I love Romans chapter 8. If you’re a Christian, I imagine you love it too. What Paul so beautifully describes rings with a hope we recognize, a hope that resonates deep within our souls and stirs longing for our far-off homeland, our heavenly one. In Romans 8, we catch glimpses of “the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). I’m sure this is one reason John Piper says,
I think Romans is the greatest book in the Bible. I think Romans 8 is the greatest chapter in the greatest book in the Bible.
And I especially love the paragraph that spans verses 18–25. I’ve probably quoted from this paragraph in my writings more than from any other section of Romans 8. In these verses, Paul gives a peerless description of our paradoxical experience of hope-filled groaning in a creation still in “bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:21). We wait for “the freedom of the glory” God has promised us as his children, but we do not yet see it (verse 25). Which I’m sure is also one reason John Piper continues,
I won’t argue that [verses 18–25] is the greatest paragraph in the greatest chapter in the greatest book in the Bible, but it comes close.
Yes, it does. And I want to draw your attention to two marvelous parts of this paragraph that make it one of the greatest in the Bible.
Uplifting Pattern
First, notice the peculiar pattern of humiliation followed by exaltation Paul uses. We see it in the following verses:
“The sufferings of this present time” are followed by “the glory that is to be revealed to us” (verse 18).
“The creation . . . subjected to futility” is followed by its obtaining “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (verses 20–21).
The groaning of the whole creation — and we ourselves — is followed by the completion of our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (verses 22–23).
For anyone familiar with Scripture, this peculiar pattern isn’t new. Humiliation followed by exaltation is laced all through the Bible.
We see it in Abraham, who “was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance” and ended up living “in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,” which God later gave to his descendants, just as he had promised (Hebrews 11:8–9).
We see it in Moses, who lived for forty years as a fugitive shepherd in Midian before God called him to deliver his captive people from Egypt.
We see it in David, who was subjected to Saul’s campaign of terror, pursued through the wilderness, before God gave him the kingship of Israel.
We especially see it in Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:6–9).
Why Humiliation Before Exaltation?
But why? Why has God ordained that humiliation should precede exaltation, that suffering should precede glory, that futility should precede freedom, that groaning should precede redemption? Since God has innumerable purposes in everything he does, I’ll venture just one reason — a very significant reason for fallen humans: faith. For
without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
The reason God subjected the human race and all of creation to futility is because of human pride. But he offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal redemption to all who are willing to humble themselves under his mighty hand through repentance and faith (1 Peter 5:6). As Jesus said, “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
But mere words of repentance and faith are cheap. True repentance and faith are proven by the fruit they bear (Matthew 3:8; Galatians 5:6). And nothing reveals the humbled, loving, faithful hearts of the redeemed children of God like the bewildering, disorienting, painful experiences of humiliation, suffering, futility, and groaning. Those who have the “the firstfruits of the Spirit” walk through these valleys and groan along with creation, yet they eagerly wait for their full adoption, showing themselves to be God’s true sons and daughters (Romans 8:23). In other words, we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8), but Christlike humility is necessary evidence that our faith is saving faith. Thus, humiliation must precede exaltation.
Free to Be Glorious
This brings us to the second marvelous part of this paragraph: the great promise that this age of groaning will end. Like all our forebears in the faith, those who compose the ever-growing cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), we greet these future promises “from afar,” and in doing so “make it clear that we are seeking a homeland,” desiring “a better country, that is, a heavenly one,” and therefore God will “not be ashamed to be called [our] God” (Hebrews 11:13–16).
In other words, like our forebears, we groan in hope. “Though our outer self is wasting away,” and “we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,” we do not lose heart (2 Corinthians 4:16; 5:2). For God has made a promise to us, of which the Spirit bears witness: our bodies will be redeemed, and we will experience in full “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:16, 21, 23).
Did you catch the wording of that last phrase? We are promised “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” We will not merely see the glory of God; we will be clothed with his glory! Our new bodies will radiate his glory! We will experience something that, as C.S. Lewis put it, “can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it” (The Weight of Glory, 42).
Just think of it: we will be free. Truly free. Not only will we be free from all the grievous effects of futility; we will be free from every vestige of pride, free from any temptation to be an idolatrous rival to God, free from all vainglorious impulses period. We will be free to be glorious! We will be free to bear and wear the glory of the children of God! And we will dance and sing and rejoice over how God answered Moses’s prayer beyond all that he could ask or think:
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil. (Psalm 90:15)
For the days of our glorious gladness will so outnumber the days of our affliction and the years we saw evil that they will be only distant and shadowy memories that enhance the gladness we experience. We will be free to be God’s glad, glorious children!
This is the hope we have in all our present groaning, and it will be the great reward of our faith.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen 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. (Romans 8:24–25)
Yes, Lord, we believe and we will wait. But may this day come soon!
Desiring God