Ministries Sermons School Youth Home
JULY 20, 2008
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing 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 will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (ESV).
Romans 8:18–25
With a sermon title that begins with the words, “free at last,” some might expect me to talk about Martin Luther King’s speech that became known as his “free at last” sermon. I assure you, I have no intention of doing that. There is a more important slavery than that of the civil rights movement, or of apartheid, or even of Israel’s 430 year bondage in the land of Egypt.
The worst slavery transcends ethnic and racial barriers. By reason of the Fall, it is the one into which we were all born. It is our slavery to sin and death. According to our text, however, not only is man, by birth and nature, held in this spiritual bondage, but so is the cosmos.
The prominent thought of our text is that, due to Adam’s sin, all of creation is under the yoke of slavery. Paul says of all creation that it has been subjected to futility, that it is under the bondage of decay, and that, even now, it groans with pain not unlike that of a woman in childbirth.1 And, if the universe is enslaved, so too are we. As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as being free and slaves to no one. But the Bible teaches that there is a slavery from which none of us is exempt.
Let me use myself as an example. When I was an adolescent, my body worked perfectly. There were no bodily impediments to restrain me from doing what I wanted to do. I was invincible—or so I thought.
But youth deceives and little did I expect that it was going to be all downhill from there. In early adulthood, things started to go wrong. I was diagnosed as having “anxiety disorder.” In my 30s, my hair started to fall out. In my 40s, I had to give up on my teenage theory of invincibility. I also nearly died from a single bee sting. In my 50s, I endured the excruciating pain of sciatica and had back surgery. I don’t know how many more years the Lord will allot me. But I am sure I won’t get my hair back! No, I will get older, become more frail, and spend even more time in the doctor’s office. Then, finally, the Lord will call me home.
This is the common lot of man. He gets older, the body deteriorates and becomes frail, and, finally, it’s time for the funeral. Yes, all decays and returns to dust. Indeed, the LORD said, “For you are dust; and to dust you shall return.”2
The same is true with all the creatures on earth. It’s true of even of the cosmos. Stars die out when they burn all of their hydrogen. Galaxies live only to die. The satellites that we have put into orbit will one day burn up due to orbital decay. It’s as though everything is bound tightly to the law of decay and death.
That’s because everything is enslaved to the law of decay and death. We are used to thinking that Adam’s sin is the cause of all human sin, sickness, disease, and death. And so it is. We are not, however, used to thinking that the entire universe is dying because of that same sin.
This should make us realize that Adam’s sin has greater consequences than we may have thought. God originally created a perfect universe in which death was unknown. But when Adam fell, creation itself was poisoned with the venom of decay. And so began its death march.
This means that, so far as the cosmos is concerned, planet earth is the theological center of the universe. It may not be the three–dimensional epicenter, but it is the theological center. What happened on planet earth has infected all of God’s once–perfect creation. This is a stunning thought!
So what’s the solution to this problem of human and celestial death and decay? The world, in its folly, rejects God’s self–solution in sending his Son. He sent his Son to planet earth. Notice again that planet earth is the theological center of the universe. He sent his Son to free us from the curse.
It is intensely moving to see how man attempts to solve the problem of sin and death. Before I came to know Christ, I spent my college and early adult years as an agnostic. Having been trained in the physical sciences, I believed in the philosophy of naturalism, the view that nature—without any help from God or the supernatural—brought about all things. Carl Sagan, the most prominent astronomer and cosmologist, was the chief spokesman for this view. With him, I believed that death was end of existence. Poof, and you’re gone. That’s all there is! Game over! End of story!
Ted Koppel interviewed Sagan a few weeks before his death in 1996. Koppel asked him if he had any words of wisdom to share with the human race. Sagan said:
We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.3
In other words, we are insignificant. There is no God, no hope, and no salvation. So, what do we do? Sagan was instrumental in launching an organization called SETI, an acronym for the “Search for Extra–terrestrial Intelligence.” The real hope for humanity, he believed, was to find intelligent life in the cosmos in which we might discover the truth about life and the antidote to death.
The irony, of course, is that planet Earth had already been visited by its Creator! Talk about extra–terrestrial intelligence! Behold, in that conception moment when the Word became flesh, the Son of God stepped out of the cosmos and took up residence in a virgin’s womb. He had come to free us from the enslavement of sin, death, and the devil.
But, even more than that, his saving work would also give the cosmos the certain hope that, on the last day, it would be set free from the bondage of sin and decay.
The problem (at least one of them) for sinners like Sagan and Grassley is that Jesus came so quietly. The shock that still offends the world is that he didn’t come as a cosmic giant to impress us. He came as a humble man to save us.
We sinners love being impressed. Too bad we don’t love what Jesus came to give! For 2000 years the free gift of eternal life through faith in Christ has been heralded throughout the world. There are always two responses: Some trust in him and some don’t.
For us who are now in Christ, our text tells us to look forward to a day still future, the last day (always a millisecond away) when all that would enslave us will be done away with.
Until then, we must live in a tension between the “now” and the “not yet.”4 Now, we are the sons of God by faith, but then we shall see Christ just as he is. Now, we look forward to that better day to come, but then, when it comes, we shall live happily ever after. And it will be no fairy tale. Now, all creation longs to be set free, but then it will, at last, be gloriously free. Now, we know the heartache of disease and mourning, but then it will all be gone in an instant.
When Christ returns, he will resurrect our old bodies and remake them in perfection to live with him forever. That’s what our text means when it says that we who have the first–fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for “the redemption of our bodies.”5
Until that day, we wait. And as we wait, we feed our faith on the good Gospel–food bestowed upon us in the Word and the Sacrament.
Some Christians are not very good at waiting. If the truth be told, they are thoroughly bored. Maybe you know one of them:
What’s the problem here? The problem is that they’ve heard too much Gospel and not enough law. They say to themselves, “What a nice arrangement we’ve got here! God loves to forgive sins and I love to sin!” But, of course, the Gospel that forgives sinners was never intended to become a license to sin.
Too many Christians are not bothered by their sins. Sin is just a mistake, a flaw, or a bad choice. But Jesus says, “He who keeps on sinning is a slave to sin.”6 Too many do not take to heart the words of John the Baptist who calls impenitent sinners a “brood of vipers.” And too many think that because they are not bothered by their sins, God shouldn’t be either. No wonder they are bored in Divine Service: Christ has shown up to forgive the sins of his people, but these people have few sins to be forgiven—at least in their view.
On the other hand, we who groan because of our sins, have God’s forgiveness. We who groan because of bodily infirmities—or persecution—know that there is a better day coming, the day when Jesus returns to planet earth. Then shall the law of death and decay be obliterated and we shall receive new bodies to live in glory forever.
What a joy it is to live each day knowing that we have the assurance that heaven is our home. Knowing this, we are enabled to persevere even in the midst of affliction, for we know that the will of God shall never take us where his grace cannot keep us. And we remember, also, the words of Paul in our text: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!”7 In other words, the best is yet to come.
And so we sing a new song and say with the faithful poet:
Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust;
The body decays,
Consumed by earth’s crust.Let everyone say,
‘This body shall rise,’
For he who speaks thus, has won the great prize.”
And so I say to you: “Hail to the victors! You shall rise and shine!” Jesus promises it!8 Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Endnotes
1 See Romans 8:20-22.
2 See Genesis 3:19. God spoke these words to Adam after his fall into sin.
4 In 1 John 3:2, John speaks of this tension when he writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is,” (NASB).
5 See Romans 8:23.
6 Author’s translation of John 8:34.
7 See Romans 8:18.
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