Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 8:23
And not only [they,] but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.
23. not only they ] The word “ they ” (inserted by our Translators) perhaps indicates that they understood the passage of conscious individual beings; the world of man. (See long note on Rom 8:19.)
the firstfruits ] Same word as Rom 11:16, Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20. The idea is not that “we” have the Spirit before others have it; but that we have that measure of the Spirit which is the specimen and pledge of the fulness hereafter. St Paul now contrasts the impersonal and unconscious creation, utterly incapable of the Divine Gift, with the human subjects of grace. The word “ firstfruits ” is used to suggest the thought of incompleteness and anticipation. Cp. the similar word “earnest;” 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:14.
groan within ourselves ] As our Lord once did (Joh 11:33; Joh 11:38). In Rom 7:14-24, we see one great instance of this “groaning” of the saint for entire freedom, in his whole being, from the power of sin. There too we see that the longing for freedom is linked with the thought of the body as the citadel of temptation, in its present state. Cp. 1Co 9:27 for another vivid picture of a “groaning” conflict, and there too in view of the body. “ Within ourselves: ” because the cause of the groan is emphatically within. Not outward afflictions so much as inner conflict are our burthen.
waiting for ] Same word as “waiteth for,” Rom 8:19; where see note.
the adoption ] i.e., obviously, the final realization of our adoption; for already the believer is “the child of God;” Rom 8:14; Rom 8:16. So great and blissful a crisis will the “manifestation” of the son-ship be that it is here viewed as the beginning of the son-ship.
the redemption, &c.] The realized adoption will bring this with it, will imply and involve this. The Brethren of the Incarnate Son of God will not realize the fulness of their Brotherhood till their bodies shall be “like the body of His glory,” (Php 3:21) The Adoption, and the Redemption of the Body, are not identical terms; but the former includes the latter, as necessary to it. “ Redemption ” here (as Luk 21:28; Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; but not Eph 1:7,) obviously means the actual and realized deliverance. The redemption-price is paid already; the redemption-liberation is to come. See note on Rom 7:24.
Again remark this unique feature of Revealed Religion; an immortal prospect for the body.
Some expositors take the body here to be the “mystical body;” the Church. But the context is clearly against it, giving us as the main idea the struggles and longings for a better future in respect of material things.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And not only they – Not only the creation in general. But ourselves also. Christians.
Which have the first-fruits of the Spirit – The word used aparche denotes properly the first-fruits of the harvest, the portion that was first collected and consecrated to God as an offering of gratitude, Deu 26:2; Exo 23:19; Num 18:13. Hence, the word means what is first in order of time. Here it means, as I suppose, that the Christians of whom Paul was speaking had partaken of the first influences of the Spirit, or had been among the first partakers of his influences in converting sinners. The Spirit had been sent down to attend the preaching of the gospel, and they were among the first who had partaken of those influences. Some, however, have understood the word to mean a pledge, or earnest, or foretaste of joys to come. This idea has been attached to the word because the first-fruits of the harvest were a pledge of the harvest, an evidence that it was ripe, etc. But the word does not seem to be used in this sense in the New Testament. The only places where it occurs are the following; Rom 8:23; Rom 11:16; Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; 1Co 16:15; Jam 1:18; Rev 14:4.
Groan within ourselves – We sigh for deliverance. The expression denotes strong internal desire; the deep anguish of spirit when the heart is oppressed with anguish, and earnestly wishes for succor.
Waiting for the adoption – Waiting for the full blessings of the adoption. Christians are adopted when they are converted Rom 8:15, but they have not been yet admitted to the full privileges of their adoption into the family of God. Their adoption when they are converted is secret, and may at the time be unknown to the world. The fullness of the adoption, their complete admission to the privileges of the sons of God, shall be in the day of judgment, in the presence of the universe, and amidst the glories of the final consummation of all things. This adoption is not different from the first, but is the completion of the act of grace when a sinner is received into the family of God.
The redemption of the body – The complete recovery of the body from death and corruption. The particular and striking act of the adoption in the day of judgment will be the raising up of the body from the grave, and rendering it immortal and eternally blessed. The particular effects of the adoption in this world are on the soul. The completion of it on the last day will be seen particularly in the body; and thus the entire man shall be admitted into the favor of God, and restored from all his sins and all the evil consequences of the fall. The apostle here speaks the language of every Christian. The Christian has joys which the world does not know; but he has also sorrows; he sighs over his corruption; he is in the midst of calamity; he is going to the grave; and he looks forward to that complete deliverance, and to that elevated state, when, in the presence of an assembled universe, he shall be acknowledged as a child of God. This elevated privilege gives to Christianity its high value; and the hope of being acknowledged in the presence of the universe as the child of God – the hope of the poorest and the humblest believer – is of infinitely mere value than the prospect of the most princely inheritance, or of the brightest crown that a monarch ever wore.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 8:23
Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
The firstfruits of the Spirit
I. What they include.
1. Pardon.
2. Regeneration.
3. Communion with God.
II. What they inspire.
1. Hope.
2. Aspiration.
3. Patience.
III. What they promise.
1. Final adoption into the family of heaven.
2. The glorification of the body.
3. The beatific vision. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The groaning believer
If our action upon and relation to the creature cause the creature to be subject to so much travail and pain, so, in return, the creature acts upon us, causing us to groan under a burden which it is hard to bear. The action is reciprocal, and our present life appears, for the time, to be a life of vanity and vexation of spirit, and is only partially mitigated by the prospect of the final redemption. Here, then, we have just the counterpart of the picture presented in Rom 8:22.
I. A description of believers. We who have the Spirit as the firstfruits, or the earnest of our inheritance. Take man as man; compare his rich endowments with the shortness of his existance and the vanity of his occupation. And if we pass to the Christian man endowed with the fruits of redemption, what we see of his present life only still more impresses us with a feeling of its vanity. For only look–
1. At the endowments he possesses–the firstfruits of the Spirit. Not merely high mental powers, but the rudiments of a Divine nature fitting for communion with a holy God and fellowship with the pure intelligences of heaven.
2. At the expenditure by which these endowments have been secured. The wisdom of God, the work of Christ, and the operations of the Holy Spirit, are all involved in lifting any one up from the level of mere humanity to that of the family of God.
3. At the consciousness of the endowment as already possessed by us–awakening within us aspirations to do the work that angels do, having a desire to depart and be with Jesus–a training that seems to unfit for the low occupations of earthly life. Who has not wished always to be employed in some heavenly service when he has found himself tied down by the necessity of labouring for the bread that perisheth.
II. Their present sorrowful condition–groan within ourselves.
1. There seems here a kind of retributive action. We have to do with earthly things, and as we have abused them so they seem to press upon us, and so to resent the wrong we have done them. There are sins that God has forgiven, but the effects upon our temporal condition can never be repaired.
2. The discrepancy that seems to exist between the endowment and the service to which it is here devoted. John Howe speaks of a man clothed in scarlet being set to feed swine to express such discrepancy. And, no doubt, if such were the will of God, a loving servant would yield, but then scarlet is not the proper livery for such a service. It may be a discipline for the servant, though it spoil his clothes.
3. It arises from the actual sufferings to be endured, and no affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. We are not Stoics, nor does God wish us to be.
4. There is the liability to temptation and sin. We may, after all, be overtaken by a fault, and whilst we are so exposed we may well groan.
5. There is our proximity to the evil around us. Righteous Lot vexed his soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
III. Their coming deliverance.
1. This is called the adoption, because it will be, not the initiation into the family, but the public inauguration of the heir, on reaching his majority, into the inheritance.
2. It is called the redemption of the body. Redemption is, in Christ, already complete. But in us it is progressive–
(1) There is, therefore, now no condemnation.
(2) Death, when the soul is emancipated from all pollution.
(3) The resurrection, when the body itself shall be emancipated (Php 3:21).
The subject teaches a lesson–
1. Of patience. It is Gods order. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have suffered the will of God.
2. Of hope. Look on. Seek not your rest here. (P. Strutt.)
The inward groaning of the saints
Note–
I. Whereunto The Saints Have Attained.
1. We have, not we hope sometimes we have, nor yet possibly we may have, nor we shall have, but we have. True, many things are yet in the future, but we have already a heritage which is the beginning of our eternal portion–the firstfruits of the Spirit, i.e., the first works of the Spirit in our souls–repentance, faith, love. These are called the firstfruits because–
(1) They come first. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the graces which adorn the spiritual life are the first gifts of the Spirit of God in our souls.
(2) They were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, they were to him so many proofs that the harvest was already come. So, when God gives us Faith, hope, charity, whatsoever things are pure, lovely, etc., these are to us the prognostics of the coming glory.
(3) They were always holy to the Lord. The first ears of corn were offered to the Most High, and surely our new nature, with all its powers, must be regarded by us as a consecrated thing.
(4) They were not the harvest. No Jew was ever content with them. So, when we get the first works of the Spirit of God, we are not to say, I have attained, I am already perfect. Nay, they should but excite an insatiable thirst after more.
2. What the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. For the reason that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. Did you hear that groan? It is a traveller lost in the deep snow on the mountain pass. Hear another. The traveller has reached the hospice, is perfectly safe, and is exceedingly grateful to think that he has been rescued; but yet I hear him groan because he has a wife and children down in yonder plain, and the snow is lying so deep that he cannot pursue his journey. Now, the first groan was deep and dreadful; that is the groan of the ungodly man as he perishes; but the second is more the note of desire than of distress. Such is the groan of the believer, who, though rescued and brought into the hospice of Divine mercy, is longing to see his Fathers face.
II. Wherein are believers deficient? In those things for which we groan and wait.
1. This body of ours is not delivered. As soon as a man believes in Christ, his soul is translated from death unto life, and the body indeed becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost; but the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. The greatest piety cannot preserve a man from growing old, nor deliver his body from corruption, weakness, and dishonour. Nor is this little, for the body has a depressing effect upon the soul, and its appetites have a natural affinity to that which is sinful. The body is redeemed by price, but it has not yet been redeemed by power. Now this is the cause of our groaning. The soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered, it sighs to think that its poor friend should still be under the yoke. If you were a free man, and your wife a slave, the more you enjoyed the sweets of freedom, the more would you pine that she should still be in slavery. And so, again, with the saints in heaven. They are free from sin, but a disembodied spirit never can be perfect until it is reunited to its body. They do not groan, but they long with greater intensity than you and I for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.
2. Our adoption is not manifested (cf. verse 19). Among the Romans a man might adopt a child privately; but there was a second adoption, when the child was brought before the authorities, and its ordinary garments were taken off, and the father put on garments suitable to the condition of life in which it was to live. Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; that is, God will dress us all as He dresses His eldest Son. Cannot you imagine a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator, saying to himself, I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed, and be robed as becomes my rank. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. So it is with us.
3. Our liberty is incomplete. As to our spirits, we have liberty to soar to the heavenly places with Jesus Christ; but as for our bodies, we can only roam about this narrow cell of earth.
4. Our glory is not yet revealed, and that is another subject for sighing. The glorious liberty may be translated, The liberty of glory. We are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. They are waiting till their Lord shall descend from heaven, and the whole of the blood-washed host, wearing their white robes, and bearing their palms of victory, shall march up to their thrones. After this consummation the believing heart is groaning. Let me show you again the difference between a groan and a groan. Go into yonder house: there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. Go to the next house, and there is another much more painful than the first. How are we to judge between them? We will come again in a few days: as we are entering the first house we see weeping faces, a coffin, and a hearse. In the next there is a smiling cherub, and a mother who joys that a man is born into the world. There is all the difference between the groan of death and the groan of life. It is not the pain of death we feel, but the pain of life. We are thankful to have such a groaning. The other night two men working very late were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, Ah, theres a poor Christmas day in store for me. He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift. Now, his fellow workman also groaned. On being asked why, he said, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house, I do not like to be out of it. So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed home, and groans to get to it, and there is more joy in the groan of a Christian than in all the mirth of the ungodly.
III. What our state of mind is. A Christians experience is like the rainbow, made up of drops of the griefs of earth, and beams of the bliss of heaven.
1. We groan within ourselves. It is not the hypocrites groan, who wants people to believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things. We keep our longings to our Lord.
2. We are waiting, by which I understand that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, Let me die, nor are we to sit still and look for the end of the day because we are tired of work. We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself.
3. We are hoping (verse 24). Conclusion: Here is a test for us all. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth, some because of their great losses or sufferings. But the man that yearns after more holiness, that is the man who is blessed indeed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christian experience and aspiration
That this passage is a magnificent one few would deny. The complaint we are likely to make of it is that it is too magnificent; that it transports us into an atmosphere which scarcely any one but a saint or apostle can be expected to breathe. We need, we think, not grand anticipations of a future, but some help in combating the petty temptations of each day. But if we look at these words again we perceive that the man who wrote them must have been more, not less, conversant than we are with the sufferings which common men are experiencing. He had shut himself in no cloister. He hears arising from all creation a groan coming from the sense of actual misery; and the clearest, fullest interpretation of these words may be found in our daily walks. The streets of London can tell us more about the sense of them than all the folios of commentators.
I. St. Paul tells the Roman Church that he and they were waiting for their adoption, or their full recognition as sons of God. There has been a proclamation to men that God has claimed them, without respect of race or circumstances, as His children in His only-begotten Son. And any message less than this has been powerless to satisfy the necessities of men, and has produced no permanent moral effect upon them. If we use all arguments of fear, all arts of rhetoric to convince men that they ought to take care of their souls, a few may be startled out of a sleep to which they will return again. But the mere part will feel that you are bidding them forget the real earth for the sake of a heaven which they can only dream of. But if we will recur to the old and simple scriptural phraseology of the hearth and home–if we will bear witness to men of a Father who has sent the elder Brother of the household to bring them into it, to endow them with the highest rights of children, we shall find that it can bring forth as clear a response from the men of the nineteenth century as from the men of the first.
II. The question how this condition of sonship is consistent with sorrow could be answered by those who believed the Son of God to be the Man of sorrows. In the light of Christs passion all suffering became transfigured. It was the filial token (Heb 13:8). But St. Paul did not intend that they should hug pain and sickness, because a deep truth might be learnt from them. He admits them in themselves to be discords and anomalies. He could not bear to contemplate it, if he were not sure that they were no parts of its original order; and that not being parts of it they were to cease. The revelation of the Son of God in weakness and pain and death, had vindicated the title of sons of God for creatures enduring weakness, pain, and death. The revelation of the Son of God in the glory of His Father would reveal them in the glory for which they had been created.
III. But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Not simply that no sufferings are worthy to be compared with final rewards. The sufferings of the present time are those of the whole creation, of which man is the head, to be excluded from which would be to be excluded from human sympathy, from fellowship with the great Sufferer. So far from being exempt from them, Paul knew more of them than any, but the blessing of the firstfruits of the Spirit; is the possession of a clearer, stronger hope than others. Yet that hope is not a hope for himself, but for his kind.
IV. for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same. Here is the apostles explanation of the puzzle which has tormented men ever since evil entered into the universe. That the guilty will be punished is reasonable, in this our consciences acquiesce. But there is a guiltless part of creation which endures misery. How can that be just? St. Paul feels the difficulty, and this is the refuge. The creation has been made subject to vanity; a very fitting phrase to express the apparent frustration of the end for which it has been called into existence. He frankly admits that the bondage which the mere animal undergoes is not its own fault, and that it has a Divine origin. But in doing so he affirms two mighty propositions–
1. That the innocent, involuntary creature is made the victim of vanity and death for the sake of that higher being who has broken loose from that will which he was created to serve.
2. That this subjection is temporary, and contains the promise of a future emancipation, when the end for which it was ordained has been accomplished. Less than this such language (verses 20, 21) cannot mean–that all the sufferings to which the earth and those that inhabit it are liable, are permitted and designed for the education of those who bear the nature which the Son of God bore; and that no suffering which contributes to this end is, in the judgment of the All-good and the All-wise, excessive or wasted, not even the sufferings and death of the Innocent, the Holy One. But this end being attained, all the forms of physical evil will also be overcome; the involuntary creation will be delivered from its fetters and its shame; the whole regenerated world, in its primal order and harmony, will offer up its sacrifices, through its High Priest and Restorer, to His Father.
V. His teaching, taken fully and literally, involves a renewal of the whole animal creation. If there is to be a restitution of all things, such as God, who cannot lie, promised by His holy prophets since the world began, I cannot understand how that element should be wanting to it. Must the creatures which have ministered to mans wants and delights be shut out from the renovation of our race, by whose degeneracy they are so deeply affected? From these thoughts others are nearly inseparable. The idea of a redemption of nature as consequent upon a redemption of man has often dawned upon the man of science and upon the artist. The one has seen that the laws of the universe can only be fully vindicated when the self-will which has set those laws at defiance has been extirpated; the other, from his deep sense of the sympathy between man and the forms which he contemplates, has been certain that such a revelation of loveliness awaits the purified vision as the highest prophet has only guessed of.
VI. The redemption of the body which St. Paul waited for, must include the removal of whatever hinders the senses from receiving clear and satisfactory impressions of the world with which they are intended to converse. But there is a more obvious force in the expression. The body is enslaved to disease and pain. These are the signs that Death has rights over the body, and that he will assert his rights. St. Paul says that there is another who has an elder, stronger right over it; that Christ by going into the grave and rising out of it has asserted and made good His right; that He will fully exert it. This redemption St. Paul felt that he was sent to proclaim to men because he was sent to proclaim their sonship to God. And so his teaching assumed a profoundly practical character. Fully believing in this redemption men are never to confess Death as a master. Our homage to Christ, our faith in our Divine sonship, implies that we expect a victory for the body; that it was not made so fearfully and wonderfully for nothing; that it shall at last he made like to the glorious body of Him who will subdue all to Himself. (F. D. Maurice M.A.)
The aspirations of a Christian soul
It is impossible to deny the splendour of the idea contained in this passage. But we are tempted to question the possibility of ever realising it. We fancy that such lofty yearnings rise too far above the common highways to give us any strength in meeting the temptations and work of the everyday world. Such aspirations might thrill the spirit of an apostle or a lonely saint, but they are too unearthly to be realised by us. We need some more homely teaching to enable us to meet the temptations of their career. But Paul was no solitary saint, and the men to whom he wrote were surrounded by earthly temptations of the fiercest kind. And yet this practical apostle tells those tempted men that both they and he were praying for the redemption of the body, And in our day such aspirations, instead of being too lofty for our common life, are the only safeguards against its prevalent snares. Note–
I. Their nature. In illustrating this we must dwell on the two phrases on which this nature depends. Firstfruits manifestly refers to the Jewish custom of presenting to God the earliest ears of corn or fruit as a thanksgiving and a prayer. The influences of the Spirit therefore are not merely a promise of the future, they are the actual commencements of the golden harvest of eternal glory. The other phrase, groaning for the adoption, even so far as unto the redemption of the body, means that we are adopted now, but that the body in the bondage of corruption stands in the way of the full realisation of our sonship, and therefore the firstfruits of the Spirit are a cry for its perfect deliverance. Note then–
1. That the firstfruits of the Spirit are a prayer for perfect adoption. We know thatnow we are sons of God; but the more we realise that fact, the more profoundly do we feet that the full manifestation has not yet come. Let us illustrate this by looking at three great firstfruits of the Spirit, experimentally. The Spirit reveals to us our adoption–
(1) By revealing the love of God. There are times when we feel that He loves us; and this feeling clothes life in splendour, and brings into the heart the balm and music of heaven, making poverty, toil, sorrow, endurable things. But is not that always a longing, a prayer? The very greatness of that love–the very feebleness of our emotion in responding to it, make us pray to feel it more.
(2) By the gift of spiritual power. The sign of a son of God is that he is no more in bondage to the passions and habits of the old life. But are we ever kings over ourselves as supremely as we would be? And there, again, the firstfruits of the Spirit are a longing for a perfected adoption.
(3) By the gift of Divine peace. But because that so soon fades, who does not long for the sabbath of eternity?
2. We can now see how these aspirations rise, as Paul says, into a prayer for the redemption of the body. Our present body is the grand hindrance to the attainment of perfect sonship: thought wears out its energies; deep emotion exhausts its vigour; its infirmities, sicknesses, decays, hinder the prayers and aspirations of the soul. And then, above all, the power of the body to perpetuate the influences of past sin renders it a hindrance to the man who feels the firstfruits of the Spirit. And thus it is that we who have the firstfruits must cry for the redemption of the body, because we know that until then we can never reach the love, power, and blessedness, which belong to us as sons of God.
II. Their prophetic hopes. We hope–
1. For the redeemed body; not for the departure of the present body, but for its redemption. We pray not for the death of our present powers of sight and hearing, but for their purified and intensified life. And now mark the prophetic cries which lie hid in that hope. Because it is a firstfruit of the Spirit, it foretells that every bodily power shall come forth, not crushed, but made stronger and brighter from the touch of death.
2. For the redeemed world. This world with all its beauty is fitted rather for a school of discipline than a home of purified spirits, and hence we hope for another and purer world for our final abode. Now mark again how this hope is prophetic of what shall be. Paul, in the context, affirms that the pain and death of the creature form one loud prophetic wail for redemption, i.e., the whole creation joins the Christian cry for a world in which suffering and evil shall have vanished.
III. Their present lessons.
1. We need them all. Let a man lower his hopes and limit his aspirings, and he will easily decline into a low spiritual life in which he will be like a reed shaken by the wind, before temptation. Only he who daily claims the whole eternity of hope as his own is guarded against the snares and pollutions of the world.
2. We must live them all. (E. L. Hull, B.A.)
Christian privileges and prospects
I. The description which is given of Christians by their present privileges. In this chapter we have a remarkable distinction of character. Those in a state of nature are described as in the flesh, aa carnally minded, etc. Those in a state of grace are said to be of the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to be spiritually-minded, to be led by and to walk in the Spirit.
1. Their character, therefore, is formed by the influences of the Spirit (Eze 36:26-27). Our Saviour stated the necessity of being born of the Spirit, and he told His disciples that He would send them the Spirit of truth, etc. The apostle says that we are to be washed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, etc. By this the earthliness of the affections is refined, and the whole soul is changed into the image of God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
2. Those who have the Spirit are placed in a high and beautiful relationship. They have adoption into the family of God (verse 14-16; Gal 4:4-6 : 1Jn 4:1-2). The heir of God has to remember that much of his good is future, and he must sketch out to himself those prospects where faith will be lost in sight, and hope in endless praise. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Whatever blessings the Spirit has bestowed, or whatever characters He has impressed, are pledges of the future possession. Has the Spirit destroyed the love of sin, induced a desire for purity–inspired faith, hope, love? These are all to be regarded as pledges of what you shall be in the future; your heaven begun upon earth. These are the seeds of the harvest of glory; the roots of the future tree of blessedness; the embryo of the perfect man; the outline of the picture which shall be finished in eternity; the first streaks of light; the first gleams of that dawn which shall brighten into the splendour of meridian glory.
II. The state of mind in which they are confessed to exist. We groan within ourselves, etc. These emotions are to be considered in connection with similar emotions through the creation. The whole creation is represented as longing for the glorious period when all its misery shall be over, as if in the throes of a new birth. Yes! and man and brute, hills and valleys, earth and ocean, times and seasons, are passing onwards to a glorious deliverance. Yes! and every cloud that darkens, and every affliction that troubles, and every injury which brute sustains from brute, and the rolling of the storm, and the belchings of the volcano, and the commotions of the deep, and the tremblings of the earthquake, are to be all considered as the pangs of nature passing onwards to that end. Oh, when shall these pangs cease! Then the apostle speaks of the children of God, and he declares that they are not in a higher sphere. We are all in this respect in one mass, we also groan, etc.
1. Our state of mind is one which involves–
(1) Pungent sorrow on account of present imperfection.
(a) Sorrow on account of what we see in the world around us. I look on the world around me; it came from the hand of God; it abounds with beautiful views; but still it affords cause for mourning. Look at its sinfulness. It is a world of wickedness. See its misery. Because there is sin there is sorrow. We witness the groanings of poverty, the wasting of disease, the scorn of contumely, the oppressions of power, etc.
(b) Sorrow when we consider our own characters, and our individual experience. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from sin? Who has not cause to exclaim with Paul, I delight in the law of God, after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, etc. Again, we are not only sinners but sufferers. We have much to enjoy, but we have also much to endure; and who among you is not ready to say, we ourselves groan within ourselves, and long for wings, that we might flee away and be at rest?
(2) Earnest desire as to the future. We wait for the adoption, etc. Civil adoption was private and public. Now every child of God is adopted privately at the time of conversion; but there is a day appointed for his public adoption when he will be declared as a son of God. We as Christians wait for this. The time when this shall be is not revealed. But the time shall come when all the redeemed shall appear with Christ in glory.
2. The emotion in reference to this fact, we wait for it. We stand like men on the summit of a lofty mountain, taking a transient view of the intermediate landscape and looking to the distant horizon for our intended dwelling. We wait for it, our minds are fixed upon it, our desires are influenced by it. Prove that you wait for it–
(1) By avoiding the pollutions of the world.
(2) By refusing to place your affections on the world. If ye then be risen with Christ, etc.
(3) By showing in constant and active exertion all the principles of the vocation by which you are called. Are you called to love? then love; are you called to vigilance? then be vigilant; to zeal? then be zealous.
(4) By anticipating with joy the time of your departure from the world. (J. Parsons.)
The yearning of the good for deliverance
1. That is groaning, which is here again considerable two manner of ways.
(1) For the simple passion: we groan. Where that which we may observe from it is this, that even the children of God themselves do groan while they abide here in the world.
(2) There are two things especially which are the ground and occasion of this groaning, whereof we now speak, in the children of God; and that is, first, the burden of sin. The stain and defilement of sin. The proneness and inclination to evil which is in the heart. As proneness to evil, so on the other side indisposedness to good. Distraction in duty and weakness and imperfection of performance. The sins of daily incursion, as we commonly call them for distinction sake, in opposition to greater miscarriages; these slips and failings which we fall into before we are aware in every business.
2. Seeing Gods children do thus groan under their sins, let then all men take heed how they do at any time upbraid therewith them. This serves to confute that opinion which prevails with some kind of people, as if a justified person were exempted from all grief for sin. But secondly, as the servants of God groan under sin in the stain of it, and so far forth as it defiles, so likewise under the guilt of it, and so far forth as it exposes to punishment. The second is taken from misery and the affliction which they meet with here likewise. This proceeds, first, from the consideration of their common nature. Secondly, it proceeds also from grace, forasmuch as they have a real apprehension of deliverance which belongs unto them. This is that which puts them upon groaning to be delivered, because by faith they know that there is One that hears their groans and takes notice of them. Thirdly, it is sometimes also from weakness and want of faith, especially there where it is in the excess and extremity of it. This teaches them accordingly what to expect while they live here below. This world is a vale of tears, wherein the best that are are subject to fighting and groaning. The second is in the additional illustration. And that is in ourselves. Under which phrase and manner of expression we have divers things intimated to us as concerning this sighing and groaning of the children of God, three things especially. First, that it is secret and hidden, it is not always discerned; we groan in ourselves, that is we groan to ourselves. This groaning, it is such as all men are not sensible or apprehensive of nor do take notice of it. That which is done within a man, it is done without the privacy of another, because no man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is within him. This is the dispensation of Gods children to be mourning and humbling of themselves for the sins and miscarriages of others, while the parties themselves that occasion it are little sensible or apprehensive of it. Thus does many a godly parent groan for the miscarriages of his children. This, it proceeds from a kind of modesty in them, as in all things else as suitable to the principles of religion. They pray in secret, and give in secret, and grieve in secret, The second is hearty and serious. In ourselves, that is from ourselves. The groanings of Gods children they are not slight, or perfunctory, or superficial; but such as proceed from a deep sense and apprehension of their misery, and the condition in which they are. The third thing implied in this expression is the propriety or peculiarity of their grief. In ourselves, that is by ourselves. We groan within ourselves; that is within our own compass and in our own capacity. We groan not only as beasts do, which are acted only by common sense; nor we do not groan only as men do, which are acted only by natural reason; but we groan moreover as Christians, which are acted by religion and grace, and so have a grief in that respect which is proper unto them. This peculiarity of grief, and so consequently of groaning in Gods children, is founded in these considerations. First, their peculiarity of employment; they have such businesses wherein they are exercised, as none have but they. Peculiar employments breed peculiar distractions and cumbrances which are attendant upon them, because they have still some miscarriage which these are liable unto, and miscarriage is a cause of grief. Now Gods children they have other businesses and employments than other men have, and which they seriously give themselves to. Secondly, peculiarity of contentment; every different comfort has a different grief annexed unto it, either in the deprival or straitening of it. The more delights that any man has in any condition, the more crosses is he likewise subject unto from that condition when these delights shall be suspended. The children of God they therefore grieve by themselves because indeed they joy by themselves. Thirdly, peculiarity of design; they have proper and peculiar ends and aims which they propound to themselves. Look, as any mens desires are, the more oftentimes are their griefs, because desire and hope disappointed it makes the heart sad. Now Gods children they have their peculiar desires and aims and ends: as the glory of God, the good of the Church. The crossing of which unto them is an occasion of greater grief in them. Not so neither. For, first of all, as a Christian has peculiar grief, so he has peculiar joy and comfort which attends it. Secondly, this proper grief of a Christian is a cause of greater comfort to him. His joy is not only joined with his sorrow, but flows from it, according to that of the apostle (2Co 7:1-16; 2Co 8:1-24; 2Co 9:1-15; 2Co 10:1-18). And so now I have done with the first action attributed to believers in this text, and that is groaning, with the amplification of it; We ourselves groan within ourselves. The second thing here attributed to the godly and true Christians is waiting, in these words, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Where we have two things exhibited to us. First, it is an expression of their patience. They wait, that is, they stay (2Co 4:8). The ground hereof is first of all this in the text, because they have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, which though they do not altogether satisfy them, yet they do at least very much qualify them, and occasion this patience to them. Secondly, because they have a spirit of faith whereby they see all those things which do at present befall them working good unto them. The second is earnest expectation. Gods children they do wait for their redemption, that is they do look and long for it (thus Tit 2:13). First, their present evils and afflictions. They wait because they groan, as it is said before of the creature in verses 19, 20 of this chapter. Secondly, their present feelings and pre-apprehensions. They have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and these beginnings do so much the more increase these desires in them. Thirdly, love to Christ. They desire it and long for it as a bride does for the coming of her beloved. Lastly, from the condition of a believer in regard of grace, which is here very weak and imperfect. This waiting of the saints thus declared, it is useful to sundry purposes to us: First, for the intent to which it is brought here in the text, and that it is to assure us that there is such a thing indeed as this is, namely, a time for Christian redemption from their present bondage, and enjoyment of a glorious liberty which shall be bestowed upon them. This it does appear from hence because the children of God themselves do desire it. Secondly, here is a discovery of mens conditions what they are. Those who are indeed Gods children, they do not only groan, but wait; not only mourn under present misery, but also pant after future glory, etc. A worldling is all for the present and to have his contentments here; but a Christian is not so satisfied. Thirdly, Let this quicken us to this groaning and heavenly disposition, and make us labour to find it in ourselves. First, for the object propounded, and that is adoption. Adoption in Scripture-language is of a various consideration, and is taken three manner of ways. First, for the adoption of election, whereby God, before ever the foundations of the world were laid, did appoint us, and set us out to be in the number of His sons and daughters. The second is the adoption of vocation, whereby we being effectually called by the preaching of the gospel, and justified by faith, are by the spirit of adoption incorporated into Jesus Christ and confirmed in the inheritance of sons. The third is the adoption of glory, whereby we shall fully at last obtain the glorious inheritance of children together with Christ. The second is the particular exposition, to wit, the redemption of our body. The redemption. This likewise, as well as that other term of adoption, does admit of a different signification, either namely, as taken for the paying and laying down of the price, or else for the receiving of the thing itself for which the price is paid. Of our body. This is expressed, rather than of our souls. First, because our souls are in their actual redemption already before that time. Secondly, it is here said of the body, because all miseries and afflictions in this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole person. That which we may more particularly observe here is this, that there is a day coming wherein the bodies of all the saints as well as their souls shall be freed from bondage and corruption. Thus it follows upon these special considerations: First, as they are the instruments of a sanctified and regenerate soul, whereunto also they have been companions in duty. Secondly, as members of Christ, who is the Head and redeemed before them; Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (1Co 15:20). Thirdly, as they are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who still abides and dwells in them as His own, and accordingly will raise them (Rom 8:11). Lastly, as together with the soul they do make up the whole person which God hath taken into court with Himself (Mat 22:32). The consideration of this truth is very comfortable to the servants of God. First, in all corporal infirmities and disparagements which are incident to the body here in this life, of sickness and distempers, and restraint and persecution, and the like. Secondly, as to the horror of the grave, and the dreadful apprehensions of that from rottenness and putrefaction, our bodies shall at last be freed from all corruption (Hos 13:14). (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Adoption still future
1. As embracing the whole man.
2. As consisting in absolute deliverance from bondage.
3. As including manifestation and public acknowledgment.
4. As belonging not merely to individuals, but to the Church as a body. (T. Robinson, D.D.)
The redemption of the body
I. The Christian is a man gathering firstfruits. The harvest is not come. He looks out upon the beauty of nature, and he sees a firstfruit of a renewed and perfect creation. He has a happy thought, it is a firstfruit of an endless and universal joy. He tastes the delights of a pure affection, it is the firstfruitof a world where all is love. He catches a glimpse of Christ, it is a firstfruit of an eternal presence. He plucks from the tree of truth a holy feeling, it is the firstfruit of the rich abundance of a matured saintliness. To him, everything is a firstfruit. If it is not the full glow of summer yet, it is not winter, If the early grapes be so sweet, what shall the vintage be?
II. A man untaught might say, surely those who gather firstfruits at least will have an immunity from sorrow? St. Paul said, We which have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves. I do not find that the Church has less suffering than the world without, only I find it more inward. This inward groaning, what is it, and whence? As soon as a man really receives one of the firstfruits of the Holy Ghost, immediately a very great change takes place in that soul. But how with the body? Is it altered? Some little degree of physical refinement may grow out of the spiritual change; but in the main the body is the same. It prompts the same desires, it leads on to the same sins. Sometimes it inflames us, sometimes it drags us. And so it will be to death, the changed soul in the unchanged body, the redeemed in the unredeemed. Now here is all the con-flict. Of all our misery this is the painful element, the inability of the body to carry out the higher aspirations of the soul. Other things may bring the sigh, the tear, but this brings the groan, When shall I be holy? When will the contest cease? O wretched man that I am, etc. So–
III. Because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. The moment of death comes, the body and the soul are parted for a while. From that date the redemption of the body begins. It dies, it dissolves, it lies hidden, God works in it as He pleases. Presently, it comes forth; it is another, and yet the same, identical to be known, to be loved, to be embraced, and yet how changed! It is in sweetest harmony with the soul; it is not a whit less spiritual and heavenly than that which once it thwarted. It has taken the image of God; it perfectly reflects Christ. And then, and not till then, its redemption is complete. Hero is the great result of the travail of the believer. Conclusion;
1. All you have to do now with the body is to hold it down and keep it under. And that effort will be your groaning. But only till He comes. His second advent will perfect the reformation of your body, as His first did your soul.
2. There is probably a very close analogy between the redemption of the soul and that of the body. The seed of life sown in death, the long hidden process, the dying first before there is life indeed, the maintenance of the original character, where, nevertheless, all is new, the likeness to Christ in both, the intention of all to serve, in all the perfect sovereignty of God.
3. The focus of faith and hope to all is the coming of Christ. The groaning soul of the believer, carrying the burden of the flesh, looks there. The emancipated spirits of the departed longing to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven, look there. Even while they wait in paradise the redemption of that body, still perfect, is going on, and they stretch on with ardent desire for the moment when He shall bring forth the whole man in the integrity of his being. And in those at this moment who lie in the grave, out of our sight, it is that holy, blessed work which is going on. For that reason we gave them up. We ourselves groan within ourselves till we see them again. But we shall see them lovelier than before, but still the same, more ours, more His, the needful absence for the needful work done, no absence more, all ours and all one for ever. Wait on; He hears the groans of the waiting. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
Insufficiencies accessories of beauty
Heaven does not take perfect beings and make them more perfect. It takes fallible and incomplete ones, and glorifies them. Even time and the discipline of pain are beforehand in this, turning the very defects of Christians into graces. It is a paradox of art that our glassmakers can only reproduce now the perfection of the ancient stained glass by reproducing its imperfections:–Singularly enough, examinations made of the painted windows, so celebrated as works of artistic genius and skill, of the old cathedrals of England and continental Europe, show that their superiority really consists in the inferiority of the glass, its richness in the poverty of its constituents, in the very perfection of its uneven thickness, and in the imperfections of its surface and its body, all covered, as they are, by the accumulating dust of ages, and honey-combed by the corroding effect of time. Like the facets of a diamond or ruby, each little wave and thread and blister becomes, by interference, refraction and reflection of the light which plays upon it, a new source of the gem-like brilliance, harmony, and beauty which distinguish the painted glass of former centuries. So the inferiorities and insufficiencies of Gods children become accessories of beauty when the rays of His heavenly glory play upon them. The culture of eternity must complement the trial and wear of this lifetime to bring out every charm that here lay in disguise.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also] Neither the Gentiles only, but we Jews also, (however we belong to a nation envious of the heathen,) to whom God hath granted the first fruits of the Spirit; we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption; that is, the redemption of our mystical body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part. Lightfoot’s works. vol. ii. p. 359 and 707.
The scope and design of St. Paul in these verses may be thus summed up:-The apostle shows that the whole creation is in a suffering state, into which it has been brought by the disobedience of one man, Adam; therefore, it was made subject to vanity-pain, sickness, and death; not willingly, for mankind had no part in that transgression which “brought death into the world and all our wo;” but God subjected the whole, purposing to afford them a deliverance and infusing into every heart a hope that a more auspicious era should take place; and it is through the influence of this hope, which every man possesses, that the present ills are so patiently borne, because all are expecting better days. The great deliverer is the Messiah, and the Gospel days the auspicious era which God intended to bring forward. They who believe in Christ with a heart unto righteousness are freed from the bondage of their sinful corruption, and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and they look forward with joyous expectation, waiting for the general resurrection, when their bodies also shall be redeemed from corruption, and the whole man, body and soul, be adopted into the family of heaven ABOVE, as their souls had been previously adopted into the family of faith BELOW. And although it may be said that the redemption provided by the Gospel can not be an object of hope to those who have never heard of it; yet, as every man has hope, and this hope is inspired by God for this very purpose; that it may be the means of supporting them in the ills of life, and God, in inspiring it, had respect to the glorious state of Christianity, therefore it is this state, in effect, that the whole creation are longing for. So Jesus Christ is said, by the Prophet Haggai, Hag 2:7, to be the desire of all nations; and yet not one of the nations of the earth had, at that time, heard of him. And thus, as Dr. Whitby has very properly remarked, “desire and expectation are ascribed to creatures, in reference to things they want, and which tend to their advantage; notwithstanding they explicitly know nothing of them.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle had asserted and concluded, Rom 8:18, that there is a future glory to be revealed hereafter in the saints, such as infinitely transcends their sufferings now; and this he had confirmed from the earnest expectation of the creature, (the pronoun they is not in the original), and now he further confirms it from the expectation which is in believers themselves.
The first-fruits of the Spirit; hereby he means that righteousness, joy, and peace, which believers have in this life; these are the fruits of the Spirit, and called first-fruits in regard of their order; and in regard of their quantity, they are but a handful in comparison of the whole, little in regard of the fulness which they shall have in heaven; and in regard also of their signification, the grace and comforts of the Spirit of God in this life are pledges to us of that abundance and fulness of joy, which we shall partake of in the life to come, as the first-fruits of the Jews were an evidence to them of the ensuing crop.
Groan within ourselves; among ourselves, say some, but it is better read in our translation, within ourselves. It expresses the manner of the saints groaning under sin and affliction; it is inward, and from the heart.
Waiting for the adoption: now we are the sons of God; why then should we wait for what we have already?
Answer. We have the right, but not the full possession, of our inheritance: the apostle himself explains his meaning in the next words.
The redemption of our body; i.e. our perfect deliverance from sin and misery; this phrase is used in other places; see Luk 21:28; Eph 4:30.
But why of our body, and not of our souls? Because their souls would be in actual possession of the inheritance before that day, or because the miseries and troubles of this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole man.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. And not only they, but ourselvesalsoor “not only [so], but even we ourselves”thatis, besides the inanimate creation.
which have the first-fruitsof the Spiritor, “the Spirit as the first-fruits” ofour full redemption (compare 2Co1:22), moulding the heart to a heavenly frame and attempering itto its future element.
even we ourselvesthoughwe have so much of heaven already within us.
groan within ourselvesunderthis “body of sin and death,” and under the manifold”vanity and vexation of spirit” that are written upon everyobject and every pursuit and every enjoyment under the sun.
waiting for themanifestationof our
adoption, to wit, theredemption of our bodyfrom the grave: “not (be itobserved) the deliverance of ourselves from the body, but theredemption of the body itself from the grave” [BENGEL].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And not only they, but ourselves also,…. Not only they Gentiles, but we Jews likewise:
which have the firstfruits of the Spirit: meaning either the apostles, who were all Jews, and who most of them received the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit on the day of “Pentecost”, which was the day of the firstfruits, Nu 28:26; and to which there seems to be an allusion here; or else the Jewish converts in general: to the Jews the promises of the Messiah were made; to them he first came; the Gospel was first preached unto them, and some of them first believed in Christ; they had the grace of God communicated to them in conversion, which they received as the firstfruits, with respect to an after increase; or in regard to glory, like the firstfruits, grace is of the same kind with glory, and is a pledge and earnest of it; saints judge by grace the firstfruits, what glory is, and therefore long after it; now of these persons thus described it is said,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves; their groans were inward from their hearts, not hypocritical or were among themselves, common to them all; and that not merely on their own account, the corruptions of their hearts, the sufferings they endured for the sake of the Gospel, and in a longing expectation for the heavenly glory, but also for the conversion of the Gentiles, for which they incessantly laboured, and prayed night and day;
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Adoption is explained by the redemption of the body; and by the one may be known what the other means: by “the redemption of our body” is not meant the redemption of God’s elect, body and soul, by the blood and death of Christ, which was already finished; and which the saints, who had received the firstfruits, were partakers of in themselves, and therefore could not be said to be waiting for it: but it designs either the redemption of the natural body, by the resurrection from the dead; when the bodies of the saints will be delivered from that mortality, corruption, weakness, and dishonour, under which they lie in the grave; when they will be refined and spiritualized, and freed from everything which makes them an incumbrance, and an uneasiness to their souls or spirits now; or else the redemption of the mystical body the church, of which the Gentiles make a considerable part, and is to be understood of a deliverance of the church, from the distresses and persecutions it then laboured under; or rather of a making up of the body, the church, by a redemption or deliverance of that part of it, which lay among the Gentiles, from that vanity and bondage of corruption, to which it was subject, into the manifestation and glorious liberty of the sons of God: and then by “adoption” is meant, the special grace of adoption, manifested to the Gentiles in their effectual calling; which the Jews who had received the firstfruits of the Spirit were waiting for, and had good reason to expect, from many prophecies in the writings of the Old Testament; and to which they were the more encouraged, by many appearances of the grace and power of God, attending the ministry of the Gospel among them; and which adoption will be more fully manifested in the resurrection morn; wherefore also the inheritance, which the whole mystical body the church will then enter upon the possession of, may well be called “the adoption”, because the saints are adopted to it; adoption gives them the title to it, none but adopted ones will enjoy it; and their enjoyment of it will be the full manifestation and completion of the grace of adoption; this saints are waiting for, both for themselves and others, and it is worth waiting for; for it is “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fades not away, reserved in the heavens”, 1Pe 1:4: and there is good ground to wait for it; it is a bequest of their heavenly Father, who has adopted them; it is a gift of his free grace; it is already in the hands of Christ, with whom they are co-heirs; and they have already the Spirit, as the earnest of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The first fruits ( ). Old and common metaphor.
Of the Spirit ( ). The genitive of apposition. The Holy Spirit came on the great Pentecost and his blessings continue as seen in the “gifts” in 1Co 12-14, in the moral and spiritual gifts of Ga 5:22f. And greater ones are to come (1Co 15:44ff.).
Even we ourselves ( ). He repeats for emphasis. We have our “groaning” () as well as nature.
Waiting for (). The same verb used of nature in verse 19.
Our adoption (). Our full “adoption” (see verse 15), “the redemption of our body” ( ). That is to come also. Then we shall have complete redemption of both soul and body.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And not only they,” (ou monon de) “and not only so,” “they” – all things of the earth do groan, travail, die in pain together under earth’s curse, Gen 3:17-19.
2) “But ourselves also,” (alla kai autoi) “but also (we) ourselves; exist under the curse of the ground, the curse of sorrow, the curse of thorns and thistles, and the curse of sweat of the face to eat bread till we return to the dust in death, Gen 3:17-19; Ecc 9:5; Heb 9:27; Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14; Rom 5:17.
3) “Which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,” (ten aparchen tou pneumatos echontes) “who have, hold, or possess the first fruits of the Spirit;” the fruits of the Spirit one may have in this present body are enumerated, Gal 5:22-25; and our Lord has bid us bear fruit in him, more fruit, and much fruit, Joh 15:2; Joh 15:5; Tit 3:14; 2Pe 1:4-9.
4) “Even we ourselves groan within ourselves,” (hemeis kai autoi en heautois stenazomen) “we also ourselves groan in ourselves,” from sin, infirmities, sicknesses, pain, sorrow, disappointments, 2Co 5:2-4.
5) “Waiting for the adoption,” (huiothesian apekdechomensi) “eagerly expecting (the) adoption, the heir-setting;” through the power of liberation of the Spirit, Eph 1:14; Php_3:20-21; the adoption is the future heir-setting of children of God in a new body, Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5.
6) “To wit the redemption of our body,” (ten apolutrosin tou somatos hemon) “the redemption of our body,” Rom 8:11; this occurs in the first resurrection, at the coming of the Lord, 1Th 4:13-17. This is final redemption to the glory of God, a redemption of the body from the power and presence of sin, Eph 4:30; Php_1:6; Luk 20:36.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
23. And not only so, etc. There are those who think that the Apostle intended here to exalt the dignity of our future blessedness, and by this proof, because all things look for it with ardent desire; not only the irrational parts of creation, but we also who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God. This view is indeed capable of being defended, but there seems to me to be a comparison here between the greater and the less; as though he said, “The excellency of our glory is of such importance even to the very elements, which are destitute of mind and reason, that they burn with a certain kind of desire for it; how much more it behoves us, who have been illuminated by the Spirit of God, to aspire and strive with firmness of hope and with ardour of desire, after the attainment of so great a benefit.” And he requires that there should be a feeling of two kinds in the faithful: that being burdened with the sense of their present misery, they are to groan; and that notwithstanding they are to wait patiently for their deliverance; for he would have them to be raised up with the expectation of their future blessedness, and by an elevation of mind to overcome all their present miseries, while they consider not what they are now, but what they are to be.
Who have the beginnings, etc. Some render the word first-fruits, ( primitias ,) and as meaning a rare and uncommon excellency; but of this view I by no means approve. To avoid, therefore, any ambiguity, I have rendered the word beginnings, ( primordia , the elements,) for I do not apply the expression, as they do, to the Apostles only, but to all the faithful who in this world are besprinkled only with a few drops by the Spirit; and indeed when they make the greatest proficiency, being endued with a considerable measure of it, they are still far off from perfection. These, then, in the view of the Apostle, are beginnings or first-fruits, to which is opposed the complete ingathering; for as we are not yet endued with fullness, it is no wonder that we feel disquietude. By repeating ourselves and adding in ourselves, he renders the sentence more emphatical, and expresses a more ardent desire, nor does he call it only a desire, but groaning: for in groaning there is a deep feeling of misery.
Waiting for the adoption, etc. Improperly indeed, but not without the best reason, is adoption employed here to designate the fruition of the inheritance to which we are adopted; for Paul means this, that the eternal decree of God, by which he has chosen us to himself as sons before the foundation of the world, of which he testifies to us in the gospel, the assurance of which he seals on our hearts by his Spirit, would be void, except the promised resurrection were certain, which is its consummation. (260) For to what end is God our Father, except he receives us after we have finished our earthly pilgrimage into his celestial inheritance? To the same purpose is what he immediately subjoins, the redemption of the body. For the price of our redemption was in such a way paid by Christ, that death should notwithstanding hold us tied by its chains, yea, that we should carry it within us; it hence follows, that the sacrifice of the death of Christ would be in vain and fruitless, except its fruit appeared in our heavenly renovation.
(260) The impropriety, which [ Calvin ] notices, is according to the usual phraseology of Scripture. What commences in this world and is completed the next is called by the same name. The word salvation is used in this way as designating its commencement and its progress as well as its completion. Besides, adoption here has a particular regard to the body, as it is explained the words which follow — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Nor is it only the rest of creation that groans. We Christians, too, though we possess the firstfruits of the Spirit, nevertheless inwardly groan, sighing for the time when our adoption as the sons of God will be complete, and even our mortal bodies will be transfigured.
Which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.Though we have received the first partial outpouring of the Spirit, as opposed to the plenitude of glory in store for us.
The adoption.The Christian who has received the gift of the Spirit is already an adopted child of God. (See Rom. 8:15-16.) But this adoption still has to be ratified and perfected, which will not be until the Coming of Christ.
The redemption of our body.One sign of the imperfect sonship of the Christian is that mortal and corruptible body in which the better and heavenly part of him is imprisoned. That, too, shall be transformed and glorified, and cleared from all the defect of its earthly condition. (Comp. 1Co. 15:49-53; 2Co. 5:1 et sea.; Php. 3:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Not only they Rather, it, referring to the whole creation.
Ourselves What was true of man’s creaturely nature, and even of the whole creation, was true of Paul and his fellow-Christians, with this specialty, that what was in others a waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, was in them something infinitely better, namely, a waiting for the redemption of OUR body.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’
Creation groans, and so also do Christians. We have received the firstfruits of the Spirit. We have thus experienced something of God’s work in producing a new creation (2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10), which lives out its existence within the old creation. Our new life in the Spirit is a taste of what is to come. But we groan in our present bodies ‘within ourselves’ as we endure the agonies of the old creation, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from Heaven, so that our mortality (and bodily weaknesses) might be swallowed up in life (2Co 5:2; 2Co 5:4). We long that this body which we have to endure in this time of our humiliation (‘this vile body’) might become like his glorious body (Php 3:21). And we groan because of our desire to be delivered from the depredations of sin (Rom 7:24). For we await our adoption, when we will be adopted as true sons who have been transformed into His image, that is, we await the redemption of our bodies. Then finally all traces of sin and decay will have been removed.
‘The firstfruits of the Spirit.’ The firstfruits were the initial benefit, and the guarantee of what was to come, they were ‘the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own possession’ (Eph 1:14). In other words the Spirit has brought us some relief as we have experienced the new creation within ourselves, prior to the consummation. We are a new creation in the midst of the old creation (2Co 5:17). We have receive new life through the Spirit. But there is much more to come, especially in that day when He transforms us into Christ’s image at the same time as creation itself enjoys its renewal.
‘We ourselves groan within ourselves.’ We do not constantly pass our spiritual burdens on to others. Rather we groan ‘inside’. We recognise our weakness, and frailty, and our shortcomings, and we are constantly reminded of them as we are unable fully to do what we want to do. We long for the day when we will be like Him, and when our weaknesses and frailties will be no more. (Although, of course, this is largely countered in practise by the joy we know as we look off to Him, and walk with Him, with our minds set on things above. Paul is not prescribing a life of morbid introspection).
‘Waiting for our adoption.’ In one sense we have already been adopted as sons of God (Rom 8:15), and are now His children (1Jn 3:2), but there is to be an even more glorious adoption when we are adopted as those who have been perfected, with every stain and blemish removed (Eph 5:27; Col 1:22).
‘The redemption of our bodies.’ In ourselves we have already been redeemed through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:24). But we still live in frail and mortal bodies which are beset by sin, living in the old creation. We await the resurrection when our bodies will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed (1Co 15:42-44; 1Co 15:52), being conformed to His image (Rom 8:29).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The sighing hope of the Christians and the Spirit’s intercession:
v. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
v. 24. For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
v. 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
v. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
v. 27. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. But not only so, not only does the whole creation groan and long for deliverance, but also we ourselves that have the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves sigh within ourselves, longing for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We Christians, having received the Spirit of God from above, have the first-fruits of the future world, of the heavenly glory, in our hearts, as a definite guarantee of the full bliss which shall be ours in the future, Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22. And yet sighs arise from the depths of our soul, groans and cries for deliverance. We Christians are deeply affected, painfully touched, by the woes and miseries of the present world. And therefore our sighing incidentally represents and expresses our anxious, eager longing for the full revelation of our sonship. We are children of God even now, by faith, through the working of the Spirit. But we long to enter into the full possession and enjoyment of our inheritance above, into the redemption of our body, the complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin. All eyes and all hearts are directed toward that blessed hour when Christ will finally and completely deliver our mortal body from the bonds of vanity and of death, when He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Php_3:21 .
The Christians are sure of the final participation in the deliverance of the body and of the full enjoyment of their sonship. But meanwhile the present time, the time in this world, is a time of waiting and hoping. We have the glories of heaven in expectation or prospect: salvation is a blessing which we have in hope, which we are sure of possessing in the future. For if the object of hope, the full enjoyment of our adoption, the perfect deliverance from sin and its consequences, were a matter of the present time and possession, then we could not speak of hope; for if one sees a thing before him, why should he yet hope? Hoping and seeing exclude each other. And so the apostle concludes regarding the peculiarity of hope, its essential feature: If we hope for that which we see not, then we wait through patience and endurance, we steadfastly and longingly wait for it. At the present time we Christians are placed under the obligation of patience, under the necessity of anxious expectation. Knowing the certainty of our future bliss, all the affliction of the present time and life cannot shake our hope. “Salvation, in its fullness, is not a present good, but a matter of hope, and, of course, future; and if future, it follows that we must wait for it in patient and joyful expectation. ” (Hodge.)
Having shown that all creation longs for deliverance, and that the Christians are likewise groaning and sighing for the full revelation of their salvation and its glorious blessings, the apostle now states, for our further encouragement, that the Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our infirmity. Although we Christians have the knowledge which pertains to our salvation and are sure of the final revelation of the glory of God in us, yet we are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of our faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. The divine assistance, therefore, is so necessary because we Christians have not the proper conception of the manner and importunity of prayer for the things that we are in need of; our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance: He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christians finally converge, the salvation of our souls. And not only that, but He Himself intercedes for us with sighings and groanings that cannot be clothed in the speech of man. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers’ hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body. And then their tottering faith is renewed in strength, then a new joy and consolation takes possession of their hearts, and the believers may again look up to God in believing confidence. All such inarticulate sighs in the hearts of the Christians, although they are not and cannot be clothed in the words of human speech, are nevertheless fully intelligible to God. He that searches, investigates, the hearts is fully conscious of, perfectly acquainted with, the mind of the Spirit. The omniscient God knows what the Spirit has in mind in those groanings whose content cannot be expressed in the words of human language. For the Spirit intercedes for the saints, as the believers are fitly called on account of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ which they have experienced, in a manner which agrees fully with the will and with the glory of God. With holy, godly zeal, in full accordance with the immeasurable, divine content of our hope, with the fervor of divine love He intercedes before God in our behalf, to insure to us the glory which has been prepared for us in heaven. Thus the unspeakable greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us, and for our possession of which the Holy Ghost adds His interceding pleading and groaning, is a source of permanent, glorious comfort to the Christians.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rom 8:23. And not only they, but ourselves also That this is meant of the Apostles, appears plain from the following reasons: First, But ourselves also,even we ourselves,are very emphatical expressions, and direct our thoughts to some persons of distinction and eminence. Secondly, there will be little or no argument in this verse, if it be understood of the whole body of Christians: it will be only telling them what is supposed to be already known,that they were in a state of affliction, waiting for the future glory. But it is a good argument, if understood of the Apostles, and properly enough advanced after a general survey of the sufferings of mankind: “Look at the world in common,you see all labouring under sorrows, and in afflictions: look at us Apostles, who are most signally distinguished by the pledges of God’s love, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit; even we are not exempted from sufferings; but it is the will of God that we too should remain under the pressures of life, and in a state of expectation.” See 2Co 4:17; 2Co 5:2. There is an allusion, in the latter part of this verse, to the two kinds of adoption among the Romans; the first of which was private; the second public, in the forum, when the adopted person was solemnly declared and avowed to be the son of the adopter. Compare Luk 20:36. The redemption of our bodies means, their final deliverance from the power of the grave at the general resurrection. See Luk 21:28. Eph 1:14. Heb 11:35. Doddridge; and Howe’s Works, vol. 1: p. 680.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 8:23 . Climax of the foregoing proof that the , . . . of the , Rom 8:21 , is well founded. “Otherwise, indeed, we Christians also would not join in that sighing.”
] scil . .
What follows must be read: , , . See the critical remarks. But we also on our part, though we possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, sigh likewise in ourselves .
. . .] . . is the partitive genitive, as is involved in the very meaning of Comp. Rom 16:5 ; 1Co 15:20 ; 1Co 16:15 ; Jas 1:18 ; and all the passages of the LXX. and Apocr., where . stands with the genitive of the thing, in Biel and Schleusner. Comp. Herod. i. 92; Plat. Legg . vii. p. 806 D; Dem. 164. 21; Thuc. iii. 58. 3; Soph. Trach . 758; Eur. Or . 96; Phoen . 864; Ion . 402; also , Plat. Prot . p. 343 A; and , Plut. Mor . p. 172 C. By the possessors, however, of the , are not exclusively meant the apostles , who at Pentecost had received the first outpouring of the Spirit, and among whom Paul includes himself on account of his miraculous conversion (Origen, Oecumenius, Melancthon, Grotius, and others). He means rather the Christians of that age generally, since in fact they in contrast to the far greater mass of mankind still unconverted, for whom, according to Joe 3:1 , the receiving of the Spirit was still a thing of the future (Rom 11:25 ff.) were in possession of that, which first had resulted from the communication of the Spirit , and which therefore stood related to the collective bestowal as the daybreak . So, on the whole, Erasmus, Wetstein, Morus, Reiche, Kllner, de Wette, Olshausen, Kster, and Frommann; see also Mller in the Luther. Zeitschr . 1871, p. 618. Paul does not say simply , but, in the lofty feeling of the privilege , which he discovered in the earlier calling and sanctification of the then Christians: . . . .; “even we, though favoured so pre-eminently that we possess the first-fruit gift of the Spirit, cannot refrain from sighing likewise.” This we remark in opposition to the oft-repeated objection, that it was not an element of importance whether they had received the at the first or a few years later; and also in opposition to the quite as irrelevant objection of Hofmann, that the conception of a measure of the Spirit to be given forth by degrees is nowhere indicated. This conception has no place here, and the Spirit is one and the same; but if, in the first instance, only a comparatively small portion of mankind has received it, and its possession in the case of the remaining collective body is still in abeyance, this serves to constitute the idea of an in relation to the whole body. Nevertheless, the sense: best gift of the Spirit (Ch. Schmidt, Rosenmller), is not conveyed by . , because that must have been suggested by the context, and also because Paul could not have regarded the later communication of the Spirit as less valuable. Further, the sense of a merely provisional reception of the Spirit, taking place, as it were, on account, in contrast to the future full effusion in the kingdom of heaven (Chrysostom and other Fathers, in Suicer, Thes . I. p. 423; Calvin, Beza, Pareus, Estius, Calovius, Semler, Flatt, Tholuck, Philippi, and Bisping; comp. also Pfleiderer), is not contained in . . ., because Paul, had he wished to speak here of a preliminary reception in contrast to the future plenitude, must necessarily, in accordance with the connection, have so spoken of that of the or , not of the Spirit, and because a full effusion of the Spirit at the Parousia is nowhere taught in the N. T. The Spirit already received , not a new and more perfect reception of it in the future , by its quickening activity leads to and conditions the eternal , in which God is then all in all (1Co 15:28 ). Others, again, make . . an epexegetical genitive of apposition: the Spirit as first-fruits , namely, of the state of glory. So Bengel, Keil, Opusc. , Winer, p. 495 [E. T. 667], Baumgarten-Crusius, Reithmayr, Rckert, Maier, Hofmann, Zahn, and Engelhardt; comp. also Flatt. But however Pauline the idea may be (2Co 1:22 ; 2Co 5:3 ; Eph 1:14 ; comp. Rom 2:5 ), it would, when thus expressed, be liable to be misunderstood, since the readers were accustomed to find in the genitive with nothing else than that, of which the latter is a portion; and how intelligibly Paul might have expressed himself, either in accordance with 2 Cor. l.c. and Eph. l.c. , by , or by . . ( scil . .) .! This applies, at the same time, against Fritzsche, who takes . as genitive of the subject , and the first gifts of the Spirit as in contrast to the which the Spirit will give to us in the . Against this it may also be urged that the Holy Ghost is not described in the N. T. as the Giver of eternal life (not even in such passages as 2Co 1:22 ; 2Co 5:5 ; Eph 1:14 ; Eph 4:30 ; Gal 6:8 ). It is God who, in like manner as He calls and justifies, confers also the eternal (Rom 8:30 ). The Spirit operates to eternal life by His government (Rom 8:2 ), and is the ground (Rom 8:11 ) and pledge ( ) of that life; but He does not give it.
] Repeated and placed along with with earnest emphasis: et ipsi in nobis ipsis . The latter is not equivalent to (Schulthess and Fritzsche), but denotes, in harmony with the nature of the deep, painful emotion, the inward sighing of the still longing of believers; which suffers, is silent, and hopes, but never complains, being assured of the goal that shall be finally reached. Hofmann incorrectly would join . with . But this would leave the , which, according to the common connection with ., has its appropriate correlative in the sighing of the , without a reference. For, when Hofmann sets it down as the object of the to emphasize personal possession on the part of the Christians in contrast to the future participation of the , there is thus forced on this the meaning of already; and this all the more arbitrarily, since just precedes it in the quite common sense of et ipsi (Baeumlein, Partik . p. 151; Breitenbach, ad Xen. Hell . iii. 1. 10), and its emphatic repetition is very appropriate to the lively emotion of the discourse.
. .] whilst we wait for the adoption of children . It is true, believers have already this blessing (Rom 8:15 ), but only as inward relation and as divine right , with which, however, the objective and real state does not yet correspond. Thus, looked at from the standpoint of complete realization , they are only to receive at the Parousia, whereupon the . and their ensues. Comp. also Mat 5:9 ; Mat 5:45 ; Luk 6:15 . In like manner the is a present possession, and also one to he entered on hereafter. Comp. on Rom 5:19 ; and see on Gal 5:5 ; Col 3:3 f. Luther incorrectly joins . with ., which, with an accusative, means to bemoan or bewail something (Soph. Ant . 873; Oed. C . 1668; Dem. 690. 18; Eur. Suppl . 104; and often elsewhere).
. . . .] epexegesis: (namely) the redemption of our body from all the defects of its earthly condition; through which redemption it shall be glorified into the similar to the glorified body of Christ ( Php 3:21 ; 2Co 5:2 ff.; 1Co 15:51 ), or shall be raised up as such, in case of our not surviving till the Parousia (1Co 15:42 ff.). So, in substance ( . as gen. subj .), Chrysostom and other Fathers (in Suicer, Thes . I. p. 463), Beza, Grotius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, and most modern expositors. On the other hand, Erasmus, Clericus, and others, including Reiche, Fritzsche, Krehl, and Ewald, take it as: redemption from the body . This is linguistically admissible (Heb 9:15 ); we should thus have to refer it, not to death, but to deliverance from this earthly body through the reception of the immortal and glorious body at the Parousia, 1Co 15:51 . But in that case Paul must have added to . a qualitative more precise definition, as in Phi 3:21
Remark .
If we adopt the common reading ( . . . , . . .), which Ewald and Umbreit follow, while Rckert, Philippi, Tholuck, and Hofmann declare themselves in favour of ours (see the crit. remarks), is understood, either as meaning the Christians of that age generally, and the apostles (Kllner, following Melancthon, Wolf, and many others), or Paul alone (Koppe, Reiche, Umbreit, and many others); or , the former is referred to beginners in Christianity, and the latter to those who have been Christians for a longer time (Glckler); or , both (the latter per analepsin ) are referred to the apostles (Grotius), or to the Christians (Luther, Beza, Calvin, Klee, Maier, Kster, and Frommann). The interpretation referring it to the Christians is the only right one; so that brings into more definite prominence the repeated subject. The , without the article, is fatal to every reference to subjects of two sorts.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1874
THE STATE OF GODS CHILDREN
Rom 8:23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
MUCH is spoken in Scripture respecting the happiness of the saints. And doubtless they are on many accounts the most blessed people upon earth. But they also experience in a great degree the sorrows that pervade the universe. It is not in this, but in the future world, that they are to attain perfect uninterrupted felicity.
The Apostle is here encouraging the afflicted Christians to endure their trials patiently, in expectation of a rich eternal recompence. He tells them that the whole creation were supported under their present sufferings by a hope of some happier state: and that he himself, notwithstanding the privileges he enjoyed, participated with them in the common lot.
From his words we are led to consider,
I.
The state of the creation at large
This is fully developed in the four verses preceding our text. There are however considerable difficulties in those verses; but chiefly arising from the inaccuracy of the translation. Read them thus, and the main difficulties will be overcome: The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God: (for the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same;) in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Thus, by translating the word , creation, and the word , that, and by inclosing a part in a parenthesis, the whole will be made clear, and to a certain degree easy.
[The whole creation was reduced to a very deplorable condition by the fall of man. The material world underwent a most awful change: cursed was the ground for mans sake: the earth rendered barren without continual and laborious culture, or fruitful only in briers and thorns, which, if left unrestrained, would speedly overrun it: and the atmosphere rendered the fatal source of storms, and tempests, and pestilential vapours for the destruction of man [Note: Gen 3:17-18.]. The animal world, first subjected to mans controul, and innoxious in all their habits, had such a change wrought within them, that they all of various orders prey one upon another, and are more or less arrayed in hostility to man. The rational world partook more largely still of this fatal change: for man universally, and without exception, was despoiled of the Divine image, and corrupted in all his faculties, whether of mind or body, and subjected to innumerable diseases, and miseries, and death.]
But things shall not always continue thus
[There is a time coming, when God will manifest himself in a more especial manner to his own people; and it is therefore called, The manifestation of the sons of God: and then shall the sentence denounced against the whole creation be reversed, in order that every creature, according to its capacity, may partake of that universal blessedness. The material world will become again what it was at first, beautiful in all its parts, fertile to the utmost extent of mans necessities, and salubrious throughout every place and every clime. The animal world shall have all their venomous propensities removed, and the prophets description shall be fully realized among them, the wolf dwelling with the lamb, and the leopard lying down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand upon the cockatrice den: they shall not hurt nor destroy throughout Gods holy mountain [Note: Isa 11:6-9.]. The whole rational world shall then be converted unto God; for the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.
Thus throughout the whole creation shall, to a certain extent, the paradisiacal state be restored.]
Now, as this will be a state of inconceivable blessedness, the whole creation is represented as looking and longing for it
[It will be remembered that our blessed Lord was foretold as the person whom all nations desired. Now he was foretold under that character, not because all nations did desire him, but because all nations, if they had known him, would have desired him. So here the whole creation is said to look and wait for the day spoken of in my text, not because they do indeed expect it with such solicitude, but because they would expect it in that way, if they were fully apprised of the blessedness attendant on it. And, as in other passages of Holy Writ, the woods and the hills are often spoken of as participating in, and expressing, the joys of Gods people; so here, by a very strong figure, the whole creation is represented as stretching forth the neck [Note: .], with eagerness, in looking for it, and groaning with impatience [Note: .] for its arrival; yea, and as experiencing the pangs of parturition till they shall be liberated from their present burthen [Note: .]. Nor are these expressions at all too strong, if the different parts of the creation were capable of discerning and appreciating the blessedness of the change that shall await each in its proper sphere, and to the full extent of its capacity. Every part is at this time under the bondage of corruption, that is, under the curse introduced by sin; and every part, according to its capacity, shall be delivered from that bondage, and be brought, so far as it is capable of it, into a participation of the liberty that shall then be accorded to the children of God. These were the feelings assigned to the inanimate creation at the first advent of our Lord in his abased state [Note: Psa 96:11-13; Psa 98:4-9.]; and the same creatures may well be said to pant for a renewal of their joys, when our Lord shall come again to establish his kingdom over the face of the whole earth.]
But all this may, almost without a figure, be uttered as descriptive of,
II.
The state of Gods children in particular
These have already the foretaste of these joys in their own souls
[The first-fruits were a part of any produce, devoted to God as an acknowledgment that the whole was from him: and whilst they sanctified the whole harvest, they assured to the possessor the full enjoyment of it [Note: Deu 26:2; Deu 26:10-11. Pro 3:9.]. Now the harvest of the Spirit is that abundant effusion of holiness and happiness which God will pour forth on his people in the latter day, not unlike to what they enjoyed on the day of Pentecost, or to that which our first parents possessed in Paradise. And of this Spirit Gods people have now the first-fruits. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind after the very image of their God in righteousness and true holiness: and, with this renewal of their nature, they are also filled with joy of the Holy Ghost; even with a joy that is unspeakable and glorified. Now it might be supposed that these, by reason of their present attainments, would be less anxious for the promised period before referred to, when the whole creation shall be restored, as it were, to its primeval purity and happiness. But the very reverse of this is the case: for in every age these are the persons who most pant and long for the promised felicity. Yes, says the Apostle, ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our body.]
Of the joys they now experience they look forward to the everlasting consummation
[Believers are now the children of God [Note: 1Jn 3:1.], his children both by adoption and grace. Now adoption, amongst the Romans, was two-fold; first, private, in the house, and afterwards public, in the forum. The former of these every believer has received already through the operation of the Spirit of God upon his soul [Note: ver. 15, 16.]: but for the latter he waits till that period when God shall come to gather together his elect from every quarter of the world, to restore to every soul its long mouldered body, and to make the whole man, in body and soul, eternally blessed in his presence. That is the period when the body will enjoy the redemption that has been long since possessed by the soul; and a blessedness will be then imparted to the whole man, of which his present most exalted happiness is but an earnest and foretaste. Now the believer knows that that period shall arrive: and he longs for it, and groans within himself, through the ardour of his desires after it. Even here his anticipations of it have been sweet, infinitely beyond the powers of language to express, (a joy unspeakable;) what then shall the full possession be in the complete enjoyment of his God? From the private adoption, by the testimony of the Spirit, he has been almost wrapt at times into the third heaven, notwithstanding the clog which his body has imposed upon his soul. What then shall the public manifestation of this honour in the presence of the whole assembled universe be, when his redeemed body shall possess all the purity and perfection of his soul, and not only partake of all the joys of his soul, but aid the sold in its everlasting possession of them? I wonder not that St. Paul groaned in this body, being burthened; yea, that he groaned, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his heavenly house, namely, with his body in its renovated and perfect state [Note: 2Co 5:2-5.]. This ought to be the state of every true believer; and it will be in proportion as he lives nigh to God, and has his conversation in heaven.
By some the period referred to in my text is supposed to commence at the Millennium, of which time St. Peter speaks when he says, We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [Note: 2Pe 3:13.]. And, if any find comfort in that view of the subject, I would not move a finger to rob them of it. I have no objection to persons following their own views of Scripture truth: every man has the same right to do it as I myself have. But, when these uncertain matters are made the subject of disputation in the Church of God, to the creating of dissensions and divisions, and to the turning of the minds of pious persons from the more clear and fundamental truths of the Gospel, then I bitterly regret it, and am ready to weep over it as a device of Satan to turn men from the simplicity that is in Christ. If any choose to apply this passage to the Millennium, and to look for its accomplishment then, let them: but let them bear with those who cannot see with their eyes, or feel that there is any advantage in their views. Let all agree in this, to look and groan inwardly for the time of their consummate felicity, whether it occur at a little earlier or a little later period: for this is the point in which all are to agree; and in this consists the highest attainment of the Christian life: We come behind in no gift, whilst we are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Co 1:7.] to perfect our felicity; and we are sure, that to those who so look for him, he will appear a second time unto their everlasting salvation [Note: Heb 9:28.]. My prayer therefore for all of you, my brethren, is, The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into a patient waiting for Christ [Note: 2Th 3:5.].]
That I may bring this subject home more powerfully to mens business and bosoms, I would add,
1.
Let us not take up our rest in this world
[This world is but a passage to a better, a wilderness which we must pass through in our way to the heavenly Canaan. As to our present accommodations, we need not be much concerned, whether they be a little more or less suited to our present convenience. We are but pilgrims and sojourners here, hoping in due season to attain our rest hereafter. Let us then look forward to that rest which remaineth for us, and under all existing difficulties derive our consolations from the prospect of the happiness that awaits us. This is, not the duty merely, but the high privilege, of the Christian. This it is which raises the Christian above all the world besides. What are crowns and kingdoms, if a man have no prospect beyond the grave? On the other hand, What is martyrdom itself to one who sees it as the very door of heaven, and knows that the body which agonized for a few moments, shall reign in glory for evermore? I say then to every one amongst you, Set not your affection on things below, but on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, and where all who suffer with him now, shall be glorified together with him to all eternity.]
2.
Let us press forward more earnestly after the happiness reserved for us
[Who can conceive the blessedness of that state to which we are hastening? If eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived the things which are enjoyed by Gods people in this present world, how much less can any just conception be formed of their future state? If the possession of the first-fruits be so glorious, what must the harvest be! If the privilege of being Gods children be so delightful now, that the very hope of it raises us above all the joys or sorrows of this present world, what shall the full manifestation of it be when all the interests of time and sense are for ever passed away? Let us then survey more and more the blessedness of heaven, where we shall behold face to face that Saviour who died for us, and be with him for ever, possessing, according to their capacity, all the fulness of his beauty, his felicity, and his glory. Dear brethren, let this prospect swallow up every inferior consideration, and animate us to run with ever increasing diligence the race that is set before us. Let us forget all that is behind, and reach forward to that which is before, and press on with all imaginable ardour for the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus. And, in the desire of that full blessedness, let us cry continually with the beloved Apostle, Come, Lord, and take me to thyself; yea, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
23 And not only they , but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit , the redemption of our body.
Ver. 23. The firstfruits ] Which the creatures have not, and yet they groan: how much more we!
The redemption ] Our full and final deliverance.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
23 .] The text here is in inextricable confusion (see var. read.), but the sense very little affected. But (moreover) not only (the creation), but even ourselves, possessing (not ‘ who possess ,’ , but ‘ though we possess ’) the firstfruit of the Spirit (i.e. the indwelling and influences of the Holy Spirit here , as an earnest of the full harvest of His complete possession of us, and and , hereafter. That this is the meaning, seems evident from the analogy of St. Paul’s imagery regarding the Holy Spirit: he treats of Him as an earnest and pledge given to us, Eph 1:14 ; 2Co 1:22 ; 2Co 5:5 , and of His full work in us as the efficient means of our glorification hereafter, Rom 8:11 ; 2Co 3:18 . Various other renderings are, (1) ‘ the first outpouring of the Spirit ,’ in point of time, Wetst., Reiche, Klln., Mey., al., which would be irrelevant: (2) ‘ the highest gifts of the Spirit ,’ as the Schmidts, al.
The gen. . may be partitive or subjective: the firstfruit of the Spirit, which Spirit is the harvest, or the firstfruit of the Spirit, which the Spirit gives : or even in apposition, the firstfruit of the Spirit, i.e. which consists in (the gift of) the Spirit . I prefer the first, from analogy the Spirit being generally spoken of as given , not as giving , and God as the Giver), even we ourselves (repeated for emphasis, and inserted to involve himself and his fellow-workers in the general description of the last clause. Some (Wolf, Klln.) have imagined the Apostles only to be spoken of: some, that the Apostles are meant in one place, and all Christians in the other) groan within ourselves, awaiting the fulness of [ the (or,] our ) adoption ( ., as above, Rom 8:19 , but even more strongly here, ‘ wait out ,’ ‘wait for the end of.’ Our adoption is come already , Rom 8:15 , so that we do not wait for it , but for the full manifestation of it , in our bodies being rescued from the bondage of corruption and sin. This which in Gr. is expressed by the verb, in Eng. must be joined to the substantive. The omission of the art. before . is probably on account of its preceding its verb, . . = . ., for emphasis’ sake) the redemption (in apposition with ., or rather with the fulness of sense implied in . ., q. d. ‘ expecting that full and perfect adoption which shall consist in ’) of our body (not, ‘ rescue from our body ,’ as Erasm., Le Clerc, Reiche, Fritz., al., which though allowable in grammar, see Heb 9:15 , is inconsistent with the doctrine of the change of the vile and mortal into the glorious and immortal body, Phi 3:21 ; 2Co 5:2-4 , but the (entire) redemption, rescue, -of the body from corruption and sin).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 8:23 . Second testimony to the glorious future. sc. not only all creation, but we Christians: we ourselves, . is gen of apposition: the spirit which Christians have received is itself t the first fruits (elsewhere, the earnest: see on Rom 8:17 ) of this glory; and because we have it (not although: it is the foretaste of heaven, the heaven begun in the Christian, which intensifies his yearning, and makes him more vehemently than nature long for complete redemption), we also sigh in ourselves , . The key to these words is found in Rom 1:4 . Christ was Son of God always, but was only declared to be so in power , and so it is with believers. They have already received adoption, and as led by the spirit are sons of God; but only when their mortal bodies have been quickened, and the corruptible has put on incorruption, will they possess all that sonship involves. For this they wait and sigh, and the inextinguishable hope, born of the spirit dwelling in them, guarantees its own fulfilment. Cf. Phi 3:21 ; 1Co 15:51 ; 2Co 5:2 ; and for in this sense, 1Co 1:30 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Romans
THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY
Rom 8:23
In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have received ‘the Spirit of adoption.’ They become sons of God through Christ the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from God through Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as that new life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers have received ‘the Spirit of adoption,’ and by it they cry ‘Abba, Father.’ But the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of sin. It is sluggish and inapt for high purposes; it still remains subject to ‘the law of sin and death’; and so is not like the Father who breathed into it the breath of life. It remains in bondage, and has not yet received the adoption. This text, in harmony with the Apostle’s whole teaching, looks forward to a change in the body and in its relations to the renewed spirit, as the crown and climax of the work of redemption, and declares that till that change is effected, the condition of Christian men is imperfect, and is a waiting, and often a groaning.
In dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, we note-
I. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give definiteness and solidity to the conception of immortality.
The thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the longings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes from unwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. As Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, ‘Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.’ All thoughts of the future which do not give prominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly and uninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel those who are accustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they feel that they cannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was their servant and instrument, through all the years of their earthly consciousness.
II. ‘The body that shall be’ is an emancipated body.
These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to decay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and no refreshment of sleep. ‘The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,’ suggests strength constantly communicated by a direct divine gift. And from all these negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes. The two young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem as young if we saw them to-day.
Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for communication with the external universe. We know that the present body conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take cognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes and telescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our ear hears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is silence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call ‘inferior’ seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. Balaam’s ass saw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in the body. It is possible that that body which is the fit instrument of the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply, thinking more wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely, remembering more firmly and judging more soundly. It is possible that the contrast between then and now may be like the contrast between telegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity, between photograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness, between a full-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completeness of the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self.
But, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires which may lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid cares and weary toil. ‘The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.’ The redeemed body will have in it nothing to tempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the spirit and a source of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, it has its weaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. We must not be tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to ‘How do the dead rise, and with what body do they come?’ But we can lift our eyes to the mountain-top where Jesus went up to pray. ‘And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling’; and He was capable of entering into the Shekinah cloud and holding fellowship therein with the Father, who attested His Sonship and bade us listen to His voice. And we can look to Olivet and follow the ascending Jesus as He lets His benediction drop on the upturned faces of His friends, until He again passes into the Shekinah cloud, and leaving the world, goes to the Father. And from both His momentary transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we can draw the certain assurance that ‘He shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’
III. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ’s indwelling Spirit.
Scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a merely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to be satisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to both elements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second. It lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body as well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between the two, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that the process must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that the spirit must first be transformed, and then the body must be participant of the transformation.
All that Scripture says about ‘rising in glory’ is said about believers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They who have the Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it receive the glorified body which is like their Saviour’s. It is not enough to die in order to ‘rise glorious.’ ‘If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ The resurrection is promised for all mankind, but it may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living and no glory, nor any beauty and no blessedness. But the body may be ‘sown in weakness,’ and in weakness raised; it may be ‘sown in dishonour’ and in dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised a living death. ‘Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ Does that mean nothing? ‘They that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.’ Does that mean nothing? There are dark mysteries in these and similar words of Scripture which should make us all pause and solemnly reflect. The sole way which leads to the resurrection of glory is the way of faith in Jesus Christ. If we yield ourselves to Him, He will plant His Spirit in our spirits, will guide and growingly sanctify us through life, will deliver us by the indwelling of the Spirit of life in Him from the law of sin and death. Nor will His transforming power cease till it has pervaded our whole being with its fiery energy, and we stand at the last men like Christ, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit, ‘according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
firstfruits of the Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit as the foretaste and pledge of the eternal inheritance. Compare Eph 1:14. Heb 6:5. See Exo 23:19. Lev 23:10, &c.
firstfruits. Greek. aparche. Occurs here, Rom 11:16; Rom 16:5. 1Co 15:20; 1Co 15:23; 1Co 16:15. Jam 1:18. Rev 14:4.
groan. Greek. stenazo. Here, Mar 7:34. 2Co 5:2, 2Co 5:4. Heb 13:17. Jam 5:9. Compare Rom 8:21.
within. App-104.
redemption. See Rom 3:24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
23.] The text here is in inextricable confusion (see var. read.), but the sense very little affected. But (moreover) not only (the creation), but even ourselves, possessing (not who possess, , but though we possess) the firstfruit of the Spirit (i.e. the indwelling and influences of the Holy Spirit here, as an earnest of the full harvest of His complete possession of us, and and , hereafter. That this is the meaning, seems evident from the analogy of St. Pauls imagery regarding the Holy Spirit: he treats of Him as an earnest and pledge given to us, Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5, and of His full work in us as the efficient means of our glorification hereafter, Rom 8:11; 2Co 3:18. Various other renderings are,-(1) the first outpouring of the Spirit, in point of time,-Wetst., Reiche, Klln., Mey., al.,-which would be irrelevant: (2) the highest gifts of the Spirit, as the Schmidts, al.
The gen. . may be partitive or subjective:-the firstfruit of the Spirit,-which Spirit is the harvest,-or the firstfruit of the Spirit,-which the Spirit gives:-or even in apposition, the firstfruit of the Spirit, i.e. which consists in (the gift of) the Spirit. I prefer the first, from analogy-the Spirit being generally spoken of as given, not as giving,-and God as the Giver), even we ourselves (repeated for emphasis, and inserted to involve himself and his fellow-workers in the general description of the last clause. Some (Wolf, Klln.) have imagined the Apostles only to be spoken of: some, that the Apostles are meant in one place, and all Christians in the other) groan within ourselves, awaiting the fulness of [the (or,] our) adoption (., as above, Rom 8:19, but even more strongly here, wait out, wait for the end of. Our adoption is come already, Rom 8:15, so that we do not wait for it, but for the full manifestation of it, in our bodies being rescued from the bondage of corruption and sin. This which in Gr. is expressed by the verb, in Eng. must be joined to the substantive. The omission of the art. before . is probably on account of its preceding its verb,-. . = . ., for emphasis sake) the redemption (in apposition with ., or rather with the fulness of sense implied in . ., q. d. expecting that full and perfect adoption which shall consist in ) of our body (not, rescue from our body, as Erasm., Le Clerc, Reiche, Fritz., al.,-which though allowable in grammar,-see Heb 9:15,-is inconsistent with the doctrine of the change of the vile and mortal into the glorious and immortal body,-Php 3:21; 2Co 5:2-4,-but the (entire) redemption,-rescue,–of the body from corruption and sin).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 8:23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
That is what we are waiting for: the redemption of our body; and we shall not wait in vain for it, for Christ is the Saviour of our body as well as of our soul, and the day shall come when even our bodies shall be free from pain, and weakness, and weariness, and sin, and death. Happy day! we may well look forward to it with the loftiest anticipations.
Rom 8:24-25. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it?
This is our present position, patiently waiting for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, patiently waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, for it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Rom 8:26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
There is much in this chapter about groaning, and that is but natural, for it so largely concerns our present imperfect state; but, by-and-by, there will be No groans to mingle with the songs which warble from immortal tongues.
Rom 8:27. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
This explains what to many is the mystery of prayer. The Holy Spirit, being himself God, knows the secret purposes of the divine will, and therefore moves the saints to pray in accordance with that will, and makes their supplications effectual through his own prevailing intercession.
Rom 8:28. And we know
Paul, like John, was no agnostic; he did not even say, We think, we imagine, we suppose. No; we know
Rom 8:28. That all things work together for good
We must not stop there, otherwise the statement will not be true, for all things do not work together for good to all men, but only
Rom 8:28. To them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
How are we to know who they are who are the called according to Gods eternal purpose? The previous clause informs us, for both relate to the same individuals; them that love God are them who are the saved according to his purpose. We cannot peer into the pages of the Lambs book of life, yet we can tell by this simple test whether our names are recorded there, do we truly love the Lord? If so, all things are working for our present and eternal good, all things visible and invisible, all things friendly and unfriendly, all things in providence and grace.
Rom 8:29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
What an eternal honour for all believers, that they might be among the many brethren of Christ, Gods firstborn and well-beloved Son! Here too, we see the purpose of Gods foreknowledge and predestination, that we should be conformed to the image of his Son.
Rom 8:30. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
You see that these great declarations relate to the same persons right through the whole series: Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate;… whom he did predestinate, them he also called,… them he also justified,… them he also glorified. There is not a single link missing from the eternal purpose and foreknowledge of God to the everlasting glory in which the saints bliss shall be consummated. The practical questions for each one of us to answer are just these, have I been called by grace out of natures darkness into Gods marvelous light? Have I been justified by faith, and have I peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? Then, being called and justified, I may rest assured that I have been predestinated, and that in due time I shall be glorified.
There, where my blessed Jesus reigns,
In heavens unmeasured space,
Ill spend a long eternity In pleasure and in praise.
Rom 8:31-32. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also give us all things.
After having given us his own Son, what is there that he can withhold from us if it is for our real good? Nay, he has already virtually given us all things in giving him to us.
Rom 8:33-34. Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Well might the apostle ring out these confident challenges to heaven, and earth, and hell. As it is God that justifieth, who can bring any charge against his elect? Who can condemn those for whom Christ died, for whom he has risen, and for whom he is now making intercession at the right hand of God?
Rom 8:35-37. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
All these things have only made the saints cling the more closely to their Lord, instead of separating them from him. Their persecutors thought they were triumphing over them, but it was the martyrs who were the victors all the while.
Rom 8:38-39. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul had good reason for being persuaded that there was no separation for those for whom there was no condemnation, may we be among them by Gods grace! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Rom 8:23. , but [and] not only) The conclusion is drawn from the strong groaning [of the creature] to that which is much stronger [that of ourselves].– , ourselves-even we ourselves) The former , ourselves, is to be referred [has reference] by antithesis to the creature [the whole creation groaneth] Rom 8:22 : the latter refers to Rom 8:26, concerning the Spirit [maketh intercession for us with groanings]; and yet one and the same subject is denoted [the two belong to ]; otherwise, the apostle would have said, … [the article would have followed the first , had it referred to a different subject from the second ].- , the first fruits of the Spirit) that is the Spirit, who is the first fruits; see 2Co 1:22, note. We are a kind of first fruits of Gods creatures, Jam 1:18; and we have the first fruits of the Spirit; and the same Spirit enters into all creatures, Psa 139:7, a passage, from which the groaning of the creature is distinctly explained. The sons of God are said to have the first fruits, so long as they are in the way [whilst as yet they have not reached the end, when they shall have full fruition]. They who possess the first fruits, and the good, which attends the first fruits, are the same.-, having) This word involves the idea of cause; because we have.- , in ourselves) It implies, that the groaning of believers is widely different from the groaning of the creature.-) here, and in Rom 8:22, signifies to desire [yearn after] with groaning; comp. 2Co 5:4.-) This article shows by the apposition, that this sentiment, if it be resolved [analyzed], is contained in it, the redemption of our body is what constitutes the adoption.- [redemption] deliverance) This will be at the last day, which already at that time they were setting before themselves as being at hand; , liberty [Rom 8:21], is a kindred expression to this .-Comp. Luk 20:36. [That liberty is not intended here, by which we are delivered from the body, but that, by which the body is delivered from death.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 8:23
Rom 8:23
And not only so, but ourselves also,-Not only does the whole creation thus groan, but even Christians, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan and suffer within themselves.
who have the first-fruits of the Spirit,-[The first fruits were that portion of the productions of the earth which were offered to God. (Exo 23:19; Exo 34:26; Lev 23:10-12). From the nature of the case, they contained the evidence and assurance of the whole harvest being secured. The idea, therefore, of an earnest or pledge is included in the phrase, as well as that of priority. This is the general, if not the constant, use of the word in the New Testament. Thus Christ is called the first- fruits of them that are asleep (1Co 15:20), not merely because he rose first, but also because his resurrection was a pledge of the resurrection of those who are Christs at his coming. In the following passages-Rom 11:16; Rom 16:5; 1Co 16:15; Jas 1:18-both ideas may be, and possibly ought to be, retained. In the passages before us what is called the first-fruits of the Spirit is elsewhere (2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:14) called the earnest of the Spirit. The phrases, the first-fruits of the Spirit and the earnest of the Spirit, are, therefore, synonymous. The expression, therefore, is descriptive of all Christians and not of any particular class of them.]
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.-[The word adoption is applied to two very different events in the life of the redeemed. It is applied to their entrance into the kingdom of God at their conversion. They, therefore, enter it by being born of water and the Spirit. (Joh 3:5). Into the everlasting kingdom they shall enter by being born from the grave. From a grave in the water they emerge into the kingdom of God here on earth; from a grave in the earth, into the everlasting kingdom. Hence, though the two events denoted by adoption stand wide apart and are entirely distinct, yet they resemble each other very closely-so much so, indeed, that the same word is used to express them both.] Christians are waiting for the redemption of their bodies from mortality and suffering. Their redemption in Christ will not be completed until their bodies are raised from the dead and glorified and are become like Jesus in his glorified and immortal state. Paul has in these verses presented to us the far-reaching and appalling results of sin, and has given to us a picture of the future glorious state that shall come to man and earth when the deliverance from sin is completed. The earth will rejoice and be glad as well as man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
adoption
Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
which have: Rom 8:15, Rom 8:16, Rom 5:5, 2Co 5:5, Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23, Eph 1:14, Eph 5:9
even we: Rom 8:26, Rom 7:24, 2Co 5:2-4, 2Co 7:5, Phi 1:21-23, 1Pe 1:7
waiting: Rom 8:19, Rom 8:25, Luk 20:36, Phi 3:20, Phi 3:21, 2Ti 4:8, Tit 2:13, Heb 9:28, 1Jo 3:2
the redemption: Luk 21:28, Eph 1:14, Eph 4:30
Reciprocal: Gen 48:16 – redeemed Exo 22:29 – shalt not delay Lev 23:17 – the firstfruits Lev 25:24 – redemption Deu 26:2 – That thou shalt Psa 38:9 – groaning Psa 119:174 – longed Ecc 1:8 – full Isa 25:9 – Lo Isa 64:4 – waiteth 1Co 1:30 – redemption 1Co 15:13 – General 2Co 1:22 – the earnest Gal 4:5 – that we Eph 1:5 – unto 1Th 1:10 – wait Tit 3:7 – made Heb 11:14 – they seek
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:23
Rom 8:23. Not only they means not only the human family in general. Firstfruits of the Spirit means the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that is the possession of all who come into the body of Christ. (See the comments on Act 5:32.) To groan means to sigh or earnestly to long for the redemption of the body, which means the resurrection.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 8:23. And not only so. Not only is this true, that the whole creation, etc.
But even we ourselves. There are a number of slight variations in the Greek, but in any case a repetition of ourselves brings out the correct emphasis. The reference is to Christians, possibly to the Christians of that time (see below). Even Christians who are highly privileged unite with creation in its groaning.
Though we have, etc. This rendering is both more forcible and more grammatical.
The first-fruits of the Spirit. First-fruits, as a pledge of a full harvest. Explanations: (1.) The early Christians have the first fruits of the Spirit; the full harvest will be the impartation of the Spirit to all Christians; (2.) what we now possess is but first-fruits, the harvest will be the full outpouring in the future; (3.) the first-fruits of our redemption consist in the possession of the Holy Spirit. The reference to full glorification at the close of the verse makes (2.) slightly preferable; (3.) is the least probable view.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves. Though we have the first-fruits of the Spirit, our salvation is incomplete; the groaning is internal and intense.
Waiting for the adoption. Awaiting the fulness of our adoption (Alford). We are already adopted children (Rom 8:14-17), but the outward condition corresponding to this new relation is not yet complete.
The redemption of our body. The redemption is not complete until the body is redeemed: then we shall have the full blessing of adoption. The explanation: redemption from our body, is altogether incorrect, for the whole current of thought in this chapter places emphasis upon the glorification of the body at the coming of Christ (comp. Rom 8:11). The mention of the body confirms the view of creation which refers it to material existences also; for the groaning in ourselves respects that part of our being which is most akin to the material creation.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
And not only they; that is, all the creatures in this visible creation, join in this, they groan together; they do not some groan, and others sing; some travail in pain, and others in pleasure. But they all groan and travail together in pain until now, that is, until the glorious manifestation of the sons of God; but not only do they groan, but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, &c.
Observe here, 1. A special description of God’s adopted children; they have the first-fruits of the Spirit; that is, they have the Holy Spirit in its sanctifying gifts, and graces, and comforts, in some measure; called here first-fruits, because of the smallness of their quantity.
The first-fruits were but an handful, a little portion in comparision of the whole crop; yet was it an evidence and pledge that God would give them the full crop. Thus grace is an earnest of glory, it is a pledge of everlasting life; the beginnings of grace here are certain forerunners of the accomplishment of glory hereafter.
Observe, 2. The actions attributed to the fore-mentioned persons: they groan, they wait.
1. They groan, We who have the first-fruits of the Spirit do groan; they groan under the burden of sin and affliction:
the guilt of sin, the pollution of sin, the sad remains of indwelling sin, make them groan;
their proneness and inclination to evil, their backwardness and indisposition to good, make them groan;
their too frequent backslidings, their daily infirmities make them groan;
their sufferings also from God, and from man for God’s sake, cause them to groan;
but it is added, We groan within ourselves; that is, secretly to ourselves, undiscerned by the world, and in a manner peculiar to ourselves, as persons influenced by religion and grace: as Christians have joys and comforts, so have they griefs and groans, peculiar to themselves.
2. For the redemption of their bodies; that is, for their resurrection, for their redemption from mortality and corruption, for the redemption of their whole man, soul and body, do believers wait; their bodies were members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, instruments of, and companions with the soul in holy duties; and accordingly, the hour is coming, when the complete redemption both of soul and body shall be fully and finally perfected; but in the mean time they groan and wait for it.
Learn from the whole, That all sanctified Christians, who have received the first fruits of the Spirit, do groan and wait for a much better state than what they do at present enjoy.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 8:23. And not only they The unenlightened and unrenewed part of mankind; but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit Because first-fruits signify the best things of their kind, some think that the apostles, and such as possessed the most excellent spiritual gifts, are spoken of in this passage. But as the privileges described Rom 8:24-26 equally belong to all, it seems more probable that the apostle speaks of believers in general, who had the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on them as first-fruits, or as the earnest of those greater virtues and spiritual endowments, which they shall enjoy in heaven. Even we groan within ourselves Under many remaining imperfections, and a variety of miseries; waiting for the adoption For the public and open display of our adoption; to wit, the redemption of our body From dust and death to glory and immortality, when our heavenly Father shall bring us forth before the eyes of the whole world, habited and adorned as becomes his children. Persons who had been privately adopted among the Romans, were often brought forth into the forum, and there publicly owned as the sons of those who had adopted them. So at the general resurrection, when the body itself is redeemed from death, the sons of God shall be publicly owned by him in the great assembly of men and angels. Thus our Lord, Luk 20:26, terms those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the heavenly world, the children of God, because they are the children of the resurrection; they being hereby manifestly shown to be his children. The apostle therefore had good reason to call the redemption of our body from death, the adoption. Besides, it is that by which the saints are enabled, as the children of God, to inherit the kingdom of their Father.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 23. And not only only so, but we also,which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
The connection between this passage and the preceding one is obvious at a glance; it is found in the idea of groaning. The groaning of believers themselves, men already animated with the breath of God, rises as it were on that of nature. Of the three or even four readings presented by the documents, we must first, whatever Volkmar may say to the contrary, set aside that of the Vatic., which rejects the , we, in the middle of the verse; this pronoun is indispensable to emphasize the contrast between believers and nature. And whence could it have come into all the other texts? We may also set aside the Greco-Latin reading (D F G). By putting the pronoun: we ourselves also, at the beginning of the sentence, after the words: not only but, it obliterates the forcible reaffirmation which these words contain when placed in the middle of the sentence: We also…we ourselves also…The two other readings differ only in this, that the Alexandrine ( A C) places the , we, before , while the Byzs. place it between the two words: and we ourselves. The difference of meaning is almost imperceptible (we ourselves also; also we ourselves). It is probable that the Alexs. have displaced the , we, to bring it next the participle . This is the reason why we have translated according to the received reading.
Several commentators have thought that in saying first we, then adding we ourselves also, the apostle meant to speak of two different subjects, for example, Christians and apostles (Mel.), or Christians and Paul himself (Reiche). But in this case the article before the participle would be indispensable; and what object could there be in such a distinction in the context?
The logical connection between the participle , having, possessing, and the verb , we groan, should be rendered by the conjunction though: Though already possessing, we still groan (ipsi nos habentes).
The expression: the first-fruits of the Spirit, is so clear that it is difficult to understand how it should have given rise to dispute. How has it occurred to commentators like De Wette, Olshausen, Meyer, to apply it specially to the Spirit bestowed on the apostles and first believers, to distinguish it from the Spirit afterward bestowed on other believers? What importance can this difference have for the spiritual life, and where is a trace of such a distinction to be found in the N. T.? It would be preferable to regard the word first-fruits (with Chrys., Calv., Thol., Philip., Bonnet) as referring to the fact that Christians here below receive only a beginning, while there will be given to them above the entire fulness of the Spirit. In this sense the genitive would be the complement of the object: The first-fruits of that gift which is the Spirit. But the apostle is not here contrasting an imperfect with a more perfect spiritual state; he is contrasting an inward state already relatively perfect, with an outward state which has not yet participated in the spiritual renewal; this appears clearly from the last words: waiting for the redemption of our body. The genitive is therefore the complement of quality or apposition: The first-fruits which consist of the Spirit Himself. This meaning is proved, besides, by the attentive comparison of 2Co 1:22 and Eph 1:14. The apostle means: We ourselves, who by the possession of the Spirit have already entered inwardly into the new world, still groan, because there is a part of our being, the outer man, which does not yet enjoy this privilege.
Hofmann joins the regimen: within ourselves, to the participle : we who have within ourselves. But is it not superfluous to say that the Holy Spirit is possessed inwardly? This regimen is very significant, on the contrary, if we connect it, as is grammatically natural, with the verb we groan: We groan often inwardly, even when others do not suspect it, and when they hear us proclaiming salvation as a fact already accomplished. The disharmony between the child of God and the child of the dust therefore still remains; and hence we wait for something.
This something St. Paul calls adoption, and he explains it by the apposition: the redemption of our body. No doubt our adoption is in point of right an acquired fact (Gal 4:6). It is so in reality on its spiritual side, for we already possess the Spirit of our Father, as Paul has developed it, Rom 8:14-16. But the state of sons of God will not be fully realized in us until to the holiness of the Spirit there be added the glory and perfection of the body. It needs hardly be said that the expression: the redemption of our body, is not to be interpreted in the sense: that we are to be delivered from our body (Oltram.). For this idea, applied to the body itself, would be anti-biblical; faith waits for a new body; and if it applied to the body only as the body of our humiliation, as Paul says, Php 3:21, this specification would require to be added, or at least Paul would require to say , of this present body. The complement of the body is therefore evidently the genitive, not of the object, but of the subject: it is the body itself which is to be delivered from the miseries of its present corruption. We see from 2Co 5:4 that Paul desired not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon: that is, to receive his glorified body, by the power of which his mortal body was to be as it were swallowed up. It is by the transformation of the body only that we shall become completely sons of God. Comp. the affirmation, which is not identical, but analogous, made in reference to Christ Himself, Rom 1:3-4.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [And not only do we recognize this vast, unuttered longing of nature, but we find similar groanings even within ourselves, though occupying a much more privileged and advantageous position than nature, having, in the firstfruits of the Spirit, an earnest or inspiring foretaste of the good things to come, and yet, despite our advantage, so exceedingly desirable is the glory yet to be revealed, that even we ourselves groan within ourselves because of those parts wherein we are nearest akin to the material creation, waiting for the time to come when we shall be openly revealed as the adopted children of God, by those changes which culminate in that transformation brought about by the resurrection–when our mortal, corruptible, weak, dishonored, natural body shall be transfigured into the immortal, incorruptible, powerful, glorified, spiritual body, thus accomplishing the redemption of the body.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
23. And not only so, but we ourselves, having the earnest of the Spirit,
i. e., the heavenly prelibation we enjoy in the regeneration and sanctification of the Holy Spirit, which is a foretaste of the heavenly felicity which awaits us, and we ourselves also groan among ourselves, awaiting the sonship, i. e., the redemption of the body. Even these bodies of ours are to become the sons of God in the coming glorification, where they will be transfigured into the similitude of our Saviors glorious body, which ascended up from Mt. Olivet. The vivid conception of Paul here portrays the body holding in electrical anticipation its own coming glory and groaning to enter into the heavenly splendors of the transfiguration.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 23
Of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit, poured out upon the disciples after the ascension of the Savior.–Waiting for the adoption; looking forward to the time when we shall realize the adoption referred to in Romans 8:15.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
8:23 {22} And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within {d} ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], {e} the redemption of our body.
(22) Fifthly, if the rest of the world looks for a restoring, groaning as it were for it and that not in vain, let us also sigh, indeed, let us be more certainly persuaded of our redemption to come, for we already have the first fruits of the Spirit.
(d) Even from the bottom of our hearts.
(e) The last restoring, which will be the accomplishment of our adoption.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The saints share the sense of groaning and anticipation that Paul described the whole creation feeling. God will fully redeem both it and us finally. However only the saints have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
God commanded the Israelites to present a portion of their harvest that ripened first as an offering to Him (Exo 23:19; Neh 10:35). This offering acknowledged that the whole harvest was from Him and was really His. It was an offering that the Israelites made in faith, confident that the rest of the harvest would follow.
Similarly God’s gift of the Spirit at the commencement of the believer’s Christian life is His pledge that He will complete the process of salvation. Even though He has redeemed and adopted us, there is more of redemption and adoption for us to experience in the future (Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; 1Jn 3:2). When will that take place? It will happen at the Rapture, when He glorifies our bodies by making them immortal (Php 3:20-21; cf. 1Co 15:44; Joh 14:1-2). The judgment seat of Christ will follow, when we will receive more of our glorious inheritance (1Pe 1:3-4; 1Co 3:12-15; 2Co 5:10).
"The ’adoption’ here is the full manifestation of the status of believers when they are invested as sons and daughters of God (cf. Rom 8:14-17) and enter on the inheritance which is theirs by virtue of that status. ’The redemption of our bodies’ is the resurrection, a theme on which Paul had recently enlarged in 2Co 4:7 to 2Co 5:10." [Note: Bruce, pp. 164-65.]