groaning of those who are justified by faith and have peace with God. It is the groaning of those who have the Holy Spirit living in them, bearing witness with their spirit that they are children of God. It is the groaning of adopted children who long deeply for the full results of adoption.

This groaning is not a complaint that comes from discontent. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. God permits a groan, but never a grumble.

Only the delivered soul groans, or can groan for others. We feel what is all around us, and we feel it as God feels it. That is why it says, "We groan inwardly" (not for ourselves — I do not groan for a dead thing I have been delivered from) "as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons."

In one sense we have received the adoption (Gal. 4:5-7), becoming sons of God by faith. In this case we wait for the adoption, the redemption of the body. Our bodies will be delivered from this world of sin and corruption and conformed to the image of Christ. Then everyone will see that we are sons of God. By faith we have the adoption now; in glory it will be seen.

As the order shows, this means not the forgiveness of sins, which we already have, but the complete deliverance from the effects of sin in our bodies. We wait for that at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

The Christian is always in that sense a riddle. He has Christ as his life, but not yet fully as Saviour (Phil. 3:20); he has, and he has not, salvation; he is waiting for redemption, not as regards the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7), but as to the body (Rom. 8:23).