Paul introduces this passage with a great statement of faith: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. v18.

He then introduces a subject not really dealt with anywhere else in the New Testament: the imperfection of the natural world. This is a highly controversial topic although you wouldn't think so to read the scholarly commentaries I possess. The vast majority of Bible scholars are ignorant about the Earth Sciences. What is worse they are happy to remain in ignorance. This actually tests my faith! Most conservative expositors of Scripture are totally disinterested in harmonising what the Bible says about creation with the findings of Science. They have the mentality of an ostrich to the honest work of Geologists.

Paul finally returns to the reality of human suffering and gives some guidance on how to cope with it.

(B) Nature's night. See v19to22.

When Paul writes about 'the creation' he is probably referring to non-human living things or what we often call, 'nature'. He personifies nature and gives it a human voice to draw attention to its condition. All is not well! This is a more realistic view than that expressed in hymns like, 'Yes God is good,' with lines like:

Yes God is good, all nature says,
By God's own hand with speech endued;

(1) Nature's plight.

Paul uses several expressions to indicate that all is not as it should be with the creation. Nature: is subject to frustration, is in bondage to decay, groans as in the pains of childbirth.

There are, for me, three aspects to nature's plight:

(a) All living things are in competition. In the tropical rain forest plants compete for space and light. Some plants like the strangler fig will use another tree for support as it struggles for the light. It will then proceed to kill the host tree by shading it from the sun.

In some animal species males fight for dominance to gain breeding rights with females.

Innumerable predators prey on other creatures. Nature is indeed red in tooth and claw. There is something very chilling about Tennyson's words:

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law–
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed–

(b) There is an endless cycle of birth, life, reproduction, death, decay and rebirth. The driving force is death. It is death that drives the insistent and all powerful urge to reproduce.

In the insect kingdom creatures like damsel flies live for only a brief time. They seem to live just to reproduce and perpetuate the species. If a damsel fly could think and speak it might well conclude that life is futile.

(c) All nature suffers because of the dangerous and destructive extent of man's exploitation. All over the world habitats are being destroyed and species lost in alarming numbers.

(2) The cause of nature's bondage.

Paul writes: For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.

(a) All the writers of the commentaries on Romans that I use (See introduction.) ascribe nature's plight to man's fall. Before the fall all was well with creation. After each day of creation we are told in Genesis, And God saw that it was good. It was after Adam and Eve sinned that God cursed the ground and said: "Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food." Gen3v17.

(b) I have great problems with this because long before man arrived on the earth living creatures were in competition and dying. There is overwhelming evidence that many fossiliferous rocks are of great age. One only has to read a book on Historical Geology or the Stratigraphy of the British Isles to discover how the lithology and arrangement of the rocks themselves point to sedimentation in diverse conditions over a long period of time.

It is ridiculous to pretend that the hundreds of feet of chalk composed as it is of trillions upon trillions of microscopic fragments of a calcareous algae is the product of a catastrophe. The fragments or coccoliths were laid down in up to 150 fathoms of water in such quiet conditions that there is no admixture of other materials such as clay, silt or sand.

When considering the story of creation in Genesis there are two alternatives:

• The six days refer to six stages of creation. It is then possible to harmonise the account with the findings of Science. See article on creation.

• God did literally create everything in six days but did so to look as if it took millions of years thereby deceiving Geologists and Geomorphologists. Why should God do that?

(c) I take the view that creation took millions of years as we measure time. The Genesis account does describe the orderly process with quite remarkable accuracy. We are, however, left with question of why the whole creation is in bondage.

It could be argued that God created living things the way he did in anticipation of the fall and mankind's subsequent rampant reproduction. It is only because plants die that they reproduce. They bear fruit to reproduce. This is the food upon which human's live. We also rely upon the death of organisms in the distant past for energy. Where would we be today without coal, oil, natural gas, limestone and the like.

If nature had a voice it is certainly true that living things would protest at sinful man's careless exploitation of creation.

Perhaps, if Adam and Eve had passed God's test in the oasis paradise of Eden their natures would have been fixed in perfect love of and obedience to their Maker. God might then have brought his creation to completion by eliminating competition and death.

(3) Nature's liberation.

Paul reveals a truth not dealt with elsewhere in Scripture. Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. v21. This event takes place at the Second Coming of Jesus. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Nature is depicted as someone in a crowd waiting for soldiers returning from war craning their neck to catch a glimpse of a loved one whose absence has been sorely missed. The sons of God will be revealed when Christ returns. They will be glorious in their resurrection bodies.

It seems that Paul anticipates a new, glorified creation for the new, resurrected believers to enjoy on the new earth. There will be an entirely new earth and heaven. See 2Pet3. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth the home of righteousness. v13. So the natural world will be brought to completion for the new earth. The old will be taken into the new just as our old bodies will be taken into our resurrection bodies. So, the living things on the new earth will not be entirely unfamiliar.

It is highly significant that Paul writes: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of child birth right up to the present time. v22. This surely looks forward to a day that nature will be reborn. It may faintly resemble the old but it will finally be brought to perfection. It will no longer be red in tooth and claw.

(C) The believer's experience.

The believer's experience mirrors that of nature. In verse thirteen Paul writes: Not only so .... .

(1) The believer's plight.

“AAARRRGGGHHH!” This is the word that Charlie Brown, from the comic strip Peanuts, used when Lucy pulled the football away. He would always land flat on his back and yell “AAARRRGGGHHH!” This was the writer of the comic strips attempt to express with a single word what we would call a groan. A groan is an expression of hurt, frustration and longing for things to be better. Charlie Brown was groaning because he was frustrated at repeated failure and falls and because he was longing for a better day.

Christians are like Charlie Brown. They suffer and groan because although they have the first fruits of the Spirit they remain in their old bodies and retain their sinful natures. We may have God's Spirit - but not as we shall one day have it. We remain a work in progress. We wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. v23. We haven't come fully into our inheritance as heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. We have not put on our resurrection bodies.

God's purpose has yet to be completed and fulfilled in us. We are like refugees in a holding camp waiting to be released as new citizens of their adoptive country.

While we wait there is much for Christians to groan about:

(a) Pain in all its various and hideous guises. This afternoon as I spent an hour cutting the grass of our graveyard I groaned as my arthritic back ached and ached. But this is as nothing compared to the horrible, intense pain that many have to endure.

(b) Unsatisfied bodily appetites. There remain millions on our planet who suffer the scourge of hunger. The craving for food can take over the entire life.

(c) Unfulfilled emotional needs. Many are deeply unhappy because they are unwed, unloved, lonely or barren.

(d) Difficult and damaged relationships. Men and women groan over broken marriages, wayward children, disintegrating friendships and rejection in all its guises.

(e) The ongoing inclination to sin and the sense of guilt, failure and worthlessness this engenders.

We should never underestimate the distress and anguish of the human condition. Paul certainly didn't. He experienced much suffering but was able to write to Timothy: I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day. 2 Tim. 1:12.

(2) The believer's hope. For in this hope we are saved. v24. But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. v25.

Hope is a vital human quality that impinges upon our lives in so many different ways:

• During my career as a teacher I worked hard from month to month in the hope of getting paid. As I neared the end of my 37 years in the classroom I continued to work in the hope of getting my pension. It would be foolish not to pretend that the realisation of my hope has not been a source of considerable satisfaction.

• A friend of mine has undergone an operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for advanced breast cancer. The treatment has caused great misery but it has been endured for the hope of a cure and longer life.

• Ten years ago when I set off for Heathrow Airport to travel to Japan I did so with considerable apprehension. But I travelled in hope of an enjoyable experience in a land very different from England. I wasn't disappointed - far from it!

• Over and over again football clubs in the English Premier League appoint a new manage and give him time in the hope that he will bring the club future success. In this instance hope is a fragile commodity and tends to evaporate with failure!

• From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

It is hardly surprising then that hope is so important to the Christian. If we have faith in Jesus we have a settled belief that he will keep his promises. Our hope is to share his glory. Paul wrote: I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. v18. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2Cor5v16to18. Peter writes in the same vein in his epistle: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - .

A strong and lively hope enables us to wait patiently through our troubles for the redemption of our bodies. It should also motivate us to stand firm in the Faith and serve with confidence and cheerfulness the Captain of our Salvation.

Many years ago a young but rather overweight colleague asked me to sponsor him for a thirty mile trek in the Pennines. I agreed to sponsor Tim for £5 - a sum of substance in the early 1980s. I also passed on the cheery observation that there was no way he would complete the walk in his unfit condition.

Monday morning Tim hobbled into school. He could hardly walk - his feet were a mass of blisters. He entered the staff room with outstretched hand. He had undoubtedly been motivated to finish the walk, notwithstanding the pain, in the hope of proving me wrong and collecting the £5. I shall never forget the great big smile on his face as I handed the money over! A smile of triumph!

What smiles there will be on our faces when we come into our inheritance, one that can never perish, spoil or fade.

(3) The Christian's helper.

When we suffer and groan our prayers may be almost inarticulate in the depths of our despair. Paul tells us that in such circumstances the Spirit comes to our aid just as an earthly friend might.

There were a few occasions during my time as a teacher that I upset a pupil so much that she (it was usually a she!) was unable to approach me directly to put her case. Sometimes a friend would be delegated to put it for her.

In times of great perplexity we may hardly know what to ask God for. This is especially true when we are praying for guidance. On a few occasions a nasty problem has arisen in church life that threatens the well being of the fellowship. I have hardly known how to proceed. It is then the Holy Spirit will present my dilemma before the throne of grace and I have been given all necessary guidance.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. v27.