Momentarily skipping down a few verses in Romans, and
attempting to hear these words while remembering their connection to the plight
of an Israel in bondage in Egypt while contemplating their connection to a
covenant people and a creation that acknowledges the promise of resurrection
and an inaugurated kingdom within a creation whose
restoration/renewal/redemption has begun, we find: “For in hope we were
saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he
sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with
endurance” (8:24-25). Picking back up with the verse that finishes the thought
begun in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses: “because we are not looking at
what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is
temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (4:18). As we can see,
there is an obvious sharing of ideas between the passages from the two letters,
and that sharing continues in to chapter five.
Returning again to
what really is an altogether fascinating series of thoughts on offer by the
Apostle Paul, we join the Roman congregation in hearing “For we know that the
whole creation groans and suffers together until now. 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” (8:22-23). It
must be recognized that the language here employed by Paul, specifically that
of groaning and redemption, is the language of Israel’s defining story
(bondage, Passover, exodus).
We also here note Paul’s
use of “we” in his engagement with Gentiles, which appears to be Paul’s way of
self-identifying with Gentiles and to play a role in his desire to see a united
family of God. Building on that, the use
of “adoption” in precise connection with these highly charged terms merely
amplifies and exacerbates the end that Paul believes to be on offer in the
Gospel’s announcement (the Lordship of Jesus that portends the inauguration of
the kingdom of God). It is easy to understand Paul’s aims in this regard,
as the congregation of Roman believers is generally understood to be a more
evenly mixed congregation of Jew and Gentile and therefore in need of the
“adoption” of an inclusive family language for what must become an inclusive
family story. The fact that Paul spends time in his letters specifically
addressing what would be largely Jewish concerns reinforces the picture of that
relatively even mixture.
While there are also
Jews in Corinth, and undoubtedly Jews as part of the assembly of Jesus
believers there, the situation in Corinth is understood to be a bit
different. Perhaps there are a very small number of Jewish believers, so
their concerns are not particularly germane to the entire assembly?
Accordingly, there is no pervasive crisis. Consequently, the abiding
concerns of his Jewish brethren do not warrant the overt attention of
Paul. It is possible that the Jews there were more Hellenized, and
therefore less stringent in their adherence to the traditions addressed in the
Romans letter, such as table fellowship and the marks of covenant
inclusion. Speculation could continue. However, what is unmistakable
is Paul’s employment of overtly Israel-centric terminology here in this passage
that is quite the mirror of part of Romans eight.
Again echoing the
above-quoted words of that chapter, with words such as “suffering,” “eternal,”
and “glory” ringing in our ears as that which closes the fourth chapter, along
with the “creation,” “groans,” “suffers,” “adoption,” and “redemption” of
Romans eight (realizing that these terms are all conceptually linked by the
narratives of Israel and Jesus), we advance into the fifth chapter of the
second letter to the Corinthians and hear “For we know that if our earthly
house is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human
hands, that is eternal in the heavens” (5:1). Crucially then, in the next
verse, Paul writes “For in this earthly house we groan, because we desire to
put on our heavenly dwelling” (5:2).
In yet another
unmistakable fusion of the disparate peoples of the world into the family of
God whose continuing story of relationship with the Creator God has as its
foundation the story of Israel (which, we remember, goes all the way back to
Adam, though Adam is also understood to be the progenitor of humanity), Paul
calls to mind the exodus. Israel, who had the promise of a return to the land
that had been promised to the family of Abraham---and we do not miss the
connection to the church of the Christ as the family of Abraham and the whole
of creation as the land originally promised to Adam as the divine image-bearer,
presumably groaned under their bondage precisely because of the remembrance of
that promise (at the very least, this is what is to be taken from the
people-of-God-defining narrative as supplied by the Hebrew Scriptures), longing
to put on their heavenly dwelling, which was their promised land.
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