Victory in Christ - Part 20

This is the next installment of a series I am writing concerning what Romans 6-8 teaches about our sin problem and God's plan for victory. To find previous installments do a search for the title: Victory In Christ. You can find the first installment here.

²³ Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

It's not only creation that groans. You and I groan. We know there is something wrong. Things are not as they ought to be. Those of us who know Christ have an eager anticipation for the completion of our adoption as children of God. That adoption is totally complete when not only our souls but also our body is redeemed and made new. We don't see this right now, but it is a certain hope. It is not an I hope so hope. It is a certain expectation. And so we wait with perseverance.

This is the way Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

So the Holy Spirit is the guarantee or the firstfruits now as a promise that God will fulfill the complete work of redemption including the redemption of the body. The body may be dead and dying now, but the same Spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead is at work in us right now. The internal has changed. We are jut waiting for the external change as well.

Principle 28: We wait with patience for our complete redemption when our body will be made new to match our spirit that was made new when we were saved.