I LOVE JESUS Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. — Romans 8:23 New International Version Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. - King James Bible This groaning is universal among the saints: to a greater or less extent we all feel it. It is not the groan of murmuring or complaint: it is rather the note of desire than of distress. Having received an earnest, we desire the whole of our portion; we are sighing that our entire manhood, in its trinity of spirit, soul, and body, may be set free from the last vestige of the fall; we long to put off corruption, weakness, and dishonor, and to wrap ourselves in incorruption, in immortality, in glory, in the spiritual body which the Lord Jesus will bestow upon his people. We long for the manifestation of our adoption as the children of God. We groan, but it is within ourselves. It is not the hypocrites groan, by which he would make men believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things, too hallowed for us to tell abroad. We keep our longings to our Lord alone. Then the apostle says we are waiting, by which we learn that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, Let me die; nor are we to whimper and sigh for the end of life because we are tired of work, nor wish to escape from our present sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. We are to groan for glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. This groaning is a test. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth--they worship Mammon; some groan continually under the troubles of life--they are merely impatient; but the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy till he is made like Christ, that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection which he will bring to us. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit: meaning either the apostles, who were all Jews, and who most of them received the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which was the day of the firstfruits, Numbers 28:26; and to which there seems to be an allusion here; or else the Jewish converts in general: to the Jews the promises of the Messiah were made; to them he first came; the Gospel was first preached unto them, and some of them first believed in Christ; they had the grace of God communicated to them in conversion, which they received as the firstfruits, with respect to an after increase; or in regard to glory, like the firstfruits, grace is of the same kind with glory, and is a pledge and earnest of it; saints judge by grace the firstfruits, what glory is, and therefore long after it; now of these persons thus described it is said, even we ourselves groan within ourselves; their groans were inward from their hearts, not hypocritical or were among themselves, common to them all; and that not merely on their own account, the corruptions of their hearts, the sufferings they endured for the sake of the Gospel, and in a longing expectation for the heavenly glory, but also for the conversion of the Gentiles, for which they incessantly laboured, and prayed night and day; waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Adoption is explained by the redemption of the body; and by the one may be known what the other means: by the redemption of our body is not meant the redemption of Gods elect, body and soul, by the blood and death of Christ, which was already finished; and which the saints, who had received the firstfruits, were partakers of in themselves, and therefore could not be said to be waiting for it: but it designs either the redemption of the natural body, by the resurrection from the dead; when the bodies of the saints will be delivered from that mortality, corruption, weakness, and dishonour, under which they lie in the grave; when they will be refined and spiritualized, and freed from everything which makes them an incumbrance, and an uneasiness to their souls or spirits now; or else the redemption of the mystical body the church, of which the Gentiles make a considerable part, and is to be understood of a deliverance of the church, from the distresses and persecutions it then laboured under; or rather of a making up of the body, the church, by a redemption or deliverance of that part of it, which lay among the Gentiles, from that vanity and bondage of corruption, to which it was subject, into the manifestation and glorious liberty of the sons of God: and then by adoption is meant, the special grace of adoption, manifested to the Gentiles in their effectual calling; which the Jews who had received the firstfruits of the Spirit were waiting for, and had good reason to expect, from many prophecies in the writings of the Old Testament; and to which they were the more encouraged, by many appearances of the grace and power of God, attending the ministry of the Gospel among them; and which adoption will be more fully manifested in the resurrection morn; wherefore also the inheritance, which the whole mystical body the church will then enter upon the possession of, may well be called the adoption, because the saints are adopted to it; adoption gives them the title to it, none but adopted ones will enjoy it; and their enjoyment of it will be the full manifestation and completion of the grace of adoption; this saints are waiting for, both for themselves and others, and it is worth waiting for; for it is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fades not away, reserved in the heavens, 1 Peter 1:4, and there is good ground to wait for it; it is a bequest of their heavenly Father, who has adopted them; it is a gift of his free grace; it is already in the hands of Christ, with whom they are co-heirs; and they have already the Spirit, as the earnest of it. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves… The Inward Groaning of the Saints - CHS Note — I. WHEREUNTO THE SAINTS HAVE ATTAINED. 1. We have, not we hope sometimes we have, nor yet possibly we may have, nor we shall have, but we have. True, many things are yet in the future, but we have already a heritage which is the beginning of our eternal portion — the firstfruits of the Spirit, the first works of the Spirit in our souls — repentance, faith, love. These are called the firstfruits because — They come first. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the graces which adorn the spiritual life are the first gifts of the Spirit of God in our souls. They were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, they were to him so many proofs that the harvest was already come. So, when God gives us Faith, hope, charity, whatsoever things are pure, lovely, etc., these are to us the prognostics of the coming glory. They were always holy to the Lord. The first ears of corn were offered to the Most High, and surely our new nature, with all its powers, must be regarded by us as a consecrated thing. They were not the harvest. No Jew was ever content with them. So, when we get the first works of the Spirit of God, we are not to say, I have attained, I am already perfect. Nay, they should but excite an insatiable thirst after more. 2. What the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. For the reason that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. Did you hear that groan? It is a traveler lost in the deep snow on the mountain pass. Hear another. The traveler has reached the hospice, is perfectly safe, and is exceedingly grateful to think that he has been rescued; but yet I hear him groan because he has a wife and children down in yonder plain, and the snow is lying so deep that he cannot pursue his journey. Now, the first groan was deep and dreadful; that is the groan of the ungodly man as he perishes; but the second is more the note of desire than of distress. Such is the groan of the believer, who, though rescued and brought into the hospice of Divine mercy, is longing to see his Fathers face. II. WHEREIN ARE BELIEVERS DEFICIENT? In those things for which we groan and wait. 1. This body of ours is not delivered. As soon as a man believes in Christ, his soul is translated from death unto life, and the body indeed becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost; but the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. The greatest piety cannot preserve a man from growing old, nor deliver his body from corruption, weakness, and dishonor. Nor is this little, for the body has a depressing effect upon the soul, and its appetites have a natural affinity to that which is sinful. The body is redeemed by price, but it has not yet been redeemed by power. Now this is the cause of our groaning. The soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered, it sighs to think that its poor friend should still be under the yoke. If you were a free man, and your wife a slave, the more you enjoyed the sweets of freedom, the more would you pine that she should still be in slavery. And so, again, with the saints in heaven. They are free from sin, but a disembodied spirit never can be perfect until it is reunited to its body. They do not groan, but they long with greater intensity than you and I for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. 2. Our adoption is not manifested (cf. ver. 19). Among the Romans a man might adopt a child privately; but there was a second adoption, when the child was brought before the authorities, and its ordinary garments were taken off, and the father put on garments suitable to the condition of life in which it was to live. Now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; that is, God will dress us all as He dresses His eldest Son. Cannot you imagine a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator, saying to himself, I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed, and be robed as becomes my rank. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. So it is with us. 3. Our liberty is incomplete. As to our spirits, we have liberty to soar to the heavenly places with Jesus Christ; but as for our bodies, we can only roam about this narrow cell of earth. 4. Our glory is not yet revealed, and that is another subject for sighing. The glorious liberty may be translated, The liberty of glory. We are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. They are waiting till their Lord shall descend from heaven, and the whole of the blood-washed host, wearing their white robes, and bearing their palms of victory, shall march up to their thrones. After this consummation the believing heart is groaning. Let me show you again the difference between a groan and a groan. Go into yonder house: there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. Go to the next house, and there is another much more painful than the first. How are we to judge between them? We will come again in a few days: as we are entering the first house we see weeping faces, a coffin, and a hearse. In the next there is a smiling cherub, and a mother who joys that a man is born into the world. There is all the difference between the groan of death and the groan of life. It is not the pain of death we feel, but the pain of life. We are thankful to have such a groaning. The other night two men working very late were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, Ah, theres a poor Christmas day in store for me. He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift. Now, his fellow workman also groaned. On being asked why, he said, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house, I do not like to be out of it. So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed home, and groans to get to it, and there is more joy in the groan of a Christian than in all the mirth of the ungodly. III. WHAT OUR STATE OF MIND IS. A Christians experience is like the rainbow, made up of drops of the griefs of earth, and beams of the bliss of heaven. 1. We groan within ourselves. It is not the hypocrites groan, who wants people to believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things. We keep our longings to our Lord. 2. We are waiting, by which I understand that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, Let me die, nor are we to sit still and look for the end of the day because we are tired of work. We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself. 3. We are hoping (ver. 24). Conclusion: Here is a test for us all. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth, some because of their great losses or sufferings. But the man that yearns after more holiness, that is the man who is blessed indeed. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves… That this passage is a magnificent one few would deny. The complaint we are likely to make of it is that it is too magnificent; that it transports us into an atmosphere which scarcely any one but a saint or apostle can be expected to breathe. We need, we think, not grand anticipations of a future, but some help in combating the petty temptations of each day. But if we look at these words again we perceive that the man who wrote them must have been more, not less, conversant than we are with the sufferings which common men are experiencing. He had shut himself in no cloister. He hears arising from all creation a groan coming from the sense of actual misery; and the clearest, fullest interpretation of these words may be found in our daily walks. The streets of London can tell us more about the sense of them than all the folios of commentators. I. St. Paul tells the Roman Church that HE AND THEY WERE WAITING FOR THEIR ADOPTION, or their full recognition as sons of God. There has been a proclamation to men that God has claimed them, without respect of race or circumstances, as His children in His only-begotten Son. And any message less than this has been powerless to satisfy the necessities of men, and has produced no permanent moral effect upon them. If we use all arguments of fear, all arts of rhetoric to convince men that they ought to take care of their souls, a few may be startled out of a sleep to which they will return again. But the mere part will feel that you are bidding them forget the real earth for the sake of a heaven which they can only dream of. But if we will recur to the old and simple scriptural phraseology of the hearth and home — if we will bear witness to men of a Father who has sent the elder Brother of the household to bring them into it, to endow them with the highest rights of children, we shall find that it can bring forth as clear a response from the men of the nineteenth century as from the men of the first. II. THE QUESTION HOW THIS CONDITION OF SONSHIP IS CONSISTENT WITH SORROW COULD BE ANSWERED BY THOSE WHO BELIEVED THE SON OF GOD TO BE THE MAN OF SORROWS. In the light of Christs passion all suffering became transfigured. It was the filial token (Hebrews 13:8). But St. Paul did not intend that they should hug pain and sickness, because a deep truth might be learnt from them. He admits them in themselves to be discords and anomalies. He could not bear to contemplate it, if he were not sure that they were no parts of its original order; and that not being parts of it they were to cease. The revelation of the Son of God in weakness and pain and death, had vindicated the title of sons of God for creatures enduring weakness, pain, and death. The revelation of the Son of God in the glory of His Father would reveal them in the glory for which they had been created. III. BUT THE SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED WITH THE GLORY THAT SHALL BE REVEALED IN US. Not simply that no sufferings are worthy to be compared with final rewards. The sufferings of the present time are those of the whole creation, of which man is the head, to be excluded from which would be to be excluded from human sympathy, from fellowship with the great Sufferer. So far from being exempt from them, Paul knew more of them than any, but the blessing of the firstfruits of the Spirit; is the possession of a clearer, stronger hope than others. Yet that hope is not a hope for himself, but for his kind. IV. FOR THE CREATURE WAS MADE SUBJECT TO VANITY, NOT WILLINGLY, BUT BY REASON OF HIM WHO SUBJECTED THE SAME. Here is the apostles explanation of the puzzle which has tormented men ever since evil entered into the universe. That the guilty will be punished is reasonable, in this our consciences acquiesce. But there is a guiltless part of creation which endures misery. How can that be just? St. Paul feels the difficulty, and this is the refuge. The creation has been made subject to vanity; a very fitting phrase to express the apparent frustration of the end for which it has been called into existence. He frankly admits that the bondage which the mere animal undergoes is not its own fault, and that it has a Divine origin. But in doing so he affirms two mighty propositions — 1. That the innocent, involuntary creature is made the victim of vanity and death for the sake of that higher being who has broken loose from that will which he was created to serve. 2. That this subjection is temporary, and contains the promise of a future emancipation, when the end for which it was ordained has been accomplished. Less than this such language (vers. 20, 21) cannot mean — that all the sufferings to which the earth and those that inhabit it are liable, are permitted and designed for the education of those who bear the nature which the Son of God bore; and that no suffering which contributes to this end is, in the judgment of the All-good and the All-wise, excessive or wasted, not even the sufferings and death of the Innocent, the Holy One. But this end being attained, all the forms of physical evil will also be overcome; the involuntary creation will be delivered from its fetters and its shame; the whole regenerated world, in its primal order and harmony, will offer up its sacrifices, through its High Priest and Restorer, to His Father. V. HIS TEACHING, taken fully and literally, INVOLVES A RENEWAL OF THE WHOLE CREATION. If there is to be a restitution of all things, such as God, who cannot lie, promised by His holy prophets since the world began, I cannot understand how that element should be wanting to it. Must the creatures which have ministered to mans wants and delights be shut out from the renovation of our race, by whose degeneracy they are so deeply affected? From these thoughts others are nearly inseparable. The idea of a redemption of nature as consequent upon a redemption of man has often dawned upon the man of science and upon the artist. The one has seen that the laws of the universe can only be fully vindicated when the self-will which has set those laws at defiance has been extirpated; the other, from his deep sense of the sympathy between man and the forms which he contemplates, has been certain that such a revelation of loveliness awaits the purified vision as the highest prophet has only guessed of. VI. THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY which St. Paul waited for, MUST INCLUDE THE REMOVAL OF WHATEVER HINDERS THE SENSES FROM RECEIVING CLEAR AND SATISFACTORY IMPRESSIONS OF THE WORLD with which they are intended to converse. But there is a more obvious force in the expression. The body is enslaved to disease and pain. These are the signs that Death has rights over the body, and that he will assert his rights. St. Paul says that there is another who has an elder, stronger right over it; that Christ by going into the grave and rising out of it has asserted and made good His right; that He will fully exert it. This redemption St. Paul felt that he was sent to proclaim to men because he was sent to proclaim their sonship to God. And so his teaching assumed a profoundly practical character. Fully believing in this redemption men are never to confess Death as a master. Our homage to Christ, our faith in our Divine sonship, implies that we expect a victory for the body; that it was not made so fearfully and wonderfully for nothing; that it shall at last he made like to the glorious body of Him who will subdue all to Himself. Treasury of Scripture Knowledge And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. which have. See on ver. Romans 8:15,16 For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but … Romans 5:5 And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad … 2 Corinthians 5:5 Now he that has worked us for the selfsame thing is God, who also … Galatians 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, … Ephesians 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the … Ephesians 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) even we. Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what … Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 2 Corinthians 5:2-4 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed on with our … 2 Corinthians 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but … Philippians 1:21-23 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain… 1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold … waiting. Romans 8:19,25 For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation … Luke 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels; … Philippians 3:20,21 For our conversation is in heaven; from where also we look for the … 2 Timothy 4:8 From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which … Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the … Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many… 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what … the redemption. Luke 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift … Ephesians 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the … Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to … Future Glory …22For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23And 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. 24For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?… Cross References 2 Chronicles 31:5 As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. Romans 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; Romans 5:11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are Gods children. Romans 8:19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. All Praise and Glory To God our Heavenly Father, Through Jesus His Begotten Son our Lord and Savior Amen and Amen
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 05:41:07 +0000
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