Bible Passage: Romans 8:18-25
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: August 30, 2026

Bulletin August 30, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

There’s an awful lot of groaning going on in Romans 8!  In our text we hear about all of creation groaning.  We are told we ourselves are groaning.  Immediately after our text Paul writes about the Spirit of God groaning.  So much groaning going on!  Why all this groaning?

In a word, sin.  That is why this world has become a place of groaning.  Sin is behind all of the things that make us groan.  Sadness makes us groan.  Disappointment makes us groan.  Acute pain makes us groan.  Chronic pain makes us groan.  Dentists make us groan. Crime makes us groan.  Corruption makes us groan.  Immorality makes us groan.  Seeing others suffer makes us groan.  Sin in ourselves makes us groan.  Sin in others makes us groan.  Death and dying make us groan.  There is almost no end to the list of things that make us groan.

Paul writes our text today to a groaning humanity.  He brings us good news.  He reminds us that the groaning won’t last forever.  He reminds us that we are waiting.  We are Waiting for the Groaning to Give Way to Glory.

Not always was this world a place of groaning.  Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they never groaned.  There was nothing to make them groan!  Everything was perfect!  Their health was perfect!  Their relationship with each other was perfect!  They lived in a perfect place!  The weather was perfect!  The food was perfect!  But best of all, their relationship with God was perfect!  No groaning, just the sweet rapture of living an existence where everything was perfect.

For Adam and Eve, the groaning started the moment after they ate the fruit God told them not to eat.  They must have groaned as they felt the shame of their nakedness.  They must have groaned as they scrambled to hide from God when they heard him coming.  A groaning humanity was born!

But here we might call attention to something quite interesting.  When Adam and Eve sinned, nothing immediately changed in the world around them.  The Garden of Eden remained paradise.  The weather was still perfect. Thorns and thistles didn’t immediately take it over.  So what happened to everything?  Paul tells us in our text.  For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the one who subjected it. (v. 20)  God did it!  Remember what God said to Adam, Cursed is the ground because of you! (Genesis 3:17)  God subjected this world to “futility.”  One definition of this “futility” is “frustrating emptiness.”  There is a “frustrating emptiness” to the cosmos because humanity rebelled against its Creator.  It seems like all of creation has become frustrating.  Weeds in our garden make us groan.  Mosquito bites make us groan.  Sunburns make us groan.  Below-zero windchills make us groan.  Seeing a wall of water destroy a city in Nepal makes us groan.  Cells that grow malignant within our bodies make us groan.  But even as God subjected all of creation to frustration, there was hope.  He subjected it in the hope that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption. (v. 21)

God determined there should be an end to all the groaning!  To end the groaning, he sent his Son into this groaning world.  Jesus lived among groaning humanity.  Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. (Isaiah 53:4)  Sin made Jesus groan.  He literally groaned when he saw the people groaning under all that sin has brought into this world.  Jesus groaned when he carried sin on his back to Calvary.  And he groaned as he was put on display on that cross.  He groaned as the Father left him all alone that day.  And creation groaned; it could not bear God’s Son on the cross, so things went dark.  And finally Jesus groaned those words that would change everything, It is finished. (John 19:30)  Atonement for sin.  Forgiveness. Reconciling humanity to God.  Redemption.  Say it how you will!  It is finished!  There is now a clear path forward to the words God will finally say, Behold!  I make all things new! (Revelation 21:5)

We have hope!  Creation has hope!  Paul personifies creation in our text and says, Creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. (v. 19)  Right now we Christians don’t look like much.  We’re not “shinier” than other people.  For the most part, the world thinks we are a joke.  Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)  Just as the glorious Christ is hidden from view right now, so our “full identity” as his children is hidden right now.  But Paul goes on to say, When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)  We will be “revealed!”  The world will see you in glory and say, “So that is what it is to be a child of God!”

Creation can hardly wait!  Creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time. (v. 22)  It’s like the entire cosmos is in labor, waiting for its own re-birth as the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)  And not only creation, but also we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body (v. 23)  The work of redemption, your adoption in God’s family, will be complete when Jesus returns and your body is raised, changed, glorified and brought into his presence.  Friends, the eternal life Jesus won for you is not an eternity groaning here!  The life he gives is an eternity in glory.

And of this glory Paul says, I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. (v. 18)  Just ponder what that means!  Take all the suffering and all the groaning you have ever done in this world and pile it all up.  It’s big, I’m not going to lie or minimize your suffering.  But that pile does not even begin to compare with the “pile of glory” that is waiting for you!  Your groaning will give way to glory.  And remember, if God has promised it, it is as good as done!  And so we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance. (v. 25) 

Amen.