Christ Life In Us Romans 8:20-22 Is Creation Tied to Man?

As I was thinking about these verses, I went all the way back and started thinking, do you remember some weeks ago when we looked at Romans 7.24? And 7.24 said, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? So I got to thinking. Has that question been completely answered so far in the verses that we've covered? So let's take a look at them. Romans 8-2, which is the normal answer you get that there's a new principle or spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has set me free from the principle or law of sin and death. Well, that kind of answers it.

But then if you keep going, Romans 8.1, the verse before that says, now there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, I could say, well, I'm in Christ Jesus, that answers it. Well, it kind of does.

Romans 8.2, we just read.

Romans 8.3 says that he, God, condemns sin in the flesh. So here I am stuck in this body of flesh and I'm, who's gonna deliver me? Well, it's okay to understand that sin was condemned by God in the flesh.

Then in 8.6 it says that the mind set on the spirit of life and peace. Right before that it said the mind set on the flesh is death. So, so far a lot of information but nothing definitive about Did I get set free from the body of this death or not? However, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit dwells in you. Well, okay. Still got this body of death though, I'm not free.

Romans 8.10 says, and since Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

As I look around in the audience here, we're past middle age, most of us. We understand the dying body better than you young people do. Then Romans 8, 11 says, but since the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, since that's true, He who raised up Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, there is a new idea. I still have this body of death, but the spirit of God who indwells me now is going to give life to this old body that I'm in.

Then you get to 14, and it says, all who are being led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. 15 says, but you have received a spirit of adoption, whereas sons, which cry out, Abba, Father. A lot of cool stuff in there. And then 16 and 17, the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Spirit does that.

And if we are children, or since we are children, we are heirs, heirs also of God and fellow heirs with Christ since we suffer with him in order that we also may be glorified. And Roger talked about that last week, that we do suffer with him and we will be glorified with him now. So last week we started a new paragraph and we discovered something new. Here's what we discover. I consider that the sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us. That's really not new, but this next part is.

For the anxious longing, and that word anxious longing can mean I've been waiting in suspense it implies abstraction, the attention turned from other objects. In other words, I've been waiting, I've been waiting, but it isn't me, it's the creation. It's not me individually necessarily, it's the creation waits eagerly for what?

The revealing of the sons of God. So what's new here is that there's a connection a tying together of the sons of God and the release of the creation from the vanity that it's been subjected to. So both the present sufferings and the future glory in Paul's mind touch on the creation, which he characterized. It is represented, first of all, It looks to the future. The release of the creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God in verse 19. It doesn't say it's waiting for God to do something, it's waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.

So externally, his sons, every one of you, You don't look any different. You don't have any more power than anybody else. You don't have any more glory than the rest of mankind. As a matter of fact, most of us are weak physically, and we suffer, we all suffer, and we fall asleep or die as we're waiting for the Lord to show up. So there's nothing different. looking around at you than any other group of humans.

But after the resurrection or the rapture, at his coming, we are all gonna be manifested in glory with Christ when he is manifested. So it's interesting because creation awaits this perfect moment. Not only do we await it, but creation is waiting for this event. Its deliverance from its actual misery hinges on them and their revelation. So the point is this, the, searching for the right word, The vanity that the creation has been submitted to, and we'll talk more about that as we go along, will come to an end. And we'll see in these verses when it comes to an end, but the end point will be the revealing of the sons of God.

That's the big event. That's the big event. So, I don't, creation is waiting. for all of you to show up. Maybe that's the way to put it, in glory. So, the second issue is this really isn't a surprise as such because there's a connection between men and the creation of God and God making creation subjected to futility. That shouldn't be a surprise. Man was set by God as the head of the earthly creation. That was our friend Adam. And when he fell, guess what happened? The whole creation fell with him. So there is a connection. His behavior has a lot to do with what happens to the creation.

When the sons of God are revealed, on the other hand, at the appearing of Christ, there will be a proof that the creation was made dependent on us or dependent on men, that the hope of being set free, it isn't futile. You are gonna be set free, but you, the creation, are waiting for men, men to show up. There's no surprise at such a connection with men The creation was made subject to vanity, and oh, who did it? It wasn't because of its own will, but on account of who made it.

It was a righteousness that by the fall of its head, creation should be subjected to, and this is a word that I got from Newell. He calls vanity unattainment. Isn't that a great word? Unattainment, think about that word for a minute. It's consistent and worthy of God that the redemption of his children and heirs should be followed by the glorious reclamation of the entire creation.

So I've found this slide that kind of hopefully shows the fall and God condemning, but it's interesting here. If you look at verse 24, the creation was subjected to futility, to unattainment, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it in hope, in hope.

If you go back to Genesis 3.17, what does it say? Then to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it, Wouldn't you think that he would say, cursed are you? He doesn't say that. He said, cursed is the ground of you, in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

So, when the ground is cursed for man's sake, we understand that all creation is involved in the present and future of humanity, so you can't separate the creation from man. If the creation had been united to humans, this naturally leads to the idea of a unique agreement between the created world and man. And this is what Paul is trying to tell us. Creation is not lifeless. It's just as utterly unspiritual now because of the fall It's unfamiliar to life and hopes. Maybe you could say that the creation is the natural partner of our souls, because our souls are part of the fall now.

So, subjected, the creation was subjected to unattainment, futility, not of its own will, but because it was subjected in hope. Now I want to talk about this word, subjected to. It's a word we probably know pretty well around here, hupotasso. It means to listen under. And if you look at a couple of verses here, to arrange under or to put under or to subject to or put in subjection, okay? Two out of the three of these verses I'm going to show you, you don't have any trouble with, but the third one you might.

First Corinthians 15.27 says, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet.

Hebrews 2.8 says the same thing. Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet. But here's the third one. Wives, submit yourself to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Same word, same word. When I'm doing premarital counseling, when we get to this part in marital counseling, there's always a couple of deep breaths that are taken.

And I kind of look at you like, what planet did you live on? This isn't how we do it today. Anyway, what was the creation made subject to? Futility. I like the synonyms like idle. Resultless, futile, aimless. This may be the best definition. It describes something that does not measure up to that for which it was intended. Okay? So here we find the whole creation has been subjected to that. It can't, it's unattainable. It can't do what God created it to do. It can't reach that point. The creation is viewed as originally made in a perfect creation to the glory of God. Every single day of the days of creation, what did God say at the end of the day? It's good. I'm satisfied with what I did today. Why? Because it glorifies me.

But it doesn't do that. When the curse was put upon it, that purpose was interfered with in that a perishing and decaying creation cannot perfectly glorify the creator. He didn't make it that way. He made it to glorify himself. So it was rendered relatively, maybe you could say unsuccessful in that respect.

The cursing of the creation, Paul said, was not done willingly, but it was by reason of him who subjected it in hope. God did this, not Adam or Satan. It was God who did this. And when you think about that for a minute, you start to think about, well, why would he do that? Why would he cause the creation to be subjected to vanity, but he did it in hope. It's because of him, he's the one that did it. Adam's sin and not God's will was the direct and special cause of subjecting to vanity. It was the sin that caused God to do this.

I just put some pictures together here. The first one is creation as it should have been. The next three are what the earth really is like today. Bondage of corruption along with him and decay and disease, suffering, death, destruction everywhere. of bondage with no deliverance. All you have to do is just look around. There's a guy running for mayor of Los Angeles and his whole program is this, just look around Los Angeles and look at the mess that it is. Well, I can say back to him, well, just look at the world and look at the mess that it is.

It doesn't do what God intended it for doing. Why is it based on hope? What is hope about? The creation was not made in decay and degradation and suffering and death. God didn't make it that way. The original design was to be in such, it wasn't to be in such confusion and misery as it is today. What was in God's purpose to give us in salvation we do not have yet.

That is the glory of Christ. We're saved, everybody in this audience I think is saved, and we have everything of our salvation except the glory part. The glory part comes on the revelation when we get our new bodies. But the work is done, which saves us, and we have it by the Holy Spirit. Each one of us is in Christ, and in Christ you're recreated, spirit, soul, but you don't have a body yet. So there is this event coming, and that's the hope. And not only when we're presented complete, God has this massive plan reaching into eternity and hope lies ahead of creation and man for the millennium is coming and after that a new heaven and a new earth from William Newell.

There's coming a day that each one of us will be presented to the world as the sons of God and when we are presented the creation will be released from its vanity and presented along with us. So that ties creation to us that we can't separate from. 21 says that the creation of self also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

See that? That's really cool. When you look around and see all that's going on in the world, you realize when this changes to the way God intended it to be, it will be because you have been revealed as a child of God. His word shines a bright light for the future for through, though we're suggested to vanity, it was in hope. that even the creation itself will be freed.

So that's why I asked the question in the beginning, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? This deliverance isn't gonna be until then. You don't get your new body until then. We are being delivered. Paul, however, is not talking about the predominance of the gospel of grace. We're not talking about salvation here. We're talking about the manifestation of the glory of God. That's a different thing.

Salvation is by grace, but the incoming and display of glory and consequently the divine power which will free the creation ruined by man to his own guidelines. His power is going to do that. His glory is going to do that. You and I are saved by God's grace, yeah, by his power, but it's grace that does it. Creation isn't waiting for grace, it's waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. Contrast the state of creation now with the millennial order described in Isaiah 11, six through nine, and I printed it out so we could read it.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. And also the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play in the hole of a cobra. And the weaned child will put his hand in the viper's den, and they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Way back in Isaiah 11, Isaiah prophesies this.

Well, what is this about? This is the millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom is dependent upon the revealing of the sons of God. the release of the earth so that this becomes normal, that isn't normal in today's environment. So it's the administration of the fullness of times when God's will is to gather up all things in Christ, the things which are in heaven, the things which are on the earth, even in him whom he also have obtained an inheritance.

Ephesians 1.10 tells us, and 11, with a view to the administration suitable of the fullness of times. The fullness of times is that event that is the summing up of all things in Christ. Things in the heavens, things on the earth, in him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestinated according to his purpose who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

This verse, I think, is a support for we being the sons of God and being revealed in glory, all because we're positioned in Christ now. For this reconciliation to take place, not merely the saints who are now reconciled, we're reconciled, but we're not presented in glory yet. Another verse, for the Father's good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in Christ, through whom to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace with the blood of his cross.

Through him I say whether things on the earth or things in heaven." And then he talks about you and me. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds, that's us, yet has he reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him holy, blameless, and beyond reproach, if indeed, or since you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and which I, Paul, was made a minister. So it's interesting to understand that you and I are so united with the Lord Jesus Christ that when we, right now it's true of us that we are united in Him. When we leave the planet, we begin to experience what it is to be united in Him.

And because He's a man and He's the Son of God, so are we. So when God's glory is manifested, he's going to manifest us in his glory. And he isn't going to divide it up by one 20 billionth, because there are 20 billion of us, or however many. Each one of us will have the full-on glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he asked for it in John 17. He asks God to glorify him and then that he could glorify us with the same glory that they had before the world began.

So into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The children of God have exactly the same glory as the Lord Jesus Christ, exactly the same. We already have liberty in Christ, we have the liberty of grace, we're saved by grace. The liberty of the glory of the children of God, though, awaits the manifestation of it, awaits the coming of Christ, the second coming.

It's, I think, blessed to know that into that glorious liberty, creation has shared the bondage of corruption, but it'll be brought along with us. When we're revealed, it will be restored, or regenerator, whatever word that would fit it. And you know what? Remember in creation, what did God do on the seventh day? He rested.

So in Hebrews 4.11, it said, let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. The point is, is God at rest about us? Yeah. Is he at rest about the fact that he has subjected the creation in hope, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God? Yeah, he's at rest about that. We should be at rest about all of that, no matter what's going on in your life today.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. The word of God is the one thing that can teach you the difference between what's going on in your soul and what's going on spiritually. Without the Spirit of God, you don't know, you think they're all the same. And it pierces the joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart. I am so thankful for that, because half the time my intentions, if left alone, would be sinful.

And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but in all things are open and laid bare in the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Who is that with whom we have to do? It's the Spirit of God and each one of us, we have to do with him and with the Lord Jesus and with the Father. And it's a good thing, a good thing that in his sight, he sees everything.

But he's already taken, if he looked in you and saw some sin, condemnation isn't part of what he's thinking. He's thinking, I'm gonna use that to conform you to the image of my son. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers in the pangs of childbirth together until now. Now, this is the last verse I have for today, and I spent most of my time talking about, I didn't talk, let me put it this way, I didn't talk a lot about the groaning. I'm gonna get to the groaning next week.

When the heirs are glorified around the firstborn, the glorified Lord Jesus, and appear with him in glory, then there is an inheritance to appear from bondage under which it has long groaned. The times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. One of the things that shows you in the word of God is that every human being groans from Adam forward. The world kingdom of our Lord and his Christ who shall reign into the ages of ages.

Guess what? When the millennial kingdom shows up and we're manifested, then groaning is over. You don't get to complain. Because you won't have to. Now what I did in your handout is I gave you a whole bunch of Old Testament verses that talk about groaning. You can look up this week and groan all you want with them.

So this verse is really interesting. He says, for we know. Oh, we do? This we know is always, this is the expression of Christian knowledge. Believers know this. Non-believers don't. Believers do. They know this. They know. Is that me doing it? I'll just leave it there, there we go. This is a quote from William Newell I thought was interesting.

The earth's poets, philosophers, scientists, face to face with death with a capital D, in every crushed ocean's shell, in every rotten log, in the very minor keys, in which the voices of beasts and birds are pitched, seem never even to get a glimpse of the bondage of corruption in which all creation is groaning. But they talk in lively ways of progress and evolution. How far from understanding the creation around them are human beings all, except spirit-taught Christians Their own poets write thus of a groaning creation. The world may talk about progress, evolution, AI, but you know what? They're still groaning. And AI is not the solution to anything when it comes to the creation being subjected to vanity.

It is only by faith that anyone enters into the liberty of grace. And this is the portion even now of God's children under the gospel. Every one of you can enter into God's grace and understand what he's doing and what hope he has for the creation. Even the creation itself shall exchange the slavery of corruption by which it is now held down for the liberty of glory when the children of God are glorified. I can look at every one of you, and I know there's going to be a day when each one of you and all of us together will be glorified. And you know what? That's also the same day that the earth gets released from its vanity.

And I was thinking examples, and I had a whole bunch of examples, but my body isn't working so well, so I just put the human body in there. Because no matter what happens, You have this go wrong, and it's getting a little better, then something else goes wrong, and it's getting a little better, then something else goes, and the older you get, the more that happens. And I've always been a person that thought, well, I'm going to fight against that. I'm going to stay in shape. I'm going to be a runner. I'm going to work out. I'm going to, to some degree, watch my diet. I give up smoking those cigars.

But the point is, when you look around, There's death everywhere. Nothing is getting better. You're not getting better. You're not getting healthier. You're not going to live much longer. The earth is, you know, we just planted a garden. Three months from now, it's all going to die. Why? Because it's been subjected to this vanity. That's why nothing ever You go out and you buy a brand new $60,000 car. Five years from now, it's got rust in it. Where did that come from? Vanity. Everything is getting better. Not that I can see. Not that I can see. So as a believer, you sometimes think, well, I just have to accept what God's doing. There can be no communion between us who in grace, the creation and in grace, The creation doesn't understand grace. We do, because we're saved by grace.

There will be in glory when the power of God deals with all creation in honor of Christ's death, whose blood has bought not the treasure only, but the field, the world which contains it, and everything. That blood purchased everything that God created.

There could not be or should not be deliverance unless sin was righteously atoned for and blotted out before God. So that was the number one issue, that God had to deal on the cross with sin. And none of this would happen if he didn't deal with sin. And sin as entirely, not just your personal sins, but the whole sin issue. Should a single sinner be set free If God's glory would be weakened if he did, let's say he took sinner A and said, well, I'm gonna set you free even though I haven't paid for you.

No, you can't weaken God's glory. On the contrary, never was such glory brought to God as by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we talk about being released to the glory of God when the creation is released, but nothing glorified God like that cross did. Never such a display of righteousness as well as love as in the cross, and more than this, never can be such a display again. God is totally and perfectly satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

The one place the one hour, the one act, the only person that stands out from the whole world's history from eternity to eternity, distinct from all that ever was or ever will be is the cross of the Lord Jesus. It is so important that God will never rest his love until all sin is completely gone. And all evil has been judged, and all His mercy has been, it has had its full results, accomplishment of His purpose. What's His purpose? To glorify Himself. To make everything that He created glorious, just like He is.

No wonder that the cross of the Lord Jesus has brought a unique change even now. It would not have been worthy of God had he not given by it a present deliverance to men that believe in Christ. The deliverance consists of two parts. That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He paid the price of everybody's sin. and that we are placed in and as Christ before him. Unless you read God's word, you don't know this second part. But what God did when he saved you, he took you through the cross, you were identified in his death, burial, and resurrection, ascension, and he placed you in Christ. Now, you're all, we all are in Christ.

In another sense, he died for every man. Nothing can be more certain that both of these are true. However, that he died for those that believe and he died for every man. So what's the difference here? That the believer alone can say that he bore our sins on his own body in a tree. A non-believer can't say that because he didn't take advantage of it.

The Lord Jesus is more than a savior who died for us and for our guilt. He is now the great pattern one who, having been under the most intolerable judgment of sin, rose from the dead perfectly delivered and into the fullest sunshine of divine delight. Don't you like that term, divine delight? And peace and joy to show us where the Christian is and how God looks upon him. You and me, how does God look upon us? Is it not our place in Christ Jesus risen from the dead?

And are we not entitled to look up and say, as far as the distance may seem between creation in general and those whom grace has now taken out of its reign, and associated in as intimate and complete a way with Christ as a Christian knows, there is a link of the most direct and momentous sort. Verse 19, for the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, subject to incompleteness, not willingly, but on account of him who made it subject in hope, that even the creation itself shall be freed from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

I'm pretty excited about that. That's close. Father, how thankful we are. Boy, the work you do and have done overwhelms us sometimes, but we're thankful. And our desire is that we would grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, which would allow us to be way more knowledgeable about your glory and what your intentions are for each one of us, not only here, but at the time that you reveal the sons of God. We thank you, we pray in your son's name, amen.