A number of years ago a Tornado leveled three communities south of Chicago.
It totally wrecked the home of a woman name Anna Stafford.
Guess what she found intact: a large plate which had been hanging on the wall of her entrance hall.
The plate had inscribed on it these words:
Come in, sit down, relax, converse. Our house doesn’t always look like this. Sometimes, it’s worse!
The curse that God put on creation because of man’s sin can be seen in natural disasters.
In my series of blogs through Romans 6-8, we have come to Romans 8:22-23:
“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.”
In verses 22-23, we see our wonderful future when we will experience the full manifestation of our status as adult-sons in Christ.
In verse 22, Paul describes the whole creation as groaning in severe pain like a mother who gives birth to her child.
This groaning of creation will stop when Christ renovates the earth before He sets up His 1000 year Kingdom.
In verse 23, we see that we share with creation the sense of groaning within ourselves.
However, in this life, we have the “first fruits” of the Spirit.
The farmer reaped the “first fruits” when he initially harvested the crops that ripened first.
This was a foretaste and promise of more to come.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is only a foretaste and promise that we will experience much more in the future.
He will bring our salvation to completion.
Even though He has redeemed and adopted us, there is much more for us to experience in the future.
When will our new future begin?
It will begin at the Rapture, when He glorifies our bodies and makes them immortal (Phil. 3:20-21).
We will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, when we will receive more of our wonderful inheritance which will be our rewards (1 Pet. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 3:12-15; 2 Cor. 5:10).
The phrase, “our adoption as sons,” is the full manifestation of our adult status as sons, when we enter into our future inheritance.
“The redemption of our bodies” is the resurrection of our bodies when we experience our complete victory over all our sin.
In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph.
He didn’t profess to be a born-again Christian, but it seems he must have been influenced by Paul’s teaching of the resurrection of the body.
Here’s what he wrote:
The Body of B. Franklin, Printer Like the Cover of an old Book Its contents torn out, And stripped of its Lettering and Guilding, Lies here, Food for Worms, But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ’d, Appear once more In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.
Some day our groaning for a new body will be realized, come quickly Lord Jesus!
Blessings!
Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries
Excellent!!!!!!! I just forwarded to 30 people saying it was copied from ELM
Thank you for the kind words, it is appreciated. It is always great when the Lord uses His Word, sent it to as many as you want!