Romans 8:22-23

 

 

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Romans 8:22  For we know  that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together * until now. (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: oidamen (1PRAI) gar hoti pasa e ktisis sustenazei (3SPAI) kai sunodinei (3SPAI) achri tou nun; 
Amplified: We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (
NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail.  (
Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest:  For we know that the whole creation groans and travails together up to this moment (
Erdmans
Young's Literal: for we have known that all the creation doth groan together, and doth travail in pain together till now.

REFERENCES

Albert Barnes
Wayne Barber
Wayne Barber
Wayne Barber
John Calvin
Thomas Constable
David Guzik
John MacArthur
John MacArthur
Middletown
William Newell
John Piper
John Piper
John Piper
John Piper
John Piper
A T Robertson
C H Spurgeon
C H Spurgeon
Ray Stedman
Ray Stedman
Marvin Vincent
Precept Ministries
Romans 8
Romans 8:18-21: Reward of the Holy Spirit
Romans 8:22-25: Resource of the Holy Spirit
Romans 8:26-29: Resource of the Holy Spirit, Pt 2

Romans 8
Romans Notes
Romans 8
Romans 8:26-27: The Spirit's Groans for Glory
Romans 8:23-25: Believers' Groans for Glory
Romans 8
Romans 8: Expository Notes Verse by Verse
Romans 8:18-28 Christ and Cancer
Romans 8:18-25 Our Hope: The Redemption of Our Bodies
Romans 8:18-25 What Happens When You Die?
Romans 8:18-25 Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 1
Romans 8:18-25 Subjected to Futility in Hope, Part 2

Romans 8: Greek Word Studies Entire Chap at Once
Romans 8:23: Creation's Groans and the Saints' Sighs
Romans 8:26-27: The Holy Spirit's Intercession
Romans 8:18-28: Agony & Ecstasy
Romans 8:14-25: The Joy of being Grown Up
Romans 8: Greek Word Studies
Romans Inductive Bible Study
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 WE KNOW THAT THE WHOLE CREATION (continually) GROANS AND SUFFERS THE PAINS OF CHILDBIRTH TOGETHER UNTIL NOW: oidamen (1PRAI) gar hoti pasa e ktisis sustenazei (3SPAI) kai sunodinei (3SPAI) achri tou nun: (Ro 8:20; Mk 16:15; Col 1:23) (Ps 48:6; Je 12:11; Jn 16:21; Rev 12:2)

We know - The verb for know is eido which pictures an absolute, beyond a doubt knowing. How Christians know this is not specifically stated.

The divine curse extends through the entire created cosmos, not just to the earth. That is, the law of entropy operates throughout the cosmos. Since it was man's sin that brought God's curse on the ground-- the very elements of the created earth, the "dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7) out of which all things were made by God--it may be that his sin had universal repercussions. The creation is now travailing like a woman about to deliver a child. Its delivery date into the glorious new age to come is tied with the revealing of the children of God in glory.

Morris reminds us that the

Creation is not undergoing DEATH PANGS . . . but BIRTH PANGS.!

Jews were familiar with God’s promise of a redeemed world, a renewed creation. In behalf of the Lord, Isaiah predicted,

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind (Isa 65:17).

Jews anticipated a glorious time when all pain, oppression, slavery, anxiety, sorrow, and persecution would end and the Lord would establish His own perfect kingdom of peace and righteousness

Creation does not here include the heavenly angels, who, although created beings, are not subject to corruption. The term obviously does not include Satan and his host of fallen angels, the demons for they have no desire for a godly, sinless state being fully award that they are divinely sentenced to eternal torment.

Groans together (4959)(sustenazo from sun = together + stenazo = to groan) is used figuratively to personify the creation crying out a symphony of utterances like a person caught in a dreadful situation without immediate prospect of deliverance.

Suffers the pains of childbirth together (4944) (
sunodino from sun = together + odíno = to be in pain, as a woman in labor) means to feel the pains of travail with or to be in travail together. It is used figuratively here to describe the agony creation experiences as like a woman in childbirth, awaiting it future regeneration.

Notice that the Greek prefix sun (= with) (Click word study) is associated with both groan together and suffer together signifying that all parts of the creation are jointly participating in the birth pangs.

Here are some similar metaphorical uses of sunodino in secular Greek writings...

when [after the winter’s cold] the groaning earth gives birth in pain to what has been formed within her. (Heraclit. Sto. c. 39 p. 58, 9)

all Sicily, filled with fire from Aetna, groaned [stenachai] over the loss of Persephone). (Diod. S. 5, 5, 1 quoting the tragic poet Carcinus)

Creation will one day be delivered—and the difference between then and now is the difference between agony and ecstasy! Think what will happen when nature is free to produce as it was designed to produce, free from pestilence and danger. We are going to see that day!

 

Romans 8:23  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: ou monon de, alla kai autoi ten aparchen tou pneumatos echontes (PAPMPN) hemeis kai autoi en heautois stenazomen (1PPAI) huiothesian apekdechomenoi, (PMPMPN) ten apolutrosin tou somatov hemon.
Amplified:  And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons). (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. (
NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him.  (
Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest:  but we ourselves also who have the first-fruit of the Spirit, we ourselves also are groaning within ourselves, assiduously and patiently waiting the full realization of our adult sonship at the time of the redemption of our body. For we were saved in the sphere of hope.  (
Erdmans
Young's Literal: And not only so, but also we ourselves, having the first-fruit of the Spirit, we also ourselves in ourselves do groan, adoption expecting -- the redemption of our body

AND NOT ONLY THIS (not only is creation groaning), BUT ALSO WE OURSELVES HAVING THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT: ou monon de, alla kai autoi ten aparchen tou pneumatos echontes (PAPMPN): (Ro 8:15,16; 5:5; 2 Co 5:5; Gal 5:22,23; Eph 1:14; 5:9) (Ro 8:26; 7:24; 2Cor 5:2-4; 7:5; Php 1:21-23; 1Pe 1:7)

Having (2192) (echo) means holding or possessing with the present tense picturing the first fruits, the Spirit, as our continual possession.

Of the Spirit - This phrase in Greek is referred to as an appositive genitive which in simple terms means that first fruits is the Holy Spirit, Who now indwells every believer (see notes Romans 8:9; 8:11) Whose presence in us guarantees the full completion of our salvation -- future tense salvation = the redemption of our dying decaying physical bodies which will be changed instantly into glorified bodies (1Cor 15:42ff 1Thessalonians 4:13ff - note). The culmination of our position as adopted sons is the resurrection state. The first fruits is a pledge of more to come, specifically the redemption of our body.

First fruits (536) (aparche from apó =  away from + árchomai = to begin) is the first fruit, which in Biblical terms describes an offering of any kind, animal as well as grain. It represents the first portion of offering set aside specifically for Lord. The first portion of the harvest was regarded both as a first installment and as a pledge of the final delivery of the whole.

First fruits is related to the Jewish term that refers to that which is set apart to God before remainder could be used. Under the Law Israel was to bring the first fruits of the grain to the LORD and in this act they were acknowledging that all produce was God's. The first fruits of a harvest of grain was an indication of a greater harvest to come.

 

Paul utilizes the metaphor of first fruits in three ways in the NT:

 

(1) Of the relationship between the resurrection of Christ to the resurrection of the dead (1Cor 15:20, 23). Christ’s resurrection is the “first fruit of those who have fallen asleep” (1Cor 15:20), and like the first fruits of the harvest, it is a taste and a guarantee of the full harvest of resurrection yet to come.

(2) Likewise the Holy Spirit is called first fruit in (
see note Romans 8:23) (cf. Holy Spirit as “downpayment” in 2Cor 1:22 5:5; see note Ephesians 1:14), a foretaste of our divine life in the age to come.

(3) Finally when Paul speaks of his first converts in a region, he calls them the “first fruits” (cf "first fruits of Achaia" in
1Cor 16:15
). Epaenetus ("praised") was the first convert (and predictive of a greater harvest to follow) from Asia who became part of Paul’s “offering of the Gentiles” to the Lord (see note Romans 15:16).

Just as the nation of Israel tasted the first fruits of Canaan when the spies returned (Nu 13:23-27), so we Christians have tasted of the blessings of heaven through the ministry of the Spirit. This makes us want to see the Lord, receive a new body, and live with Him and serve Him forever. We are waiting for “the adoption,” which is the redemption of the body when Christ returns (Php 3:20,21). This is the thrilling climax to “the adoption” that took place at conversion when “the Spirit of adoption” gave us an adult standing in God’s family. When Christ returns, we shall enter into our full inheritance.

The first portion of the harvest was regarded both as a first installment and as a pledge of the final delivery of the whole. The concept of first fruits is prominent in the OT, where, according to the law, Israelites were expected to bring the first-ripe elements of grain, fruit, etc., to the Lord as an offering (Ex 23:19 Neh 10:35). By this observance of worship the offerer acknowledged that all produce was the provision of God and was really his. Implicit also in the ritual was the assurance from the divine side that the general harvest to be enjoyed by the offerer would providentially follow. From the human side this act of obedience was a manifestation of FAITH in the promise of Jehovah to provide what they needed.

When we experience the Holy Spirit’s empowering us to turn from iniquity and to truly worship, serve, obey and love God, we have a taste of the future completed and perfected renewal He will work in us at the resurrection. Every time we see Him working His righteousness in and through us, we yearn all the more to be freed of our remaining sin and spiritual weakness. Because of our divinely-bestowed sensitivity to sin, we ourselves groan within ourselves over the dreadful curse of sin that is still manifested by our remaining humanness.

First fruits was the actual beginning, the first installment, of the Palestinian harvest (Ex 23:19 Lev 23:10,11; Dt 18:4 26:1-4); the presence of the Spirit in believers is thus the actual beginning of the future world. Believers had experienced redemption (see note
Romans 3:24) and adoption (see note Romans 8:15), but still awaited the fullness of that experience at the resurrection of their bodies by the Spirit (see note Romans 8:11). The first converts to Christ in a particular area were called “firstfruits” (see note Romans 16:15 1Co 16:15). Christ himself is the firstfruits in reference to the resurrection (1Cor 15:20, 23).

To say that we have the first fruits of the Spirit means that even though we do not yet have our complete inheritance as God’s children, we have already received a significant portion of it in terms of the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, along with all He has already accomplished for us in regeneration and sanctification. This is the sense in which the Spirit is the “earnest of our inheritance” (see note
Ephesians 1:13), i.e., the down payment, the first installment, the deposit, the pledge of the fullness of glory (2Cor 1:22 5:5). In this sense the “firstfruits” are not simply the beginning of the harvest, but are also the guarantee that much more will follow. And as this context shows, the complete inheritance includes the redemption of our bodies and a liberated, glorified universe.

When Abraham’s servant was sent to find a bride for Isaac and met Rebekah, he gave silver and gold garments and presents to Laban as indications of what was to come. That is what God has done for us by his Holy Spirit. That indescribable peace we knew when we first experienced the forgiveness of our sins, the power of God that calms our heart despite circumstances, the joy that floods our souls—these are mere foretastes of what is yet to come!

EVEN WE OURSELVES GROAN WITHIN OURSELVES: hemeis kai autoi en heautois stenazomen (1PPAI):

Spurgeon comments that...

That is our state now; at least, it is the condition of the most of us. Some of our brethren have gone ahead so tremendously that they have passed out of the world of groaning altogether; they are perfect. I regret that they are not in heaven; it would seem to be a much more proper place for them than this imperfect earth is. But as for us, our experience leads us, in sympathy with the apostle, to say that we are groaning after something better. We have not received it yet; we have the beginnings of it, we have the earnest of it, we have the sure pledge of it; but it is not as yet our portion to enjoy; we are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body;” for, though the soul be horn again, the body is not. “The body in dead,” says the apostle, in the tenth verse of this chapter, “because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” There is a wonderful process through which this body shall yet pass, and then it shall be raised again, a glorious body, fitted for our regenerated spirit; but as yet it remains unregenerate.

Groan (4727) (stenazo from stenos = narrow or contracted as when one is squeezed or pressed by circumstances) literally describes an internal squeezing and denotes a feeling of sorrow which is internal. Stenazo means to express grief by inarticulate or semi-articulate sounds. A groan is an audible expression of anguish due to physical, emotional, or spiritual pain.

Stenazo refers to the utterances of a person who is caught in a dreadful situation and has no immediate prospect of deliverance. The term is used in its noun form (stenagmos - used in Romans 8:26 of Spirit's prayers expressed to God inarticulately) by Luke to describe the desperate utterances of the Israelites during their oppressive bondage in Egypt

'I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT, AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANS, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.' (Acts 7:34 cp Ex 2:24-25 )

In the present context these continual (stenazo = present tense) groanings bewail a condition that is painful, unsatisfying, and sorrowful and are a cry for deliverance from a torturing experience. The pain we feel now because we still live in bodies that harbor the flesh (the old sin nature) which causes us to we still stumble and grieve the Holy Spirit. In this passage, the deep distress is related primarily to our remaining sinfulness. This is especially painful to those who know that they have been shown great mercy and have manifold grace to live victoriously for His glory.

Below are the other 5 uses of stenazo in the NT.

Paul explains this groaning to the Corinthians writing that...

1 we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For indeed in this house we groan (stenazo), longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven;
3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked.
4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan  (stenazo), being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. (1Corinthians 5:1-5) (Comment: As long as we are in the “tent” of our human body, which harbors the old flesh nature, we will not fully escape sin’s corruption this side of eternity. This truth causes Christians to suffer times of deep inner distress over the debilitating sinfulness that still clings to them.)

When they brought the deaf to Jesus He put His fingers into His ears and after spiting touched His tongue...

 and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh (stenazo), He said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" (Mark 7:34)

The writer of Hebrews charged his readers to...

Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief (stenazo), for this would be unprofitable for you. (See note Hebrews 13:17)

In James stenazo takes on a slightly different sense, James commanding...

Do not complain (stenazo), brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. (James 5:9 )

There are 19 uses of stenazo in the Septuagint (LXX), mainly in the Major Prophets (Job 9:27; 18:20; 24:12; 30:25; 31:38; Isa. 19:8; 21:2; 24:7; 30:15; 46:8; 59:10; Jer. 31:19; Lam. 1:8, 21; Ezek. 21:6f; 26:15f; Nah. 3:7). Below is an example in which Jerusalem is personified as a woman groaning because of her sinfulness...

Lamentations 1:8 Jerusalem sinned greatly, Therefore she has become an unclean thing. All who honored her despise her Because they have seen her nakedness; Even she herself groans (Hebrew = 'anach = groan in pain or grief; Lxx = stenazo) and turns away.

WAITING EAGERLY FOR...ADOPTION AS SONS: huiothesian apekdechomenoi (PMPMPN): (Ro 8:19,25; Luke 20:36; Philippians 3:20,21; 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2)

The reason we can groan and yet do so with an eager expectation is because we have experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit a foretaste of the incomparable glory to come.

The Spirit is the firstfruits of heaven.  And since we have the Spirit now, we know a little of what heaven will be like and are assured of our final destiny. God's gift of the Spirit to the church is an event in the present which foreshadows the future union of God and His people in eternity.

Waiting eagerly (553) (apekdechomai from apó = intensifier [see Vincent below] + ekdéchomai = expect, look for <> from ek  = out + déchomai  = receive kindly, accept deliberately and readily)  means waiting in great anticipation but with patience (compare our English expression "wait it out"). To expect fully. To look (wait) for assiduously (marked by careful unremitting attention) and patiently.

Kenneth Wuest explains that apekdechomai  is...

a Greek word made up of three words put together, the word, “to receive,” (dechomai) which speaks of a welcoming or appropriating reception such as is tendered to a friend who comes to visit one; the word “off,” (apo) speaking here of the withdrawal of one’s attention from other objects, and the word “out,” (ek) used here in a perfective sense which intensifies the already existing meaning of the word. The composite word speaks of an attitude of intense yearning and eager waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus into the air to take His Bride to heaven with Him, the attention being withdrawn from all else and concentrated upon the Lord Jesus." (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

Apekdechomai is in the present tense indicating this is a heavenly citizen's continual mindset (Do you frequently contemplate His return beloved?) and the middle voice which indicates the subject is the beneficiary of the waiting. Wuest picks up on this nuance of the middle voice with the translation "eagerly waiting to welcome the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to receive Him to ourselves" where "to ourselves" is the reflexive aspect of the middle voice. What a beautiful picture of the Bride, His Church, waiting to receive Him to herself! A waiting, welcoming mindset will motivate the bride to keep herself pure and holy.

Marvin Vincent writes that...

"the compounded preposition apo denotes the withdrawal of attention from inferior objects. The word is habitually used in the New Testament with reference to a future manifestation of the glory of Christ or of His people." (Vincent, M. R.  Word studies in the New Testament Vol. 3, Page 1-453)

A T Robertson adds that apekdechomai is a...

"Rare and late double compound (perfective use of prepositions like wait out) which vividly pictures Paul’s eagerness for the second coming of Christ as the normal attitude of the Christian colonist whose home is heaven." (Robertson, A. Word Pictures in the New Testament)

Apekdechomai pictures waiting in great anticipation but with patience. Awaiting eagerly and expectantly for some future event and so to look forward eagerly. Note that seven of the eight NT uses of apekdechomai are related in some way to our "blessed hope", the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Adoption as sons (5206) (huiothesia from huios = son + tithemi = place) literally means "to place one as a son". Huiothesia thus speaks of adoption or being  placed in a position and rights as one’s own child. It means to  to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.

Huiothesia is used only by Paul and is not found in classical writings, but it describes a Roman legal term by which a person takes into his family a child not his own, with the purpose of treating him as a full son and giving him all the privileges of an own son. The custom was not common among the Jews, but was among the Greeks and Romans, with whom an adopted child was legally entitled to all rights and privileges of a natural-born child. This custom is used as an illustration of the act of G