Continuing his train
of thought, the apostle goes on to write, “For the creation was subjected to
futility---not willingly but because of God Who subjected it” (8:20).
Again, it seems that what we have here is an echo of Israel’s subjection by the
Egyptians. Just as the story of Israel has the people being subjected
against their will, owing to the king that did not know Joseph (with the story
indicating his having apparently forgotten what Joseph did for Egypt), so too
was the creation subjected to futility against its will, with this presumably owing
to Adam’s forgetting of the commands and covenant of the Creator God.
However, in both cases, there is a reminder that the same Creator God remains
in control, cognizant of the situation and His continuing purposes.
In Romans, this
subjection comes with a hope “that the creation itself will also be set free
from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children”
(8:21). Here, the analogy to Israel in Egypt grows increasingly clear.
Just as Israel was going to be set free from its bondage and returned to their long-looked-for
land of promise, so also will the creation be set free from its bondage to
death and decay, and from its thorns and thistles, being returned to that state
for which its Creator intended it, and which He had originally declared to be
good.
The creation then functions
much like Israel in Egypt, and we can grasp that as Paul writes “For we know
that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now” (8:23).
Just as the Creator God heard His people and remembered His covenant with
Israel’s forefathers, so He also hears the groans of His creation, as it reacts
to its futile subjection and oppression and rigorous servitude. Not only
does Paul set forth creation’s groaning like Israel, he also connects the
groaning to the people of God in Christ, who have come to be the renewed Israel
with a renewed covenant based on its new forefather (Jesus), writing “Not only
this, but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan
inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies”
(8:23).
As the Passover
narrative of Exodus culminates in the redemption and rescue of Israel, together
with the destruction of its enemies, so too does the use of exodus language as
it is applied to both the creation and the renewed Israel in union with Christ
(those that confess Jesus as Lord). Paul and others have come to
understand that through the Resurrection death was defeated; and though all living
things still die, death has no ultimate power, as fear has been replaced by
hope. Because of the Christ’s Resurrection, those that believe in Him,
join His movement, and share in the kingdom of the Creator God (its means and
its purposes) have the sure and steadfast hope and promise of a resurrection to
come, when the kingdom of heaven, already inaugurated through the ruling
Lordship of Christ, is fully consummated upon His return.
Though there is an
ongoing groaning, because of Christ’s Resurrection, death can no longer
oppress. Through that same power for resurrection, the creation also eventually
escapes oppression, expecting renewal. Just as redeemed humanity regains
the image of Himself that had been God’s intention, so too will the creation
experience the benefits of God’s covenant faithfulness. As the Creator God
reverses the curses pronounced against man upon his fall, so too does that same
covenanting God reverse the curse pronounced upon His good creation. As
God’s work for His people in Egypt began with groaning and progressed through
God’s miraculous intervention on behalf of His people, so too can we contemplate
and comprehend God’s work for His people---for though we groan, and though the
creation groans, we experience His eternal life (the life of the age to come)
in the midst of hope because of the miraculous intervention that God performed
through His Christ, and when He miraculously intervenes in His world through
His image-bearers that bear the name of the crucified One.
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