Romans 8:23 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The apostle had asserted and concluded, Romans 8:18, that there is a future glory to be revealed hereafter in the saints, such as infinitely transcends their sufferings now; and this he had confirmed from the earnest expectation of the creature, (the pronoun they is not in the original), and now he further confirms it from the expectation which is in believers themselves. The first-fruits of the Spirit; hereby he means that righteousness, joy, and peace, which believers have in this life; these are the fruits of the Spirit, and called first-fruits in regard of their order; and in regard of their quantity, they are but a handful in comparison of the whole, little in regard of the fulness which they shall have in heaven; and in regard also of their signification, the grace and comforts of the Spirit of God in this life are pledges to us of that abundance and fulness of joy, which we shall partake of in the life to come, as the first-fruits of the Jews were an evidence to them of the ensuing crop. Groan within ourselves; among ourselves, say some, but it is better read in our translation, within ourselves. It expresses the manner of the saints groaning under sin and affliction; it is inward, and from the heart. Waiting for the adoption: now we are the sons of God; why then should we wait for what we have already? Answer. We have the right, but not the full possession, of our inheritance: the apostle himself explains his meaning in the next words. The redemption of our body; i.e. our perfect deliverance from sin and misery; this phrase is used in other places; see Luke 21:28 Ephesians 4:30. But why of our body, and not of our souls? Because their souls would be in actual possession of the inheritance before that day, or because the miseries and troubles of this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole man.