The Great Eight - Pt 12

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. (Romans 8:22-24 ESV).

So the journey continues. Today I want us to think one aspect of our hope: There is coming a day when our bodies are going to be redeemed and there will be no more groaning. I have walked with many people in the midst of the most painful of moments. Marriages decades in the making suddenly and perhaps unexpectedly destroyed because of a broken promise; dreams of the future destroyed in the unexpected illness or death of a child or young parent; or, the increasing pain and difficulty of chronic illness as it erases the hopes and desires of the future. These are but a few of the things that might bring us to “groan” in life. So often I hear people who intone that “only time will heal.” Perhaps there is some truth in that statement in so far as the ultimate redemption of all things is still a future event; however, we miss an essential truth when we think the passing of time will dull our ache for freedom from the pain and challenge of life. The truth is that time, in itself, is powerless to transform hopelessness to hope, or death to life. Only God can do that. And, He will! We can have a genuine hope in the redemption of our bodies. Our reading declares that we, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Paul teaches us to hope for the redemption of our bodies. He says that it is all right not to want to hurt. It is all right to want to be out of the wheelchair and off the crutches and cortisone and pain relievers. It’s all right to want to see and hear like you could when you were twenty. It’s all right to want to be pretty and handsome and energetic and strong. It is right to want to be reunited with those who have been taken from us in death. This is the promise of a redeemed body when glory replaces groaning. The promise has at least three parts. I wish we could spend more time in each, but our journey is long enough as it is. However, here they are for your meditation and thought: God’s promise is that all pain and disease and deformity and disability will be gone in that day; all sin, which so often takes the body for its base of operations, will be gone; and, this is not because we will be rid of our bodies, but because in a mysterious and wonderfully spiritual way we will have new and glorious bodies which are capable of touch and smell and taste and hearing and seeing. Go ahead, groan today since you know that tomorrow your groans will cease in the power of God shown in the redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross and in the resurrection!