Romans 8:19-23

CRITICAL NOTES

Romans 8:19. Expectation.—In the original a highly figurative word. Hope stands with head erect, and with eyes fixed towards the point from which the blessing is expected to come. Waiteth.—To receive something from the hands of one who extends it to you from afar. Of the creature.—In Romans 8:22 “whole creation.” Some eminent expositors understand all the world except mankind. But it would be remarkable if the phrase excluded man, who is surely the head of this lower creation.

Romans 8:20.—The Rabbins said, “With man’s fall fell also nature into a state of corruption.” For the creation was made subject to vanity.—Pressed down by some yoke, which made it the victim of unrealised hopes (Dr. Clemance). Creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption to glorious liberty. A renovation of this globe, but not necessarily the restoration of every individual to light and glory.

Romans 8:21.—Rabbins: “Whatever God has smitten in this world, He will heal in that which is to come in the days of the Messiah.”

Romans 8:22.—Rabbins speak of the pangs of the Messiah, or the sufferings and birth-throes with which His kingdom is to be introduced. Nature is awaiting the footsteps of her Liberator; and when He steps on the scene her sighs will be turned to songs (Dr. Clemance).

Romans 8:23.—The lower creation craves for emancipation, and man yearns for adoption. Christ is the wave-sheaf which prefigured and sanctified the universal harvest (Olshausen).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 8:19

Universal groaning and redemption.—A pleasant picture is that of a renovated world, one in which shall be found neither physical nor moral evil, a universe of light, of order, and of beauty. In the Zend books it is said that after the renovation of the earth there shall be no night, no cold or hot wind, no corruption, no fear of death, no evil caused by wicked spirits; and then the fiend, the ambitious prince, shall exalt himself no more; further, that a dignified personage named Oschandabega (the man of the world) shall appear in the last time, and adorn the world with religion and righteousness, and restore the ancient order of things, when rest and peace shall prevail, all dissensions cease, and all grievances be done away. Large-souled men look to a good time coming, to a world restored to primeval glory. Paradise Lost has in it sublimer strains than Paradise Regained, but the latter is the inspiring hope of a true humanity. No wonder if St. Paul personified nature and represented it as rising up out of its groaning and looking forward to deliverance.

I. Universal groaning.—When sitting in the pleasant landscape, the soul entranced with nature’s glories, the ears charmed with her harmonies, the sense of smell regaled with her fragrances, and the vision gladdened with her beauties, we ask, Where is the groaning of nature? She is pleasant enough. Nature presents herself according to the receptive mind. Ah! there is nature’s laughter; but there are nature’s tears. The song of the bird is the prelude to her wail of sorrow; the beauty of the flower makes its decay more distressing; the splendour of the landscape is dashed by the thought of lurking dangers. Bright nature groans that her fair face should be seamed with so many scars. Nature’s fairest spots are marked with darkest blots—the earthquake yawns, the volcano belches, the avalanche sweeps, the thunder peals, the fatal disease lurks amid the flowers. Nature groans. Nature’s lord groans. Who could stand the wail if all the groanings of the human race were concentrated—the death groanings of the slaughtered Abels, the remorseful groanings of the slaughtering Cains, the groanings of the wounded on earth’s battle fields, the groanings of the conquerors as they look at the awful price of victory, the groanings of the oppressed and of the oppressors? Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. Instruments of music play their pleasant tunes to beguile the pathway along which the great human army marches; but the groanings are not silenced. Even good men, those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan. They feel the ruin and the disorders, and sigh for deliverance. They groan over abounding sin and over prevailing sorrow. They groan that efforts to overcome seem to be so ineffectual.

II. Universal expectation.—The great soul of inanimate nature feels that she has not been fashioned for vanity, that her beauties are the prophetic intimations of all abounding beauty, that her harmonies are the minor chords which shall usher in the glorious diapason which shall celebrate nature’s deliverance from every discordant sound. What poetry in the apostle’s mind! Personified nature, struggling and groaning with and beneath her fetters, is looking forward to the period when all tokens of bondage shall be removed, and there shall be a glad, triumphant entrance into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Through all time great men have had their hopeful expectations. Many of them have even rejoiced in the anticipation of the day when the powerful Liberator should appear. Gladness has entered their souls, though they have only seen the day by faith in the distant future. Good men have been men of hopeful expectancies. Their expectation has been so real, so true and earnest, that they have worked and prayed to bring into joyous fulfilment their own bright visions. They have worked for spiritual redemption, believing that along this line material redemption shall be accomplished. Creation was for redemption, and redemption shall answer back, and be in its better turn for creation. Action and reaction are equal; but the reaction of redemptive processes shall surpass the action of creation’s downfall, for divine wisdom and power and love are combined in the redemptive purposes. The sons of God expect a glorious redemption. Their expectation is founded on the immutable purposes of a loving God.

III. Universal redemption.—Would God’s vindication of His omnipotence be complete if this planet, small as it may be among the other worlds, were left in its ruined condition, a miserable trophy of the victory achieved by the enemy of all beauty and goodness? In the final disposition of all things, will it be permitted to the evil one to point to the earth-planet, and say, I have been too strong for infinite goodness; I saw God create the world, I heard Him pronounce it “very good,” and I have spoiled His workmanship; a blasted earth-planet is the proof of my malignant power, and God could only undo the work by consigning that planet to destruction? Surely no; the good must triumph over the evil, and this it will not do if evil is to work permanent damage even in material spheres. Christ’s kingdom is to include all kingdoms; and shall the material kingdom, in which His mediatorial work and reign commenced, be excluded? Shall Jerusalem receive only the Saviour’s tears, and not be favoured with His renovating smiles? Shall Calvary hear only His cries of anguish, and not be allowed to listen to the strains which clothe with beauty? Shall not the sepulchres of earth be turned into palaces, and angels clothed in white sit where the weepers stood and mourned? The creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption; and much more, the creature’s master by divine appointment. Man shall be delivered. The universal redemption must come. All things make for the reign of righteousness. We see it not now, but we shall see it and know it hereafter. Let us wait in hope amid the discrepancies and disorders of the present. Let us not abate either heart or patience amid the discouragements that may surround, the seeming drawbacks that may be presented. Let us work and pray for the removal of all obstructions and for the advancement of the kingdom of truth and righteousness.

Romans 8:21. The redemption of the creature.—Meaning of terms employed: “Sons of God” = human race, in so far as redeemed to God. Creation (κτίσις) = rest of animate creation. A rational division = man, though marked off by stray dividing lines, only the highest link in a chain of creation. Connection of “sons” with “creation” twofold: man’s sin brought suffering on “creation”; man’s redemption will bring happiness to “creation.”

Origin of man’s connection with creation (Genesis 1:26). As being in “God’s image,” he had “dominion.” What he does affects all creatures round him. Examples: In animal life, degradation of the ass; in vegetable life, desolation of parts of Syria, Babylon, Palestine. On other side, elevation of the dog; improvement of natural state of Britain or United States. Inference: Man degraded, degrades nature; man redeemed will redeem nature.

Points to notice—viz.,

1. Our evil doing affects not only men but all creation around us.

2. Any anomalies in the lower world are accounted for by anomalies in man.

3. Redemption of man means the “restitution of all things,” alluded to in Isaiah 11 and Acts 3:21. Jewish rabbis said, “All creation will rise again, and paradise will be restored.”

4. All this through redemptive work of Christ.—Dr. Springett.

Romans 8:19. Fallen and redeemed.—This passage has given rise to much controversy. But the general meaning is plain enough. The apostle is speaking of the future glory of believers, and what he says is that one element in that glory will be the inheritance of a renovated creation. As set over against this burden of glory, present suffering may well seem light. While spiritual deliverance will be man’s noblest possession, it will be enhanced by new bodies not subject to corruption and a new earth purged from the curse of the Fall. The teaching of the passage may be expressed in two leading thoughts:—

I. Nature was affected by the fall of man.—In what respect and to what extent?

1. It was subjected to an alien principle. “The creature was made subject to vanity.” The principle of corruption entered. Taking creature here to mean nature in its material sense, as including everything on earth that God has made, except the spirit of man, we are in unison with the teaching of Scripture in saying that when man rebelled a blight fell on the divine handiwork (Genesis 3:17; Isaiah 55:12). Milton says: “Nature through all her works gave signs of woe that all was lost.” Whether nature would have shone in perennial beauty, had man not sinned, it would be idle to speculate. Enough to know that the “ground was cursed for man’s sake.” The principle of death reigned universal throughout the Creator’s works.

2. It was not a willing subjection. “Not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same.” Nature had no choice in the matter. The bondage was enforced. The blight was inflicted on man’s account. Nature was passive, being dragged down in the ruin. When the soul of man became tainted with sin, the earthly home of man became the abode of corruption and full of wickedness. The tenant polluted the tenement.

3. The subjection is not final. There is “hope that the creature will be delivered from the bondage of corruption.” The subjection was in accordance with the will of God, and we can only surmise the divine purpose by picturing the final goal, “the end to which the whole creation moves.” The result will doubtless be a richer splendour. A cloud of mystery hangs over the subject, but we may be sure that man and nature will both emerge from the discipline in garments of white.

II. Nature will share in the redemption of man.—As nature was dragged down in the fall of man, it is natural to suppose that it will be benefited by the rise of man. But we are not left to supposition.

1. It is proved by direct statement in this passage: “The creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Nature is here personified. She feels the misery and degradation of her present condition and longs for deliverance. This longing is prophetic. The fulfilment may yet be far off, but the sun gilds the mountain tops. The revelation of the sons of God is drawing on, and nature will share in the glory to be revealed. This revelation will be at the appearing of the Lord Jesus, who will subdue all things unto Himself (Philippians 3:21). All God’s works will be brought into harmony with the renovated moral world. The blight with which the ground was smitten will be removed, the longing of the creature fulfilled, and all things reconciled, things in heaven and things in earth.

2. This truth is expressed in other passages of Scripture. In Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13, we read of new heavens and a new earth, from which we may, without straining, infer the establishment of a new order of things after the earth has been purged of sin. In Isaiah 55:12, it is said, “Ye shall go out with joy,” etc. Underlying this imagery may we not discern the truth, that when men emerge from sinful bondage into the glorious liberty which God offers, nature will in some sense share in the emancipation, for the mountains shall sing and the hills clap their hands? Can this mean anything less than that Christ’s redemptive forces will be felt all over the creation? We may well believe that all things, in some way unknown to us, come under the redeeming plan, that the shadow which meanwhile clouds the creature will one day be lifted.

3. This truth is involved in the redemption of the body. The body is indeed part of the material creation; and if one part is to be freed from sin, the redemption of the other will surely follow. The redemption of the body is a neglected tenet of the Christian faith. The believer longs for it (Romans 8:23) as the goal of his hopes. It comes only in one way—viz., through Christ. When He rose from the grave, He snapped the fetters that kept the “creature” under the bondage of corruption. One body having thus risen incorruptible, have we not in this the earnest of the redemption of all bodies of the saints? A portion of the material creation being thus redeemed from the curse, is there not herein a pledge that every creature or the whole creation will yet be emancipated? There is indeed a universal expectancy. The creature itself longs for it. They who have the firstfruits of the Spirit wait for it.

Conclusion.—

1. Are we waiting for this glorious emancipation?
2. Will the renovated earth be the abode of redeemed man?
3. If so, what manner of persons ought we to be?—D. Merson, B.D.

The history of sonship.—“The manifestation of the sons of God.”

I. Their past eternity.—They had a history ere they were born; not conscious to themselves, but truly in the eye and purpose of God (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Revelation 17:8). In these passages the history of each saint and of the Church of God is traced to that eternity in which God only existed.

II. Their unregenerate life on earth.—They were born no better than others; shapen in iniquity; children of wrath.

III. Their adoption.—

1. They are begotten again (1 Peter 1:3). They are born of the Spirit (John 3:3), born from above.

2. They believe (Galatians 3:26). They pass out of the region of unbelief into that of faith.

3. They receive Christ (John 1:12).

4. They get the name of sons (1 John 3:1). They are now “called” sons of God.

5. They receive the Spirit of adoption (Galatians 4:5).

6. They are led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14).

7. They are chastened (Hebrews 12:7). Discipline is their lot.

8. They are brought to glory (Hebrews 2:10). To this are they redeemed and called. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

9. They are made like Christ Himself (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2).

IV. Their time of obscurity.—For a season they are hidden; men’s eyes are holden so that they do not recognise them; they are in disguise. Their life is hid with Christ in God. It doth not yet appear what they shall be.

V. The manifestation.—The obscurity does not last always—nay, not long. The day is coming when the disguise shall drop off, and their royal robes display themselves; when He who is their life shall appear, they shall appear with Him.

1. What this manifestation is. The word is the same as in 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 4:13. It is revelation, or outshining, or transfiguration. They are in this conformed to their Lord.

2. When shall the manifestation be? In the day of Christ’s appearing; not in the day of death.

3. How long shall the manifestation be? For ever. A whole eternity of glory. Let us walk worthy of our prospects; content with present obscurity and shame; “passing the time of our sojourning here in fear.”—H. Bonar.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 8:19

Man the soul of the world.—Schelling said: “On the loveliest spring day, while nature is displaying all her charms, does not the heart, when drinking in admiration, imbibe a poison of gnawing melancholy?” There is a third point on which science seems to us to harmonise readily with St. Paul’s view; I mean the close solidarity which exists between man and the whole of nature. The physiologist is forced to see in the human body the intended goal and masterpiece of animal organisation, which appears as nothing else than a long effort to reach this consummation. As the breaking of the bud renders sterile the branch which bore it, so the fall of man involved that of the world. As Schelling said in one of his admirable lectures on the philosophy of revelation: “Nature, with its melancholy charm, resembles a bride who, at the very moment when she was fully attired for marriage, saw the bridegroom to whom she was to be united die on the very day fixed for the marriage. She still stands with her fresh crown and in her bridal dress, but her eyes are full of tears.” The soul of the poet-philosopher here meets that of the apostle. The ancient thinkers spoke much of a soul of the world. The idea was not a vain dream. The soul of the world is man. The whole Bible, and this important passage in particular, rests on this profound idea.—Godet.

Yearnings in creation.

It was not then a poet’s dream,

An idle vaunt of song,

Such as beneath the moon’s soft beam

On vacant fancies throng,

Which bids us see in heaven and earth,

In all fair things around,

Strong yearnings for a blest new birth,

With sinless glories crowned.—Keble.

If we judge by the numerous and diversified interpretations of this passage, it is one of the most difficult of solution in the Bible, and is probably included in “some things hard to be understood” which the apostle Peter says are in his beloved brother Paul’s epistles. A late critic has enumerated no less than eleven different views of the word “creature,” which, indeed, is the key of the whole passage. I shall not dwell on such opinions, as that it signifies angels, the souls of the planetary world, Adam and Eve, or the souls or bodies of men. It cannot mean the Gentiles, the unconverted, or the human race in general, because many of them look to eternity with fear, not hope. Were Romans 8:19 to be literally understood, they can apply only to Christians, or to the new nature of Christians, which is called a “new creation.” But as the creation is mentioned in the twenty-second verse (although the same original word rendered “creation” there is translated “creature” in the preceding verse), the creature in the nineteenth verse means creation or nature. The most satisfactory view of the passage, or what seems attended with fewest difficulties, is that it is a bold and noble figure in which the apostle personifies nature, and represents it as longing and expecting a blessed change from its present vanity or perversion, into order, beauty, and happiness.—Parlane.

A bold personification.

All true, all faultless, all in tune

Creation’s wondrous choir,

Opened in mystic unison

To last till time expire.

Man only mars the sweet accord,

O’erpowering with “harsh din”

The music of Thy works and words,

Ill matched with grief and sin.

Sin is with man at morning break,

And through the livelong day

Deafens the ear that fain would wake

To nature’s simple lay.—Keble.

The figure of speech called prosopopœia, by which irrational beings are represented as persons endowed with the qualities of rational creatures, and speaking, hearing, suffering, and rejoicing like them, is common in sacred as well as in profane writings. You find in the Bible such expressions as these: “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!” “Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth!” The trees said to the olive, the fig tree, the vine, and the bramble, Reign thou over us. No one is deceived by such personification, which is designed and fitted to convey truth in a more interesting and impressive manner. What more graphically exposes the ingratitude, the obduracy, of impenitent men, who refuse to hear God, than His appeal to the material creation, “Be astonished, O ye heavens; give ear, O earth; and be ye horribly afraid: for My people have been guilty of two great evils?” Stones are represented as hearing and witnessing God’s covenant with His people, and their vows, and the earth as mourning under the sin of man, and as rejoicing in his temporal and spiritual joy. “Because of swearing, the land mourneth. The little hills rejoice on every side. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it! Shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains! O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.” The passage before us, as we have seen, is a bold personification of nature. “For the creature,” or creation, etc. The present condition of nature, or visible creation, its cause, and its temporary duration, are the topics presented in the text.

Nature to be set free.—“Bondage of corruption.” Nature is prevented from putting forth its powers, from manifesting its real grandeur, and from attaining its original destiny. It is therefore bound. And its bondage is caused by the necessary decay of its products. All that nature brings forth is doomed to die. And nature is compelled to slay its own offspring. The lightning flash destroys the stately oak. The winter’s cold kills the songsters of the summer. Animals devour other animals to maintain life. And this universal destruction limits the achievements of nature. Instead of constant growth, nature’s beauty and strength fade away. The powers of the material creation are bound by fetters of decay. “The freedom of,” etc., with which the “children of God” will be made free in the day when their glory will be revealed—this freedom creation will share. The bondage of corruption was designed to last only for a time. It was imposed when man fell, and will be removed when man’s redemption is complete. Paul carries on his personification by saying that when nature was made to share “the bondage” which resulted from man’s sin, a hope was given to it of sharing the liberty which will follow man’s deliverance. Romans 8:22. Proof, from an admitted fact, that nature will be made free. “Groans together.” The entire creation joins in one cry of sorrow and in one great anguish. Every voice in nature which reminds us of its bondage to corruption Paul conceives to be a cry of sorrow. The storm which wreaks destruction and the roar of the hungry lion tell that the original purpose of the Creator has been perverted, and that nature is not what He designed it to be. “The whole … until now.” This cry is universal and unceasing. And Paul remembers that nature’s sorrow is the result of man’s sin. He therefore infers that it will not continue for ever; that the confusion and destruction around, so inconsistent with the character and purpose of the Creator, will give way to liberty and order. In other words, he can account for the present anomalous state of nature only by supposing it to be temporary, to be preparatory to something more consistent with nature’s original destiny. “In travail.” The agonies of nature are but the pangs, soon and suddenly to cease, at the birth of a new earth and heaven.—Beet.

Creature denotes the whole of the race.—The most probable interpretation of the term “creature” therefore seems to be that which considers it as denoting the whole human race. This is the view taken of the passage by many eminent interpreters. All mankind from the beginning have felt the evils of the present system of things. Many of them looked for an amelioration of the human condition in the present life, and, generally speaking, they believed in a future state, and hoped to share in its advantages. Now the earnest waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God may include both the expected improvement of the human condition on earth and the glory that shall be manifested at the resurrection. Mankind in general had indeed no knowledge of the nature of this glory. That the word “creature” as here employed denotes all mankind is rendered probable also by the use of the term in other parts of the New Testament, where it often has this meaning. “Go ye into all the world,” said out blessed Saviour to His disciples immediately before His ascension into heaven, “and preach the gospel to every creature.” Here “every creature” can mean nothing but all mankind. In the same sense St. Paul uses the word: “The gospel which was preached to every creature which is under heaven,” meaning obviously every human creature. This therefore is the meaning of the term, which is most consistent with the use of it in other parts of the New Testament, and the meaning which enables us most easily to explain the passage, and therefore it is probable that this is the meaning which the apostle intended.—Ritchie.