A Study of Romans 8:18-25
Hello everyone! When my father passed away the verse that gave me the most comfort was Romans 8:18 (NKJV): “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
We are coming to that verse and paragraph today in our study through Romans. The first seventeen verses of Romans represent the prologue of the book, followed by a long section—running from Romans 1:18 to 3:20 about our inability to live good enough on our own to please God. There is no one good, no, not one! We cannot be saved by trying to keep the Law.
The entire tone of the book then changes in Romans 3:21, which says, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
In Romans 4, Paul demonstrates that the principle of being saved by grace through faith is not a new notion. It’s the way the Lord worked even in Old Testament days. It’s how Abraham and David were saved and given a relationship with God and everlasting life.
The first half of chapter five tells us about the blessings and benefits that come into our lives with justification, and the last half of chapter five opens a new explanatory paradigm—that the whole human race is divided into only two families—the family of Adam or the family of Christ. Chapter six tells us that when we pass from the family of Adam to the family of Christ by grace and through faith, we are no longer in the realm of sin, we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Chapter 7 continues that theme, but it also acknowledges that we are still capable of sinning and we do still sin. We struggle with sin. We struggle with the flesh.
Paul said, “I don’t do what I want to do, and what I don’t want to do—that I do!”
But in this momentous chapter 8, we’re given the way of victory—the Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life. Paul describes the operations of the Holy Spirit in our lives, one after another, like water cascading from one pool to another, like a bubbling stream spilling down a mountainside.
As we saw in last week’s episode, the Holy Spirit, among other things, gives us all the reassurance we need in our souls and spirits that we are members of God’s family forever, a world without end.
Romans 8:16-17 says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
And now, let’s pick up our study with verses 18-25. I’m going to read the entire paragraph, and then we’ll work through it verse by verse:
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.
Verse 18 is one of the most encouraging verses I’ve found in Scripture: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” This verse has a twin. The apostle stated the same truth in slightly different terms in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Both these verses tell us the same things.
- Right now in this present world there can be incredible suffering.
- However intense it may be, the suffering and anxiety and pain are temporary and, measured against eternity, will quickly be over.
- When Christ returns we will share His eternal glory.
- In both duration and character, our future glory is going to be far greater than our present suffering. In fact, it is not even worth comparing.
Through the years, I’ve tried to illustrate this truth in various ways. Once I asked people to imagine inheriting a vast estate, but encountering a bit of air turbulence while traveling to see it. Here is another way I described it in my book, Always Near.
When I was a little boy, ten or eleven years old, my dad promised to take us to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on vacation. We’d been there before, and I can’t tell you how excited I was. I loved going to Myrtle Beach, chowing down on pancakes in the morning, playing in the ocean all day, riding everything at the carnival in the evening, playing miniature golf, and having my parents’ full attention for the whole week.
My little sister, Ann, was about five; and I wanted her to be as excited as I was, but I didn’t have anything to show her. I wrote to the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce asking for brochures. A week or so later, I began getting brochures by the dozens from every attraction, amusement park, hotel, restaurant, and golf course on the Grand Strand. I organized them on a folding table and went over every brochure with Ann. I had her so excited she could hardly sleep at night. We were so wound up with anticipation we could almost have flown there by flapping our arms.
In the week before we left, I probably had a bicycle wreck, an almost daily occurrence. I probably scraped my knee. I might have gotten into trouble with my parents. One of those lost library books might have plagued me. But I recovered from all such problems more quickly because I was busy packing up for the beach. The anticipation of the trip eclipsed everything else.
In other words, the suffering of a scraped knee wasn’t worth comparing to the excitement and exhilaration of the upcoming, soon-at-hand, vacation at the beach. Now, I admit that the problems we have in life, the tragedies, the heartache, the tears, the pain, and the anxieties that we face are far more serious than a scraped knee. But I believe the analogy holds true because of the exceedingly stupendous, eternally glorious future that awaits us at any given moment when we are in Christ.
Now let’s go on to verse 19: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
The first three words are “For the creation…” and in verse 22 he adds, “the whole creation….” The entire cosmos. Everything God made in Genesis 1 and 2. Remember that when Adam and Eve sinned, it affected the entire created order in ways we cannot fully explain or understand. Death entered into the picture. The ground was cursed. Weeds infected the fields and farms. Nature convulsed and has been convulsing ever since.
All of creation is awaiting that day when we will be resurrected, we will be glorified, and the curse will be lifted. This will happen in large measure when Christ returns and establishes His Millennial Reign. And it will happen most perfectly and eternally with the advent of the new heavens and new earth, which are described in Revelation 21 and 22.
In other words, things are in a sorry state now. The world is full of evil and suffering, and nature itself is under a curse. We ourselves endure suffering and anxiety. But when Jesus comes, we will be glorified and all of creation will be restored, first during the thousand-year reign of Christ, and, in an even greater way, in the eternal state.
This may be a good time to bring up a rather obscure discussion in biblical theology. We are told in 2 Peter 3, that this present earth and the present universe will be destroyed by fire. Second Peter 3:7 says, “By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
Verse 10 says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”
Verse 12 says, “That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”
When we turn a few pages and get into the book of Revelation, we come to chapter 21, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
There is a significant group of scholars who believe that the current universe and solar system and the planet we are living on are not going to be annihilated; they are going to be renovated. In my book 100 Bible Verses that Made America, I describe how the Liberty Bell was repeatedly broken up, melted down, and recast.
Let’s take our physical bodies, for example. At the resurrection our bodies are not going to be totally annihilated. God is not going to obliterate our old bodies and create brand new bodies from scratch for us. He knows the location of every particle of dust and every trace of DNA. Our old bodies are going to be resurrected and renovated and glorified and equipped for eternity.
I first came across this debate between the annihilation and the renovation of the universe as a young pastor preaching through the book of Revelation. The great Southern Baptist pastor, W. A. Criswell, whom I met on one occasion, published the book of his sermons on Revelation, and I read his sermons as I prepared mine. Criswell dealt at great length on this subject. I had never before heard this interpretation. But let me quote from Dr. Criswell’s book:
When John says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,” does John mean that the old, first heaven and the old, first earth were annihilated, that they entered into extinction and nothingness, that they were swept into non-existence?…. Or does he mean that it is the same heaven renovated and redeemed and that it is the same earth purified and regenerated? What does he mean?
I have a very definite persuasion from the Word of God and it is this: I think this earth is our home forever and forever into the ages of the ages, I think the heavens and the earth are everlasting. I think they were here before sin entered in. I think the heavens above us and the earth beneath us will be here after they are swept clean of the curse that has wasted them. I think this great heaven and this great earth is a redeemed and regenerated heaven and a redeemed and regenerated earth, the one I see above me and the one I see below and around me….
And then Dr. Criswell refers to our text in Romans.
In Romans 8:19 Paul describes the renovation of the earth in one of the greatest passages of all literature and one of the most meaningful promises to be found in the Word of God…. The earth was cursed, wasted, destroyed. All of God’s creation was ruined and sinned. This earth—look at it! Our humanity—look at it! Childhood, youth, manhood, old age—look at them! Even the stars burn out. The vegetable world is cursed, the animal world is cursed, the whole creation is made subject to futility and despair…
But in the regeneration, there is to be a remaking of the whole creation of God, the animal world, the vegetable world, the planetary world, the astronomical world, everything that God has created, that sin is cursed, God will remake.
Some commentators of Romans agree this is what the apostle Paul had in mind. Leroy Forlines, in his commentary of Romans, said, “It is commonly held by most commentators that Paul is referring in this passage to a renovation rather than an annihilation of this earth, to be followed by a creation of a new and totally different earth.”
I hope I haven’t lost all of you in this little detour. I think what I would like to do is simply to give you my expanded paraphrase of these verses. Here is what I think Paul might explain to us if I could interview him right now and ask him what he was wanting to say. He might put it like this.
I am certain of this. Even though we have a lot of heartache in this present life, it really is not worth comparing to what is ahead of us and to the glory that is going to be revealed to us and experienced by us. The truth is that the entire creation—the stars above us, the whole cosmos, all the animals and the plants, all of nature—was diminished by what happened to Adam and Eve. A curse came over everything. Yes, this world is still staggeringly beautiful, and life is very much worth living. But everything has been cursed and diminished by sin.
So there is a longing in the entire creation for that moment when Jesus will come again. Those who have died in Christ will be resurrected and their physical bodies will be instantly glorified. And we who are alive when Jesus comes again will be caught up and transformed for eternity.
Jesus will reign for 1000 years, and nature will be much better. As Isaiah told us, the lamb and the lion will frolic together. The deserts will become gardens, and many of the results of the curse will be reversed.
But the real fulfillment and the true glory will be fully seen and felt when this universe is transformed, melted down by fire, and recreated—when the universe is renovated and we enter our eternal home in the new heavens, and the new earth, and the city of new Jerusalem. All of creation is yearning for that moment, and so are we. Even though we have the Holy Spirit living within us now, we ourselves are still groaning.
And now let’s get back to the text as it’s put in the New International Version—verses 23-25:
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.
I know that some of you who are listening to this episode are carrying heavy burdens. You’re worried about your husband or your wife, your children or your grandchildren, your finances or your health. I would simply suggest that you keep Romans 8:18 close at hand, and when you feel discouraged remember that the sufferings of this present world are not worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed.
Let me end with the words of an old song we used to sing at church:
When all my labors and trials are o’er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will through the ages be glory for me.
When, by the gift of His infinite grace,
I am accorded in heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on His face,
Will through the ages be glory for me.
Friends will be there I have loved long ago;
Joy like a river around me will flow,
Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know,
Will through the ages be glory for me.
O that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me;
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.