Hope for All Creation
For Meditation
This whole sermon series has been grounded in one, simple, revolutionary idea: the resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything. We started this series with the impact of the resurrection on our personal, individual lives, in the way that the resurrection brings personal conversion, catalyzes character transformation, and provides resources and hope for our suffering. Then we moved out a layer to talk about how the resurrection has consequences for our bodily life in the world, changes our relationships and social interactions, and transforms even our work and labor in the world. For this final week, we are widening the circle as broadly as possible to discuss how the resurrection of Jesus changes the destiny of the earth itself. Truly, the resurrection changes everything!
In this astounding passage in Romans 8, Paul manages to tell the whole story of Scripture in a couple short paragraphs. He affirms the goodness of God’s creation, reminds us of the act of human rebellion that “subjected creation to futility,” and points to the future hope in which all creation will be made new. As we have been saying throughout this series, the biblical hope is not a disembodied heavenly existence, but a transformed life in resurrected bodies in a renewed world. This Sunday we’ll explore what this means for creation itself and the implications for our present life in the world.
Romans 8:18-25
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.