Groaning and Glory
For Meditation
More than anything else, Romans 8 is about assurance. That despite everything, we can have the utmost assurance of God's inseparable love for us. Throughout the chapter, Paul has suggested a couple of different barriers that tempt us to doubt the love of God for us. The first is sin. It is easy to slip into the performance mindset, believing that our sin and failures can jeopardize our salvation and undermine our assurance. But no, Paul said, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Nothing separates.
But a second barrier, perhaps even more challenging than the first, is suffering. When we suffer, as we all do, it is so easy to believe that God is absent, that God is malicious, or God can't be trusted. It is easy to believe that God has turned his back or that we are alone. But in verses 18-27, Paul describes that our present suffering, rather than separating us from God's love, is actually preparing us for a unmatchable glory when all of creation will be redeemed. We are groaning now, but we are waiting for glory.
So what do we do in the time of the waiting? We wait eagerly and patiently, with the Holy Spirit within us reminding us of the hope we have in Christ.
As you prepare for worship, consider an area of suffering in your own life. Ask the Lord, how are you using this in my life to prepare me for the coming glory?
Romans 8:18–27
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.