Rom 8:19-27 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Rom 8:19-21: 8:19-21 All creation includes animals, plants, and the earth itself. Paul follows Old Testament precedent (see especially Ps 65:12-13 ; Isa 24:4 ; Jer 4:28 ; 12:4 ) by personifying the created world. • waiting eagerly ... looks forward: Just as the entire world was harmed by Adam’s fall into sin, it will share in the blessings that God has promised his people (e.g., Isa 4:2 , Rev 21:1-2 ).

Summary for Rom 8:19-21: 8:19-21 ^a All creation includes animals, plants, and the earth itself. Paul follows Old Testament precedent (see especially Ps 65:12-13 ^b; Isa 24:4 ^c; Jer 4:28 ^d; 12:4 ^e) by personifying the created world.

• waiting eagerly ... looks forward: Just as the entire world was harmed by Adam’s fall into sin, it will share in the blessings that God has promised his people (e.g., Isa 4:2 ^f, Rev 21:1-2 ^g).
8:22 ^h The pains of childbirth is a metaphor for the longing of creation (see also Matt 24:8 ⁱ; Mark 13:8 ^j; John 16:20-22 ^k).
8:23 ^l we believers also groan: “Groaning” expresses a frustrated longing for God’s deliverance from the difficulties and oppression of this life (see Exod 3:7 ^m; Lam 1:22 ⁿ; Ezek 24:17 ^o; 2 Cor 5:2 ^p).

• we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory (literally we have the first harvest of the Spirit): In the Old Testament, the phrase first harvest or firstfruits often describes the offering of the first and best part of a harvest to God (see Exod 23:19 ^q; Lev 2:12 ^r; 23:10 ^s; cp. 1 Cor 15:20 ^t, 23 ^u). The Holy Spirit is God’s pledge that he will see his work in us through to its conclusion (see Eph 1:14 ^v).

• Although we have already been adopted by God as his children, the full rights of that adoption—our inheritance (see Rom 8:17 ^w)—are not yet ours. In this life, Christians live in tension between the “already” of redemption and the “not yet” of the glory to be revealed.
8:26 ^x groanings that cannot be expressed in words: This might refer to speech that does not take the form of human language, such as when believers, uncertain of what to pray, utter meaningless sounds in prayer. The groanings in question are the Spirit’s, not ours. When we do not know how to pray, the Spirit is interceding for us before God.