The Creation Eagerly Awaits

December 2nd, 2024
by Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Romans 8:18-19 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

After having tied in the issue of suffering with being a Christian in 8:17, Paul now seeks to encourage all of God’s children who are burdened by the general sufferings related to being a Christian (v. 18). To “consider” (Gr. logizomai) is to think rationally about evidence, namely that present sufferings are not worth comparing to future glory. This might be compared to a mother who, although is in agonizing labor prior to delivering her child, considers the glory of raising a child as far surpassing the pain she endures while actually giving birth to the child.

The first sufferings Paul considers is creation, namely the longing of “creation” (Gr. ktisis) for the future glory it will experience. What Paul has in mind is God’s cursed creation as a result of sin: animals, mountains, trees, rivers, grass, oceans, and stars (humans are referenced in vv. 23-25). Though it sounds strange for inanimate things like trees, rivers, and mountains to be waiting with “eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God,” Jews believed they did! Consider Psalm 98:8-9: “Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for He is coming.” Or Isaiah 55:12: “The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Obviously mountains, rivers, and trees do not have voices or hands. Yet they are depicted as suffering under the curse of sin due to Adam’s rebellion (cf. Gen. 3:17-19). They are therefore personified by Paul as waiting for God’s faithful people, or “sons of God” (vv. 14-17), to be revealed when Christ returns and sets the creation free from its curse. The creation Paul has in mind is said to have an “anxious longing” (Gr. apekdechomai)—literally “from head thinking”—a term that speaks of watching with an outstretched head with intense expectation.

God’s creation, though still glorious (Ps. 19), is not all that God made it to be. All life dies, from grass to animals, and the law of entropy determines that all things descend toward a state of disorder. So, the curse on creation is the simple consequence of man’s disobedience (Gen. 2:16-17). God did promise, beginning in Genesis 3:15, to bring redemption to His creation including the promise of a future new heavens and earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22) in a renewed creation. So the Jews saw a future time and place where all pain, tyranny, slavery, fear, distress, and persecution would end—a renewed Eden. This era was associated with the coming of the Messiah who would bring peace and rule in righteousness.

The term “revealing” (Gr. apokalupsis) in v. 19, as in the revealing of the sons of God, refers to an uncovering, or revelation (cf. Rev. 1:1). Suffering under the curse, the creation awaits relief—an era that Paul says will occur when God’s faithful people are revealed (cf. Col. 3:4). When that time arrives, all Christians will be forever separated from sin and be glorified with Christ’s own holiness and splendor. It is for this that the creation awaits eagerly. Clearly, all of God’s creation is reeling from the effects of the curse stemming from man’s sin. So at the return of Jesus Christ when the new heavens and new earth will replace the old, the creation’s eager longing will come to an eternal end. The “sufferings of this present time” (v. 18) associated with being a Christian (v. 17), will then come to an eternal end. Glory will ensue!

Food for Thought

Everything, including our bodies, is dying and will die. But no matter how difficult life can be, the contrast of this present pain to our future glory in eternity, because of Christ, is laughable. That one truth is all we need to be encouraged as we await our fateful, certain end: death.