Creation Is Groaning With You: Three Hopes from Romans 8

Introduction

There are days when the world seems to be spinning out of control. Wars, rising prices, refugees, a climate going off the rails, deaths that make no sense: the future feels frightening. Greta Thunberg talks about extinction. Elon Musk builds SpaceX to colonize Mars, because, in his view, we need to leave Earth as fast as possible to avoid the worst. And you, as a Christian, look at this broken world and wonder whether there is really any solid hope left.

In this service on June 1, 2025, at the Chapelle du Roi d'Espagne in Marseille, Joel SWANSON opens Romans 8:18-25 and refuses both panic and escape. He recalls something he saw up close in Ukraine, where he was serving on a mission when the conflict broke out: when the war came, the church stayed. It suffered alongside the people and it bore witness. A Ukrainian pastor told him that God was opening hearts like never before, because people were watching a community that did not run away. That is the hope of Romans 8: not escaping to Mars, but standing with Jesus until creation itself is set free.

The message is simple: the resurrection of Jesus has set in motion three certain hopes for you and for the world: a hope already accomplished, a harvest already secured, and a creation set free.

Message Outline

1. A hope already accomplished: your future resurrection is already secured

• Paul writes in verse 24: "For we were saved in hope." Past tense. How can we be saved by a resurrection that has not yet happened, since we have not yet been raised bodily?
• The answer lies in the link between Jesus's past and your future. In verse 23, Paul mentions three things: the first fruits of the Spirit, adoption, and the redemption of our body: that is, our bodily resurrection.
• Those same three realities appear right at the beginning of the letter, in Romans 1:3-4: Jesus was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Resurrection, adoption as Son, Spirit: what we are eagerly waiting for has already happened in the life of Jesus.
• When Jesus walked out of the tomb, death was thrown into reverse and the whole course of history changed direction. Your future resurrection is not a separate, second event; it is the same event that already began with his.
• That is why Paul can speak in the past tense of a salvation that still has a future: because the guarantee is already in place. The resurrection of Jesus set your resurrection hope in motion.

2. A harvest already secured: the first fruits of the Spirit in your life

• "We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body" (v.23). The word "first fruits" comes from farming: the first portion of the harvest offered to God.
• Joel SWANSON gives an example from his own family: his son Pascal was growing cucumbers in a planter box on the balcony of their apartment in Paris. The day he saw the first cucumber, he knew he would have a harvest. The whole family already shared in his joy, as if he had already brought it all in, even though there was still waiting to do.
• Another example: during World War II, why did the French celebrate the Allied landing in Normandy when there were still months of fighting ahead? Because the landing was the first fruits of victory. Victory was secured, even though everything was not yet finished.
• First fruits guarantee that the rest is on its way. Jesus had promised his disciples in John 16 that he would send his Spirit after returning to the Father. All believers have the Spirit, and they have it because Jesus rose again and ascended to heaven. The Spirit living in you is the proof that Jesus is alive.
• So you wait. Eagerly, joyfully, but you wait. The harvest is secured, and yet it takes time. That inward groan you feel when you look at the world, and at your own body letting you down, is the healthy ache of a resurrection already set in motion.

3. A creation set free: the planet is waiting for your resurrection too

• Verse 18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us." Then verse 20: creation was subjected to futility, not by its own choice, but because of the one who subjected it: an allusion to Adam and Eve's rebellion in the garden, whose consequences splashed across the whole cosmos.
• But creation "groans and suffers the pains of childbirth" (v.22). The image is not one of agony; it is one of labor. The pain announces a birth. Joel SWANSON admits he has no firsthand experience of childbirth, so he offers another picture: the exhausted marathon runner who spots the finish line at the top of the last hill. He pushes on because the joy ahead outweighs the pain.
• "Creation waits with eager expectation for the revealing of the children of God" (v.19). The Greek word literally pictures someone or something craning its neck to see farther ahead. Picture the mountains, the trees, the blue whales, the red pandas, the kiwis: all of creation straining to catch sight of the resurrection of believers, because that resurrection triggers cosmic renewal.
• One day, there will be no more polluted rivers, no more wounded animals, no more human trafficking, no more orphans of war. Corruption and death will disappear. Jesus is going to renew the earth. It is as certain as a six-year-old counting down the days to Christmas: he never doubts the day is coming, he is simply waiting for it.
• The Christian response to the ecological crisis, then, is neither panic nor escape. It is not Mars: it is the New Creation. We care for the earth with patient hope, not with a billionaire's despair.

Key Takeaways

• "For we were saved in hope": your salvation has a past (the cross), a present (the Spirit living in you), and a future (your resurrection). All three hold together.
• The resurrection of Jesus is not only a historical event: it is the direct trigger of yours. It is not a second miracle still to come; it is the same event that has already begun.
• The Spirit living in you is the first fruit of a far greater harvest. Like the first cucumber on the balcony, it guarantees everything still to come.
• All of creation groans with you and waits, not to be destroyed or abandoned, but to be set free. Caring for the earth is an act of Christian hope.
• Against the Elon Musks who dream of leaving the planet and the Greta Thunbergs who announce extinction, the church carries a third way: Jesus is renewing all things, and he calls us to work, study, and serve here while we wait patiently.

Personal Application

1. When you look at your own life and at the world today, where do you find yourself: closer to Greta's panic, to Elon Musk's escape, or to Paul's patient hope? What tips you toward one or the other?
2. Where do you feel, this week, that "inward groan" verse 23 speaks of: a place in your life where you are waiting for resurrection but cannot yet see it? How can you bring that groan to God without silencing it or getting lost in it?
3. What "first fruits of the Spirit" can you name concretely in your life today: a fruit of character, an answered prayer, an unexplainable peace? How do these first fruits guarantee what is still to come?
4. In your work, your studies, the way you inhabit the earth: is your motivation despair, guilt, or patient hope? What would you change if you truly believed Jesus is going to renew all things?
5. If you have not yet placed your trust in Jesus, what is holding you back today from entering into this hope that gives you access to the resurrection of life?

Scripture References

• Romans 8:18-25 (WEB)
• Romans 1:3-4 (WEB)
• John 16 (WEB)
• Genesis 3 (WEB)
• Acts 1:1-11 (WEB)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "the first fruits of the Spirit" mean in Romans 8:23?

"First fruits" is a farming term for the earliest portion of the harvest, the part offered to God as a sign that the rest was on its way. Paul applies it to the Holy Spirit: the Spirit living in you is the first gift of a much larger harvest, namely your bodily resurrection and the renewal of the whole universe. It is like the first cucumber growing on a balcony: its presence guarantees that the full harvest is already coming. You do not have everything yet, but you hold the pledge that proves everything will arrive.

If creation will be renewed, should I still care about ecology?

Yes, more than ever. Joel SWANSON insists that the Christian response to the ecological crisis is neither Greta Thunberg's panic nor Elon Musk's escape to Mars. Since God is not abandoning his work but promises to restore it, you care for the earth with patient hope. You study, you work, you care for living things, for the glory of your Father in heaven. The difference from the world's ecological despair is that the finish line is certain: Jesus is renewing all things.

Where and by whom was this sermon preached?

This message was preached on Sunday, June 1, 2025, at the Chapelle du Roi d'Espagne in Marseille (Ascension weekend), by Joel SWANSON. Joel SWANSON had previously served on a mission team in Ukraine, where he met his wife Stephanie; he then learned French in Marseille nearly ten years ago (their son Pascal was born and baptized there), and the family later spent four years in Paris. Joel was preparing to begin theology studies in Orlando, Florida. His preaching on Romans 8:18-25 is shaped by his experience of the Ukrainian church during the war, presented as a living example of hope that does not run away.