I. The groaning creation. We are surrounded by the evidences of a conflicting existence, a state of being not all evil, certainly; certainly not all of God. All things about us show the wrestlings of two orders of things two orders of spirits, who find on our earth their battle-ground and arena of conflict. "The whole creation groaneth." Time is the great school of suffering, and life is the great teacher. My text points me to a suffering world, but this is God's pathway to restitution. Christianity associates Divine ends and aims with suffering and my text points to them.
II. The earnest expectation. All the agitations of the world are the earnest of its need of rest. All things are in their prison or their grave, and beauty blooms only as the plant of a southern clime might bloom in Iceland. And what foundation has the groaning world for its expectant waiting for a time of restitution? The foundation is in the fact that the ransom has been paid and peace has been proclaimed to a revolted universe. We have heard in the groans of creation the tones of wailing over the fall of man, and in this restitution there is a threefold blessing: (1) There is reconciliation; (2) by that reconciliation Scripture assures us that the salvation of all mankind is made possible and the salvation of an immense multitude is certain; (3) this reconciliation was effected by one Mediator, and by one only, even our Redeemer Jesus Christ.
III. To that hour of restitution all things are pointing. What is our Lord doing now in His high and holy place? He is expectingtill His enemies become His footstool; looking out, looking forward. There is no ignorance implied in this, but a pausing until the fulness of the time shall come. No, from His intercessory throne, while He takes an interest in His friends, He is expecting. The turpitude and the crime of His enemies will only be His threshold to more illustrious and exalted power. He beholds all the hosts of evil tramping on their mad and foredoomed way. He is expecting till they become His footstool.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons,p. 249.
References: Romans 8:19-23. M. Rainsford, No Condemnation,p. 171.Romans 8:19-25. E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 177. Romans 8:20. C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope,p. 221; Homilist,new series, vol. ii., p. 350. Romans 8:20-22. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 122.Romans 8:21. Homilist,vol. vii., p. 123; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vi., p. 345; Parker, City Temple,vol. i., p. 62; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 334.