Romans Chapter 8 cont'd
My evaluation is that our present sufferings are not even worthy to be compared with the beauty and perfection that will ultimately be produced in us. Actually, the whole created order is unconsciously longing and inaudibly crying out for the perfection of believers. All creation was cursed through Adam's fall, but not without the God-given promise that it would one day be liberated from its bondage to fully share in the uninhibited freedom of the children of God. The various kingdoms within creation, up to this present time, are groaning and travailing with spiritual labor pains. And, in fact, even though we have the hefty down payment of perfection through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are similarly groaning within ourselves because we still have to wait for the fullness of our salvation- the resurrection. The kingdom of God is here, but not fully.
Comment:
The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about the climactic act of God that is wondrously and mysteriously introduced into the middle of the grand drama about heaven and earth that spans the ages. This unique plot line sets his-story apart from so many of the stories we have written for ourselves. Normally, the end comes at the end. But in this case, "The End" appears in the middle of the drama and secures the hope of a perfect outcome for God's good original creation. God himself, the author of the story, becomes the central character by taking on human flesh in the divine person of his Son and enters human history to deal conclusively...through his life, death, resurrection, ascension and subsequent gift of the Spirit to his followers...with the problem of evil and all its tragic effects upon the entire creation.
The "not worthy comparison" that Paul refers to in this passage reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 16:21: "When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." All creation and we ourselves, are pregnant with the new creation inaugurated by the first coming of Christ and there are sorrows and pains associated with the tensions of our condition. In watching my wife, Terri, go through 5 pregnancies and deliveries, there is no doubt in my mind that there are both physical and emotional paradoxes of pregnancy at every stage. This is because there is a kind of strong hope and joyful expectation with pregnancy as well...to which few things can be compared. Even beyond the pregnancy...Paul pictures us and all creation in labor. (Admittedly, 2,000 years is a long gestation!) Eugene Peterson captures this so well in his Message translation of vs. 22-25:
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
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