1 Introduction Creation is waiting for the children of God to be glorified Words: 2800/500 Rom 8:18-30 St Stephens Belrose May 15, 20146 The idea I hope to get across today is this: Creation is waiting for the children of God to be glorified. This was supposed to be a message about vocation. About how everyday work relates to the call to ministry. How sacred and secular work relate to each other. And I hope to get close to that subject. But I have been working very hard through Romans 8 in the past two months and so my thinking has been very much dominated by this chapter. And it seemed to me that Paul s breath-taking treatment in Rom 8 of the future of both creation and the people of God creates all kinds of wonderful new perspectives on the way we relate to the world in which God has placed us. So hopefully I will find my way back to the question of work and vocation when I come to apply what we discover in Romans 8. Let me say a word though about work and this might help to make the connection with Rom 8 clearer. I see work in terms of Gen 1 and 2. In six days God makes the entire wonderful universe. And at the climax of his creative work he makes human beings. Why the climax? Because only humankind is made in the image of God. Now what does it means to be created in God s image? Well it seems to me that God pretty much explains that immediately. He says Let us make man in our
2 image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground (Gen 1:26). In Gen 2:15 we read that God took the first man Adam and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (2:15). God appoints human beings to act as his representative rulers reflecting His image into the world in the wise and gracious way they take charge of His excellent creation. Work then is what we do as God s representatives with the creation he has entrusted to us. Some of us are entrusted with a large part of the creation. Others much smaller parts. And over the course of our lives the size of the space entrusted into our care varies: only a very little as a baby, much more as a mature adult, and a declining share as we age. This means that we are all workers from the cradle to the grave. We are all shaping and changing and modifying that part of the Creation which God has entrusted to us. But the Bible story also tells us that something has gone seriously wrong between us and the created order. Our failure to worship our Creator, to trust Him and to obey His good and gracious rule has poisoned our relationship with God, with each other and with the Creation itself. Sin has given rise to death and these two enemies of humanity have enslaved us and have corrupted the whole of creation. The ground itself is under a curse and our daily work has become trying and painful (Gen 3:17-19). You might think then that Creation would resent humanity and sullenly seek to destroy us. It might sound ridiculous but that is a theme in much contemporary story-telling. The Nature Bites Back theme provides the substance of movies such as Jaws, King Kong, Godzilla. Or you might think that Creation would do better without us. Some environmentalists take this view in which humanity is always the enemy and Nature would get along quite happily without us. But that is not how Paul understands things. In fact his view is quite the opposite. In Rom 8 Paul teaches that Creation is waiting for the children of God to be glorified. The summary verse in this section of Rom 8 is v19. Read. My message today is built around the two halves of that verse. So let me show you how Paul develops this theme in Rom 8 and let s begin with the waiting creation.
3 1. Creation waits in eager expectation (19a) Explanation Creation is waiting. But why? Paul explains in v20: The Creation was subjected to frustration The creation longs to achieve something which it cannot achieve. It longs to be liberated from its bondage to decay (21). Death has been set abroad within creation and with it disintegration and corruption. Creation is not how it should be and it longs to be free. Paul describes this longing as a kind of groaning (22). The whole of the created order groans under the weight of this tension between what it was made to be and what it has become. And we too share in that groan (23): we ourselves groan inwardly As part of the created order we also experience this frustration. We too can conceive of a better world: a fairer, safer, purer, healthier, wiser world. And at a deep level we long for that better world. But this groaning frustration is not black pessimism. The opposite in fact. It is a hopeful anticipation. The groan is like the groan of a woman in labour. It arises from pain but it is a pain which leads to life and new possibilities. There is hope in the midst of the frustration. Which is why in v 19 The creation waits in eager expectation The whole of creation is on the edge of its seat full of anticipation for what is about to happen. This waiting is hopeful and positive, eager and expectant. Illustration We often have to wait for things don t we? We wait at the traffic lights. We wait for the bus and the train. We wait for someone else to be ready. Or they wait for us. But this is a particular kind of waiting. It is waiting with a sense that the event is just about to happen. We say I can hardly wait.. for such and such to happen. It s like children on Christmas Day searching under the Christmas tree well before the sun comes up. It s like grand final day when your team is playing for the premiership and you can hardly wait until kick-off. It s like those last few hours before your final exam. You are torn between needing the time to prepare and just wanting the whole ordeal to be over. It s like those long hours of labour where every contraction brings you one step closer to the event you have been waiting for all those months: the birth of a child.
4 In the same way creation is at the cusp of the new age. Eager and expectant. It can hardly wait. Application What does this mean for us? The first thing to say is that we are all workers. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We all have this drive to shape and craft our worlds as we see fit. And we all experience this groaning frustration of the created order. So if we are asking ourselves how sacred and secular work relate to each other then this is an important starting point. We are all placed by God in the world and are put to work. Even clergy and missionaries are engaged in this same struggle. Even if we have a special call of God on our lives none of us escapes the tense drama of struggling to carve out a living in the world God has made. Which means then that the expression secular work is not so helpful. There is no work which lies outside God s ordering of our world. All work is undertaken in full view of God and only within the parameters allowed by Him. It may be done with God in mind, with gratitude and obedience. Or it may not. But either way it is not ever secular. The second thing to say is that creation has a future. Paul tells us that it is waiting expectantly for something wonderful to happen. The tension of the current order of things will soon give way to an entirely new order. This present age will give way to the age to come. And the created order will have a place in that new age. Jesus called this transition the renewal of all things (Matt 19:28). And this transition, this renewal has already begun. When did it begun? It began when Jesus was raised from the dead. Just as Jesus was raised a real flesh and blood human being so the entire created order will be raised, renewed, transformed. This world will not disappear. It will not dissolve like snow. Yes the change to come will be so extraordinary that we need to use extreme language to express it. But in the Biblical worldview time and space and matter will not cease to exist. We will not fly away like ghosts from a disintegrating world. The created order will be transformed so thoroughly that we can speak of the coming of a new heavens and a new earth. But that is yet to come. For the moment we live in this groaning, straining world. Here is the third thing we can draw from this text. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit living already within us. This Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives within our very bodies as a sign and a guarantee of what is yet to come. And this Spirit moves within us to inspire a prayer. A very strange wordless prayer. More a groan than a prayer. Read 23a; 26-7.
5 By the power of the Spirit we kneel on the groaning planet beside the struggling, suffering, groaning human race and we groan with the agony of the Spirit. We groan as we kneel between the painful reality of life in this age and the glorious life of the age to come. You see the work of the Spirit drives us into a prayerful engagement with the sufferings of the world. This is the context in which to understand the intercessory ministry of the Spirit who helps us in our prayer. Many people see this wordless prayer as the gift of tongues. And I am sure it includes that wonderful kind of prayer. But see where this gift takes us. Not away into some kind of ecstatic state. Not lifting off and detaching from the reality of everyday life. It is the opposite. This wordless prayer takes us to the very heart of the suffering world. We could think of it as compassionate prayer. Praying with the pain of others at heart. And our own pains as well. But it is hopeful as well. This is not just sadness and gloom in a dying world. It is prayer inspired by the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. It is prayer straining towards God s extraordinary future. It is therefore prayer which is in tune with the eager expectation of the created world. On the edge of our seats eagerly awaiting what God has in store for the universe. So that s a little on the future of the world. What about us? What is in store for us? 2. For the children of God to be revealed (19b) Explanation Let s go back to our key verse again (19). Read. This verse anticipates a moment when the true identity of the sons and daughters of God will be revealed. Unveiled. In a moment I want to run through a handful of expressions in our reading which help us grasp what this will be like. But first let s clarify who these children of God are. Paul speaks of us in the previous verse. And later of we and we ourselves. Who is he referring to? He is speaking about those who are in Christ Jesus. These are the people who have been released from condemnation (8:1) and who have been set free from the law of sin and death (2). These are the people in whom the Spirit dwells; the Spirit who inspires the Abba, Father (15) prayer and who assures us that we are children of God (16). And who are those who are in Christ? They are the people who by public confession of faith (10:9) and baptism (6:4) have fused themselves with Christ. That s us. Ordinary Christians. So the whole of creation is waiting for something to happen to us. For something to be revealed about us. What is it? Paul puts this wonderful truth in a variety of ways. Let s run through them quickly.
6 He speaks of freedom. See v 21. Read. What freedom is this? It is freedom from sin and death (8:2). Freedom from corruption and decay. It is the freedom of the resurrection. We have it already because the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is in us. And yet we and the whole of creation await the moment when we enter this state of freedom completely. Our freedom will then be revealed. In v23 he uses two expressions. Read. He speaks of adoption as sons/children (23). We already have this status as the children of God. But the creation is waiting for this truth about us to be unveiled. Jesus was the Son of God. This truth about him was revealed in the resurrection (1:4). And we who are in him have also been included in his Sonship. That s why Paul refers to Jesus as the firstborn among many brothers (29). We are already the brothers and sister of Christ. Creation waits for this truth about us to be revealed. Redemption of our bodies (23). The setting free of our bodies. Like the rest of creation we struggle on with bodies which are still destined to deteriorate and die. But there will come a day when he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies (11). Creation waits for our bodies to be set free from sin and death. In that moment it too will be set free from decay. Being conformed to the likeness of (the) Son (29). Jesus, the resurrected man, has restored the image of God to humanity. And those who are in Him will be made like him. And this has been the purpose of God all along: to recreate humanity to live as his children bearing the family likeness and getting on with the family business. Creation awaits the fulfillment of this purpose in us. And lastly glory. This idea runs all the way through the chapter. It s there at the end in v30: those he justified, he also glorified. The freedom we considered earlier is a glorious freedom (21). And in v 20 Paul speaks of the glory that will be revealed in us. And to jump back a verse (19) the whole section springs out of Paul s extraordinary idea of sharing in Christ s inheritance, sufferings and glory. Creation waits for us to share in Christ s glory. This is what it means then for the children of God to be revealed (19). And this is what the entire created order is waiting for. Illustration A clergyman went to visit an old man in his home. The man was a keen gardener and took his Pastor for a walk through his wonderful garden. The Pastor enjoyed the walk very much and was very impressed. What a beautiful garden our good Lord has blessed you with he said as they ended their stroll. With respect said the old man You
7 should have seen it when the good Lord had it to himself! That might sound irreverent. But it points to the idea we find here in Rom 8. God intends for human beings to tend his garden, to take care of his world. And the world itself needs our care. Application What then might this mean for us? It means that we have had too narrow a conception of the gospel. We have thought of the gospel as the answer to the following question: how can a sinner get to heaven? But the gospel in the Bible answers a much bigger question: how will God rescue creation from sin and death? That is not to say that our individual relationship with God doesn t matter. It does very much. How we are each reconciled to our Creator matters greatly. But the Bible puts this individual reconciliation with God into a much larger picture. And that picture includes the earth. How to get a sinner to heaven implies that what God is doing is rescuing us from the world. And it goes well with the idea of the future which many of us have that we will one day fly away like ghosts while the earth disintegrates behind us. But this passage could not be clearer. God is not rescuing us from the world. He is rescuing us for the world. The whole created order has an intense interest in what God is doing in us. Why? Because its future is intimately connected to ours. God is making a new kind of human being in the image of his Son. Just as Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth so God will send us out into the world as the brothers and sisters of Jesus to rule the world. Not in willful disobedience as Adam and Eve did. But in wisdom and godliness, in gratitude and worship. To work in the world and to take care of it. That s the future the gospel opens up for us. But what about the present? Friends we should be much more concerned about the health of the earth than we currently are. Sadly our narrowly conceived gospel has meant that we have not taken our environmental responsibilities seriously. We Christians ought to be the world s leading environmentalists. We should be the ones who hear the sighs and groans of the earth as it longs to be set free. We should be the ones speaking long and loud about God s good earth and our duties both to work in it and to take care of it. We should be instinctive environmentalists. The fact that we are not should also give us pause. What has been so valuable to us that we have failed to pay attention to the earth God has entrusted to us?
8 Conclusion The creation then waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. I m not sure if I have fully addressed the question of sacred and secular work. I have suggested that secular work is not a very helpful expression since all work is done in the presence of God and can be done to his glory. All work can and should be sacred. And I have told a story which made a clergyman look silly and a gardener sound wise. I have spoken of the work we will do in the new earth. Is there no place then for Pastors and Evangelists, Missionaries and Bishops, prophets and visionaries? I believe there is. In fact that their labours are absolutely essential in this present age. And that is because we are still living in this mixed state. What creation longs for has not yet occurred. And yet the Spirit is at work building his Church, preparing the world for this coming age and even now giving glimpses and tastes and inklings of it. In fact what the Spirit is doing in the world he is doing in and through the Church. The Church then needs leaders and the Spirit gives leaders in every generation. And their role is absolutely vital to prepare the children of God for their work in the world. In this age and the next.
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