It Might Not Mean What You Think It Means…

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The apostle here speaks of the effects of man's sin, not only upon man himself, but upon the whole creation. The creation was subjected to futility. When man sinned, the earth was cursed along with him who now existed under sin's dominion.

And such is still the state of natural man everywhere, apart from Christ, under sin's dominion. But there is freedom now for the children of God. Children of God enjoy freedom now from sin's dominion.

Jesus has become a curse for us and has made us a new creation. We no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. No, our minds are being renewed. And though the outer man is wasting away, the inner man is being renewed day by day.

Our regeneration and conversion and reception of the spirit who testifies to our adoption is a partial revealing, a limited manifestation of the sons of God in which we experience now the freedom from sin's bondage and eternal consequences.

Do you know this freedom? Do you know what it is to be freed from sin's dominion? Have you been changed? Do you have a new heart with new desires? Do you hate the sin you once loved? Are you striving in the strength of grace to walk in holiness?

Do you consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God as Paul is discussing here in Romans chapter six, a couple chapters earlier? Say, yes, I do, that's me, that's my testimony. Well, if you are experiencing Romans six, then likely you have also experienced Romans seven and you are aware of the principle of indwelling sin and you find that evil, though you are delivered from sin's bondage, evil is present with you.

Even when you would do good and perhaps you've come tonight after a hard year, you're weary of the battle and you're crying out with the apostle, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

Already and Not Yet: Freedom, Sanctification, and Glorification

There is a freedom already and there is a freedom not yet. This freedom then is a state of being in which you will be unable to sin against your God. I was speaking with this dear brother who's in so much pain and I told him earlier, I said, well, one day we'll get new bodies and you know what he said to me?

He said, I'm just excited to not sin anymore. That is the hope of the Christian. When we are glorified with him, nothing within us will remain in rebellion against him and obstinate to his will. No law of indwelling sin, no present evil, but a glorious freedom.

The apostle here, he personifies the created order as anxiously longing for and waiting eagerly for our full revealing, positing our freedom now as the seal and guarantee that there will come a day when the whole creation will be set free from its slavery to corruption, just as we have been in part and just as we will be completely.

Creation was subjected to futility. Now the one who subjected it is God and this refers to God cursing the physical universe because of man's sin so that the purpose for which it was originally created can no longer be completely fulfilled in its present form.

So just as we human beings hope for freedom then as we are being presently renewed, the creation personified here by the apostle hopes also for its deliverance from slavery to corruption, this principle of decay to which it is currently bound.

New Creation and the Renewal of the Cosmos

Here's what you need to understand about the connection that Paul is drawing between our renewal and the creation's renewal. Your sanctification matters. When the sons of God are revealed, when we are glorified, which we'll see in a moment involves our resurrected bodies, it is not as though God wipes out everything about us and replaces it with an entirely new person so that there is complete discontinuity between our freedom now and our freedom then.

We will still be us. You will still be you. Our bodies will still be our bodies. In the same way, the earth is not going to be wiped away and annihilated to make room for a completely new cosmos that never before existed.

Revelation 21, verse 1, where it speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. The word used there is not naos, meaning new in origin, but it is the word kainos, which means new in nature or quality. And when Paul speaks here in verse 21 of Romans chapter 8 of the creation being set free from its slavery to corruption, he is not talking about a totally different creation.

It's this creation that is groaning and longing for renewal from its release from bondage. It is this creation he's talking about, gloriously renewed, recreated. So, weary Christian, fear not and fight on because our Lord is making all things new.

Making All Things New

So he says in Revelation 21, verse 5, I'm making all things new. That word he uses there again is kainos. He is not making you something else. He is making you new.