4 SUBORDINATION AND DELIVERANCE For the earnest expectation of the creature [creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature [creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Rom. 8:19-22).
The theocentric focus of this passage is God's curse on the creation (Gen. 3:18). Paul says that the deliverance of the creation from this curse will take place at some point in the future.
The Sons of Men The creation awaits "the manifestation of the sons of God." The word translated as "manifestation" is apokalupsys. It can be translated as "appearing." Example: "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:7). It is also the word for "revelation." "Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?" (I Cor. 14:6). "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John" (Rev. 1:1).
The final revelation regarding the sons of men -- all mankind -- is the final judgment. "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:13-15).
Who are these sons of men? Does this phrase mean mankind in general? In the Old Testament, the phrase sometimes is applied to mankind in general. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Ps. 8:4). "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help" (Ps. 146:3). The phrase appears most frequently in Ezekiel to name the prophet. "And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee" (Ezek. 2:1). Daniel referred to the son of man as a messenger of God. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him" (Dan. 7:13). God spoke to Daniel using this phrase. "So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision" (Dan. 8:17). In the New Testament, Jesus used this phrase to identify Himself. "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20). "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house" (Matt. 9:6).
What is the context of the phrase in Romans? It refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating men. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Rom. 8:14-17).
Here, the revelation of the sons of men has to refer to the coming of Christ's gospel in history. This revelation had already begun in Paul's day, but it had not yet transformed either Roman or Jewish society. The creation still awaits this greater manifestation, Paul says. What does the creation await? Deliverance from the bondage of corruption. "Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). But why should the creation expect such a thing? Because this deliverance will come for the sons of men. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). This points to the final deliverance from sin. The sufferings of the present do not compare to the glory of the post-resurrection world.
Progressive Deliverance from Sin and Its Curses Will there be any corporate manifestation in history of this final personal deliverance from sin? This raises the issue of eschatology. The amillennialist does not believe that history manifests this final deliverance, except insofar as the church reflects it, but the church is surrounded by a hostile world, and this non-delivered condition will continue until the end of history. The premillennialist believes the same until the Second Coming of Christ inaugurates His earthly kingdom's millennial reign. During this millennial reign, the premillennialist might say -- if premillennialists ever commented on such matters -- that the creation may begin to be delivered from God's curse because of the deliverance of human society from sin's effects. But this deliverance will not come prior to Christ's bodily return into history. Until then, the church will remain an oasis of deliverance from sin in a desert of evil. The creation will continue to groan.
Paul's revelation in this passage is a New Testament application of Isaiah's prophecy regarding the New Heaven and New Earth. "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isa. 65:17-20). Isaiah's prophecy cannot refer to the post-resurrection state, for it speaks of sinners, who will not be present in the post-resurrection covenanted community (Rev. 20:14-15). Isaiah's prophecy has to do with history. So, therefore, does Paul's. Isaiah's prophecy is related to his previous messianic prophecy.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:1-9)
The creation will at some time cease to be a war zone. This passage refers to warring nations. It uses a metaphor to drive home this prophecy into the reader's consciousness: the peaceful interaction between fierce animals and the normal victims of their ferocity. Isaiah discussed nature, but he had in mind the transformation of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them (Isa. 11:11-14).
Paul's words also invoke nature. Deliverance takes place in nature, not merely in society. The metaphor is not a metaphor after all. Or is it? Is Paul merely retaining the metaphorical character of Isaiah's messianic prophecy about animals? Is he saying that human society will alone be delivered from sin? Is nature really going to change? Paul's message is that there will someday be a removal of God's curse on nature. The creation was placed under bondage by Adam's fall. Adam judicially represented nature (Gen. 1:26-28). Nature came under a curse placed by God on Adam. The principle of subordination is basic to the biblical covenant model.(1) Those who are under the authority of a superior suffer when he does, or triumph when he does. Paul here refers back to Genesis 3, not to Isaiah 11.
Isaiah 65:17-20 prophesied an era in history in which children will die at age one hundred. This indicates a restoration of man's pre-Flood lifespan. There will be a transformation of human biology that enables men to live much longer. It is not said that this will be a scientific breakthrough, although it could be. Paul is saying that the creation under man will participate in a comparable removal of the effects of sin. The curse of God will be progressively removed from man and nature. Isaiah did not say that only the redeemed will be blessed with longer lifespans. So will sinners. This indicates that Isaiah was not speaking of Israel alone, but of mankind in general. The process of redemption will affect all mankind. This does not mean that every person will be redeemed, for sinners will still be sinners. It does mean that mankind's world, including human biology, will be transformed. It means that God's common grace will bring blessings to all.(2)
Why should the creation be relieved from some of the effects of God's curse? Because mankind is partially delivered from sin. But why should mankind be partially delivered? Because of God's grace of progressive sanctification in human society. As men become less rebellious against God, God will begin to bless both them and nature. He will remove the biological limitation that He imposed in order to restrain the evil behavior of mankind. Moses wrote: "Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away" (Psa. 90:5-10). Yet at age 130, Jacob called his days short (Gen. 47:9). Moses saw the shortened lifespan as a curse on mankind. Isaiah said that this curse will be reversed.
Progressive Social Sanctification Paul's words imply that there will be a time when the gospel will be so widely believed that most men will structure their outward behavior in terms of it. The revelation of the sons of men will be widespread. What at first is limited to the church will spread to all mankind. Jeremiah prophesied:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name (Jer. 31:31-35).
The author of Hebrews applies this prophecy to the church. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 8:10-12). This is why the Old Covenant order is about to disappear, he says. "Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8:13). It is being replaced. And so it was, in A.D. 70.
The church is international. It is no longer geographically bottled up in Palestine. This is why Isaiah's prophecies regarding nature (Isa. 11:1-9) and man (Isa. 65:17-20) can be fulfilled in history. The knowledge of God's law -- not just the work of the law in all men's hearts (Rom. 2:15)(3) -- will become widespread. The curse on nature will be progressively removed because God's law will be progressively obeyed.
This is progressive social sanctification. The social laws of God will be progressively obeyed. This will bring His positive social sanctions in history. This is what Isaiah prophesied. It is within this prophetic context that Paul's discussion of the redemption of the creation should be understood. Full redemption must await the post-resurrection New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21, 22). But partial redemption of nature is not only possible, it is prophetically inevitable.
As to whether this visible redemption will be accomplished by science or by God's direct intervention, Paul does not say. Neither did Isaiah.
Economic Growth God placed Adam under a curse in order to make his work less productive. "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field" (Gen. 3:18). The curse on nature was a curse on Adam. Nevertheless, in all of God's temporal curses, there is grace present.(4) Adam's reduced production gave him an incentive to cooperate with others to increase their individual output. "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up" (Eccl. 4:9-10). This incentive for cooperation increased the cost of murder and war. The curse on fallen man and his environment can in some cases reduce the level of violence.
Cooperation among men is comparable to a joint effort between man and nature. It makes men wealthier. Any reduction in the resistance of nature in surrendering her fruits increases men's wealth. Paul here prophesies a future in which nature will be delivered from its present groaning. This is necessarily a forecast of increased economic output.
Nature was cursed by God in order to pressure men to cooperate. Because men can increase their wealth through cooperation, men cooperate. If the curse of nature is reduced, there will not be so great a need for men's cooperation. The closer society approaches zero prices for factors of production, tastes remaining equal, the less need for the division of labor. But if the increase in nature's productivity is in response to mankind's greater covenant-keeping, as this passage suggests will be the case, then the result is greater dominion rather than increased leisure. Output rises, and people use this greater output to subdue the earth less expensively. In contrast, if nature's output should increase apart from covenant-keeping, its increased output will lead to reduced cooperation. Men will pursue more leisure. They will not feel the same environmental pressure to cooperate in order to increase their individual wealth. So, the cause of the increase is significant in assessing its results. An increase in nature's output will have different effects, depending on men's ethical commitment and vision of the future.
Economic growth is a positive sanction attached to God's covenant law. The early sections of both Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 list the blessings of corporate obedience. These passages include increased economic growth. "Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store" (Deut. 28:4-5). "The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee" (Deut. 28:8). Paul is forecasting a time when the earth will provide more of its wealth to men. This is part of a general removal of Adam's curse.
Because God had given Israel a vision of linear history, from the original creation to the expansion of God's kingdom, the Israelites had the foundation of a doctrine of progress. Deuteronomy 28 applied progress to economics. Paul here extends this hope to the world at large. It is not just the land of Israel that will be blessed. It will be the whole earth. The gentiles can participate.
This passage is a standing testimony against those who declare that there should be laws passed to restrict economic growth. They are arguing against the blessings of God. They are attempting to overturn this prophecy in the name of wealth-redistribution by agents of the State.
There are reasons for this hostility to economic growth. If economic growth is legitimate, then population growth is legitimate. The modern secular West hates population growth. This is why abortion has become legal in the West. Sinners seek an increase in their personal wealth by killing their own children. Collectively, they seek an increase in their per capita wealth -- their lifestyle -- by killing their unborn children. They also see that the continual expansion of population in a finite world points to the end of time. They rightly fear God's final judgment. Filling the earth with people means fulfilling the God's dominion covenant given to Adam (Gen. 1:26-28) and Noah (Gen. 9:1-3). Covenant-breakers seek to delay God's final judgment by turning back both economic growth and population growth. They seek to escape their duties under God's dominion covenant. Here is the underlying theology of the zero-growth movement: deferring God's final judgment.
Conclusion Paul prophesied the redemption of nature from God's curse. Nature had come under a curse because of Adam, Paul said. "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope" (Rom. 8:20). But a second Adam has come, Jesus Christ. He has reversed the curse definitively. "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:17-19). What Christ began at His resurrection will be extended in history. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:22-26). The reign of Christ will progressively overcome His enemies in history, culminating in the triumph over death at the final judgment. Death is the last enemy to be overcome. This means that before death is finally overcome at the end of history, the curses associated with Adam's fall will be overcome.
Paul was saying that the gospel will be extended throughout the earth, and to the extent that man's society is redeemed by special grace, so will nature be redeemed by common grace. Nature will come under the reign of Christ. The prophecies in Isaiah 11 will be fulfilled. So will the prophecies in Isaiah 65.
Footnotes:
1. Ray R. Sutton, That You May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant (2nd ed.; Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1992), ch. 2.
2. Gary North, Dominion and Common Grace: The Biblical Basis of Progress (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987).
3. Chapter 2, above.
4. North, Dominion and Common Grace, ch. 2.
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