Romans 8:18-25

Introduction: Christians will reach glory the same way that Jesus reached glory, through suffering: "if we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him" (Rom. 8:17b). It is "through much tribulation that we inherit the glory of God" (Acts 14:22, "we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God"). Scripture presents a very realistic view of life's trials. We need to see things in the right light. The following biblical perspectives are very helpful. 1) Suffering is to be expected by the Christian. This is not gloom and doom but honest realism that braces us and keeps us from being catapulted into despair when we suffer. 2) It is necessary. God knows we need it even though we would rather avoid it. This helps us submit our wills and wants to the Lord. 3) Suffering is purposeful in developing our faith. This is more precious than silver and gold. 4) The suffering of the Christian is with Christ and suffering with Christ is comforting. Note again the simple and straightforward meaning of suffering with Him. It is not that somehow we enter into His sufferings and thus suffer with Him in His sorrows. It is simply the case that when we suffer we do so with Him, in His presence, in the presence of our resurrected elder brother. In our sufferings we can say, "I am still with Him." This is because He is there with us as our great physician and nurse. So be comforted in two ways: 1) in the suffering you are with Him, you are in His presence, and 2) if you suffer like this, in His presence as a co-sibling in the family of God, then mark this down with indelible ink: you suffer with Him in order to be glorified with Him.

Thus the Christian pathway has its steep places, its dizzying heights, its low places and dark valleys but because it is a pathway to glory, the Christian can face suffering with hope. That is the title of our message for this morning (8:17 is a transition verse, especially 17b).

The word hope and its nature: Notice how often the word hope occurs in Romans 8:18-25 (vs. 20, 24-25). The object of hope, that which is hoped for, is something future. It looks to "what will be" (v. 21). The object of hope is something not seen or now possessed (v. 24). This may be compared with hoping to own your own home-as you plan, work and save you look ahead with hope for the day when you can leave renting and become a home owner. When that day comes and you take possession of the house with white picket fences, then, obviously, you cease hoping with regard to that possession. When what will be (ownership vs. renting) comes to pass, then hope disappears.

It can be contrasted with worry which is also future looking. But worry is negative whereas hope is positive. Worry looks to the future with depressing and debilitating anxiety and hope looks to the future with eager and invigorating anticipation. When we worry the head hangs sadly low but when we have hope the head stretches alertly forward. Thus hope is defined in the context as an attitude that has a future object. The attitude is basically that of expectation (eager expectation, v. 19). It is not wishing but expectation or anticipation as shown by the connection of "this hope" (v. 24) with "we wait eagerly" (v. 23).

Today I want to consider two major things: 1) Suffering in the present with hope, and 2) Suffering with hope in the present.

1A. Suffering in the present with hope

How does a Christian develop a hopeful outlook (in contrast to how the world rests on false hopes and illusions, cf. the appendices below)? In a word, is by cultivating this unique perspective on suffering: namely, that it has a relative insignificance.

In order to have hope in present suffering, we must know, acknowledge, ponder, and pin down the insignificance of suffering. This is a truly remarkable outlook. It is not a denial of suffering. As we face suffering looming large and about to overwhelm us, we are to consider the fact that the greatest suffering we could possibly endure and even the sum total fullness of suffering all through this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory of our destiny (Rom. 8:18).

The distance between our suffering, its weight, its significance as a burden, a struggle and a matter of pain, and the glory to be revealed in us is so great that our sufferings do not even rate comparison! Your sufferings and mine, in perspective mind you (not minimized but compared) have an essential smallness and insignificance. Knowing this, acknowledging this, reckoning it to be true, and pondering it is the underlying general principle upon which suffering can be faced squarely with hope (not in denial of reality, not in false hope or wishful thinking, not in illusions that try to find a meaningful future without God).

In other words, the glory to be revealed in us has such a magnitude that the sufferings pale into insignificance. For example, say you are trying to describe the weight of a crate on one end of a teeter totter. It is about a hundred pounds, perhaps a thousand, and it is difficult for you to lift. Contained in this crate are your sufferings. They weigh you down. But then you notice a crate on the other end of the teeter totter; it reaches to the sky, into the clouds and out of sight. Contained in this crate are the glories that belong to you in Christ. The see-saw can only lean in one direction. Your suffering are lifted like a feather by the magnitude of the glory on the other side. The magnitude of glory is so great, so out of sight, that the sufferings are not even worthy to be compared with them.

So how do we come to appreciate the insignificance of suffering? It is by pondering the magnitude of the coming glory.

1) Consider how this glory is described. It is a glory that will be revealed in us (v. 18), it is our revealing (v. 19), it is glorious freedom (v. 21), it includes adoption (v. 23), and the redemption of our bodies (v. 23; cf. 8:11).

How do we suffer with hope? To begin with we do so when we consider our sufferings in light of the magnitude of the glory to be revealed in us when the Lord sees fit to bring it to pass. While keeping our feet on the earth, we must attend much and often to the eternal glories of heaven that are ours as heirs of God. He is our portion and He is the one who apportions our glory.

Thus it is good to focus the day of judgment and the fact that we will be glorified and not condemned when that day dawns with all its radiance. It is good to ponder the true meaning of freedom, that it means to be able to do good from the heart. Freedom is incomplete now as shown by the fact that we still sin. Being able to sin is not part of our freedom but the mark of its incompleteness. But the day is coming when our freedom will be complete; that will be a glorious freedom! It is good to consider the completion of our sonship and daughtership to God. We call Him Father now with true affection born within us by the Holy Spirit. We are in His family but we are not completely there, we are not yet at home with Him in heaven. But we are on our way home. Our citizenship is in heaven. And it is good to think about the coming redemption of our bodies. They are subject to dying and death because of sin (v. 10) but the same Spirit within us who prompts us with confident affection toward God as our Father will give life to our mortal bodies (v. 11). Though we are redeemed, our redemption is not yet complete. For that we wait. For all these things we wait. In our sufferings and in light of all these things we wait with hope.

The descriptions of glory show the magnitude of what shall be and this shows the insignificance of present suffering. Thus deep hope blossoms.

2) In order to suffer with hope, we must know, acknowledge, and ponder the hope of creation (vs. 19, 22). No doubt this is part of Paul's development of the magnitude of the glory that shall be revealed in us and that gives suffering its comparative insignificance. Paul personifies the creation as a person who waits (v. 19) and as a woman who groans (v. 22). The person is waiting for something to happen and the woman groans in pain of childbirth. What do we learn from each of these analogies?

First, think of the creation as a person who waits. What is he (it) waiting for? He is waiting for our revelation in glory. This has to tell us something about the greatness and magnificence of our destiny that the very creation waits for it. How does this person wait? He (it) waits in eager expectation or hope. It is like a person with his head lifted and stretched forward in alert anticipation (eager expectation). This event in the future must be something beyond compare if the very creation can be spoken of as waiting in eager expectation for it. What great glory this must be that turns the head of every fact and every dimension of the entire universe pointing them statue like toward one object: our glory! No wonder our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Second, think of the analogy of the whole creation as a woman "in the pains of childbirth" (v. 22). We learn two things from this. On one hand, we learn that the present sufferings are not minimized. They are very painful like the pains of giving birth. She groans in the pain. The creation groans in the effects of the fall and we groan. The creation suffers in conjunction with our suffering. But on the other hand, we learn that the present sufferings of the creation are signs of promise. Every pain in child birth is a sign of promise that the newborn is about to come. The creation is like a woman in the pains of child bearing awaiting the birth of the children of God into glory. Every groan of the creation promises our glory. We can hear that testimony in every expression of pain and suffering in the entire world around us. In every sign of frustration (v. 20), every mark of bondage to decay (v. 21), every indication of pain, every evidence of the fall we have witness to the glory that is yet to come because these are not reasons for despair but signs of hope, of a birth, a new birth, an entrance into eternal life.

Do you hear these testimonies? They are all around us in all the groans of the creation that seems to be falling apart. In the deterioration, the rust, the weeds are the sounds of groaning. Even though the fallen creation still bears the marks of the beauty of the Creator and "the hills are alive with the sound of music," we must also recognize that he hills are alive with the groans of a woman in the pains of childbirth. From the beauty of the mountain ranges comes the destruction of the volcanoes and avalanches. But these are expressions of creational suffering in hope of childbirth, in eager waiting for the glory of the children of God.

When your car breaks down, when your washer gives way, when the mower will no longer start, when you want to beat that "lawn boy" to a pulp with a sledge hammer, remember that these are all signs of promise. They are expressions of the pain and suffering of the creation, true, but they are that in hope and expectation of our glory. This raises our eyes to the greatness of the glory to come. The promise reverberates around the globe, throughout the universe, and across history. From the midst of the suffering creation we hear groans of childbirth and thus eager expectation. It is perspective like this that enables us to suffer with hope.

3) In order to suffer with hope, we must know, acknowledge, and ponder the hope of God. He is the one who subjected the creation to futility and frustration in His judgment of the earth due to the sin of our earthly father Adam (v. 20; Gen. 3:17, "cursed is the ground because of you"). But God did this in hope (v. 20). What does it mean for God to hope? Obviously, hope does not mean wish. It means to expect and anticipate. God is likened to a person who hopes regarding the future. His hopes center in His goals and designs. If God expects something to come to pass then we know it will come to pass because His expectation is based on His plans, on His determined will, and therefore what God expects to come to pass will certainly come to pass. The language of hope is attributed to God to instill hope in us.

What is it that God hopes for and seeks to instill in us? It is the deliverance of the creation from its bondage to decay and into the glorious freedom of the children of God (v. 21). Surely, the magnitude of our glory is shown in the greatness that shall come to be by the hope of God. In other words, that for which He hopes is not yet seen as is the case in all hope (v. 24) but God is the one who calls into existence that which does not exist (Rom. 4:17, another expression of God's effectual call). This is what shows us the magnitude of the glory to come: it is a glory that will be effected by the effectual call of the God who plans, predestinates, and works out His purposes without fail. The freedom He gives will be freedom indeed and beyond compare.

This gives our sufferings there true significance or shall we say, there true insignificance and enables us to face present sufferings with hope.

2A. Suffering with hope in the present

Because its object is off in the future, hope supports the platform of waiting. Hope will give waiting a virtue, namely, the virtue of patience. If you have hope, you wait with patience rather than impatience (discontentment, restlessness and impulsiveness). Impatience fears loss. Hope instills patience because it calms the soul with confident expectation.

But there is a kind of restlessness, a unsettledness that results from hope. The taste of heaven that we experience now gives us a longing so deep that we groan within waiting for our adoption and redemption (the completion of our childship and salvation, Rom. 8:23). It will be completed in the giving of life to our mortal bodies when this mortal will put on immortality and this corruption will put on incorruption. We long for the day when death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:53-54). In this mind set the things of earth grow strangely dim. They become strange, foreign and they lose their luster: our home is in heaven and with God as our portion we desire nothing on earth (Ps. 73:25). We fluctuate between two poles. On one hand we feel very detached from this present life on earth and thus our feet barely touch the ground and we walk with our heads in the clouds. We taste what is to come in the firstfruits. We have taste now by the Spirit of our adoption, we now experience the affection of childship. The Spirit gives a taste now of the sweetness of the honey in the honey comb. On the other hand, in closeness to our sovereign God we hear His commands more clearly. We hear Him tell us to complete our work on earth, the work He has called us to do. We each have a vocation, a calling from God. We must reach out to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended (cf. Phil. 3:12-14; 1:23-25).

When you are impulsive, fearful, and restlessly discontent in connection with impulsiveness and fear then you lack hope. These unwelcome qualities of life may be profoundly exaggerated by suffering. So we need to learn how to suffer with hope lest this vale of tears overwhelm us like a flood. For this we have a profound basis: the insignificance of our present sufferings in comparison with the magnitude of the glory to be revealed in us. That magnitude is appreciated by considering how the glory is described, by considering the hope of creation, and by considering the hope of God. The magnitude of our glory enables us to put suffering with its real pains into perspective, into a place of relative insignificance. Thus, we are strengthened with hope in suffering.

Appendix I, The Importance of Hope and False Hope

The Importance of Hope: hope is a vital part of a vigorous, healthy, contented, stable, and balanced Christian life. Hope is so basic that without it we plunge headlong into despair. As the song says, "you've got to have hope, miles and miles of hope." I think I can safely speak for my wife in saying that the deepest points in the trial of the breathing spasms were when over the wear of time with the spasms unabated no cause could be found. The uncertainty of a cause, left hope of a remedy questionable and the loss of hope took the suffering to its deepest points by adding a mental suffering. Thankfully, there were only a couple of brief seasons when a sense of hopelessness took hold. I do not think that it was experienced at the same time by both of us. A couple of times I sensed that she was losing hope. I trust that she did not sense the times when I found myself losing hope. For me it was in the first two long nights after she was out of intensive care and back home-but still having the heavy duty breathing spasms. For two nights I would be roused by her spasms and then I would lay there mostly awake and listening to her breathe. Daylight was long in coming. In the day time she did better. My point is just to emphasize the importance of hope and how the loss of hope whatever its object may be (job, success, sense of worth, marriage, health) will throw us into despair and impulsive conduct (without an eagerness about life; without patience). Hope is a fundamental human need. The supply of hope in the face of suffering (most severe types, all) is another aspect of the gospel.

Those who suffer in all the things common to man but without God, are without hope (hope has an objective and a subjective side to it; people may delude themselves into thinking that they have much to expect in the future by excluding from their minds the inescapable fact of dying, death and the judgment to come. They have an unrealistic subjective hope but they are actually without hope, objectively speaking. True hope is both objective and subjective – it takes in the eternal future in the face of dying and eternal death and thus having the right object in full scope regarding the future, a strong sense of expectation is not groundless. Indeed, it has the surest footing.

An example of false hope is found in the view of Epicurus, the father of hedonism. He was not like his followers. He was a pleasure seeker, making pleasure the ultimate standard of life for truth and conduct but he was not a pure animalistic pleasure seeker like many of his followers. He thought of pleasure in wholistic and long haulish terms. Pleasure rules but it must incorporate health of body and soul. True pleasure looks to the material, physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of man. And he looked for this wholeness of pleasure over the long haul. Thus, drunkenness was wrong and foolish because hangover vomiting and headaches are not pleasurable. He seeks freedom from pain of body and trouble of mind over the long haul.

But consider how he grounds his pleasure doctrine in false hope. Pleasure governs what is true like sunglasses filtering the light. Thoughts that disturb the soul must be eliminated. One such thought is that of immortality. It cannot be true because the thought of God punishing the wicked is disturbing to one's inner peace and tranquility.

The pleasure doctrine causes a peculiar focus on death. Look at death. For some it is the greatest evil (for those who enjoy life) and for others death is the greatest respite from evil (for those who suffer). Thus, death is relative. Hence, we need a refocus so that death does not disturb those who live (robbing them of tranquility). Refocus: death is nothing; it is simply the cessation of existence as expressed in his famous line: "As long as we live, death is not present. When death comes, we are not present."

So how do we cope with the fear of death and the pain of its anticipation? We simply note that death gives no trouble when it comes because we simply cease to exist. Any pain in anticipation of nothing is empty and vain. A key is to eliminate the craving for immortality. How does it do so? By a view of ultimate reality that is dictated by the pleasure doctrine. Reality is conceived to be totally comprised of material particles called atoms (uncut entities). The patterns of their movements makes one thing distinct from another (atoms spinning this way are what we call Joe and atoms spinning that way we call Mary, etc.). In death, the atoms in motion that distinguish each individual simply disperse, and we are no more (cf. Jones, History of Philosophy, I, 103, 106-107).

Epicurean man seeks to get rid of the craving for immortality to insure peace of mind. But his own teaching forces him into a bitter choice: Either man is immortal or there is no pleasure over the long haul. Since he denies immortality, then he must accept the extremely painful point that there is no pleasure over the long haul. His is a struggle for pleasure that ends in death. The Epicurean quest ultimately and inescapably fails. He must destroy man dehumanizing him to particles in motion. The pleasure doctrine's look to the future is based wishful thinking, illusion, and false hope.

People do this all the time. Since they cannot tolerate something, then it cannot be true (such as God electing some and passing over others, God judging some in hell forever, or God judging me since I can't be that bad, I can't accept it). Thus some may continue to tell themselves "I will get through the pearly gates into heaven because I am a good person and God will accept those who do the best they can, I can't believe that God would turn me away given that I am not so bad. Besides, I find it difficult to believe in hell in the first place." This approach is like an ostrich hiding its head in quicksand. It is wishful thinking and not hope. Hope is confident expectation grounded in knowing the God of promise, His just ways, and His mercy given by Christ through the Spirit.

Appendix II, How can we be hopefully sure about the future?

We cannot prove the occurrence of future events even the most basic like putting two hydrogen's together with one oxygen to get water or that the sun will come up tomorrow.

How could science demonstrate or logically prove a future event? With H2O it might be argued that we prove it in a test tube and we do so over and over again. Every time we put these together we get water. Every night ends with the coming of the sun. But notice that once we project to the future we do so on the basis of a key assumption. We assume that the future is like the past, that as it has been so it shall be (and we can show the results of the test tube and the record of days and nights).

Here is the problem the assumption that we need to make this proof work is actually just an assertion of what we are trying to prove in the first place. How do we know that future is like the past? We base that on experience: as it has been so shall it be. But once we add so shall it be we are in a circle-trying to prove that the future is like the past we assume that the future is like the past. Ultimately, this is just saying that I know the sun will come up tomorrow because the sun will come up tomorrow.

Think about this as a non-Christian then as a Christian. The non-Christian has no basis to believe that the future will always be like the past. For one he believes that the world is running down, losing energy and will eventually end in solar death. But even if that time is thousands of years away, the non-Christian does not have a basis for believing that the sun will come up tomorrow, nor does he have a basis for believing there will be continuity in the laws of nature. There is no logical necessity for these laws to be as they are. There would be no contradiction if water would freeze at 30 degrees Fahrenheit rather than 32 degrees. And the non-Christian has no basis to expect anything good from God, given that he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and runs from God fearing His wrath.

But think as a Christian. First, can we assume that the laws of nature will always be as they are? No, we know that a day of judgment is coming and a radical change will occur. For example, a day will come with light but no sun. That will be the day without a cloud, when God is the light of the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. 21:23). So we know that it will not always be the case that the sun will come up tomorrow. But this is not my main point. Second, how do we know that the sun will come up each morning between now and the final day? As we have noted we cannot prove it without being circular. Such circular reasoning furnishes no proof.

People have seriously wrestled with this problem and I bring it up to make the point that the non-Christian has no basis for a sense of security and certainty about the future. As a matter of fact, all the laws of science rest on thin air, without basis or foundation, in the world view of the non-Christian. The sense that he has of the dependability of the world system is borrowed from the Christian world view; at the least, it is rooted in his sense of deity in the fact that he knows God but suppresses that knowledge in unrighteousness.

So how does the Christian know that the sun will come up and that the laws of nature will abide with continuity and dependability? He knows this because He knows the covenant making and covenant keeping God. He knows the Creator and sustainer of the universe as Father. He knows the promise of God as Lord of history who maintains the material properties of the world. The laws of nature will continue until the end of history that He has designated is reached. We know it because we know the One who promises according to goals and ends that He has the power, wisdom, will and determination to fulfill. Therefore, the Christian looks to the consummate future with eager expectation and confident anticipation because He knows the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.