Albert N. Martin

I invite you to follow with me in your Bibles as I read from Romans chapter 8.

In laying out the privileges of those who are adopted into the family of God by grace, on the basis of the work of Christ, the Apostle has just declared that all such adopted ones are given the spirit of adoption, and are given the spirit of heirs and joint heirs with Christ. Then he makes a qualifying statement at the end of verse 17, “If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.”

Now follow the reading of verses 18 through 25.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

By the gift of the Spirit and the operations of the Spirit in renovating man from the inside out, when God is done and gives us our resurrected bodies, we shall reflect the likeness of Christ. He will be the Firstborn, the elder Brother in the family, all of which bear His image.

But is that all God’s purposed to do: put a perfected man into a cursed creation? There would be a constant incongruity between restored man and unrestored creation! So, in the redemption that God has predestined, He has set His heart not only on this marvelous renovation of man, the rebel, but of the very creation that has been cursed for man’s sake. This is what I read in your hearing in Romans chapter 8. Look at it now.

Paul says in verse 18, “I reckon,” this is a sober, reflective conclusion. This is not something he felt in a moment of heightened, spiritual, emotional fervor. This is his sober, reflective judgment: “That the sufferings of the present time [that is that believers bear because of their union with Christ] are not even worthy to be compared with the glory [now, notice] which shall be revealed to us.” He says present sufferings should not even be talked about in the same sentence with the glory that will be revealed to usward.

Then, as he’s going to describe that glory, notice where the focus shifts: “For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” John says, “Now are we sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be.”

Paul says in terms of that time, the sons of God will be revealed for who they really are—God’s precious ones, whom He has marked out to perfectly reflect the likeness of His Son with perfected, sinless spirits and resurrected, glorified bodies that will throb with the very life of the body of our Lord’s glory.

Bible Reference: Romans 8:18-25