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Frustration, Part 2

The End of Frustration

Romans 8v21, 23-25

11th January 2014

Last time, we looked at Romans 8v19-22, and saw that, as a result of man's sin, God has subjected the universe to frustration, futility and emptiness. I think it's great that Paul said this, because it means that it's OK for you and me to admit that we get frustrated by much of life.

But this state of frustration is not for ever! Paul assures us that:

Romans 8v21
... the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

God's plan of redemption is not just for the Christians - it's for the whole of creation!

Here are a few scriptures:

Isaiah 65:17a
"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth."

2 Peter 3:10-13
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Revelation 21:1-7
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

I'm not saying that everybody will be saved. They won't. Many will spend eternity in hell. But the Bible teaches that creation as a whole will be redeemed. A new heaven and a new earth are coming! And things will be the way they should be. No death, no suffering, no cruelty. In Paul's word, no Frustration. And this will all happen when God reveals His children (Romans 8v19). That is, when all creation sees that we, the church, are His chosen people - His family.

Continuing our reading in Romans 8, the next verse says:

Romans 8v23
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Christians groan inwardly, not outwardly. We're so afraid of letting the side down that we don't admit that we're frustrated and sad. But we long for our adoption as sons of God, and the redemption of our bodies.

There is, of course, a sense in which we have already been adopted as sons. Romans 8:16 says so. But there's also a sense in which we're waiting to be adopted as God's sons. In the same way, Ephesians 2:28 says that we have been saved, but Philippians 1:28 says that we will be saved. Both are true. We have been saved and adopted in the sense that God has made the irrevocable decision to save and adopt us. We will be saved and adopted in the sense that we will live for ever in the presence of God, in new, immortal, sinless bodies.

Romans 8v24-25
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

When we first believed, we were given a sure and certain hope of eternal, glorious life. One of the reasons we first put our faith in God is because we knew that, by God's grace, the future could be better than the present. We can't fully grasp what the future will be like, but we know it will be infinitely more glorious than what we experience now, more glorious that we can imagine.

It's worth waiting for. And it's worth waiting patiently. As we've seen, day-to-day life, for the Cristian and for the non-Christian, can be full of frustration, and can feel fulile and empty. We can wonder how much difference we're really making. For all sorts of reasons, we can reach a stage where we need to just persevere, hold on to what we believe, and keep doing and saying the right thing, humbly, gently and faithfully.

Our inheritance is wonderful beyond measure. What we've received so far is just the firstfruits, what we will receive is boyond our conceiving.

We need to be patient with the fact that the whole of creation is broken, society is broken, justice is broken, politics is broken, and keep going.

We know that God's plan will come to pass. We know that the future belongs to the church. We know we will live for ever, without sin, and without pain. We know that we will see Jesus face to face.