Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
23but not only [them], but we ourselves, [the] very ones having the firstfruits of the Spirit, also are groaning in ourselves, ones waiting eagerly for adoption, the redemption of our body. 24For we were saved in this hope, but hope being seen is not hope, for who is hoping for what he is seeing? 25But, if we are hoping for what we are not seeing, we are waiting eagerly through patience.
It is interesting that here it says what we are waiting for is the “redemption of our body.” You would have thought it enough just to say “our redemption.” Why is Paul zeroing in on our body specifically? I would suggest it is because, in Romans, we’re never far away from the contrast between Adam and Christ. I am convinced, theologically speaking, that our “problem” is specifically this Adamic body we still live in. Obviously, my spirit still possesses Adam’s wickedness as well. My heart is still desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and my “natural man” still bears the image of my father the devil. Anyone who would deny these things needs to take a closer look in the mirror. It takes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Himself to help me be a “spiritual” man. However, still, where is the problem coming from? I’m convinced it is the Adamic body which is not only a body of death itself, but somehow contaminates my spirit as well. All of this is why the Bible specifically calls our problem “our flesh.”
The basic change that needs to take place is that I need a new body. I need a body I didn’t get from Adam. That, of course, is exactly what Jesus will do. In Phil. 3:20,21, it says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” The same thing is taught extensively in I Cor. 15, particularly vv. 42-54, where we read, “The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven … and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the Man from heaven” (vv.47-49). That passage goes on to say, “When the perishable has put on the imperishable and the mortal immortality,” then the saying will come true, “Death has been swallowed up in victory!” (vv.53,54). At that time, it will be true that death is gone for us specifically because we’ve shed our Adamic body, this body cursed by sin, this “body of death.”
I probably need to interject here that none of this justifies mistreatment of our bodies. On the one hand, Paul says, “I beat my body and make it my slave (I Cor. 9:27),” but then speaking of ascetic rigors, he says of their “harsh treatment of the body,” they “lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Col. 2:23). Speaking very specifically about our bodies, the Lord says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you are bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body” (I Cor. 6:19,20). Romans 12:1 urges us to “present your body a living sacrifice,” and back in chapter 6, we were urged to “offer the members of your body to God as instruments of righteousness” (v.13).
Somehow, although the problem specifically is my Adamic body, yet still the problem is spiritual. This physical body of bones and muscles, etc., is just a vessel in which I live and the “I” who lives in it is still the problem. This is all somewhat of a mystery and maybe beyond our understanding, but it has to fit together and finally leave us as “ones waiting eagerly for adoption, the redemption of our body.” Somehow, I cannot be free of sin and death until I shed this Adamic body, yet, until then, it remains the body I live in and the only vessel through which I can serve Jesus in this present world.
To be free of sin and death brings us to the subject of hope in v. 24. I want to say, I don’t think I’ve ever really understood hope until studying these two verses, 24 and 25. Here we learn, “We were saved in hope.” Interestingly, in Greek, this could be translated, “We were saved in hope, by hope, or to hope.” Any one of the three would be a legitimate translation and, if you peruse several different Bible versions, you will see all of those prepositions show up. There is probably some sense in which it means all three, yet I would suggest the “in” is the best translation. Throughout the Bible and very specifically in the book of Romans, it is a big deal that we are saved by faith. Here’s the deal: Faith is a matter of believing God’s promises. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” but specifically faith is that response of believing. However, what does that believing do for us? It gives us hope.
In a sense, faith and hope are two sides of the same coin, yet, there must be the faith (believing God’s promises) in order for it to be real hope. Our world is full of “hope-so’s” which have no secure basis for that hope. The only truly secure hope arises from faith in the promises of God, found clearly written in the Word of God. We were saved by faith (believing God’s promises), but that faith was a very desirable thing specifically because it gave us hope, one way or another a hope that we could be free of this world of death.
In fact, that hope is so important, Paul stays on the subject for these two whole verses, “For we were saved in hope, but hope being seen is not hope, for who is hoping for what he is seeing? But, if we are hoping for what we are not seeing, we are waiting eagerly through patience.” Here is where I would suggest it’s not saved “to hope.” What it leads to is this “waiting eagerly through patience.” Hope was not something yet to be attained after our salvation. Instead, having been saved by faith and in hope, we now have the blessed enabling to live out our lives “waiting patiently” to see our faith and hope realized.
This “patient waiting” is probably worthy of entire study of its own. However, it is no doubt “a pearl of great price” to understand that, in a sense, that is what I’m doing here. In the context, we are groaning, along with the entire material Creation, suffering in this world of death. As Paul said elsewhere, “I would rather depart and be with Christ!” However, we’re still here. Heaven is our home, eternal life is our hope, yet we go on living in this world of death. That seriously calls for patience!
I like what Julian of Norwich said back in about 1300 AD. She suggested it is as if the Lord was to sit down with us and say something like, “You are now My child and I have a wonderful eternity of endless happiness prepared for you. However, I need for you to stay here in this world of pain and suffering and death for just a little longer. I want to save many other people just like you, but, in order for that to happen, I need you to go on living in this world. In this world, you will suffer just like they do, but you will be different because you will suffer in hope. Your faith will give you a hope and a love I can put on display for all the world to see and be drawn to. Your hope and love even in your suffering will open their hearts to this salvation I want to give them.” “Knowing that,” He asks, “Would you be willing to stay here … for Me? Would you be willing to go on suffering just a little longer, just like them, to help Me reach some?”
As He would look deeply into our eyes, awaiting our response, what do you find your heart saying? Is it not, “Of course, Lord, I would do anything for You. Yes, go ahead, use me as You see fit, only may Your grace be sufficient for me. May Your strength be made perfect in my weakness. Give me day by day the patience to live in this faith and hope I got from You to start with. Help me to fear no evil, ‘for Thou art with me.’”
Yes, I’m groaning. It is VERY painful living in this world, in a hundred million different ways, but I groan in hope, because of faith, and to a patience I can only hope and pray the Lord will use to draw others into this same hope!
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