Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
22. we know ] By observation of the pain and disturbance everywhere in the material world.
travaileth in pain ] A powerful and expressive word, indicating both great present distress and the definite result which is to close it.
together ] This word is to be taken with both “groaneth” and “travaileth.” It refers to the complex whole of “creation;” all its kinds and regions share the distress and anticipation.
until now ] i.e. ever since the primeval “subjugation.” The “ now ” perhaps specially refers to the Gospel Age, as that which heralds the final and eternal Age of Glory.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For we know – The sentiment of this verse is designed as an illustration of what had just been said.
That the whole creation – Margin, every creature. This expression has been commonly understood as meaning the same as the creature in Rom 8:20-21. But I understand it as having a different signification; and as being used in the natural and usual signification of the word creature, or creation. It refers, as I suppose, to the whole animate creation; to all living beings; to the state of all created things here, as in a condition of pain and disorder, and groaning and death. Everything which we see; every creature which lives, is thus subjected to a state of servitude, pain, vanity, and death. The reasons for supposing that this is the true interpretation, are,
- That the apostle expressly speaks of the whole creation, of every creature, qualifying the phrase by the expression we know, as if he was drawing an illustration from a well-understood, universal fact.
(2)This interpretation makes consistent sense, and makes the verse have a direct bearing on the argument. It is just an argument from analogy.
He had Rom 8:20-21 said that the condition of a Christian was one of bondage and servitude. It was an imperfect, humiliating state; one attended with pain, sorrow, and death. This might be regarded as a melancholy description, and the question might arise, why was not the Christian at once delivered from this? The answer is in this verse. It is just the condition of everything. It is the manifest principle on which God governs the world. The whole creation is in just this condition; and we are not to be surprised, therefore, if it is the condition of the believer. It is a part of the universal system of things; it accords with everything we see; and we are not to be surprised that the church exists on the same principle of administration; in a state of bondage, imperfection, sorrow, and sighing for deliverance.
Groaneth – Greek, Groans together. All is united in a condition of sorrow. The expression denotes mutual and universal grief. It is one wide and loud lamentation, in which a dying world unites; and in which it has united until now.
And travaileth in pain together – This expression properly denotes the extreme pain of parturition. It also denotes any intense agony, or extreme suffering; and it means here that the condition of all things has been that of intense, united, and continued suffering; in other words, that we are in a world of misery and death. This has been united; all have partaken of it: it has been intense; all endure much: it has been unremitted; every age has experienced the repetition of the same thing.
Until now – Until the time when the apostle wrote. It is equally true of the time since he wrote. It has been the characteristic of every age. It is remarkable that the apostle does not here say of the whole creation, that it had any hope of deliverance; an additional consideration that shows that the interpretation above suggested is correct, Rom 8:20-21, Rom 8:23. Of the sighing and suffering universe, he says nothing with respect to its future state. He does not say that the suffering brutal creation shall be compensated, or shall be restored or raised up. He simply adverts to the fact that it suffers, as an illustration that the condition of the Christian is not singular and special. The Scriptures say nothing of the future condition of the brutal creation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth] If it be inquired how the Gentile world groaned and travailed in pain; let them who explain this of the fabric of the material world, tell us how that groans and travails? They must needs own it to be a borrowed and allusive phrase: but in the sense above given, the very literal construction may be admitted.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If here again the heavens and the earth, with what is therein, be understood, then the apostle further enlargeth upon their present state and condition; before they waited and expected deliverance, now they groan and travail in pain. They also are metaphorical expressions; one is taken for a man who hath upon him a heavy burden, another from a woman that is near her delivery. And this they do
until now; i.e. from the fall of Adam to this present day. They that understand the words of the Gentile world, thus interpret them: We, the apostles and ministers of Jesus Christ, do find by experience, that the Gentiles are very forward to receive the gospel when they hear it, whilst the Jews generally reject it. The Gentile world is, as it were, in pangs of travail ever since Christs time till now, ready to bring forth sons and daughters to God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. For we know that the wholecreation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until nowIffor man’s sake alone the earth was cursed, it cannot surprise us thatit should share in his recovery. And if so, to represent it assympathizing with man’s miseries, and as looking forward to hiscomplete redemption as the period of its own emancipation from itspresent sin-blighted condition, is a beautiful thought, and inharmony with the general teaching of Scripture on the subject. (Seeon 2Pe 3:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For we know that the whole creation groaneth,…. As a woman with child, ready to bring forth: for it is added,
and travaileth in pain together until now; regeneration is owing to the grace of God, which is compared to “seed”, of which men are born again; the means of conveying it is the Gospel, and ministers are the instruments of begetting souls to Christ, and who travail in birth till Christ be formed in them: now the Gospel being carried by the apostles into the Gentile world, and being succeeded there, it was like a woman big with child, ready to bring forth many sons to God; for as it was prophesied, so it came to pass, that “more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife”, Isa 54:1; and these births were attended with pain. The apostles preached the word with much contention, and the Gentiles received it in much affliction, though with the joy of the Holy Ghost; as a woman rejoices when a man child is brought forth, though the birth has been attended with pain and labour. This was an united groan, and travail of all the converted Gentiles in the several parts of the world, together with the ministers of the Gospel, earnestly desiring more instances of conversion among them; and this vehement desire had appeared “until now”, from the first time of the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, to the writing of this epistle; and supposes, that though there were many spiritual births, there were more to come; as there has been, and will be more abundantly, in the latter day: and moreover, this painful labour, and these united groans for spiritual births, the apostles were well acquainted with, and therefore could say, “we know”, &c. by their preaching among them, in whom they could easily observe, and do in their writings take notice, how eagerly desirous they were of having the Gospel preached unto them.
(The whole creation was brought under a curse because of Adam’s sin. This curse will be removed in the eternal state when Christ will restore the creation to the way it was in the beginning. Editor.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Groaneth and travaileth in pain ( ). Two more compounds with . Both rare and both here alone in N.T. Nature is pictured in the pangs of childbirth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
For. Introducing the proof of the hope, not of the bondage. Groaneth – travaileth together [ – ] . Both only here in the New Testament. The simple verb wjdinw to travail, occurs Gal 4:19, 27; Rev 12:2; and the kindred noun wjdin birth – pang, in Matthew and Mark, Acts, and 1Th 5:3. See on Mr 13:9; Act 2:24. Together refers to the common longing of all the elements of the creation, not to its longing in common with God ‘s children. “Nature, with its melancholy charm, resembles a bride who, at the very moment when she was fully attired for marriage, saw the bridegroom die. She still stands with her fresh crown and in her bridal dress, but her eyes are full of tears” (Schelling, cited by Godet).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For we know” (oidamen gar) “For we recognize, perceive, or know;” from the revelation of God that is “true from the beginning,” Psa 119:160; 2Ti 3:16-17.
2) “That the whole creation groaneth,” (hoti pasa he ktisis sustenazei) “that all the created universe groans in unison (together),” not merely the moaning of the sea waves, the moaning of the wind in a minor key, or the sound of all living creatures as they cry and groan in a minor key, but all testimony of the sin cursed earth testifies of sin, as well as of the glory of God, Psa 19:1-6; Rom 1:20.
3) “And travaileth in pain together,” (kai sunodinei) “and travails together,” in unison, in oneness of an whole; the curse pain exists because of sin, the sin of Satan and the sin of one man, Adam, Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14; Rom 5:17; Luk 10:18. Satan is the one who subjected it in hope, but to sin, pain, groans, death and decay, Rom 8:20.
4) “Until now,” (achri tou nun) “until now and hereafter,” for an unknown time of duration, till the time of restitution, until up to the time, that time “shall be no more,” Rev 10:6; 1Co 15:24-28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. For we know, etc. He repeats the same sentiment, that he might pass over to us, though what is now said has the effect and the form of a conclusion; for as creatures are subject to corruption, not through their natural desire, but through the appointment of God, and then, as they have a hope of being hereafter freed from corruption, it hence follows, that they groan like a woman in travail until they shall be delivered. But it is a most suitable similitude; it shows that the groaning of which he speaks will not be in vain and without effect; for it will at length bring forth a joyful and blessed fruit. The meaning is, that creatures are not content in their present state, and yet that they are not so distressed that they pine away without a prospect of a remedy, but that they are as it were in travail; for a restoration to a better state awaits them. By saying that they groan together, he does not mean that they are united together by mutual anxiety, but he joins them as companions to us. The particle hitherto, or, to this day, serves to alleviate the weariness of daily languor; for if creatures have continued for so many ages in their groaning, how inexcusable will our softness or sloth be if we faint during the short course of a shadowy life. (259)
(259) The various opinions which have been given on these verses are referred to at some length by Stuart; and he enumerates not less than eleven, but considers only two as entitled to special attention — the material creation, animate and inanimate, as held here by Calvin, and the rational creation, including mankind, with the exception of Christians, which he himself maintains. In favor of the first he names [ Chrysostom ], [ Theodoret ], [ Theophylact ], [ Œcumenius ], [ Jerome ], [ Ambrose ], [ Luther ], [ Koppe ], [ Doddridge ], (this is not correct,) [ Flatt ], and [ Tholuck ] ; to whom may be added [ Scott ], [ Haldane ], and [ Chalmers ], though [ Scott ], rather inconsistently with the words of the text, if the material creation including animals be meant, regards as a reverie their resurrection; see Rom 8:21.
After a minute discussion of various points, [ Stuart ] avows his preference to the opinion, that the creature” means mankind in general, as being the least liable to objections; and he mentions as its advocates [ Lightfoot ], [ Locke ], [ Turrettin ], [ Semler ], [ Rosenmüller ], and others. He might have added [ Augustine ]. Reference is made for the meaning of the word “creature” to Mar 16:15; Col 1:23; and 1Pe 2:13.
It appears from [ Wolfius ], that the greater part of the Lutheran and Reformed Divines have entertained the first opinion, that the “creature” means the world, rational and animal; to which he himself mainly accedes; and what he considers next to this, as the most tenable, is the notion, that the “creature” means the faithful, that “the sons of God” are the blessed in heaven, and that the Apostles and apostolic men were those who enjoyed “the first-fruits of the Spirit.”
This last opinion relieves us from difficulties which press on all other expositions; and it may be extricated from objections which have been made to it; only the last sentence needs not be introduced. The whole passage, from Rom 8:18 to the end of Rom 8:25, is in character with the usual style of the Apostle. He finishes the first part with Rom 8:22; and then in the second part he announces the same thing in a different form, in more explicit terms, and with some additions. The “waiting” in Rom 8:19, has a correspondent “waiting” in Rom 8:23; and “the hope” in Rom 8:20, has another “hope” to correspond with it in Rom 8:24; and correspondent too is “the manifestation of the sons of God” in Rom 8:19, and “the redemption of our body” in Rom 8:23. To reiterate the same truth in a different way was to make a deeper impression, and accordant with the Apostles manner of writing. He begins the second time, after Rom 8:22, in which is stated the condition of the whole world; and it is in contrast with that alone that Rom 8:23 is to be viewed, which restates and explains what had been previously said, so that “the creature” are the “we ourselves;” and the Apostle proceeds with the subject to end of the 25 verse. Instances of the same sort of arrangement are to be found in Rom 2:17; Rom 11:33.
Rom 8:21
may be considered as an explanation only of the “hope,” at the end of Rom 8:20; “For even it, the creature,” though subjected to vanity, “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption;” which means the same as “this body of death,” in Rom 7:24.
The word κτίσις, means, 1. creation, the world, Mar 10:6; Mar 13:19; Rom 1:20; 2Pe 3:4 : — 2, what is created — creature, what is formed — a building, what is instituted — an ordinance, Rom 1:25; Heb 4:13; Heb 9:11; 1Pe 2:13 : — 3, mankind, the world of men, Mar 16:15; Col 1:23 : — 4, the renewed man, or renewed nature — Christians, 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15. There are only two other places where it is found, and is rendered in our version “creation,” Col 1:15, and Rev 3:14
It is objected to its application here to Christians, because where it has this meaning, it is preceded by καινὴ, new. The same objection stands against applying it to mankind in general, for in these instances push precedes it. Its meaning must be gathered from the whole passage, and we must not stop at the end of verse 23, but include the two following verses. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Groaneth and travaileth.In view of the physical evil and misery prevalent in the world, the Apostle attributes a human consciousness of pain to the rest of creation. It groans and travails together, i.e., every member of it in common with its kind. The idea of travailing, as in childbirth, has reference to the future prospect of joyful delivery. (Comp. Joh. 16:21.)
Until now.This consciousness of pain and imperfection has been continuous and unbroken (nor will it cease until an end is put to it by the Coming of Christ.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. For This is true of us Christians, in a measure, not only as human creatures, but as part of the whole creation, so that 22 and 23 are a more explicit statement of the unity herein of the Christian with the creation.
Whole creation Individual suffering is in unison with universal suffering. All animated nature is groaning. All physical nature is scarred with past convulsions, and puts forth its thorny luxuriance as if groaning under the primeval curse.
Travaileth Its pains are, however, not merely of death, but also of birth. It is as if nature were a mother struggling to bring forth a fresh and new creation. This is, however, the only intimation that the passage contains of any renovation beyond that of the sons of God. It intimates nothing of an immortality or resurrection of beasts. Of such a renovation of the world, not only the Jews, but other oriental nations, cherished an expectation. Nor does geology, as some suppose, exclude the supposition. That science discloses wondrous revolutions and stages through which the earth has passed in past ages. The most wonderful, surpassing in some respects most of the miracles of Scripture, was the introduction of animal life. And geology reveals some great changes as sudden. Of life it may be said that it was a suspension of all previous laws, by the interposition of a new power in the world. When life forms or enters an organism, the ordinary course of chemical affinities is arrested; when that interposition is withdrawn, “the lower law by which the particles of matter seek their natural affinity resumes its reign.” This seems a shadow of the interposition in nature of the still higher Power by which still higher arrangements will be established, which, though miracles to our present order, will be natural to the new state, and natural as accordant with the laws of God’s universe.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers birthpangs together until now.’
Thus just as Christians are groaning within themselves over their temporary enslavement by sin which is not of their own will (Rom 8:23; Rom 7:14; Rom 7:24), so does the whole creation groan together and suffer birthpangs together even to this present time, because it has been subjected to frustration not of its own will. Note the emphasis on togetherness (emphasised in the Greek of both verbs). The whole suffers as one. The fact that it ‘suffers birth pangs together’ not only indicates that all parts suffer together, but also that what creation suffers is in fact only the first agonies which precede eternal bliss. Once the new creation has sprung out of the old the birth pangs will be forgotten. Ongoing history may seem a long time to us, but in the household management of God (Eph 1:10) it is but the brief initial suffering which leads to glory ahead. Compared with eternity the present ages are simply a brief passage of time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 8:22. The whole creation groaneth How David groaned under the vanity of this life, may be seen Psa 89:47-48 which complaint may be met with in some sense and in some degree in every man’s mouth: so that even those who have not the first fruits of the Spirit, have uneasy longings after immortality, or of something to make them happy, which this world cannot afford them. It is true, that to be in pangs like a woman in travail, the metaphor here used, sometimes only signifies being in great distress, where there is no reference to any expected birth; but it seems very probable, that the Apostle, in these metaphors, here alludes to what he had been before saying, Rom 8:14; Rom 8:17; Rom 8:19; Rom 8:21. In all which places he describes real believers as the children of God; beautifully representing at the same time the sad condition of those, who, while they had faculties capable through divine gracefor standing in such a relation to God as his children, were lost in darkness and vanity, while ignorant of God, and the way of salvation; during which time they were even pained by the capability of their nature, it having no suitable object to act upon. The reader may observe a well-adjusted gradation from Rom 8:19. The world seems to wait and call, and groan for the spreading of the Gospel; and those among whom it prevails, are still in travail, as it were, with the hope and desire of a yet more exalted state after the resurrection, Rom 8:23. See Locke and Doddridge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 8:22 . Proof, not of the (Philippi), which is much too distant , and whose goal remains quite unnoticed here; nor yet of the (Zahn), which was not the point of the foregoing thought at all; but of what was announced by , . . . . . . For if that hope of glorious deliverance had not been left to it, all nature would not have united its groaning and travailing until now . This phenomenon, so universal and so unbroken , cannot be conduct without an aim; on the contrary, it presupposes as the motive of the painful travail that very hope, towards whose final fulfilment it is directed. The (comp. Rom 2:2 , Rom 3:19 , Rom 7:14 ) is sufficiently explained as an appeal to the Christian consciousness, in which the view of nature stands in connection with the curse of sin. The perfectly superfluous assumption, that the apostle had a book before him containing a similar deduction (Ewald), is suggested by nothing in the text.
In . and the is not a mere strengthening particle (Loesner, Michaelis, Semler, Ernesti, and Kllner), but, on the contrary (comp. Beza), finds its natural reference in , and denotes “gemitum et dolorem communem inter se partium creaturae ,” Estius. Calvin, Pareus, Koppe, Ewald, and Umbreit, following Oecumenius, have indeed referred to the groaning being in common with that of the children of God; but against this view Rom 8:23 is decisive, and the reference to men generally, with whom the sighs (Fritzsche), is foreign to the context. Fritzsche, without due reason, asserts the want of linguistic usage in favour of our view. For it is unquestionable that, in accordance with the usage of analogous verbs, may denote the common sighing of the elements comprised in the collective among themselves (comp. Eph 4:16 : , comp. Rom 2:21 ; Plat. Legg . iii. p. 686 B: , Dem. 516. 7 : , 775. 18: ). That concrete examples of that nature cannot be quoted, is not decisive against it, since (Eur. Ion . 935, comp. , Arist. Eth . ix. 11) and also (Eur. Hel . 727; Porphyr. de abst . iii. 10) are only extant in a very few passages. Comp. generally Winer, de verb. compos . II. p. 21 f. Just the same with , Plat. Rep . p. 462 D, and p. 462 E.
] Not an allusion to the (Reiche), because the dolores Messiae (see on Mat 2:3 ) are peculiar sufferings, that shall immediately precede the appearance of the Messiah, whilst the travail of nature has continued since as early as Gen 3:17 (Rom 8:20 ). But the figure is the same in both cases that of the pains of labour. All nature groans and suffers anguish, as if in travail, over-against the moment of its deliverance. The conception of the is based on the fact that the painful struggling of the is directed towards the longed-for change, with the setting in of which the suffering has accomplished its end and ceases. Comp. Joh 16:21 .
] that is, up to the present moment; so incessantly has the sighing continued. Formerly Frommann imported the thought: until now, when the revelation of the true goal in Christ has taken place; see, against this, Zahn, p. 524 f. However, Frommann has now corrected his view. Hofmann erroneously takes it as: now still , in contrast to the future change. Comp. rather Phi 1:5 . The point of beginning of the sighing and travailing is that in Rom 8:20 . Comp. also in Mat 24:21 . Now still would be , 1Co 3:2 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Ver. 22. The whole creation groaneth ] Even the very heavens are not without their feebleness and the manifest effects of fainting old age. It is observed that since the days of Ptolemy, the sun runs nearer the earth by 9976 German miles, and therefore the heavens have not kept their first perfection.
And travaileth ] How Mr Bradshaw pitied the poor beast he rode on, and said, that men take too much liberty in killing and misusing some contemptible creatures, see in his Life by Mr. Clark, p. 130.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22. ] For we know (said of an acknowledged and patent fact, see ch. Rom 2:2 ; Rom 3:19 ; Rom 7:14 ) that the whole creation groans together and travails together (not, groans and travails with us or with mankind , which would render the of the next verse superfluous. On the figure in see Joh 16:21 , note) [ until now (i.e.] up to this time = from the beginning till now : no reference to time future, because expresses the results of experience ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 8:22 . . . .: How Christians know this Paul does not say. Perhaps we may say that the Christian consciousness of sin and redemption is in contact with the ultimate realities of the universe, and that no interpretation of nature can be true but one which, like this, is in essential harmony with it. The force of the preposition in and is not that we sigh and are in pain, and creation along with us; but that the whole frame of creation, all its parts together, unite in sighing and in pain. Weiss is right in saying that there is no reference to the dolores Messiae ; but in there is the suggestion of the travail out of which the new world is to be born. means up till now, without stopping, ever since the moment of .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
groaneth = is groaning together. Greek. sustenazo. Only here.
travaileth . . . together = travails together. Greek. sunodino. Only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] For we know (said of an acknowledged and patent fact, see ch. Rom 2:2; Rom 3:19; Rom 7:14) that the whole creation groans together and travails together (not, groans and travails with us or with mankind, which would render the of the next verse superfluous. On the figure in see Joh 16:21, note) [until now (i.e.] up to this time = from the beginning till now: no reference to time future, because expresses the results of experience).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 8:22. , for) This aetiology[96] [assigning of a reason] supposes, that the groaning of the creature is not in vain, but that it is heard by God.-) all [the whole]. It is considered as one whole, comp. Rom 8:28; Rom 8:32; Rom 8:39.-, groaneth together) with united groanings [sighings]. Dio Cassius, book 39, gives a singular example of this in the wailing of the elephants, which Pompey devoted to the public shows contrary to an express pledge [promise given], as men at the time interpreted it; and the people themselves were so affected by it, that they imprecated curses on the head of the commander.-, until) He insinuates, that there will be an end of pains and groans, the pains and groans of the creature.
[96] See Appendix.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 8:22
Rom 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.-The whole creation suffered from the effects of mans sin. It is represented as suffering and groaning in its mortality and together travailing in pain. Animated nature suffers, vegetable nature struggles against, but succumbs to, death and decay, and the laws of all nature are disturbed and in commotion on account of mans sin. [These pangs of a world in travail cannot be unmeaning. They point to a coming time of delivery, when, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2Pe 3:13).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the: etc. or, every creature, Rom 8:20, Mar 16:15, Col 1:23
groaneth: Psa 48:6, Jer 12:11, Joh 16:21, Rev 12:2
Reciprocal: Gen 7:21 – General Lev 18:25 – the land Lev 18:28 – General Lev 26:35 – General Num 22:28 – What have I Job 15:20 – travaileth Psa 38:9 – groaning Ecc 1:8 – full Jer 12:4 – the beasts Joe 1:18 – General Rom 5:14 – even
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
For we know.
Rom 8:22
St. Paul was no mean man. If ever a strong man lived, that man was St. Paul. And, more than that, he was a man who had sacrificed a great deal for what he had believed. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; Pharisee of the Pharisees; he lost all for the sake of Christ. Nor was he a mere enthusiast. For thirty years that man lived suffering all kinds of persecutions for his faith. And he was a man of no mean experience. He was converted by Christ Himselfthe only one after the thief. He was caught up into the seventh heaven, and heard unspeakable things. And he could raise the dead. That is the man he wassure about his faith.
I. He knew Whom he had believed.It is not enough that a man should know of his salvation, but you should know the grounds of your salvation. They do not rest upon us. You need not go searching within you to find the grounds upon which you believe your salvation. They are in Christ. We know of our salvation, and we know that our salvation rests simply and merely upon Christ. This is the grace of God given to us through faith in Jesus Christthe first thread which makes up the cord. St. Paul knew, not only of his salvation, but he knew upon what his salvation restedupon Christ.
II. He knew that all things work together for good to them that love God.That amid all the provisions of life, however strange they may be, however unintelligible, through all the darkness and difficulty, and trouble, and pain, and through the tears He sees all. There is a certainty for you! I know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Go out into the world with that amid all the uncertainties of your life. You know not what a day may bring forth. What does it matter, if behind it all there is God and His love?
III. He knew that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands.Here is something grand, seeing right beyond into death. Do you know that if you die you have a habitation with God in the heavens, not made with hands? Did not the Lord Jesus say, I go to prepare a place for you? And do you think that at the end of your life there awaits you annihilation, or that because, as they tell us nowadays, the brain ceases to act, the soul exists notthe modern philosophy? Listen to St. Paul: We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands. There is a threefold cord to bind you by faith to God!
Rev. A. H. Stanton.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
:22
Rom 8:22. This is the same as verse 19.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 8:22. For we know. Here, as in chaps. Rom 2:2; Rom 3:19; Rom 7:14, and Rom 8:26; Rom 8:28, the Apostle appeals to the consciousness of Christians, rather than to the consciousness of all men. If Rom 8:21 be taken as the purport of the hope, then this is a proof of the existence of the hope, and not of the bondage of corruption. For if that hope of glorious deliverance had not been left to it, all nature would not have united its groaning and travailing until now. This phenomenon, so universal and so unbroken, cannot be conduct without an aim; on the contrary, it presupposes as the motive of the painful travail that very hope, toward the final fulfilment of which it is directed (Meyer).
Groaneth together. The word together must be repeated to bring out the sense. It refers to the common groaning of the whole creation, and should not be explained as together with us; this idea is first brought out in Rom 8:23.
Travaileth in pain together. The reference to birth-pangs suggests a new form of nature, to which this pain is the necessary preliminary.
Until now, i.e., the present moment; the idea of unbroken duration is the prominent one. There is no reference to some point of time in the future.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Rom 8:22. For we know that the whole creation Ever since the first apostacy of our nature from God; groaneth Suffers a variety of miseries; and travaileth , literally, is in the pains of childbirth, to be delivered from the burden of the curse; until now To this very hour, and so on to the time of deliverance. According to some commentators, the words denote the whole creatures of God, animate and inanimate, which, as they were cursed for the sin of the first man, may, by a beautiful rhetorical figure, be represented as groaning together under that curse, and earnestly wishing to be delivered from it. Such figures indeed are not unusual in Scripture. See Psa 96:12; Psa 98:8. Nevertheless, Rom 8:21, where it is said that the creature itself shall be delivered, &c., into the glorious liberty of the children of God; and the antithesis, Rom 8:23, not only they, but ourselves also, show that the apostle is speaking, not of the brute and inanimate creation but of mankind, and of their earnest desire of immortality. For these reasons, and especially because (Mar 16:15) preach the gospel, , means, to every human creature, I think the same expression in this verse, and in the preceding verses, signify mankind in general, Jews as well as Gentiles. The same expression, also, Col 1:23, signifies every human creature. Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 22. The hope expressed in Rom 8:21 is justified in Rom 8:22. By the word we know, Paul appeals, not as Ewald supposes, to an old book that has been lost, but to a book always open to those who have eyes to read it, nature itself, the daily sight of which proclaims loudly enough all the apostle here says. Is there not a cry of universal suffering, a woful sigh perpetually ascending from the whole life of nature? Have not poets caught this vast groaning in every age? has not their voice become its organ? As Schelling said: On the loveliest spring day, while Nature is displaying all her charms, does not the heart, when drinking in admiration, imbibe a poison of gnawing melancholy? The preposition , with, which enters into the composition of the two verbs, can only refer to the concurrence of all the beings of nature in this common groaning. But there is more than groaning in the case; there is effort, travail. This is forcibly expressed by the second verb , literally, to travail in birth. It seems as if old Nature bore in her bosom the germ of a more perfect nature, and, as the poet says, sente bondir en elle un nouvel univers (feels in her womb the leaping of a new universe).
We should beware of giving to the expression until now the meaning assigned to it by De Wette and Meyer: from the first of time, or without interruption. This would be a superfluous observation. The context shows what Paul means: Until now, even after redemption is already accomplished. The renovating principle has transformed the domain of the Spirit; for it became penetrated therewith at Pentecost. But the domain of nature has remained till now outside of its action. Comp. the , 1Co 4:13. It is in this respect with the whole as with the individual; comp. Rom 8:10.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. [And creation thus waits; for at and by reason of the fall of man, it became subject to frailty; i. e., it also fell from its original design and purpose, and became abortive, diminutive, imperfect, and subject to premature decay. And this it did not do of its own accord, but because the will of God ordered that it should be thus altered (Gen 3:17-18); not leaving it, however, without hope that it also should so far share in the redemption of the sons of God as not only to be delivered from the bondage of being corruptible, to which God subjected it, but also to be transferred to the liberty which results from or accompanies the revelation or glorification of the sons of God. And this hopeful waiting is evident, for we Christians know that God designs to make all things new (2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1; Rev 21:5), and also that the whole creation so shares man’s deterioration and degradation that with him it groans, and has, as it were, the pains of childbirth, even to this hour. The figure of childbirth is appropriate, since nature wishes to reproduce herself in a new, fresh and better form, corresponding to that which she had before the fall of man.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
22. For we know that all creation groaneth together and travaileth in pain till now. This metaphor vividly describes all creation, even the earth itself, as groaning in great anguish and suffering like a woman in the throes of childbirth, till the new creation is born (Revelation 21), new firmament and new earth, thus lucidly portraying the fulfillment of prophecy appertaining to the glorious restitution in Christ, ultimating not only in the glorification of the soul, mind and body after the similitude of Christ, but the glorification of earth and firmament after the fiery sanctification, when Omnipotence will again come in and create it anew, celestializing and adding it back to the heavenly universe, where it belonged in halcyon days of Eden.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 22
The whole creation groaneth. All nature struggles under the burden of suffering and sill.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and {c} travaileth in pain together until now.
(c) By this word is meant not only exceeding sorrow, but also the fruit that follows from it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The creation (excluding man, Rom 8:23) acts as though it is going through birth pains in that it is straining to produce its fruit. Its sufferings are both a result of past events and a portent of future deliverance (cf. Rom 8:20; Mat 19:28).