"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18
"The word I reckon (logidzomai), is a favorite with Paul. It expresses faith in action. Paul had known abundant sufferings: read II Corinthians Eleven, and all his epistles. But like our Lord, “the File-Leader” (archegos—Heb. 12:2) of the column of believers, who endured the cross in view of the joy set before Him, despising the shame, Paul “reckoned” in view of the coming glory: which should be the constant attitude of all of us.
The sufferings of this present time—“This present time”; it is necessary to have God’s estimate of these days in which we live or we will be deluded into man’s false thoughts. Note: “this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4); “the days are evil”; “this darkness” (Eph. 5:16; 6:12); “the distress that is upon us”;
“the fashion of this world is passing away” (I Cor. 7:26, 31).
Are not to be compared with the glory—These Words need to be pondered in view of passages like Heb. 11:35-38; “tortured . . . mockings and scourgings . . . bonds and imprisonment, stoned . . . sawn asunder . . . tempted . . . slain with the sword . . . went about in sheepskins, in goatskins . . . destitute, afflicted, evil-treated . . . wandering [through] the earth.” In spite of the horrors of the days of Nero, Diocletian and the rest; and the nameless terrors of the Spanish Inquisition: the “glory which shall be revealed” so swallows up these brief earthly troubles, that they shall not be named nor remembered in that day when Christ shall come.
It is difficult, impossible, to depict in language all of, or any real measure of, what is meant by the glory which shall be revealed toward us. In fact, as we know, we are to be glorified with Christ, to share His glory, and appear with Him in glory. In Colossians 3:4 we read,
“When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory”
; and in II Thessalonians 1:10:
“When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed.”
Such passages show that not only will the saints behold Christ’s glory, but, beholding, they will share that glory, and be glorified with Him. This is the great object before God’s mind now, to “bring many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2:10), that they may be conformed to Christ’s image (Rom. 8:29).
In constant view of that glory to be revealed in and through the Church, the sufferings which God called the saints to go through, no matter what they were, seemed as nothing.
"For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God." Romans 8:19
The world knows nothing of this astonishing verse. All the saints should always have it in remembrance! Man’s philosophy and science, taught in their schools, continually prate of “evolution” and “progress” in the present creation. And they go back in pure imagination millions of years and forward millions of years, telling you confidently how things came to be, and when, and what they will come to be; but they know nothing. Here God tells us unto what creation is coming—for what it is waiting: “earnestly.” Whether inanimate things on earth (for even the rocks and hills shall sing for joy shortly!) or whether the moving creatures on earth or sea; or whether, may we say, the hosts on high—all are waiting in expectation for that “unveiling of the sons of God.” For the word here translated “revealing” is apokalupsis, a removal of a covering,—as when some wonderful statue has been completed and a veil thrown over it, people assemble for the “unveiling” of this work of art. It will be as when sky rockets are sent up on a festival night: rockets which, covered with brown paper, seem quite common and unattractive, but up they are sent into the air and then they are revealed in all colors of beauty, and the multitude waiting below shout in admiration. Now the saints are wrapped up in the common brown paper of flesh, looking outwardly like other folks. But the whole creation is waiting for their unveiling at Christ’s coming, for they are connected with Christ, one with Him, and are to be glorified with Him at His coming.
"For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope:" Romans 8:20
Now God, in His infinite wisdom, thus subjected the creation,—that is, the earth. “The whole creation” must refer to the earth, for the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the holy angels were not “subjected to vanity”!
Vanity—Here look back to the garden of Eden, and to Adam’s first sin, the judgment of which fell not upon the man, but we read:
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.”
Here we find God subjecting the whole creation to “vanity,”—that is, to unattainment. The book of Ecclesiastes dwells long, with a mournful tone upon this vanity, this unattainment; things “putting forth the tender leaves of hope” only to have the “sudden frost” of disease and death end earthly hopes. “Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding,” as David said in his great prayer (I Chron. 29:15).
Not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope—God had a vast plan, reaching on into eternity, and “hope” lies ahead for creation: for the Millennium is coming, and after that, a new heaven and earth.
"Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption" Romans 8:21
—Now although we who are in Christ are new creatures, yet God has left our bodies as the link with the present “groaning” creation. Meanwhile, how “the bondage of corruption” appears on every side! Death—are not all creatures in terror of it, seeking to escape it? Every decaying carcass of poor earth-creatures speaks of the ‘bondage of corruption.” What ruin man’s sin has effected throughout the creation, as well as upon himself! It was God’s good pleasure, that when man sinned and became estranged from his God, all creation, which was under him, should be subjected to the “bondage of corruption” along with him, in decay and disease and suffering, death, and destruction, everywhere,—of bondage, with no deliverer.
Into the liberty of the glory of the children of God—As Paul shows) we already have liberty in Christ,—the liberty of grace. The “liberty of the glory of the children of God” awaits Christ’s second coming. How blessed it is to know that into that glorious liberty, creation, which has shared “the bondage of corruption,” will be brought along with us!
Contrast the state of creation now with the Millennial order described in Isaiah 11:6-9: The wolf dwelling with the lamb the leopard with the kid; the calf, the young lion, and the fatling together, and the little child leading them. The cow and the bear feeding, their young ones lying down together; the lion eating straw like the ox; children playing over the serpent’s hole:
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
William R. Newell, from Romans Verse by Verse Chapter 8
Photo by Luke Thorton on Unsplash
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