ROMANS ROAD
to RIGHTEOUSNESS |
Romans
1:18-3:20
|
Romans
3:21-5:21 |
Romans
6:1-8:39 |
Romans
9:1-11:36 |
Romans
12:1-16:27 |
|
SIN
|
SALVATION
|
SANCTIFICATION |
SOVEREIGNTY |
SERVICE |
NEED
FOR
SALVATION |
WAY
OF
SALVATION |
LIFE
OF
SALVATION |
SCOPE
OF
SALVATION |
SERVICE
OF
SALVATION |
God's Holiness
In
Condemning
Sin |
God's Grace
In
Justifying
Sinners |
God's Power
In
Sanctifying
Believers |
God's Sovereignty
In
Saving
Jew and Gentile |
Gods Glory
The
Object of
Service |
Deadliness
of Sin |
Design
of Grace |
Demonstration of
Salvation |
|
Power Given
|
Promises Fulfilled |
Paths Pursued |
Righteousness
Needed |
Righteousness
Credited |
Righteousness
Demonstrated |
Righteousness
Restored to Israel |
Righteousness
Applied |
God's Righteousness
IN LAW |
God's Righteousness
IMPUTED |
God's Righteousness
OBEYED |
God's Righteousness
IN ELECTION |
God's Righteousness
DISPLAYED |
|
Slaves to Sin |
Slaves to God |
Slaves Serving God |
|
Doctrine |
Duty |
|
Life by Faith |
Service by Faith |
|
Modified from Irving
L. Jensen's excellent work "Jensen's
Survey of the NT" |
FOR THE CREATION WAS SUBJECTED TO
FUTILITY
(fruitlessness,
aimlessness, vanity) NOT
WILLINGLY: te gar mataioteti e ktisis hupetage (3SAPI)
ouch hekousa: (22;
Genesis
3:17-19;
5:29;
6:13;
Job 12:6-10;
Isaiah 24:5,6;
Jeremiah
12:4,11;
Jeremiah 14:5,6;
Hosea 4:3;
Joel 1:18)
Creation (2937)
(ktisis from ktízo = create, form or found) stresses the
work of original formation of an object and represents something which
has undergone a process of creation. Here ktisis refers to what was
created both animate and inanimate, the creation representing the sum
total of everything created.
Subjected (5293)
(hupotasso
from hupó = under +
tasso = arrange in orderly manner) means literally to place under
in an orderly fashion. In the active voice
hupotasso
means to subject, bring
under firm control, subordinate as used in here in
Romans 8:20.
Futility
(3153) (mataiotes
from
mataios
= vain,
empty <> derived from maten = to no purpose or in vain)
means emptiness, vanity, nonsense,
nothingness,
purposelessness, and meaninglessness!
Thayer says mataiotes is a "purely Biblical and ecclesiastical
word" which describes "what is devoid of truth and appropriateness". It
defines the inability to reach a goal or achieve a purpose. Mataiotes
describes the state of being without use or value, emptiness, futility,
purposelessness, transitoriness. It has the quality of being empty,
fruitless, nonproductive, useless. Mataiotes speaks of want of
attainment with the idea of aimlessness or of leading to no object or
end.
Mataiotes describes something that does not measure up to
that for which it is intended and which fails to accomplish the purpose
for which it was created. The creation was placed under the power of
mataiotes (used 37x in
Septuagint LXX of Ecclesiastes =
vanity). It conveys the idea of futility, emptiness, purposelessness,
and meaninglessness.
When was creation subjected to futility? Moses
explains that it was the very day sin entered the world through Adam
(see note
Romans 5:12)
Then to
Adam He (God) said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your
wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying,
'You shall not eat from it'; cursed is the ground because of you. In
toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and
thistles it shall grow for you and you shall eat the plants of the
field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to
the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to
dust you shall return." (Genesis
3:17-19)
And thus Adam’s sin was the cause of the subjection to
futility.
Note the verb is
aorist tense
(effectual action, past
completed action, describes a definite historical event in the past) and
passive voice
(subjection of the
subject, creation, from without, from an outside force, i.e., God). Thus
we see that the creation did not subject itself. But you still might ask why
punish the
plants and animals, etc? After all they did not commit the sin.
Irregardless, Sin is still the answer. Adam had no idea how devastating and far reaching would be the
consequences of his sin (application - do we think about the effect of
our sin on others before we commit it? Obviously it is not the same as
Adam's sin, but sin nevertheless always effects others! Next time think
before you jump!) When Adam disobeyed God Paul described what
happened...
Therefore, just as
through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and
so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- (see note
Romans 5:12)
Sin entered
the world and spread to all men and the effects of death spread to all
creation because of Sin's entrance into the creation. In some way
that I don't totally comprehend not only did the whole race fall into the bondage of sin and death, but the entire physical universe
fell as well. Next time you see a beautiful rose, remember that it was
Adam's sin that put the thorns on the rose. It was Adam's
sin that made animals fear man and which brought predators and
carnivores into being.
All because of
Adam's sin, no part of nature now exists as God intended it to be and as
it was originally created in pristine perfection, which was intended to
give a perfect picture (or glorify) of the Creator. When the curse was
placed on the creation, corruption set in and the result was a creation
that could no longer perfectly glorify the Creator. To be sure,
the Creation still gives a natural revelation which points to the
Creator as David explained writing that...
The heavens are
telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of
His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals
knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2).
And yet to
reiterate, no part of nature exists today as God originally intended it!
Considering the fact that this corrupted creation has places of
incomparable beauty, what does this say about what is in store for us
when it is completely set free!
Newell
comments on subjected to futility...
Here look back to the garden of Eden,
and to Adam’s first sin, the judgment of which fell not upon the man,
but we read: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat
of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee.” Here we find God subjecting the whole creation to
“vanity,”—that is, to unattainment. The book of Ecclesiastes dwells
long, with a mournful tone upon this vanity, this unattainment; things
“putting forth the tender leaves of hope” only to have the “sudden
frost” of disease and death end earthly hopes. “Our days on the earth
are as a shadow, and there is no abiding,” as David said in his great
prayer (1Chron. 29:15).
Morris
explains this futility writing that...
Because of sin, the creation was made
to operate under a law which specifies a universal process of decay and
death. This law of morpholysis is recognized by science as a basic
principle pervading the whole universe. It is also called the law of
increasing entropy (meaning turning inward) or the Second Law of
Thermodynamics. Every system in the physical and biological worlds has a
tendency to turn inward and feed on itself to maintain its structure and
activity, but this simply causes it to run down, disintegrate and die,
unless it somehow becomes opened to outside sources of energy,
information, food, etc. Even if it does remain an open system, this
internal tendency continues to act in opposition to the incoming energy.
Since even the latter will eventually be exhausted, the whole creation
is thus in bondage to this principle of futility or vanity But since
this law has been imposed by God, He also can remove it, and so there
still is "hope." (Morris,
Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
Willingly (1635)
(hekon) means willing, unconstrained, gladly, unforced,
voluntary, of one's own will, or of one's own accord. Note that hekon is
preceded by the Greek particle (ou) which conveys the sense of absolute
negation. In other words, the creation is personified as a person who
was not willing to be subjected.
Bertrand Russell, the well known atheistic philosopher pictured
this futility in creation when he wrote...
The life of a man is a long march
through the night surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness
and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach and where none tarry
long. One by one, as we march, our comrades vanish from our sight,
seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Brief and powerless is
man's life; on him all his race, the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and
dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter
rolls on its relentless way; for man, condemned today to lose his
dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it
remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that
ennoble his little day.
Russell was
right! The world exists as if in a night surrounded by invisible foes
(see note
Ephesians 2:2)! To
the unregenerate, this world is indeed enshrouded in the darkness of sin
and unbelievers are blinded to the true meaning of life and the future
hope of Creation made possible by the precious blood of the Lamb Who as
the
Kinsman Redeemer
paid the price to redeem the corrupted earth and one day set it free.
BUT BECAUSE OF HIM WHO SUBJECTED IT IN HOPE: alla dia ton hupotaxanta (AAPMSA)
eph elpidi:
Subjected
(5293)
(hupotasso
from hupó = under +
tasso = arrange in orderly manner) means literally to place under
in an orderly fashion. In the active voice
hupotasso
means to subject, bring
under firm control, subordinate as used in this verse
Hope
(1680)
(elpis)
(See study on
Believer's Blessed Hope)
in
Scripture is not the world's definition of "I hope so", with a
few rare exceptions (e.g.,
Acts 27:20.)
is defined as a desire for some future good with the expectation of
obtaining it. It represents confident expectancy and the looking forward
to something with some reason for confidence respecting fulfillment.
Paul pictures the creation as a person who can look forward to the
promised and therefore certain future day when it is set free from the
inevitable decay that results from sin.
Vincent
writes that hope
"in classical Greek, has the general
signification of expectancy, relating to evil as well as to good. Thus
Plato speaks of living in evil hope (“Republic,” i., 330); i.e., in the
apprehension of evil; and Thucydides, of the hope of evils to come;
i.e., the expectation or apprehension. In the New Testament the word
always relates to a future good." (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the
New Testament Vol.
As stated above, nature did not
curse itself but God subjected it to futility and God alone can restore
it. Where was the hope? Even before the ground was cursed ( or "subjected to
futility") God in His great mercy and grace had already given the promise of
redemption by a Redeemer through the Seed of a woman
(God said to Satan) And I will put
enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed (Satan's
children, all who are still in Adam and not in Christ) and her seed (all
who are in Christ, believers by faith in His sacrificial death); He
(Messiah) shall bruise you (Satan) on the head, and you shall bruise him
on the heel (crucifixion resulted in bruising of the heel but bruising
of the head was to be the more effective blow against Satan)." (Genesis
3:15)
This first shadow of the gospel of Jesus Christ (see gospel in the OT -
Gal 3:8) provided the firm foundation for hope (absolute
certainty that God would do good to us and to the creation in the
future) and this hope was the basis for the creation’s eager
anticipation that Paul described in the previous verse (see note
Romans 8:19) |
