SERMON TITLE: The Assurance of a New Creation
TEXT: Romans 8:19-22 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 8/23/20
You can watch the sermon here.
It’s great to be back with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And the one thing I always want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshipping with us in person at one of our Findlay campuses or are worshipping with us online — the one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and I love you too.
So after a three week break — and I want to say thank you to Scott, Robert, and Cody for preaching in my absence — and it’s a joy for me to sort of coach all of these guys in preaching. Many of them never imagined preaching a sermon before. But sometimes it takes someone else seeing something in you that you can’t quite see in yourself in order for you to step out in faith and do something you thought you’d never do. So thanks again to Scott, Robert, and Cody.
But since we’ve had three weeks off from Romans, let me quickly recap what we’ve already seen in this chapter. And probably the best way to do that is to just read our way through the chapter. So let’s begin in verse 1 of Romans chapter 8. We’re in Romans chapter 8 — and we’ll begin in verse 1.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Glorious news! No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.) 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Though there’s no condemnation for those who have faith in Christ there is condemnation for their sin.) 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Here is where we learned about the importance of having an assured mind — for what our mind is set on determines what we live for.) 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Here’s where the theme of belonging started to permeate in our chapter. And we’ve seen that everyone is trying to figure out where they belong.) 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (In belonging to God, we find that we’re no longer debtors to sin — we owe sin nothing! — but we are debtors to God.) 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (And here we learned the difference between being made in the image of God — which is true of all people — and being a child of God — which is true only for those who’ve been adopted into his family. And one of the family expectations is that we will suffer — but as we suffer — we’re to focus on the glory that is promised to be ours.) 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:1-18 ESV)
And today we’ll be looking at verses 19-22. So if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Romans chapter 8. We’re in Romans chapter 8. Beginning in verse 19.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19-22 ESV)
What’s the worst storm you’ve ever been in? I grew up in Florida and experienced a few hurricanes growing up — but we lived far enough inland to not get the full force of the storms like people living on the coasts would experience. But what about you — what’s the worst storm you’ve ever experienced?
If you’ve never experienced a bad storm — I’m sure you’ve seen one on TV. Maybe it was news coverage of a hurricane or a tornado or I think of the tsunami that came through Sri Lanka in 2004 killing over 30,000 and injuring another 21,000 people. When you think of storms like these — what goes through your mind?
We call these storms natural disasters. And they’re called that because we look at the violence that nature has caused and assume that this is how things are supposed to be — that there have always been raging storms like hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Even for Christians — it’s easy to think that this is how creation has always been. Violent. Destructive. Seemingly unpredictable.
But I’m not a fan of the phrase natural disaster for — as we’ll see today — these storms are not natural to God’s creation — they’re unnatural. In fact, our passage describes God’s creation as groaning as if in childbirth. It’s begging to be liberated from something it’s been enslaved to — not because creation did something wrong — but because we — humanity — did something wrong.
And the gospel shows us that one day creation will be set free from its enslavement — its groaning will be over — the violence and destruction of unnatural disasters will come to an end — because all of creation — with God’s people — will be healed and renewed.
Now — when people talk about creation today — unfortunately things can quickly turn political. Not because the topics themselves are political, but because politics seems to always find its way to divide us on important topics — even Christians.
For example, a popular narrative about creation in our culture is that we need to do everything we can to save the environment because this planet is all we’ve got. Another variation on this narrative is that we need to save our planet long enough until we can make our way to another planet. And the reason why we need to save the earth is because we’re the ones who’ve harmed it. And if we don’t fix things there’s not going to be an earth for humanity to live on.
Now — is there anything that we can affirm about this narrative? As Christians, we’re able to acknowledge that we have brought destruction to all of creation through our sin. God’s the one who created all things and he called all of his creation good. It’s only after we brought sin into the world that things turned bad — for us and for creation. We can also affirm the importance of taking care of creation. In fact, the Christian faith teaches that God gave humanity the role of being stewards over all of his creation — we’re to be God’s creation caretakers.
But — we care for God’s creation as stewards — not as saviors. We can’t save nature — but we can — and should — care for it. And as we care for creation, we’re to show an unbelieving world what it means to care for what God cares about — and he cares for all of his creation. And we’re to grieve over the brokenness of us and creation — because of our sin — and recognize that creation — like us — is groaning and waiting to be freed from the effects of sin that we brought upon it. And similar to how we Christians help other people experience freedom from the effects of sin — through the ministry of reconciliation that God expects of us — showing people that freedom from sin is possible — that just as we’re to be bringers of reconciliation between one another we’re to be bringers of reconciliation to the rest of God’s creation through our role as God’s stewards and caretakers.
So we’re going to be talking about the brokenness of creation today — how God’s creation — beyond humanity — has been affected by sin — how creation is groaning along with us. Then we’ll look at the promised glory of creation where — just as we — God’s people — will be glorified, so too all of creation will experience glory. Then we’ll talk briefly about some ways we can practically care for creation and — hopefully — do so without getting caught up in the political rhetoric. And my hope is that we will see that God has called his people to be stewards and caretakers of his creation.
So let’s begin by looking at this groaning of creation. Back to verse 19.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19-22 ESV)
Creation is groaning. As I said earlier, hurricanes and earthquakes and tornadoes are not natural disasters. They’re unnatural to God’s creation. They’re results of childbirth like groaning that creation is doing while it’s eagerly awaiting for its renewal.
Paul describes this groaning for renewal in some of his other letters. He writes, “For in this tent (in these bodies affected by sin...) we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling...” ( 2 Corinthians 5:2, ESV) Two verses later, Paul mentions this groaning again. And this sorrow-filled groaning is similar to what Jesus tells his disciples when he warns them about his death. He tells them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:20-22 ESV)
The point is that we feel the sorrow — don't we — and the reasons to groan because things are not the way they’re supposed to be. But not only do we groan and feel the sorrow of our sin — all of creation is groaning with us. Creation has been helplessly enslaved to the death and decay that has ruled this world since our rebellion in the Garden. And we can’t ignore creation’s groaning.
St. Augustine of Hippo, famously said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Well — creation is restless right along with us. For creation knows that something’s wrong — creation knows that its present reality isn’t the way it was created to be. Sometimes we humans can deceive ourselves into thinking otherwise about us — but not creation. It knows — it feels the sorrow of what our sin has done to it — and so it groans as it eagerly awaits for God to renew and restore it.
And these disasters are also not natural — in the sense — that they’re out of control. Often — even Christians — can be overwhelmed by the power of these types of events in nature. They can be so destructive. Seemingly so unpredictable. And we can live in fear — when they come — that they’re completely out of control — as if they have a mind of their own. But these events are never outside of the control of God.
“Well why doesn’t he stop them then,” you might wonder. If we only knew all of the disasters thwarted by the powerful hand of God. And if we looked at creation with sorrow — because our sin is the cause of its fall — well then we might look to God with grateful hearts because he hasn’t wiped us all out which is what we deserve — I mean look at what our sin has done. So instead of casting the blame at our Creator — we should look at ourselves — the stewards of his creation — and ask, “Why did we do this to God’s creation?”
And yet — there’s a beauty to God’s creation. As one pastor has said, “Creation glows with a thousand beauties, even in its present fallen condition; yet clearly enough it is not as when it came from the Maker’s hand — the slime of the serpent is on it all — this is not the world which God pronounced to be “very good.” We hear of tornadoes, of earthquakes, of tempests, of volcanoes, of avalanches, and of the sea which [devours] its thousands: there is sorrow on the sea, and there is misery on the land...It is a sad, sad world. The curse has fallen on it since the fall, and thorns and thistles it [brings] forth, not from its soil alone, but from all that comes of it. Earth wears upon her brow, like Cain of old, the brand of transgression. Sad would it be to our thoughts if it were always to be so. If there were no future to this world as well as to ourselves, we might be glad to escape from it, counting it to be nothing better than a huge penal colony, from which it would be a thousand mercies for both body and soul to be [set free from it].” (Charles Spurgeon, Creation’s Groans and the Saints’ Sighs)
In this marred by sin creation — there’s beauty — easily seen in this wonderful world and universe we live in. And — yet — there’s a power to destroy — this feeling that things are not right — what’s been described as a “symphony of sighs” (Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 518. Quoting Phillips.) as we and all of creation groan together in this broken state.
But let’s rise up from potential despair and now turn to the glory of creation — the future that creation is — right now — eagerly longing for. A future that I hope you will also long for with creation. Back to verse 19.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19-22 ESV)
Now here’s something you may not have given much thought about. If we think back to our last sermon in Romans which — I know was weeks ago — but in that sermon we looked at our present suffering compared to the glory that’s been promised to us. Here’s what Paul said back in verse 18.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18 ESV)
So yes, we suffer in this present life. And our sufferings can be brutal — devastating — unbelievably hard. But our suffering is nothing compared to the glory that will be ours. And here’s where we and all of God’s creation have a connection. Similar to our present sufferings — the present sufferings of creation are nothing compared to the glory that’s been promised to it.
So — we Christians — aren’t just to long for our glory — our end of suffering — we’re to long for the glory of all of God’s creation — we’re to long for the end of suffering for all of God’s creation. This is what creation is doing. It’s eagerly longing for our suffering to come to an end because it knows that will mean its suffering has also come to an end — as we see in verse 19. In fact, the phrase “eager longing” is meant to give us the picture of a “person craning his or her neck to see what’s coming” (Moo, 513.) next. It’s like a child eagerly waiting to open the presents under the Christmas tree — “I wonder what’s in that box and in that present and in that one?” Is your spiritual neck craning to see what’s coming next for you — and for God’s people and for his creation — or is your focus on this present world — so much so — that you’re not even eager for what’s coming next? Do you have that child like anticipation — “Man I can’t wait to open up the eternal Christmas present that all other Christmas presents are pointing me to” — the gift of eternity?
The New Heavens and the New Earth — the culmination of the biblical story. Christ accomplishing God’s original purpose for his creation. Adam’s curse reversed. God’s promise to Abraham — a people from all nations — more numerous than the stars in the sky — God’s people finally being done with their wandering in the wilderness as they arrive in the eternal Promised Land — this is God’s gift to us.
But the hope of how our story ends is rooted in how our story began. You see, a danger for us is that we both view Genesis 1 through 3 as historical — and as a fairy tale — at the same time. Here’s what I mean. We view the story of creation — as described in Genesis 1 and 2 — as historical — God created everything. We believe that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden until they rebelled against God as they believed the lies of the Serpent — we believe that to be historical.
And — yet — we can view Genesis 1 through 3 kind of like a fairytale. Because all we know of is a world broken and stained by our sin. All we know of are disasters — that seem so natural to us — that we call them natural disasters. It’s hard to see them as unnatural because God’s creation — prior to the fall — well it all sounds a bit “too good to be true” to us. All we’ve known is the “cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17-18) creation. We know the world of thorns and thistles. And this is the world we know because our sin has affected everything.
It broke our relationship with God. It broke our relationship with each other. And sin even broke our relationship with the rest of God’s creation. We live in a world of thorns and thistles no longer in the Garden. We live in a world full of conflict between each other — a world full of death and destruction. We live in a seemingly hopeless situation. But we are not left hopeless. And neither is creation.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:20-21 ESV)
Even though God subjected his creation to futility — not because of something it had done — but because of our sin and rebellion — creation was subjected to suffering yet it is not without hope. In hope creation will be set free and obtain glory with God’s children. And on that great eternal day, we will live in God’s renewed creation in our renewed bodies in the presence of our “I am making all things new” Savior. And the great renewal of creation includes the removal of the thorns and thistles and — in the center of our eternal home — there will be a New Garden.
So let’s talk about some practical ways to care for God’s creation now — to bring renewal to creation now just as we’re to be bringing renewal and reconciliation to our broken relationships with others. And — because talking about the environment — again — can feel so political — I want to remind us about how we care about other things.
One last thought. We’ve already seen that the glory of creation will be what’s called the New Heaven and New Earth. But — as I recently read in a book — “We need to ask ourselves, ‘In what sense will the New Heaven and New Earth be new? What does it mean that the “first heaven and earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1)?’ There are two words for new in Greek. One is the word kaino, which means qualitatively new in kind; the other is neos, which means something has superseded something else.
To illustrate, there are two women each married to a man with an addiction to gambling. The first woman encourages her husband to go to “Gambler’s Anonymous,” and through this he overcomes his addiction. The second woman divorces her husband and remarries. Both women say, ‘I am married to a new man,’ but they mean different things by ‘new.’ In Greek, the first woman would use the word kainos for the same husband who has been renewed; the second woman would use neos for the husband who superseded the first one. When the Greek New Testament uses the word new to describe the…[new] heavens and earth, it uses the word kainos. It is the same heaven and earth, but it is renewed. [Which means that] this world [will not be] discarded.” (Ian K. Smith, Not Home Yet: How the Renewal of the Earth Fits into God’s Plan for the World, 136-137.)
All of that to say “don’t freak out” when we talk about taking care of God’s creation. This isn’t political — it’s biblical — caring for creation now is caring for the creation we will experience for all eternity — it will just be renewed by God — like our bodies will be. Therefore I’d like to suggest that — just as Christians should be leading the way when it comes to reconciliation in marriages, racial reconciliation — reconciliation means restoration by the way — so the restoration of families, the restoration of those who are all on their own — widows and orphans being welcomed into a family — Christians are to lead the way in reconciliation, right? I think we understand that. Well that’s also true for the reconciliation of God’s creation.
Now I’m not saying that we need to get on board with every secular organization or program that’s trying to promote a better environment — but what I am saying is that we Christians need to have a deep concern with how we are treating God’s creation. “For God so loved the world — not just humans — that he gave his only Son — yes — so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” But — as we’ve seen in our verses — the rest of creation is connected to us. Connected to us by our fall — thus creation is groaning — but connected to God’s children — for as we are reconciled to God — on the eternal day when we are restored to the people God has created us to always be — forever with him in glorified bodies — on that day creation will be restored with us.
And — even more to the point — when God finished creating — in Genesis — he said, “It is very good.” Our fall has made things “not good” — but how dare we treat God’s creation any worse than we already have by bringing our curse on it. Creation didn’t sin — we did. Yet creation suffers along with us. So may we — God’s people — not be those who cause more suffering to God’s creation — just as we are to be people who do not cause more suffering to other people. And may we be wise and good stewards of all of God’s creation — eliminating suffering if we can — so we treat God’s creation with the respect it deserves because of who its Creator is.
And now is when you might be expecting me to give a whole bunch of things to do or not do when it comes to the environment. Well — I’m only going to give you a few ideas — nothing too controversial — I hope. Things you most likely already are doing — but the point is for you to see these things through the lens of being a steward of God’s creation.
Again — I hope these are some non-controversial suggestions. And for those of you wanting more suggestions — well — I’m not going there. Because I want you to explore God’s Word for yourself. See what he thinks of his creation. And then allow his Spirit — who is in you if you believe in Christ — to speak to you about what it means to be a steward of his Creation. And that’s my hope and prayer for us — that we would see ourselves as stewards with a high and important call — for we are called to be stewards and caretakers of all of God’s creation. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we begin by thanking you for your creation — for all of it. From the beauty found in our country — from the Smokey and Rocky mountains, to the Grand Canyon and the great Redwood trees, to beaches and deserts and lakes and forests — beauty throughout our country. We thank you for the beauty of your creation that’s found all around the world. I think of when my eyes first saw the nation of North Korea. I expected to see a wasteland and what my eyes saw was something so picturesque — so beautiful — our planet is filled with beauty. To the planets and stars and galaxies throughout our universe — beauty so easily seen.
And yet your creation is marred by our sin. And it is groaning to be released from its enslavement. It knows that it is not what you created it to be — through no fault of its own — but through ours. So we ask you to help us to groan — not just for our redemption — but to see how — as your stewards and creation caretakers — we are to groan with your creation for its release from its bondage. And may we get excited that — just like a woman who’s husband finds freedom from gambling — thus she is married to a “new” man — that this creation will be made new. And it will be our forever home. Which gives us reason now to take care of her.
And Spirit — for anyone who is excited about these thoughts — but who lack faith in Christ — help them to see and believe that it is through Christ — and him alone — that your people will experience the redemption of your creation. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
May you go recognizing your call to be a steward and caretaker of all of God’s creation. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
You can find the sermon notes here.
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