Then, having brought
the creation into the scope of God’s redemptive operation and thus indicating
that the power of death and corruption has been (is, and will be) nullified,
Paul moves on to the people of God that are the people of God because of their
covenant inclusion via belief in Jesus as the crucified and resurrected Messiah
and Lord of all, stating “Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the
redemption of our bodies.” The groaning is paramount, and provides the
conceptual link going forward, as Paul also proposes that the groaning is the
interceding of the Spirit of God (8:26).
So, it is with
Israel’s redemption from the bondage of Egypt in mind, as it is situated as
evidence of the Creator God’s faithfulness towards His covenant with Abraham,
that Paul goes on to say “And we know that all things work together for good for
those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (8:28). How
do we know this? We know this because a groaning Israel, with a promise
of something akin to resurrection, received liberation from Egypt. God
heard, God understood, and God acted. If God’s covenant faithfulness
towards Israel is any sort of guide, then we know that God will do the same for
His new and expanded covenant family that have been brought together in
fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, and to fulfill the role that
Abraham’s family was to have in and for the world. With this, because of
the movement of the letter and of the immediate exodus and covenant
associations of what surrounds it (the groaning), we see that the statement of
verse twenty-eight is rooted in the historical narrative of God’s dealings with
Israel.
Israel was most
certainly a people called according God’s purpose. The creation itself
was called into existence for a purpose. The worldwide covenant family
that has been made so through believing in Jesus has definitely been called out
for a purpose. As Israel routinely suffered in the midst of their being
called, as the creation continues to suffer, and as those that have confessed
their allegiance to the kingdom of God through their confession of the Gospel
of Jesus continue to suffer, there is groaning. There is the intercession
of the Spirit. This groaning, which we might be able to equate to a
recognition and admission of the continued existence of evil and that which
binds and continues to attempt a thwarting of God’s purposes and to halt the
ongoing manifestation and continual advance of His kingdom (as evil seeks to
discourage our holding fast to a realization of the covenant faithfulness of
the Creator God), serves as a reminder to those that are part of the people
that have been placed within the narrative of God’s restorative plan and who
are charged to live in accordance with the activation of that covenant plan,
that God hears, God understands, and that God does indeed act.
How does He
act? While we do not limit God’s ability to act directly in the world,
we, along with Paul, realize that He deigns to act through His covenant family,
as they have been charged to be the righteousness of God (the covenant
faithfulness of God) in the world. Accordingly, covenant participants are
to act in ways that serve to defeat that which seeks to continually deface and
mar God’s creation, whether that defacing is directed towards the creation into
which we have been placed or the beings created in His image, either of which
limits the ability of the creation to offers its praises or the image-bearers
to adequately reflect God’s glory into His creation (thereby limiting the
creation’s ability to praise its Creator in a vicious, stultifying circle).
Kingdom actions are those things that demonstrate and announce the advent of
the kingdom of God, with these taking the form of both word and deed (deeds
being far more weighty). The model for this, of course, is Jesus, who
went around announcing the kingdom of God, and through His actions that served
to show forth God and therefore the image that humanity was to put on display,
proved that the kingdom had come and that God was becoming King through Him, as
He carried out God’s will on earth as in heaven.
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