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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Romans 8:19 - 8:19
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Observe here, 1. That there is a time indeed a-coming, when all the sons of God, all his adopted children, shall be made manifest:
How manifest?
1. In their persons: It shall then appear who are God's sons, and who are Satan's servants; they shall then be made manifest to themselves, to one another; yea to the very consciences of the wicked.
2. In their actions 1Co_3:13. Every man's work shall be made manifest of what nature it is, what they have done, whose interest they were in.
3. In their condition, their glory and happiness shall be made manifest: When Christ their life shall appear, they shall appear with him in glory.
Observe, 2. That the creature, or whole creation, expecteth, waiteth, and longeth, for the time of this manifestation.
Some by the creature, and the whole creation, here understand the Gentile world; and then the sense is, "That the heathens shall, by the preaching of the gospel, be rescued from their idolatry, unto which they have been long enslaved, and be brought into the glorious condition of Christ's redeemed ones, to whom the glorious inheritance of heaven doth belong."
But others, by the creature, and the whole creation, understand this miserable world, sensitive and rational, animate and inanimate; and then the sense is, "That the whole frame and course of the creation is so ordered and disposed of by God, as that it carries in it a vehement desire and earnest longing for the full manifestation of God's glory in and towards his children."
Observe, 3. The present condition which the creature is subjected to through the sin of man, it is made subject to vanity; that is, to corruption and mortality, to servitude and servility: the sin of man did not only stain the glory of man, but marred and spoiled the beauty of the whole creation; all creatures are fallen from the first perfection by the fall of our first parents.
Observe, 4. The restlessness and uneasiness of the creature under this vanity and servility: it groans like a man under a burden, or like a travailing woman in labour.
Learn hence, That the sin of man is burdensome to the senseless creature: it is in continual labour to serve man's necessity; it is ofttimes punished together with man for the sin of man; witness the old world and Sodom; and as they are oft-times constrained and compelled by men to serve the lust of men, thus the whole creation groaneth under the burden of man's sin, when he himself groans not: and accordingly the groans of the creature are upbraiding groans, they upbraid our stupidity and unthankfulness; they are accusing groans as they will witness against us at the bar of God; they are awakening groans to excite and stir us up to sigh and long for a better state; and they are instructive groans, to teach us our sins, and their vanity.
5. The expectation which the creature is under of a state of liberty and freedom from the vanity and corruption which they are now subject to for our sin: it has an earnest expectation of being delivered from this bondage.
But how can the senseless and inanimate part of the creation be said to have an earnest expectation?
Not properly, as if the creature was able to put forth such an act directly; for then it must be supposed to have not only life and sense, but reason and grace: but the meaning is, That there is a vehement inclination in the creature to be restored to that first condition which it was in before the fall; and accordingly it is said to wait for the manifestation of the sons of God; that is, for that liberty and freedom from servility and corruption, which, according to their capacity, the creatures hope for and expect, when the full privileges and dignities of the sons of God shall be manifested.
Observe lastly, That the liberty which God's children are reserved for, and appointed to, is a glorious liberty; that is, a liberty which shall be attended with unspeakable glory: The creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.