Groaning Inwardly

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we've been seeing together in our study of the Book of Romans,
particularly the eighth chapter, that the somewhat stereotypical image of the happy Christian who
goes through life smiling is far removed from Paul's understanding of the Christian life
here in the Book of Romans. It's true, he says, we are children of God, and if children,
then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, he's rather anxious to point out to you and to
me that if we're going to share the glory, we must also share the pain. The sufferings of this
present time, he says, are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
If we want to be glorified with Christ, we also need to suffer with Christ, and we are presently
in the process together of examining three reasons. Three reasons as to why we need to suffer with
Christ to share his glory. Number one, and we've only touched on this one very lightly,
when we become the children of God, we discover the opposition of Satan. Satan wants to build his
kingdom, men and women, in opposition to God. When by faith in Jesus Christ, we escape his
dominion, come under the authority of God, then Satan becomes very angry and he'll do what he can
to try to hold us back. And that's one of the reasons why whenever a person is on the verge of
making a spiritual commitment, or a person is on the verge of stepping out in faith with the
Lord Jesus Christ, there is often opposition in terms of circumstances, situations, inward
emotions that are part and parcel of that person's life. And what the Lord God wants us to learn
is to understand that in Jesus Christ, we have victory so that we can press on towards the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. A second reason that living the Christian life
is sometimes very difficult and we spend much more time at this, is that as God prepares us for
the coming glory, he wants to remove from our lives those things that are our hindrance to his
purpose. And we've seen together how God wants us and the future to reign with Christ. He's got
a kingdom all prepared for us where we share in his authority and we share in his majesty and we
share in his power. God is going to share his very self with us for all eternity,
understandably he doesn't want to commit to you and to me the eternal riches of his kingdom.
If our lives haven't been brought in tune with his purposes and so we've looked together
at how the Lord takes you and me through the disciplines of life, lays bare the sins that so much
be set us on the attitudes that are not in keeping with the purposes of God and God burns those out
of us until we learn a servant heart, until we learn to love God with everything that is within us
and our neighbors ourselves and to the degree to which we learn that. To that degree then
we become prepared to exercise responsibility in the kingdom because we will not distort or
twist the power he gives us but we will use it redemptively in the lives of other people.
And that brings us this morning to a third reason that Paul mentions in his passage
for suffering in the Christian life and that is the fact that being a Christian involves an
inherent contradiction. Being a Christian involves an inherent contradiction. A Christian on the
one hand is a citizen of God's kingdom. On the other hand he or she very much is a part of this
present age. As citizens of God's kingdom we share God's wisdom, God's authority, access to God,
the blessings of God, the liberty if you will of the children of God. Through the power of the Holy
Spirit we have a foretaste of all of the things that God is going to give us in all of our lives
if we're true believers there are those times when it's like your spirit is in heaven and you just
want to stay there. Unfortunately we can't just stay there we also live in this world. This
world is not a friend of grace as is one of the hymns. This world is a place where Satan rules
with wickedness where death is still very much in evidence where sin reigns where illness is a
reality and we have bodies that are not yet glorified. Bodies that one day will be glorified
but that presently are still very much under the power of sin. And so there is in the Christian
life a tension. A tension between what is and what is to be. A tension between the liberty that
God gives us in our spirit by his spirit and the fact that we still live in a world where God's
truth very often seems very far removed that causes a groaning within the heart of the believer
not only but an all of creation. And that's what Paul now begins to address here in Romans 8
and the verses 22 and 23 when he says we know that the whole creation has been groaning
and trivial together until now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first
fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies.
The whole creation he says has been groaning in travail. The imagery here that Paul uses and
the imagery that he uses in Romans 8 is a very vivid one. The imagery here is the imagery of the
maternity ward. It is a woman in the travail of birth the whole creation groans in travail.
It's a picture of child bearing back in 1972 when our oldest son was born. I was one of the first
fathers to be allowed into the delivery room back in about 1972. The hospitals changed that
policy up until then fathers were seen as being relatively irrelevant to this whole process.
Either that or the doctors were afraid that we wouldn't be able to stand in.
And I remember very much that my wife's labor with her first son was was fairly extended
and fairly painful and I remember coming away from that birthing process with a whole new
awareness that I might add a whole new respect for womanhood. Somebody has said if women were to
bear the first baby and husbands were to bear the second baby then all families would be one child
families. Probably truth in that. The birthing process ever since the curse is one of sorrow
and pain and toil. That's why we call it labor. It's hard and painful work.
Now Paul says in this passage the whole creation is in birth pain. It's the whole creation
is in the process of giving birth. It is in the travail and sorrow of childbirth. What he's
trying to say is this. Just as in the natural order a woman gets to be in labor because she has
been impregnated with life and that life has been growing within her and it has extended her stomach
and she is becoming uncomfortable and she she needs to be delivered and the baby finally comes
to a point where it says enough is enough I want to get out of here it's getting too cramped. So the
whole creation is pregnant if you will with new life. The whole creation God through his spirit
has been building a new kingdom and everywhere there are men and women that have been touched
by the Holy Spirit and who are trying to live according to God's commands in his strength
their God's kingdom is coming. Now most of the time you can't see it very much. Most of the time
it's like yeast that is hidden in the batch of dull but it's there and its effects are there
and its results are there and just as a woman when she comes to the point of delivery goes into
labor so this whole present creation groans with labor until the final process where she heaves
a sigh and new life comes forth and God's kingdom takes the place of the old kingdom that's
the analogy that Paul is drawing upon here and you find it all through the scriptures for example
in Matthew chapter 24 Jesus talks about the end of the age he says nation will rise against nation
kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and earthquake in various places who knows
what the next line is. Verse 8 Matthew 24 all this is about the beginning of what birth pains
all this is about the beginning of sorrow some translations have it but the word is birth pain
so the picture again is of a creation that is full of new life a whole new world order that is
being birthed into being but before that can be birthed into being there is the travail and the
sorrow of labor and childbirth and out of that painful process there comes forth a new creation
Paul says the whole creation is standing on tiptole it is groaning and travail waiting for the kingdom
to come in all of its fullness and all of its power when you understand that then you understand
why Christians look at life differently than unbelievers do unbelievers look at all the trouble
there is in the world and they say oh I wish all the trouble would go away Christians don't like
trouble either but Christians who are in tune with the spiritual and who understand that the
spiritual is a reflection of the natural because the same God made both of them look beyond the
difficulties they interpret the signs and they understand that as this present creation
convulses under the groaning of its scene it is in the process of birthing a new world order that's
why Jesus says to his disciples at one point when you see all these things taking place look up and
raise your head because your redemption draws nine the whole creation says Paul groans in
travail it is caught up in labor pains waiting to issue forth in new life I find it rather
ironic and interesting that the only place where I've ever seen people sort of pick up on this theme
is among the early communists it's it's a number of years ago now but I remember watching
on television a documentary film on the life of I believe his first name is Norman doctor Norman
Bethune doctor Bethune is a Canadian physician who has become something of a folk hero among
the communist Chinese I think during the years of the communist revolution he gave himself
unstintingly for the cause and he's become a folk hero in that nation they have a statue of him
most Canadians don't know about him but almost every Chinese does and I don't remember a whole lot
about watching the documentary but I remember this I remember the the justification that was given
for the millions upon millions of people that were killed in the bringing about of the social order
of communism and it was amazing to me that the language that they used was this language of
the scriptures this language of the old order convulsing in the process of labor issuing forth in a new
life and in a new society at the pain and at the expense of the old and the tens of millions of
people that were killed were described as being a necessary part of the bloodletting of the
birthing process interesting isn't it's a grotesque distortion of course it would the scriptures
teach but at least they understood that you can't have a new social order without the collapse
of the old now I might mention that on a much lesser scale our present culture is going through a
similar birthing process we've come to the end of sort of an era of how things work in North
American and world life and relationships we're moving into a global trade era
and all the hassles and all the political difficulties that come out of that are pardoned parcel
of the labor pains of a new order that is trying to come into being and what I'm saying
that I believe Paul is saying here and what the scriptures teach is that in terms of the coming
again of Jesus Christ and the coming of his kingdom the whole earth will go through its final
birthing pains the Bible calls it the Great Tribulation and out of that agony there will be squeezed
forth a new life and a new purpose and Paul says the whole creation grows in the travail waiting
for that day notice though he doesn't stop there because now he goes on and he makes it
personal for you and for me he says not only the creation verse 23 but we ourselves who have the
first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons the redemption
of our body he says we ourselves grown inwardly as I said earlier the Christian is an inherent
contradiction in his spirit he is connected with Christ he is seated in heavenly places
we share the liberty of the sons of God and as we grow in our relationship with Christ as we
understand what that is through the Holy Spirit there are those times in your life and in my life
where we know the liberty of the children of God God's power is their answer prayer God's power
is there to overcome sin God's power is there for us to be able to do things that we never thought
we could we have this treasure says Paul in earthen vessels at the same time the earthen vessel
aspect is very much with us we still live as I said earlier in a world that is alienated from God
a world where disease as scourges the planet and hits the righteous sometimes as well as the
unrighteous we live in bodies that are part of the first creation they get ill you don't have to
be an on Christian to get ill even Christians will get ill we live in a world where we get tired
where we get fatigued where we haven't got what it takes to be what God would have us be and so
there is an inherent contradiction that produces an inward groaning a groaning that says I can't
wait until everything God has promised to his people is going to be fulfilled and when all of
these limitations drop away when every infirmity will have been healed every wound will have been
restored and when in all eternity we share the glorious liberty of the children of God Paul talks
about that in 2 Corinthians 5 in almost identical language when he puts it this way
he says in verse 2 of 2 Corinthians 5 here indeed we grow
and long to put on our heavenly dwelling so that by putting it on we may not be found naked
for while we are still in this tent and that is the tent of this body we sigh with anxiety
not that we would be unclothed but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal
may be swallowed up by life he was prepared us for this very thing as God who was given us the
spirit as a guarantee what he is saying is I'm groaning inside waiting for the full revelation
of God's kingdom not just wanting to get away from life not just wanting to get away from the
difficulties of life which is why a lot of people want to go to heaven no but to be fully in the
presence of God and to share it all the time and not have to come down from the mount of transfiguration
into the valley of despair that we encounter so often in the realities of life
he says in Romans 8 we groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption as sons the redemption
of our bodies one day our bodies will be fully renewed and the struggles that are so much a part
of this life will disappear totally because everything will have been enveloped in life
until we get there there's going to be that tension and the more we grow in Christ interestingly
enough the more we experience the liberty of God's children as a foretaste of the power of the
Holy Spirit the greater will be that agony and that groaning that he says later on in Romans
cannot even be expressed in words let me try to give you just a couple of illustrations
to try to bring that home not every Christian identifies with this every growing Christian sooner
or later we'll discover that these are the emotions that live in his or her heart do you ever
have it you're gathered together in a place like this or maybe with a number of good Christian
friends and and you're worshiping the Lord and you know God's there and you feel so much
at rest and so at peace and you know this is the way life is supposed to be because we've been
created for that kind of relationship and for that kind of fellowship and then you go back home
and back home maybe you've got a husband who's ill or a wife who doesn't support you
or kids who are in trouble with the law or domestic situations or circumstances that are
are harder than what you can bear and everything inside you kind of wants to to run away from
that situation because it's just too painful and you just sort of wish you could stay in God's
presence and and and you just just groan because you're so confronted by the pain you know what I'm
saying or do you ever have it where in your own personal life you're having a really good time
in prayer God's really speaking to you the vision is clear the direction is clear you say to
yourself this is what I always figured the Christian life law to be and you get out of your prayer
closet and the first thing that happens is you know they well you picture it you know cars got
four flat tires gas tanks empty no money to pay the bills you get into a fight with your spouse
or your kids and you get fired at work and and all of the present reality of life comes pressing
in on you when you say to yourself how do I relate these two how can I be so high one moment
and so utterly devastated the next how can I live in two worlds that way Paul says that is part
in parcel of being a Christian living in a painful world as long as this world exists there's
going to be sin and there's going to be illness and there's going to be death and the victory that
God promises to his children is not a victory that will avoid all of these problems the victory
that God promises to his people is a victory that will help us to overcome within the context
and there is a groaning within our spirit that says Lord I cannot wait until the whole world
be restored in the way that you have wanted it to be still one other example have you ever been
in a situation where you watch the news read the newspapers a lot of us learned not to do that
because it's just too painful isn't it you look at the reality of life
or you have a good friend and you know they're messing up
and you've tried sharing the good news of Christ with them they're not interested in hearing it
marriages fail
disease abounds you you you stand at the bedside of somebody that's dying or that is ill with a
serious illness and inside you just groan and you just cry out and you say God that's not the
way it was supposed to be where are you and there's a groaning inwardly that says
I can't wait for creation to be restored and for all nations to bend their knees before the
Lord Jesus and for every tongue to confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father I remember
so well a number of years ago I had watched I don't remember the particulars of it but
I portioned of 100 Huntley Street and I just really sense the grief of the spirit of God
because there are so many that don't know him and that don't want anything to do with him and I
remember just lying on the floor in the living room
in front of the television said just agonizing in prayer and in intercession before the face of
God saying Lord there was just that groaning deep within my spirit that said Lord I can't
wait until every knee bows I can't wait until every tongue confesses I can't wait until your
kingdom comes that's what Paul's talking about he is saying we are groaning inwardly until the
redemption of our bodies the adoption as sons now remember he says we're already God's children
when we come to faith in Christ but as John says in his epistle what will be is not yet
apparent to us there is a day coming when we will receive the full adoption as sons
when our bodies will be redeemed and renewed and all creation will be restored and all of
heaven and all of earth is groaning until the day when that becomes a reality now why does Paul
make a point of all that why do I make a point of all that this morning because unless you understand
this you can never have a healthy biblical balance to what it is to live the Christian life
in a world that seems so often at odds with what God says want to be happening notice how he goes
on in the concluding verses of this paragraph in this hope we were saved now hope that a scene is
not hope for who hopes for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it
with patience he says in this hope we are saved my experience is that when when it comes to
laying hold of the blessings of God there are two errors that God's people very easily falling
to both of which need to be avoided there's a group of people and I think our own tradition has
had some of that that has taken the promises and the blessings of God and they put them all in
the future you've heard it I've heard it people let it go around saying well you know we're such
poor sinners we can't do anything right anyway and it becomes an excuse to remain in sin that's
not biblical Paul's whole argument in the book of Romans is that in Christ we have been raised
to be the children of God and the power of God's Holy Spirit will help our mortal bodies to be obedient
to the will of God because God is building a kingdom we need to understand that we need to avoid
the error of saying well you know God's not going to do anything for me and so therefore
I'm pretty much dependent on my own ability and I better try to figure it out a lot that's not
what the Bible teaches but there's an error also on the other extreme and that error is to take
all of the blessings that God promises to his children in the future and to try to bring them
into life and into experience today and you've heard it I've heard it it's a theology in a philosophy
that says Christians ought never to be sick Christians ought to be rich Christians ought to be happy
all the time smiling face to face if you're not smiling and if you're not happy Christian brother
sister you've lost your joy what's the matter with you and that's not biblical either because
you see the biblical balance is in between the biblical balance is that in Christ we are blessed
with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and everything that you and
I need for life and for godliness so that we can be obedient to the will of God God in Christ has given
anything that stands in the road to that God will move with his power so that we can move forward
at the same time we are not yet glorified we are not yet in the new creation
we still have our mortal and our weak and our infern bodies we have as Paul says in Corinthians
a treasure in earthly vessels and that this tug of war this battle between what some
theologians have called the already and then not yet is very much an ongoing part of life's
experience and the purpose of that says Paul is to put within us hope not wishful thinking because
that's never what hope is in the Bible but a biblical and a settled conviction that the little
bit that I taste of God's glory is the guarantee the pledge that I'm going to receive the rest
and God's people will inherit creation will be set free good will triumph over evil
and for that reason God's people can abound in the works of righteousness because they know
that in the Lord their labor is not in vain that's Paul's argument
because remember now he's talking to Roman Christians many of whom are slaves
most of whom all of whom are living in a pagan empire going through tremendous difficulty
and persecution many times and the message that he preaches has got to connect with
their lives he can just talk about pie in the sky without connecting it with their real life
and he says this is how it all hangs together we grow inwardly we long for the full revelation
of God's purposes until then we live halfway in between we taste it we experience it
it wets our appetite it increases our longing it increases our hope that what we do not yet see
one day we're going to see it and I think that's where it becomes practical for you and for me
because it means that in the ups and downs of the Christian life when sometimes that inner struggle
and battle becomes too big and we're inclined to say let me throw in the towel let me just be
like the rest of the world because it's so much easier to live that way the Bible says Christian
look at your hope Christ is coming the new kingdom is going to be birth
the new world order will arise in Christ you've got your place in that learn to be patient
learn to persevere learn to obey learn to be disciplined because when the veil is drawn back
you're going to be placed in your rightful inheritance in God's kingdom all the world will
acknowledge it and all the world is waiting on tiptole because creation knows intuitively
that all the problems of humankind are not going to be solved until God's people
come into their inheritance what an encouragement it seems to me for us to lay hold of the prize
to press forward and to hasten the day when all creation will know the touch of its redeemer
and the trees of the field will clap their hands for joy let's pray
Father we confess this world is too much with us
we confess that most of our time energy and ambition
goes into trying to carve out for ourselves and inheritance in this world
and Father we look at Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and we see that they were pilgrims
people who lived in tents people who knew they were looking for a city that his foundations
whose builder and maker is gone
we also know Lord that all the talk in the world isn't going to make the eternal kingdom of our God
a reality in our life that takes the revelation of your spirit but you've given us that spirit
in Christ and Father we pray this morning that by that Holy Spirit you help us to share your wisdom
your heart not Lord so that we could be unclawed not simply so that we could escape the
pressures and the difficulties of this life when it becomes too hard but that we might be further
clothed but all creation can be set free and experienced the glorious liberty of the children of
God we pray Lord that you work in our hearts our real spirit of intercession our real crying out to you
until all the world will know the touch of your hand and Lord when we find in our own life and in
our own experience that we lose perspective on things and we just pray that you hold before
it's the glory of Jesus and that you help us to understand that it's that glory that you're
preparing us for and that the short momentary affliction is preparing us for a weight of glory
that is beyond comprehension help us Lord to think biblically to live biblically to know that
the greatest impact that we can make in this world is to have our our feet firmly rooted in your
kingdom knowing that only out of that position can we reach down in love and in mercy to those all
around us and make us Lord a people we'll love you with all of their heart soul strengthen mine
I love their neighbor as they love themselves in Jesus name Amen