For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
The expectation of the creature
TheGreek for “expectation” is one of those admirable words which that language easily forms. It is composed of three elements:
êá́ñá
, the head;
äïêǻù äïêḯù äïêǻù
to wait for, espy; and
á̓ðḯ
, from, from afar; so “to wait with the head raised and the eyefixed on that point of the horizon from which the expected object is to come.” What a plastic representation! An artist might make a statue of hope out of this term. The verb “longeth for” is not less remarkable; it is composed of the simple verb
äǻ÷ïìáé
, toreceive, and
å̓ê
, out of the hands of,
áðï
, from, from afar; so “to receive something from the hands of One who extends it to you from afar.” The substantive and the verb together vividly describe the attitude of the suffering creation, which in its entirety turns, as it were, an impatient look to the expected future. (Prof. Godet.)
The expectation of the creature
There is a sort of vague, undefinable impression, we think, upon all spirits, of some great evolution of the present system under which we live--some looking towards, as well as longing after immortality--some mysterious but yet powerful sense within every heart of the present as a state of confinement and thraldom; and that yet a day of light and largeness and liberty is coming. We cannot imagine of unbelievers that they have any very precise or perhaps confident anticipation on the subject any more than the world at large had of the advent of our Messiah--though a very general expectation was abroad of the approaching arrival of some great personage upon earth. And, in like manner, there is abroad even now the dim and the distant vision of another advent, of a brighter period that is now obscurely seen or guessed at through the gloom by which humanity is encompassed--a kind of floating anticipation, suggested perhaps by the experimental feeling that there is now the straitness of an oppressed and limited condition; and that we are still among the toils, and the difficulties, and the struggles of an embryo state of existence. It is altogether worthy of remark, and illustrative of our text, that, in like manner as through the various countries of the world, there is a very wide impression of a primeval condition of virtue and blessedness from which we have fallen, so there seems a very wide expectation of the species being at length restored to the same health and harmony and loveliness as before. The vision of a golden age at some remote period of antiquity is not unaccompanied with the vision of a yet splendid and general revival of all things. Even apart from revelation, there floats before the world’s eye the brilliant perspective of this earth being at length covered with a righteous and regenerated family. This is a topic on which even philosophy has its fascinating dreams; and there are philanthropists in our day who disown Christianity, yet are urged forward to enterprise by the power andthe pleasure of an anticipation so beautiful. They do not think of death. They only think of the moral and political glories of a renovated world, and of these glories as unfading. It is an immortality after all that they are picturing. While they look on that gospel which brought life and immortality to light as a fable, still they find that the whole capacity of their spirits is not filled unless they can regale them with the prospect of an immortality of their own. Nothing short of this will satisfy them; and whether you look to those who speculate on the perfectibility of mankind, or those who think in economic theories that they are laying the basis on which might be reared the permanent happiness of nations--you see but the creature spurning at the narrowness of its present condition, and waiting in earnest expectancy for the manifestation of the sons of God. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
The longing of the creature for perfection
First, the creature. This is to be taken not in a limited sense, as sometimes it is taken in other places, for the human reasonable creature--that is, for mankind (Mar_16:16)--but in an extended sense. For all these outward and visible things which are in the world besides ourselves--the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. The whole frame and body of the creation, as the original word carries it here in the text, the creation itself. And so the Syriac and Arabic interpreters translate it “every creature,” or the “whole creation.” The second thing is, the earnest expectation of the creature waiting. The word which is here translated “earnest expectation,” is in the Greek very emphatic, and signifies properly the stretching or putting out of the head with vehement intention, as one that looks out for some special friend, whom he expects and desires should come unto him. According to that which is expressed of the mother of Sisera, waiting for the return of her son (Jdg_5:28): she looked out at the window for him, and cried through the lattice. Now in the third place, by the manifestation of the sons of God, we are to understand the day of Christ’s second coming as the proper time and season wherein the sons of God shall be made manifest. We begin. The party expecting: the creature. It is usual with the Spirit of God in Scripture to fasten upon the unreasonable creatures those expressions which do properly belong to reasonable men. As for example Psa_96:11; Psa_98:7; Psa_89:8; Hab_2:11; Gen_4:10; Jam_5:4. And so here now the creature is to expect and to wait earnestly. That the whole course and frame of the creation is so ordered and disposed of by God, as that it carries in it a vehement desire and longing for the future estate of God’s children. There are three things in this passage which are ascribed to the creature, which are accordingly observable of us. There is expectation, desire, and patience. First, I say, it expects or looks for it. This is spoken metaphorically. First, it is in a state of defectiveness, and so looks to be supplied. The creature hath lost very much of that beauty and vigour and strength which it had in its first beginning, and which God at first did bestow upon it. The present imperfection of the creature shows that it waits for such a time as this is, because every defect calls for some kind of supply and making of it up. Secondly, it is in a state of motion, and so looks to be fixed. When we see a man going up and down, and running from one place to another, now in this corner and then in that, and afterwards again in another, and never at rest, we conclude that certainly there is somewhat which he looks after that he has not yet obtained. Even so is it also here with the creatures. Thus we see how the creature is expressed under a great deal of inconstancy; which shows that it hath not yet attained to its consistent condition which it expects to come unto. As the needle in the mariner’s compass, which is touched with the loadstone, it is never quiet, but hovers up and down till it be fastened upon the north, which is the place of its proper rest. The second is the creature’s longing for the time of this manifestation also, as that which it desires may be. This is also signified inthe text, in this earnest expectation, which does not only denote a mere wishing, but an express desire and vehement seeking. When we see the earth sometimes to be dried, we say it thirsts and longs for rain; not that it hath such desires in it, which we ourselves are capable of, but because it is in such a condition as does occasion such desires in us. It earnestly longs for the manifestation of the sons of God in another world. But why or whence does it come to do so? What has the creature to do with that? The dumb and unreasonable creature, with the glorious perfection of the saints? Yes, it is very much concerned in it; and that upon a threefold account. First, by way of sympathy and suitableness of affection to us, as in some sort delighting and rejoicing in the good of God’s people; for as the creatures were made for us, so they do in some manner take part with us, and have impressions upon themselves answerable to those things which happen unto us. That thecreature hath some sympathy with us in such things as befall us. And amongst the rest, especially in this--for the perfection and consummation of our happiness, Secondly, and further. Out of respect to itself, for its own consummation likewise. For God in His wisdom and Providence hath so ordered things that the good of His own children shall be the good of everything else. Thirdly, out of respect to the honour and glory of God Himself, which is concerned in it. The third is the creature’s tarrying or staying; as that which it is content with till it be. The creature, although for the present under manifold evils, yet notwithstanding is patient under this condition. Though it groans, yet it does not complain; but keeps within its own bounds and limits for all that. All the creatures, they still keep their course; they are not sullen, but do that work which is proper to them. And thus have we seen this passage made good in this particular--in looking, in longing, in staying. Now the use of all to ourselves comes to this: First, as a shame and reproach to all carnal and worldly persons. We see here how far they are inferior and below the very creatures themselves. Those which are below them in regard of creation, yet they are above them in regard of affection. These look and long for the second coming and appearance of Christ, which the others do not. Secondly, this serves to strengthen and confirm the faith of Christians themselves. If the creature doth thus wait for the time of the second coming of Christ, why then certainly such a thing as this there is to be expected and looked for by us, forasmuch as this is put into them by God Himself. And the earth is not only to feed us, but also to teach us; and a gracious and spiritual heart will be careful accordingly to improve it. Thirdly, here is an argument also for patience under present sufferings, in hope of future deliverance. While the creatures are patient in their condition, as making account to be one day freed from it, how much more should we be so in ours, and do that from the principles of piety, which they do only from the instincts of nature? The sum of all comes to this: All the creatures wait for their perfection; and why should not we? No creature does as yet attain its end; why should we seek for happiness here below? The second is the thing expected in these. The manifestation of the sons of God, that is, by taking it passively; the time when as the sons of God shall be manifested. For the better opening of this present point, we must know that the manifestation of God’s children is considerable in a threefold distribution. First, as to their persons. They shall be revealed and manifested here; who are so, and who are not. Here in this present world there is a mixture of one with another; of tares and wheat together; but then there shall be a plain separation and distinction of either. God will put a difference betwixt His jewels and other stones. There is a threefold manifestation Of God’s children again in reference to their persons. First, a manifestation of them to themselves. Secondly, a manifestation of them to one another. Thirdly, to wicked men. Thus shall there be a manifestation of the children of God in their persons, which is the first explication. Secondly, in their actions. They shall be manifested in these likewise. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest” (1Co_3:13). As the Lord knows their works Himself, so He will cause others to know them also. And secondly, it is also an encouragement to us in secret goodness and the present concealment of worth, or questioning of it. And so as for the actions which men do, so also the cause and interest which they own; they shall be manifested here also. There is a double party and side in the world--God’s and Satan’s. Now it shall one day be manifested who has taken the better part, and owned the juster cause, and been on the strongest side, as Christ will then be sure to manifest and discover all his enemies, and those that would not that He should reign over them. Thirdly and lastly, in their condition. They shall be manifested so also. And that especially as a condition of glory. The consideration of all these things laid together--that there is such a time to come wherein the children of God shall be made manifest, and withal that the creature itself does earnestly hope and wait for this time, when it shall be so indeed; it should have this practical influence upon us, even to raise our hearts and affections to it. It was the commendation given to old Simeon, that he waited for the consolation of Israel. And to Joseph of Arimathea, that he waited for the kingdom of God. Let us take in these directions with us. First, be well settled in our judgments, that there is such a state indeed as this is. For that which we do not believe we cannot desire. Secondly, let us be much in the thoughts and meditations of it. Contemplation, it raises affection. We see how it does so in other things, and how much more then in this? Thirdly, let us get our hearts weaned and taken off from the world and the things of it; so long as we do anything more than ordinary admire earth, we cannot very much desire heaven. The worse in such a case as this will make us to neglect the better. Fourthly, let us labour to be purged and freed from sin, both as to the guilt of it and also to the power of it. And, lastly, to all the rest and fruitfulness and activity in goodness. Those who are much in arrear, they do not care to come to an account.(Thomas Horton, D.D.)
The expectancy of creation
As we read these words there rises before us a vast, majestic vision, the imagery of a whole universe--fields, trees, rivers, clouds and slurs, endless crowds of immortal beings, numberless hosts of creatures without souls--all standing with the head thrust forward, and silently, eagerly, gazing far away for something hoped and longed for, something that is slow, indeed, in coming, but that is sure to come at last. The teaching of the entire passage is--
I. That all creation is in some sense fallen.
1. Of course only intelligent and responsible man is capable of falling in the sense which involves guilt; and whatever other creatures may suffer, cannot be regarded as the punishment of their sin. But who does not know what suffering man’s sin, cruelty, and thoughtlessness, inflict day by day upon dumb animals? And even that conduct which we call vice is always the result of some wrong conduct upon man’s part. There would be no such thing as a vicious horse if there had not previously been a cruel or injudicious man.
2. But to go into the general question--
(1) Think what millions of innocent lives were cut short by the waters of the Deluge, and what hosts of guiltless creatures have yielded up their lives as sacrifices of sin! Now, we know God cares for oxen. Rely upon it, it was a thought to God when almost all the brute creation perished at the Flood. Rely upon it, He did not overlook the suffering of the beasts with whose blood under the law “almost all things were purged.”
(2) As for the inanimate creation, of course, it cannot suffer consciously. Man can both sin and suffer. The inferior animals can suffer but not sin. And as for the inanimate universe, it can neither sin nor suffer. But it is a mistake to fancy that a thing is perverted from the end contemplated by the Creator only when it knows the fact and suffers from it. The inanimate creation is involved in man’s fall, according to its nature. You would almost think that Nature is obliged, by man’s sin, unwillingly to do many things which she would not do if she could help it. The atmosphere is constrained to carry words which are false, impure, profane. Surely that beautiful liquid ether was never made for that! Food is constrained to strengthen for sinful deeds. Is it not hard, so to speak, upon the innocent grain, upon the generous grape, that they should be compelled to yield their energy to the arm of the murderer as readily as to the hand that does the deed of mercy? And since the days of the friar, who stumbled upon that combination of materials, separately innocuous, which hides the battlefield with its sulphureous clouds; think how great a share of human ingenuity has been directly given to wresting from Nature that which shall quench or torture human life. Look at a ship of war! What a grand and imposing spectacle it is! But is it not one great proof that man is fallen? Think of the costly material, skill and industry, that have gone to make that--a grand weapon of destruction: and say if the consequences of man’s fall do notreach to the oak in the forest, the iron in the mine, the flax in the field, the very air and water! And, not lingering on instances of noble material agencies perverted to evil by man--such, for instance, as the printing-press; think how the whole landscape is often darkened by the brooding cloud of sin.
II. Nature is waiting for better days. All things are unconsciously looking forward. There is a vague, dumb sense, that surely better things are coming. All conscious things live in an undefined hope. And wherefore? Simply from some vague, general belief that surely evil will one day die, and the reign of good begin! Why does the man who has got more money than he can ever spend, and no one to leave it to, still save as before: why, but from some shadowy looking-forward, which he does not care to define. Why do most men, when they begin any task, feel eager to get through with it, but for that onward bent that is in all “the creature”? And we can discern traces of the same feeling in inferior natures. Why does the poor hack lean to his collar so eagerly, and toil up the steep street overburdened, but from some vague, dull, confused hope that surely all this will end. Goethe has recorded that he could never look on a beautiful summer landscape without feeling as if it were waiting for something, asking for something, which was notthere.
III. What is the end for which all creation is so earnesly waiting? You who feel a constant craving, believe it, it is no earthly end that will satisfy the longing of your nature! Whenever you have attained one end you see another, and cannot be content till you have reached that: and, that reached, you will see before you another still. The poor man wishes to be rich; the rich man longs for a recognised position in society; the man who has got that thinks how pleased he would be could he obtain a title, fame, nobility. Ah, there is no end of it! Yes, there is more in this than the mere morbid feeling of restless discontent: it is “the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God! “That is the only end in the universe that shall absolutely satisfy the great craving which is in the centre of man’s nature--that is the only summit on reaching which you will see no farther summit stretching away beyond. What a blessing it is to be told what it is we really need! But the Christian only knows what shall fully satisfy that longing; we know that “man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.” “Thou madest us for Thyself,” said Augustine, “and our souls are restless till they find rest in Thee!”(A. K. H. Boyd, D.D.)
The hopes and aspirations of the new creature
I. The object of the creature’s earnest expectation.
1. Its own “manifestation” in its true character. It is now “the creature” subject to vanity, laden with sorrow and corruption. This creature is to be developed. It does not now appear what it is in reality. Some marks of his destination are upon the Christian: he enjoys some foretastes of his inheritance, but nothing in comparison with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
2. A glorious liberty--in opposition to vanity, corruption, and affliction.
3. Bodily resurrection.
II. The present condition of the creature.
1. It is subject to vanity. “When a thing neither fills that which contains it, nor supports that which leans upon it, nor yields fruit to him that labours in it, it is a vanity.”
2. In the bondage of corruption. The phrase chiefly refers to the corruption which must actually take possession of the body in the grave; but it may not inaptly describe the state of Christians themselves in the present world. Though the commanding power of sin is destroyed in conversion, yet its relics exist, and impede the child of God, so that he cannot do the things that he would.
3. This is an unwilling subjection. The desires, affections, and purposes of the renewed nature, all rebel against the yoke of sin, and contend for their perfect freedom.
III. The temper of mind which the creature exhibits in the mean-time.
1. Earnest expectation. Let the ungodly tremble at the thought of Christ’s approach; but to the saints it will be a day of glory, as well as to their Master: to them the consummation of their brightest hopes, to Him the public display of His victories. The proper state of mind, therefore, in which it should be contemplated is that of expectation and desire. We ought so to live that when we shall be summoned to meet Him we may be able to lift up our heads and say, “Even so come, Lord Jesus!”
2. This earnest expectation is associated with patient waiting for the event; the principal ground of which is that God Himself has subjected us to the same in hope. A willing acquiescence in His wise arrangements is one of the best proofs of our filial spirit. No doubt it would be far better to wear the crown than to carry the cross; but so long as there is a work for us to perform on earth, and scope is given to glorify God by resignation under toil and suffering, we must be satisfied to endure temptation; knowing that patient continuance in well-doing leads to glory, honour, and immortality.
3. It is impossible that these strong affections of the new creature should be unproductive of practical results. Do you hope to be acknowledged as sons of God then? Show us the evidences of your adoption now. What traces of your heavenly birth and destination should be visible in your dispositions and lives! Christian patience is not a sluggish grace. It has a work to do, a stewardship to occupy, while it is waiting for the Master’s coming. (D. Katterns.)
Creation’s waiting
St. Paul is primarily thinking only of the little Church at Rome, and giving them rules for their duty. And yet, with the mind of a great philosopher--or, rather, with the vision of a great prophet--he is swept beyond the special case before him into the general principle which it involves, and in giving rules to Rome he is led to survey the method of the universe.
I. The apostle’s doctrine.
1. This whole creation is not a dead, but a living thing. Its movement is not the movement of machinery, but of life. Instead of a blind, mechanical process, this man sees a universe with a desire of its own, bringing forth at last, through the pains which we now call the struggle for existence, the state of things we see. Instead of a world-factory grinding out with indifference its tides and storms, its plants and animals, and the emotions and ideals of men, he sees a universe working out with expectancy a divinely appointed end. Thus he simply anticipates the philosophers and poets who have seen in Nature a living and purposeful process, manifesting at each step the presence of one comprehensive will.
2. Having reached its present point, for what does creation now wait? The “revealing of thesons of God.” Without them the universal evolution pauses. The movement of the universe goes its way from the beginning to a certain point under mechanical laws, fit for material things. But at a certain point the elements of evolution become changed. The problem of the universe is no longer to mould and harden a world--it is to unfold and quicken the higher faculties of man; and for this new work of God a new necessity appears--the help of man. God’s ends are reached, not by such laws as could create or maintain the world, but through His sons. Up to a certain point, things go toward making man what he is; but at that point man takes these things which have moulded him and shapes them to their higher uses. For this reaction of character on circumstance the whole creation waits. Until this occurs, the process that God would fulfil toward the world is retarded. Here is a vessel eager to reach her port, and God’s winds invite her to move on. But not the fairest wind can bring her on her way unless man does his part. The earnestexpectation of the vessel waits until the captain spreads her sails; and then, man working with God, the creation which lay dead and lonely on the sea becomes a thing of life and motion. So it is with all the higher movements of God’s creation. God may create the best of circumstances, but the whole creation simply groans and labours, like a vessel labouring in a sea, until man spreads her sails to catch God’s favouring breeze. The patient expectation of the vessel waits for the manifestation of the captain’s will.
II. Let us take this principle, and set it by the side of some of the problems and movements of the modern world.
1. Take the forces of Nature. Here, e.g., is electricity. It is a creation of God. The force was always there, eager to serve the wants of man; but God’s purposes through it could only be worked out by the sons of God. Finally, after ages of a patient creation, the inventor thinks God’s thoughts after Him, the sons of God are revealed in their relation to Nature, and then the creation moves on into its higher uses, and lights, moves, warms us. And it is awful to consider how many other powers we dwell among without any discernment of their significance and end, while the creation waits for the revealing in its midst of the sons of God.
2. Now turn to the nearer creations--the institutions and affairs of men. Look, e.g., at--
(1) The simplest form of human institutions--the life of the family and the home. Here, in this smallest group of human beings, has been the beginning of all social evolution. In the family, civilisation begins. And its beginnings were natural, inevitable, mechanical. The family group became permanent because it was the group fittest to survive. But is this the end of the evolution of the home? No! A new possibility opens before this primitive institution. It becomes thebest symbol of the relation of God to us, and of ourselves to Him. Now, what brings the home into these higher stages of its evolution? Nothing but the revealing in it of the sons of God. Walk along any street to-day, with its row of houses. How far has the evolution of each home proceeded? Within one door the sons of God have revealed themselves, and domestic life is moving straight on to be thecomplete image of the heavenly world. Here, at the very next door, the evolution has been arrested, and the whole creation groans and travails with the pains of a disordered home. The two houses are alike in outward form, but the one is a home and the other a shelter; the one is a school for immortal souls and the other a pen for domestic animals. Turn to your own home with this thought of its higher intention, and you see with a new clearness your place in it, and its place in the world. You have not been thrown into this place by accident. You are the heir through it of the whole history of man. And now the question lies before you whether that history shall proceed or wait.
(2) The larger world of human society. There never was a time when so many minds were so busy with thoughts of a healthier and happier social state. Dreamers and agitators, working men and scholars, poor women and prosperous women--all are looking for some golden age, when there shall be a more even distribution of the good things of life. But suppose the fortunes of the rich laid low, and the poverty of the poor turned to competency; suppose all the mechanical difficulties of such a revolution overcome. Would the evolution of society be complete? Would its new relations work without friction or check? No! We should be at precisely the point where this whole industrial creation would show itself a waiting creation for the revealing of the sons of God. We should be like people who had created the most delicate of engines, and then had only unskilled mechanics to set it at work. People seem to think that if they can only reconstruct the machinery of society, it will run itself. They see that in the lower stages of social evolution machinery does a great deal. They see the State preserving itself by legislation; they see some evils checked and some gain made by law. But the fact is, that at a certain point the movement of society becomes not mechanical, but moral. It is not a question of controlling men, but of calling forth the best in men; and at that point the movement waits, not for new economic laws or social schemes, but for better souls, for higher impulses, for the revealing of the sons of God. You devise the most ingenious system for making all work for the good of all, but you can perpetuate such a system only by making men love one another. Given a competing race of men, and no device of legislation can abolish competition. Given a regenerated race of men, and a new social state of common life and ownership might be maintained; but one must also say, given a regenerated race and a new social state would seem to be superfluous.
III. Its personal lesson and law. Why should any one of us try so hard to make the most of himself? Why not abandon himself to passion or indolence?
1. There are various answers to this question.
(1) “Because the higher path is the path of happiness.” True. But with the happiness come the conflict and pain; with the new ideals the disappointments; and always there is the pull of animal pleasures dragging one down to other ways of happiness. The search for happiness will not reveal the sons of God.
(2) “Because you are here to save your soul.” True again. For what is a saved soul? It is a healthy, a developed soul--a soul grown up into the stature of Christ, revealed to itself as a son of God. But, after all, this, as a supreme motive of life, is mere self-interest, mere self-culture.
2. Contrast these personal considerations with the reason which St. Paul lays down, and see the tremendous chasm which lies between it and the desire for happiness, or even for salvation itself. What the apostle says is, “Here is God working out through the long ages His purpose toward the world. He comes to a certain point, and there, by the very necessity of things, His work passes out of the region of natural law and self-acting methods, and has to be done through human beings. Now, suppose any soul fails of its higher capacities and remains stunted and unrevealed: is that merely a personal loss of happiness or of salvation? On the contrary, it is a loss so vast as to make every personal motive shrink into insignificance. It is simply so far the retarding of the perfect and universal work of God.” To be sinning, not against one’s self, but against the universe; to be a hinderer of God’s great ends in the world--that is what gives awfulness to every thought of sin. It is, again, some great factory where the looms go weaving with their leaping shuttles the millions of yards of cloth, and then of a sudden one thread breaks, and the loom stops short in its progress, lest the whole intricate work be marred. And then to turn the matter round, think how this thought affects every desire for good. A man looks at his life, and it is a poor, feeble, insignificant thing. He says to himself, “Of what earthly importance is it that I should struggle thus against the stream of my tendency and taste?” That is the unconscious defence of many a ruined life. For one man who errs by thinking too much of himself, ten fail by not thinking enough of themselves. But now comes the apostle into the midst of this spurious modesty, and says, “Yes, taken by itself your life is certainly a very insignificant affair; but placed in the universe which God has made, your life becomes of infinite importance. For God has chosen to work out His designs, not in spite of you, but through you; and where you fail, He halts. God needs you.” It is as though you were a lighthouse-keeper. Can any life be more unpraised or insignificant? Why sit through weary nights to keep your flame alive? Because it is not your light--that is the point. You are not its owner; you are its keeper. The great design of the Power you serve takes you thus out of your insignificance, and while you sit there in the shadow of your lonely tower, ship after ship is looking to you across the sea, and many a man thanks God that, while lights which burn for themselves go out, your light will be surely burning. The earnest expectation of many a storm-tossed sailor waits for the revealing of your friendly gleam. The safety of many a life that passes by you in the dark is trusted from night to night to you. (Prof. F. G. Peabody.)
The manifestation of true men the supreme want of the world
I.True men are the “sons of God.” What constitutes men such?
1. Negatively.
(1) Not that they are mere productions of God. All creatures are His productions.
(2) Not that they resemble the Divine nature. Man is spiritual, reflective, free, but so are devils.
2. Positively.
(1) Moral resemblance; similarity of governing disposition. Love is the ruling element in God. All thus ruled resemble Him, whether men or archangels.
(2) Filial devotion. A man may have six male offspring, and not one true son. The grand purpose of the gospel is to give men the disposition of true children.
II. These sons of God are to have a glorious manifestation on this earth, “Waiting for the manifestation.” Glorious--
1. In the perfection of their character. The best of God’s “sons” on the earth to-day are not perfect.
2. In the vastness of their numbers. These imperfect “sons of God” are comparatively few. But the manifestation will be one of countless multitudes, each perfect. They are the coming men.
III. This glorious “manifestation of the sons of God” is the supreme want of a suffering world. They are the objects of the “earnest expectation” of suffering humanity. What is the great want of the teeming millions to-day?
1. More churches? Some think so, and ecclesiastical edifices are being multiplied. But the people do not want them, and they are half empty almost everywhere.
2. More converts to conventional Christianity? This does not make true men, but formalists and hypocrites.
3. More official preachers? Preaching there should be, but it should be the preaching of the living man, not of the professional pulpiteer.
4. More religious organisations? No; they with their committees and vested interests are drag-chains on the wheels of spiritual independency and true progress.
5. More Bibles? No, there are millions lying unread and uncared for. What the suffering world profoundly longs for is the advent of true men, “sons of God.” Such men will be living Bibles, editions of Him who went about doing good. (David Thomas, D.D.)
The manifestation of the sons of God
I. The sons of God are now hidden.
1. How?
(1) As to their persons (1Jn_3:1). It is not exactly known in the winter, when the roots lie in the earth, what will appear in the spring.
(2) As to their life (Col_3:3). They are hidden not only in point of security, as maintained by an invisible power; but in point of obscurity. Because the spiritual life is hidden under--
(a) The veil of the natural life; it is a life within a life (Gal_2:20).
(b) The veil of afflictions, outward meanness, and abasement (Heb_11:37-38).
(c) The veil of reproaches and calumnies (1Pe_4:6). They are presented in the world as a company of hypocrites (2Co_6:8).
(d) The veil of infirmities, by which they often obscure the glory of that life which they have.
(3) As to their privileges, and the glory of their estate. There must be a distinction between earth and heaven. For the present, our glory is--
(a) Spiritual, and maketh no fair show in the flesh, as the image of God is an internal thing (Psa_45:13).
(b) Future. The time of our perfection and blessedness is not yet come, and we cannot for the present judge of it, nor the world imagine what it shall be.
2. From whom? Not from God (2Ti_2:19); not from Christ (Joh_10:14); not from angels (Heb_1:14); but--
(1) From the world, as colours from a blind man (1Co_2:14).
(2) In a great measure from ourselves. What with corruptions within, and temptations without, we have much ado to be persuaded that God is our Father, and we His children; our condition being so unsuitable, and our conversations so much beneath our rights and privileges; so that it needeth to be cleared by the Spirit of adoption (verse 16). When that is done, yet the glory intended to be revealed in us is not sufficiently known (1Co_2:9).
3. Why?
(1) Because now is the time of trial, hereafter of recompense. Therefore now is the hiding-time; hereafter is the day of manifestation. If the glory were too sensible, there were no trial, neither of the world, nor of the people of God.
(2) God hath chosen this way to advance His glory, that He may perfect His power in our weakness (2Co_12:9).
(3) To wean us from things present to things to come (2Co_4:18).
II. They shall be manifested.
1. Their persons shall be known and owned (Rev_3:5). No more doubt when owned, not by character, but by name.
2. They shall be manifested to themselves, and their glory also revealed to the world by the visible marks of favour Christ will put upon them, when others are rejected (Isa_66:5; 2Th_1:10).
III. This manifestation ought earnestly to be desired and expected by us.
1. To this end the apostle mentions the earnest expectation of the creature, and the day principally concerns us (Son_8:14; Rev_22:20). The saints look for Christ’s coming (Tit_2:13) by faith and hope; and long for His coming (2Ti_4:8) in a way of love.
2. Now His coming must be desired by us with--
(1) Earnestness (2Co_5:2).
(2) Constancy.
(3) Patience (1Th_1:10).(T. Manton, D.D.)
The hope of a fallen world
We are told that in these countries where the night lasts for many months the inhabitants, when they conclude that the dayspring is at hand, climb the loftiest mountains, and there wait and watch the first streak of returning day. That streak is the signal for gladness and melody. Such was the attitude of those who “waited for the consolation of Israel” before the Son of God came, and such ought to be our attitude who look for Christ’s second coming. Note--
I. The mournful condition of creation since the fall.
1. It is in the “bondage of corruption” through the iniquity of its inhabitant man, The mansion has been spotted and stained by the leprosy of him that dwells in it. Before man fell the whole creation, as it came from God, was “very good”; but when man became corrupt and turned the good creatures of God into occasions of sin and idolatry, the whole creation, in a sense, became partaker of the defilement of its rational inhabitants. Drunkenness and debauchery have been made to find their fuel and their food in the good things that God had made for man’s good and for His own glory.
2. And, being thus enthralled by corruption, it is made “subject to vanity.” It is a peculiarity in the Divine government that things should partake in each other’s weal or woe. “A fruitful land maketh He barren, because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Think of Sodom and Palestine. And what God has thus, in a smaller measure, done in individual instances, He has, in the grand scale, in creation. God brought vanity on His beautiful works, and marred, though He did not wholly deface, the lovely structure He had built and furnished.
3. To complete the dark picture, “the whole creation travaileth and groaneth in pain together until now.” What a grandeur there is in this personification of the whole visible universe! The Psalmist thus made all nature, animate and vocal, to praise her Creator, and await her Deliverer’s coming, and it is by a similar bold flight of imagination that the apostle personifies all creation as wearied with the bondage of corruption, mourning through the continual vanity, waiting for the wondrous transformation that is in store for her, and striving after it as a woman drawing near to her delivery longeth for the hour when it shall be said, “a man is born into the world.” And it is not mere fancy that we may seem at times to hear, in the moaning of the tempest, the roar of the storm, the dashing of the billows, the sounds and the sighings that we may often hearken to from troubled, tempest-tossed nature, to construe these into the “groaning and travailing of creation,” after that great redemption and deliverance that the Redeemer hath in store for her.
4. Must we not be arrested with the lesson thus taught us? What a fearful thing is sin, that it casts its dark shadow over the whole universe of God! When we make light of sin, let us look around us, as well as look within us, that we may be humbled, and cry, “God be mericiful to me a sinner!”
II. The hope that animates creation in her mournful and fallen state (verse 19).
1. That is the great epoch to which creation turns her anxious eye, anticipating her glorious deliverance. For we are hid; “our life is now hid with Christ in God.” The world knoweth us not, and we sometimes know not one another. But a day of manifestation cometh--a day of public adoption in the presence of the whole intelligent universe, a day of adoption in the day of “the redemption of the body,” when, invested with the similitude of their glorious Head, they shall stand forth, confessed of all to be the sons of God. Then creation shall find her glorious deliverance. This is that bright epoch foretold by the prophets, the time of the restitution of all things, when the Creator shall say, “Behold, I make all things new.”
2. Behold the hope of the creature. It shall be “delivered out of the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God!” This cannot be annihilation. Would it be deliverance to creation, any compensation for its involuntary suffering, to be blotted out? The very fact that creation has suffered with man is in itself strong presumption that it shall triumph and be exalted with man. And so we look for “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The whole visible creation is anticipating this blessed hope, when, with in its renewed inhabitants, it shall undergo renovation, and shall receive perfection.
Conclusion:
1. The subject is fitted to alarm every one who is making earth his portion. They that corrupt the creature and defile themselves therewith shall never know the creature’s promised bliss.
2. For those that profess to be waiting for Christ’s coming, this contemplation is fitted to impart exalted hope. “Eye hath not seen,” etc. (Canon Stowell.)
The final deliverance of believers
I.The period when this state of degradation and suffering shall give place to the full hope which the gospel now sets before them. The day of the second advent of Christ. This, indeed, will be, in some most important respects, a day of “manifestation”--the manifestation of Him whom the heavens have received, of judgment, of the long-delayed punishment of sinners. But it shall be also the day of “the manifestation of the sons of God.”
1. Of their number, which now we possess no mean of calculating.
2. Of persons whom, perhaps, we never anticipated--for many that are last shall be first, and the first last.
3. Of their virtues, which the world slandered.
4. Of that glory with which they shall be eternally invested.
II. The characters under which this hope is presented.
1. Deliverance from the bondage of corruption.” See this bondage--
(1) In the weakness of the body. It has lost its strength and perfection.
(2) In the diseases of the body.
(3) In that moral corruption to which the natural corruption ministers.
(4) In the manner in which this law sports with every feeling, care, interest.
2. The contrast to this is “the glorious liberty of the children of God”--
(1) From the bondage itself, as resulting from the lapse of Adam.
(2) From the grave, for Christ opens, and no man shuts.
(3) From the grossness of the body, for that which is sown a natural is raised a spiritual body.
(4) From irregular appetites, implying perfect liberty from sin.
(5) From affliction and suffering, for there shall be no more pain, no more chastening.
(6) From death.
III. The manner in which the whole subject is heightened. The apostle refers--
1. To the groans and expectations of the creature, i.e.,, the whole race of fallen and unrecovered men. The apostle sees before him the multitudes of mankind. He marks their miseries, groans, struggles against their lot, their aspirations after a something unattained. As a powerful intellect at its first dawn aspires after a knowledge of which as yet it has no conception; as an ambitious spirit tends upwards to a height beyond its gaze; as a heathen in his ignorance feels after a God unknown--so will the soul of fallen man wrestle with its bondage andstrive for deliverance. It is a mighty power, though bound, and it sighs, and heaves, and tends, though blindly, to the good which it has forfeited. How elevated, then, the Christian’s hope! It is the hope of mankind. But let us attend to some instances by which this truth may be illustrated.
(1) Man feels his miseries more sensibly than any other creature--not only because he reflects, which is itself a heightening of his distress, but because he has a consciousness that he possesses a capacity of perfect bliss. The very poignancy of his misery is in proof of his aspirations after unmingled felicity.
(2) Man carries his desires beyond the limits of any present enjoyment. Winged with desire, he hastens to an object; he obtains it; he stops; he finds it not sufficient, and hastens on to another. Onward, and onward still, beyond all that earth can supply. What, then, is the true philosophy of this? A distant, though unapprehended, good attracts us.
(3) Man is displacent at the very vices which he indulges. And how are we to account for this? Why, but because the soul aspires for liberty from its moral corruption.
(4) Man struggles against disease and death. Life is the object of most passionate desire, and death of equally strong aversion. What is this but a tendency to a state like that which shall be enjoyed at “the manifestation of the sons of God.”
2. To the revealed hope of the believer, to which all his longings are directed (verse 23). “They have the first-fruits of the Spirit.” Even this exempts not from the miseries of life, nor is there in them, however glorious they are, anything which can satisfy the vast desire of glory.
(1) True, the soul is reconciled to God, but the bondage of corruption still places them in circumstances of temptation. They may sin against God, and they long for the deliverance which shall make sin no longer possible.
(2) True, the manifested presence of God is the delight of the soul; but even this, in its full extent, is veiled and hidden.
(3) True, there is the glorious attainment of a regenerate nature, but how many imperfections yet remain!
(4) True, there is the presence of heavenly graces, but these are like exotic plants, and an unfit soil prevents their full expansion, their flagrancy, and fruitfulness.
(5) True, there is heavenly knowledge and sacred converse with God, but the wants of the body demand supply, and hence numberless cares and anxieties.
(6) True, there is the communion of saints, but to what interruptions is not this exposed by human mortality!
(7) True, religion strengthens your social affections and heightens domestic enjoyment, but from those whom you love you have been, or you must be, severed.
(8) True, you are saved from the fear of death, but still there is death, the last enemy, and the struggle with him. Thus do we “groan within ourselves,” even though we have the hope which alone prevents our sinking in despair. But, while groaning under the pressure of life’s burdens, we are “waiting for the adoption,” the glorification of the body, and its establishment in the perfect and everlasting joys of heaven. (R. Watson.)
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.
The vanity of the present state consistent with God’s perfections
I.The gospel gives us assurance of a most excellent and happy state reserved for good men in another life, described in the text by these two characters; of its being the manifestation of the sons of God, and a state of the most glorious liberty.
1. Let us consider this future happy state which the gospel describes as the manifestation of the sons of God. Good men are the sons of God upon a double account, viz., of their nature, and of their state; each of which is becoming that high title of the children of God. In respect of that new nature of which they are partakers, they are justly styled the children of God; He being both the Author and the Pattern of it. Are they regenerate or born again? it is of God (1Jn_5:1; 1Pe_1:23; Joh_3:5).
2. It is farther represented as a state of glorious liberty. This most desirable freedom is indeed begun in the present life; for where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty: but then, as long as men continue in this world it is only begun.
(1) Since the future state of good men will be so glorious, what reason have they to bear all the sufferings of the present time with a contented mind.
(2) Since such is the glory of that future state, in which there shall be a manifestation of the sons of God, it should be a powerful motive with them to hasten more towards it in their desires and preparations.
(3) Since such is the honour and privilege of all good men who are now the sons of God, and since such will be their happiness when the time is come for their fuller manifestation, would not one think that all should be desirous of this character, and resolve to do everything which may entitle them to it? Would not one think that the kingdom of heaven should suffer violence, and that all who hear of such a state should be hastening into it in crowds?
II. The present state of mankind is a state of vanity, and bondage to corruption.
1. In the present life, mankind are subject to many fruitless desires and expectations.
2. The present is a state of suffering. “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.” Who can pretend to reckon up the several sorts of pains and diseases to which the body of man is liable? or the many disagreeable accidents and mournful events to which we are continually exposed, and which so often befall us in the course of life?
3. The present is a state of great moral weakness and disorder. The fall has introduced a sort of anarchy into the human frame: the passions are broke loose, and the mind has not that command over the appetites andinclinations of the animal part which it were to be wished, and which we believe the mind enjoyed in the state of innocence.
4. This is a state which quickly passes away, or, which is the same, out of which we quickly pass by death into another, in every respect almost exceedingly different from the present.
III. To this vain and corruptible state, mankind were originally brought into subjection, not by themselves, but by another. By him who subjected the creature to vanity, may be meant either the first man by his transgression, or God for the sin of man; I rather incline to the latter, though the difference is not very material. Such honour had man in his creation, that God subjected to him, or put under his feet, all other things. Such was the unhappy consequence of man’s offending God, that from henceforth man himself becomes subject to vanity. But how shall we vindicate this dispensation of Divine providence?
1. As to the justice of God, the case to any one who rightly considers it is attended with no difficulty at all. This dominion of God, or right to take away what He has given, or to withhold from some of His creatures what He gives to others, is as unquestionable as in the exercise it is uncontrollable. And as the dominion of God or His right to put mankind into what state or circumstances He pleases is indisputable, so He never exercises this supreme dominion of His without good reason.
2. To vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in this dispensation.
(1) In respect of the chief consequences of the fall, God does little more than leave things to produce their natural effects.
(2) Supposing God had interposed in a supernatural way, directing and overruling the course of things, so that the posterity of Adam should suffer no inconvenience by his fall; yet in that case it cannot be imagined their condition would have been fixed without their having first gone through a state of probation, which must have been suited to the nature and advantages they would then have enjoyed. There might have been no room for repentance after they had sinned, andthe reward of their obedience, if they had persevered to the end, might nothave been so great, as the reward of the virtuous now will be. Which being considered, it may be justly questioned whether, on this supposition, the circumstances of mankind upon the whole would have very much exceeded those in which they now are, if at all.
(3) If it has pleased God to subject the race of mankind to a state of vanity and corruption, it does, in many respects, better answer the ends of a state of trial. Every virtue, both active and passive, such as self-denial, fortitude, benevolence, charity, compassion, and the like, have now room for exercise, which they would not in a state of perfect ease and tranquillity.
(4) God suits His government of man and dealings with him to the state he is now in. If he has given less to the posterity of fallen man than he did to their first parents, He requires less of them. Are we weak? He knows it, and expects no more from us than He hath givenus, or, upon our humble application to Him, will give us strength to perform.
(5) There is this advantage in the present state as a state of vanity, and corruption, that it carries in it a continual admonition to turn our thoughts and affections towards a better state, and to be more diligent in our preparations for it.
(6) We may reasonably conceive God has the rather chosen the present scheme of things, because hereby He has an opportunity of dispensing His justice and bounty in two most remarkable acts of providence which occur in His dealings with mankind: His justice in punishing the sin of the first Adam and all his descendants; His bounty in rewarding the obedience unto death of the second Adam.
IV. In this state of vanity, under which the whole moral creation or world of mankind groaneth and travaileth in pain together, the human race has an earnest expectation or desire of a condition more perfect and happy.
1. All creatures naturally tend to their perfection, so does the race of mankind in particular; and the future state of the saints in the text, styled the “manifestation of the sons of God,” importing the highest perfection to which the nature of man can be advanced; with the greatest propriety, men who are reasonable creatures and breathe after immortality may be said to wait for such a state, though they are far from having a distinct idea of it.
2. In proportion as any of the sons of men have improved their rational faculties, and lived up to the light they have enjoyed, this desire of perfection and happiness has been more ardent and more explicit.
V. Men have not been without the hope of such a happy alteration in their state, which in the text is expressly assented and promised.
1. Mankind have always been possessed with the hope of a better state of things than the present. They have not only desired it, but hoped for it. Now hope implies some degree of belief that the thing desired will come to pass. And such a belief has obtained in all ages.
2. God has given men some ground for this hope, though He was pleased to permit sin, suffering, imperfection. To this effect was the very first promise after the fall. But besides this first promise, God, as the God of nature, the Author of reason, and the Governor of the world by His universal providence, has encouraged men to hope they shall, some time or other, be freed from that vanity and corruption to which, in this mortal state, they are subjected. By the large capacities and faculties of the human soul, to which the things of this world bear no manner of proportion, and which, in our present circumstance, have not an opportunity to unfold and show themselves, God plainly points us to another life, where all who behave well in the state of trial shall attain to much higher degrees of perfection and happiness.
III. This hope is raised into assurance by the Christian revelation. Application:
1. Let this lead us into proper reflections on the nature of man, and of his present condition, and excite in us affections and purposes suitable to such reflections.
2. Let what we have heard raise our value for the gospel of Christ. We are tobe thankful for our natural hopes, but especially for those which we derive from the gospel revelation, which are at once the strongest, the most extensive, and the most satisfying. (H. Grove, M.A.)
Subjected--in hope
See how all things testify to the Christian’s hope.
I. See the creation itself restless with an otherwise inexplicable longing. It is not often that we have indications in Paul’s writings either of a painter’s eye or a poet’s fancy. We rather conceive of him as one to whom scenery and history, time and space were something less than indifferent. Here, however, we see that he has observed nature--yes, asonly poets read her. Paul has seen nature’s imploring look, and heard her complaining voice, and felt her yearning thought, and sympathised with her confession--of waste, as she brings one seed and one blossom to perfection out of ten thousand--of discord, as she is made to launch her thunderbolts, and to lift her waves, and to let loose her hurricanes--of cruelty, in her ruthless laws of consequence, and which take no account of innocence or penitence. St. Paul is not satisfied with lovely landscapes. He is no tourist of pleasure or fancy. He looks within and beneath, and feels that beauty might be more beautiful, and life more vital, and strength yet more robust, and that in all actual being there is a possible being more satisfactory; so that he must write nature an expectant, not an inheritor--he must claim her testimony as on the side of that gospel which makes hope, not contentment, the attribute of God’s creature.
1. See the very face of nature scarred with tokens of conflict. How unmelodious and often barbarous are the agencies of nature as she heaves in elemental agonies. Is this quite the scene which God pronounced to be very good? Hear the cry of the brute world, itself the prey of man, and, in turn, its own tyrant and murderer.
2. Mark the unrest of a humanity which prides itself upon its position at the top of God’s handiwork, as it pours the waters of an inexhaustible ambition into the sieve of a perpetual disappointment. Listen to that sigh of thankless satiety which echoes from the pampered child of fashion to that other sigh from the heart of the sorrow-laden. See that fever-stricken village, that battlefield. Is not the creation making confession, in all these manifold utterances, of a condition neither original nor final? Is not the creation travailing as in birth-pangs with a mysterious and compensating future? Can it be that God, the good and the great One, can suffer these blots and stains upon His own work to continue thus for ever? If God be, and be God, every symptom of ruin is a prophecy of reconstruction. Very mysterious, this subjection of the creature to vanity, to the dominion of disappointment,
