Romans 8:18–25
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
“For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.”
Romans 8:17 joined the children of God to the pattern of Christ himself: they are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.” Paul now develops both sides of that statement. The children of God suffer in the present, but their suffering belongs to an age that has not yet reached the glory God has promised.
Paul places that suffering within a much larger story. Human beings are not the only ones awaiting what God will do. Creation itself has been subjected to decay and now waits for the revelation of the children of God. The world in which believers suffer shares the condition of frustration and mortality that makes their own bodies groan.
Yet creation was subjected “in hope.” Its bondage to decay will not continue forever. The children of God will be revealed in glory, their mortal bodies will be redeemed, and creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.
The Christian therefore lives between possession and expectation. Believers already have “the first fruits of the Spirit,” but they still groan. They have already received the Spirit of adoption and cry, “Abba! Father!” yet they still wait for adoption in its future completion: “the redemption of our body.” Salvation has given them a hope whose fulfillment remains unseen.
Paul does not answer present suffering by minimizing it. He places it alongside the future God has promised. The suffering and groaning are real, but so is the coming glory, and Paul considers the first unworthy of comparison with the second.
The Sufferings of This Present Time
Romans 8:18
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.”
“For” connects the verse directly to Paul’s statement about suffering and glorification with Christ. He does not retreat from the suffering he has attached to the life of God’s heirs. Instead, he evaluates it in relation to the glory that awaits them.
Paul speaks of “the sufferings of this present time.” Suffering belongs to the present condition in which the children of God continue to live. They possess the Spirit, belong to Christ, and have been adopted by the Father, yet none of those realities removes them from the suffering of the present age. Paul therefore leaves no room for treating suffering as evidence that someone has failed to attain the life promised to those who belong to Christ.
Yet suffering does not determine the final shape of their existence. Paul considers it “not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.” The comparison depends upon the future. The glory is not yet fully visible; it “will be revealed.” Believers consequently evaluate the present according to something God has promised but has not yet brought into complete view.
Paul is not dismissing the severity of suffering when considered in itself. His point is comparative. Whatever the weight of suffering in the present, it cannot equal the glory God intends to reveal. That future also reaches beyond individual believers, because creation itself is waiting for it.
Creation Waits
Romans 8:19
“For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”
Paul personifies creation as looking forward with intense expectation. What creation awaits is “the children of God to be revealed.”
The children already exist. Paul has just declared that those led by the Spirit are children of God and that the Spirit testifies with their spirit to that identity. Yet their identity has not reached its full manifestation. They remain mortal people suffering within a world marked by death and decay. Their revelation therefore belongs to the glory Paul has just described. What is presently true of them through Christ and the Spirit will one day be openly manifested.
Paul places creation’s future alongside theirs. Creation does not await an unrelated divine act while believers await resurrection somewhere outside it. The revelation of God’s children matters to creation because the destinies of humanity and the created order have been joined from the beginning.
Human sin did not leave creation untouched. The ground was cursed in connection with Adam’s sin:
Genesis 3:17–19
“Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
Romans 5 traced sin and death into the world through Adam. Romans 8 now places creation itself within the consequences of humanity’s fall and the hope of the redemption still to come.
Subjected in Hope
Romans 8:20–21
“For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
Creation’s present condition is not its original or final purpose. It “was subjected to vanity.” The word describes frustration, futility, and a condition in which creation does not presently display the fullness for which God made it. The created order remains God’s creation, but it exists beneath conditions of corruption and death.
Paul adds that this subjection occurred “not of its own will.” Creation did not rebel against God as a personal moral agent and bring this condition upon itself. The natural background is the judgment following human sin. Adam’s disobedience brought death into the human world, while the ground itself came beneath the curse. Humanity and the world entrusted to humanity became joined in a condition characterized by mortality, frustration, and decay.
Yet Paul immediately adds “in hope.” Creation’s subjection to vanity is not its permanent destiny. It “will be delivered from the bondage of decay.”
Paul’s language therefore gives creation itself a place within the future work of God. Creation is not presented as something God intends simply to discard because it has been affected by sin. What presently enslaves it is “the bondage of decay,” and from that bondage it will be liberated.
Its promised destination is “the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” The freedom of creation is therefore connected to the glorification of God’s children. Their redemption does not consist in escaping creation while creation remains permanently abandoned to corruption. The children are glorified, and creation is delivered from the decay associated with the present order.
Paul’s resurrection hope is consequently both bodily and creational. The God who will give life to mortal bodies also intends liberation for the creation within which those bodies exist.
The Whole Creation Groans
Romans 8:22
“For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”
Paul changes the image from waiting to childbirth. The whole creation “groans and travails in pain together.”
Groaning expresses the suffering of the present condition, while the image of labor gives that suffering a future orientation. Birth pains are not merely pain; they accompany the coming of something not yet present. Paul therefore portrays creation as suffering under its present condition while awaiting the liberation he has just described.
The phrase “until now” keeps that condition firmly in the present. Christ has risen and believers have received the Spirit, but creation continues to groan. Paul can therefore proclaim Christ’s victory without treating every consequence of sin and death as though it has already disappeared.
Christ has been raised. His people still await the redemption of their bodies. Creation still awaits liberation from decay. The resurrection has introduced the life of the age to come without yet bringing the entire created order into its final condition.
Creation is not alone in that waiting. Those who already possess the Spirit groan with it.
We Ourselves Groan
Romans 8:23
“Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.”
Paul now includes believers within the groaning he has attributed to creation. Possession of the Spirit does not eliminate groaning. The people who groan are precisely those “who have the first fruits of the Spirit.”
The image of first fruits holds present possession and future expectation together. The first portion has already been received, but it points toward a fullness still to come. Believers therefore do not wait for God’s future as people who have received nothing in the present. The Spirit already dwells in them as the beginning of the life whose completion they await.
This explains how Paul can say that believers have already received “the Spirit of adoption” in verse 15 and then describe them as “waiting for adoption” in verse 23. Their adoption is already real: they possess the Spirit, cry to God as Father, and are his children. Yet that adoption still awaits its complete manifestation.
Paul identifies that future aspect as “the redemption of our body.”
The Christian hope is therefore bodily. Believers do not wait to be released from their bodies but for the redemption of them. The statement continues the promise of verse 11, where God will “give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” The mortal body that remains subject to death is not excluded from salvation’s final accomplishment.
The believer’s groaning arises from living between what has already been given and what remains to be completed. The Spirit is present, but the body remains mortal. Adoption is real, but the children have not yet been revealed in glory. The first fruits have been received, but the harvest remains ahead.
Saved in Hope
Romans 8:24–25
“For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.”
Paul describes salvation itself as oriented toward this future: “we were saved in hope.”
Hope is necessary because the promised future has not yet become visible. “Hope that is seen is not hope.” Once the promised reality has arrived, hope has reached its fulfillment. Until then, Christian existence necessarily includes waiting.
That waiting follows naturally from everything Paul has said. Believers still suffer. Creation remains subjected to decay. Mortal bodies still die. The children of God have not yet been revealed in the glory creation awaits. None of those realities contradicts salvation because salvation itself includes a future hope.
The presence of the Spirit allows believers to wait for what remains unseen without pretending that the redemption of the body has already occurred. They possess the first fruits while awaiting the fullness. The future remains unseen, but it is not therefore without foundation. The Spirit already dwelling within them belongs to the very life whose completion they await.
“If we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.” Patience is not passive resignation but endurance shaped by expectation. Believers remain within the suffering and groaning of the present without treating the present as the final measure of what God will accomplish.
The Groaning of Creation and the Hope of Glory
Paul places the suffering of God’s children within a creation that groans alongside them. The world itself has been subjected to frustration and decay, while believers who possess the first fruits of the Spirit continue to groan within mortal bodies. The presence of suffering therefore does not contradict either their adoption or the saving work already accomplished in Christ.
Their groaning is joined to hope because neither their present mortality nor creation’s decay is permanent. Creation waits for liberation from its bondage to decay, and believers wait for the completion of their adoption in the redemption of their bodies. The revelation of the children of God in glory joins those hopes together.
The Christian hope is therefore neither escape from creation nor escape from embodiment. God intends to give life to mortal bodies and deliver creation itself from decay. The resurrection of God’s children and the liberation of creation belong to the same promised future.
For now, believers live between the first fruits and the fullness, between adoption already received and adoption awaiting its complete manifestation, between Christ’s resurrection and their own. They possess the Spirit while they groan, and they have been saved while they continue to hope.
The sufferings of this present time are real, but they belong to a creation whose bondage to decay will not have the final word. Believers therefore wait with patience for what remains unseen, confident that the glory to be revealed is beyond comparison with the suffering that precedes it.