Groans for Glory - Part 2 (Romans 8:19-27)
INTRODUCTION:
Two weeks ago we began a new section in chapter 8 in which we have three groans for deliverance from the corruption of sin: the groan of creation which we looked at two weeks ago, the groan of believers which we will look at today, and the groan of the Holy Spirit which we will look at next week, Lord willing.
Several weeks ago, I said that God’s Word when speaking of salvation speaks of several parts or stages of salvation, such as regeneration, new birth, justification, sanctification, and glorification, and though these parts or stages can be distinguished, they can never be separated. They must all exist for salvation to be complete, they cannot and do not exist separate from one another or it would not be salvation, it is all of these together that make up God’s sovereign work of redemption. Once God has begun the work of salvation in a person’s life, He will carry it through to completion, and nothing can cause it to stop or to not be completed. I was talking to Brian after the service when I said this the first time and he mentioned that all those parts or stages are like an equation and if you remove one of the stages or parts the equation cannot be completed. Which is why Martin Lloyd-Jones made the observation that “salvation cannot stop at any point short of entire perfection or it is not salvation.”[1] From the moment that we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the process of salvation begins and will not stop until we are glorified. For this reason, we have these three groans for glory that we might be delivered from the corruption of sin into our glorified state where we will forever be free from the presence of sin, only then will our salvation be complete. Let’s pray and then look at the groan for glory of the believer.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:19-27, I am going to read the entire section again but this morning we will be focusing on verses 23-25. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 8:19-27,
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:19–27, NASB95)[2]
THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (Romans 8:23a)
Paul begins verse 23 with the phrase, “And not only this…” (Romans 8:23a, NASB95)[3] referring us back to the previous verses, he is saying that it is not only the natural creation which is groaning for deliverance from the corruption of sin, eagerly awaiting for the curse to be reversed and its return to its former glory as it was at creation. “Not only this”, Paul writes, but also we ourselves…” (Romans 8:23a, NASB95)[4] and he can only be referring to believers because he includes himself in the “we ourselves.” The creation is groaning and suffering waiting for its redemption, its restoration, but it is the redemption of believers that is the focus of God’s work of salvation in the universe. Because we as believers are God’s own children, saved, redeemed and adopted into His family because of our repentance and faith in His beloved Son, Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross through His death and resurrection, because we are the adopted children of God through faith we are the heirs of God’s glorious, righteous, and eternal kingdom.
Paul goes on to make it absolutely clear that he is speaking of believers by qualifying the “we ourselves,” with “having the first fruits of the Spirit…” (Romans 8:23a, NASB95)[5] What does this mean? First fruits is an Old Testament reference coming out of God’s covenant with Israel. One of Israel’s feasts that was appointed by God was the feast of first fruits. This feast was commemorated by the waving of a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest. The sheaf of first fruits represented and looked forward to all the sheaves of the whole harvest, it was a giving of thanks to God for the increase of the harvest which sowing and reaping secured through God’s gifts of rain and sunshine. So, what does it mean when Paul says that we have the first fruits of the Spirit? Because Paul is speaking of the completion of our salvation, our glorification in this passage, the first fruits of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and His work in us and through us, the transformation that He has brought about in our inner being that is justified and ready to be in the presence of God having been freed from the penalty of sin and the bondage of sin this transformation is a foretaste or a first fruits of the glory that awaits us in heaven, when our corrupted and mortal bodies will be exchanged for a heavenly body that is incorruptible and immortal, then we will also be set free from the presence of sin as we enter our heavenly home where we will dwell in the presence of holy God. When we experience the Holy Spirit’s work in us to empower us to turn away from sin and we experience His power in putting to death the deeds of the body and He empowers us to truly worship, serve, obey, and love the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a glimpse, a taste, the first fruits of the future when our salvation is completed in its perfection that is our because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as Paul said earlier in chapter 6, verse 3-5, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,” (Romans 6:3–5, NASB95)[6]
All true believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Paul has already made that clear in this chapter, if you have agreed with God that you are a helpless sinner, but you believe Jesus Christ died for your sin, suffering God’s wrath against sin on your behalf and dying paying the penalty for sin, was buried and rose from the dead the third day proving that sin was paid for and death was conquered then you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He is at work in you producing His fruit that Paul lists for us in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22–23, NASB95)[7] Every believer will bear to some degree the fruit of the Spirit being produced in us by the Holy Spirit, as we mature and grow in our faith we will bear more fruit and this working of the Spirit’s righteousness in and through us will cause us to desire all the more to be finally and eternally free from our remaining sin and spiritual weakness.
THE BELIEVER’S GROAN FOR GLORY (Romans 8:23b)
Because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and he is producing His fruit in us and we have been given His righteousness we now have a God given sensitivity to sin, and Paul goes on in verse 23 and says because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, because of this new sensitivity to sin, “even we ourselves groan within ourselves,” (Romans 8:23b, NASB95)[8] over the corruption of sin, the curse of sin that still clings to our body of flesh, to still be seen in our remaining humanness. We saw this groaning of Paul in the end of chapter 7 when he grieved and groaned over the remnants of his humanness that clung to him like some horrific, rotting corpse that could not be thrown off. Remember the groaning that was produced in Paul so that in frustration and desperation and anguish he cried in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24, NASB95)[9] In a passage we looked at two weeks ago he reminds all believers that we are all in the same situation, he wrote to the believers in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 5:4, “For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” (2 Corinthians 5:4, NASB95)[10] As long as we remain in the “tent” of our human body, we can never be freed from sin’s presence in our lives or the corruption of sin in our lives. That truth should cause every true believer to groan for deliverance from sin’s corruption and to be in distress and anguish over the draining and incapacitating sinfulness that still clings to us.
THE EAGER WAITING OF BELIEVERS (Romans 8:23c)
Paul says, “…we groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23c, NASB95)[11] Paul has already stated that we are the adopted sons of God and throughout the New Testament believers are spoken of as those who are already the adopted children of God, but our adoption like our salvation awaits it final or ultimate perfection. I said that salvation is not salvation if it is not completed, once the process of salvation has begun God will bring it to completion otherwise it is not salvation, the same is true of our adoption, there is never an adoption as God’s children that is not completed or brought to perfection. If we are children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we never need to fear that we will be cast out of His family or never enter our heavenly home. This is why Paul equates our adoption as sons with the redemption of our bodies. When our salvation is complete and we have received our glorified bodies, then our adoption as sons will be complete because we will be in our Father’s home, and we will dwell with Him forever.
The idea that you can lose your salvation is not biblical, as a matter of fact it contradicts God’s Word. No true believer needs to fear that he could lose his salvation. At the moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation you are purified, redeemed, and eternally secured in God’s family. That is not to say that we should not be concerned about sin in our lives, but not because we might sin ourselves out of salvation, that is impossible, because of God’s promise and power. If He has called you to salvation, He can and will keep you saved. Until we are glorified and fully freed from sin through the redemption of our body, we still have unredeemed bodies that make it very possible for us to sin and grieve the Lord. Remember how this term body is used in the New Testament, it does not simply mean our physical being, but refers to the whole of our unredeemed humanness, particularly as it is related to our remaining tendency to sin.
As I have said in the past, our inner being is completely a new creation, we have been transformed and God’s nature has become our nature and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it is only our mortal body, that humanness that is not yet redeemed. Because of this, because we are new creatures in possession of God’s nature, our souls are fit for heaven and eternal glory. Because of this we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies. When Christ returns then we shall be like Him, and although we are not told what that means exactly Paul’s purpose here and in 1 Corinthians 15 where he writes about our future resurrection is that we understand that our resurrected bodies, regardless of what they are like or are capable of doing, they will be sinless, righteous and immortal. This is the hope of salvation.
THE HOPE OF SALVATION (Romans 8:24-25)
“For in hope we have been saved…” (Romans 8:24a, NASB95)[12] You cannot separate hope from salvation, the two go together. Our salvation was planned by God in the past before the creation of the world, it is ours by faith in the present, and it is now characterized by hope for its completion in the future. This is not the hope of wishful thinking, the kind of hope a student has before taking a test he did not prepare for, I hope I pass, that is the hope of wishful thinking. Our hope is built upon the integrity and faithfulness of God to keep His promises. Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” (John 6:37, NASB95)[13] If we have come to Jesus Christ in faith for salvation then we will forever belong to Him, it is not possible for us to lose our salvation. This hope is a secure and sure hope.
Paul goes on and says, “but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?” (Romans 8:24b, NASB95)[14] What Paul is stating is that the completion of our salvation is presently a hope and not a reality. But since our hope of that completion, the hope of our glorification is based on God’s promise, the completion of our salvation is more sure than anything that we could see with our eyes. As we will see later in this very chapter that our glorification is so certain that it is spoken of in the past tense as if it has already taken place. Paul ends this section on the believer’s groan for glory by stating, “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” (Romans 8:25, NASB95)[15] We can persevere waiting eagerly for our glorification again because our hope is based on the faithfulness of God to fulfill His promises. Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NASB95)[16] Later on in the same epistle he reminded them again that their glorification was a sure thing because they were aliens on this earth, their true home was heaven, he wrote in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20–21, NASB95)[17] Because as we have seen in Romans that salvation from start to finish is totally a work of God and because He cannot lie, it is absolutely impossible for us to lose what God has given us and promises never to take away. He who began this work of salvation will bring it to completion, not one stage or part will be left out of the equation or it would not be salvation. Paul when writing to the Thessalonians commended them for their hope, he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you;” (1 Thessalonians 1:2–4, NASB95)[18] How can we lose a salvation that we did not secure by choosing God, but that was secured by His choosing us, and according to Ephesians 1:4 that choosing took place before the foundation of the world.
CONCLUSION:
You who are true believers, do you find yourself groaning over the corruption of sin, groaning for deliverance from the presence of sin? If your soul has truly been transformed and you have partaken of God’s nature and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit then you will hate sin, you will be grieved and frustrated by its influence in your life as it tries to drag you back down, in your anguish and pain you will groan for deliverance, you will groan for glory, and you will eagerly wait for your adoption as sons to be completed and the redemption of your body to be completed as you enter into your glorified state, exchanging the earthy for the heavenly. Never fear the loss of your salvation, God who began this work in you will carry it to completion, to perfection. Let me just close with a quote from Thomas Watson, a puritan pastor, listen carefully as it is written in that Puritan fashion, he said, “The godly may act faintly in religion, the pulse of their affections may beat low. The exercise of grace may be hindered, as when the course of water is stopped. Instead of grace working in the godly, corruption may work; instead of patience, murmuring; instead of heavenliness, earthliness…. Thus lively and vigorous may corruption be in the regenerate; they may fall into enormous sin. … [But] though their grace may be drawn low, it is not drawn dry; though grace may be abated, it is not abolished. … Grace may suffer an eclipse, not a dissolution. … a believer may fall from some degrees of grace, but not from the state of grace.”[19] The true believer can never fall from the state of grace even when in our weakness we fall into sin. Groan, groan loudly and long, but do not give up hoping, hope with perseverance as you wait eagerly for your deliverance from the corruption and presence of sin. Look forward to the glorified state in which you will have a sinless, righteous, and immortal or eternal body to dwell not in the presence of sin, but in the presence of our holy God and Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We have so great a hope to be like Him. “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3, NASB95)[20]
[1]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[18]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[19]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991. (A Body of Divinity [reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974], pp. 280, 284-85)
[20]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.