Our Present Suffering and Our Future Glory

Romans 8 is a critical text in all of Scripture, and the verses we are diving into today may fall under the heading "future glory" depending on your translation.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Note here that while we're starting our study today in verse 18, we'll need to turn back to verse 17 for the context wherein we find the "how" of our heavenly transference. We will need to share in the sufferings if we are to share in the glory. Jesus, more than anyone, understands every pain and suffering that you might in your lifetime. The suffering was tragic, but the glory is unimaginable, and we are co-heirs in all of it. But how are we to navigate that? How might we live in order to have an understanding of present circumstances, and future reality?

Look again at verse 18: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Injustice
Calamity
War
Failure
Famine
Mistreatment
Opposition

There are going to be all of these things in your world and in your life. These results of the broken state of this world are unavoidable. But for those who can endure them with faith in the present, there will be glory in the future, which cannot even be compared to. Creation itself, the entire world, is broken as a result of sin. This letter from Paul is describing a crisis of the entirety of creation, not just humanity. The world is suffering, and while its future is to be destroyed and remade, your future is to be transformed into the image of Jesus. And so creation waits for the time when God's true children will be revealed. There is a day coming where those who have stepped into God's incredible grace will be set apart. The frustration that creation has been subjected to has a purpose: hope.

We wait with hope.

At the deathbed, in the meeting, as we watch the news, as we hear what happened. We wait patiently with hope that what is to come is incomparable to what we are in. Our adoption will be complete one day. Until then, we wait, and we pray as the spirit stirs within us, "Father, have your will be done."