For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Romans 8:22
The last verse of Genesis 1 contains some beautiful words: And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. If only you and I could step back in time to that evening on the world’s first Friday and see what God saw as He reviewed His creation and proclaimed it very good. Unlike the evolutionist’s twisted concept of a blob of slime in a steamy swamp, God viewed the world in a beauty that you and I have never seen. Everything from trees to shrubs to grasses and flowers to mosses were all perfectly formed and lovely. Animals in the peak of health and sweet of temperament were a delight to behold. And the world’s most handsome man and the world’s most beautiful woman adorned the special garden that was God’s masterpiece of beauty and utility. We can try to describe that scene, but our imagination is too tiny to grasp what God meant when He proclaimed that it was very good. So different from the mess that Adam’s race has made of it, although that will change.
All of the death, destruction, and misery we see in our world today is described so accurately in our text in the words ‘groaneth and travaileth in pain together’. Every cemetery, every law court, every doctor and police officer remind us that this world has continued to run downhill, and we see no evidence that the plunge to perdition will slow anytime soon. Make no mistake, it is sin, and not climate change, that is dragging this world down. And yet, the rescue mission to restore this old world to its former state has already taken place. When the Lord Jesus completed his great work of redemption on the cross, He restored more than Adam had lost in Eden. Except in our own souls, and in the companies of the Lord’s people, we have not seen much evidence of this recovery. But it will surely come, because the work of the Saviour on the cross is not in vain. He restored that which He took not away – Psalm 69:4. And the significance of two words in our text – until now – will become apparent.
You and I will not, in our earthly lifetimes, see this world released from its groaning and travailing. In fact, the groaning and travailing will continue to get worse until the time of the great tribulation. And that time will bring in terrible judgments that will wrack this world as never before. We won’t see that, of course, because the rapture of the saints will carry us far above the torturous tribulation. But the tribulation will endure for seven years, and then will come the time that our text points forward to. During the thousand years in which Christ will reign in righteousness, this world will see what it would have been all these years if Adam had never sinned.
Christians are the first to experience in our souls the release from the groaning and travailing in pain caused by sin. This work in our souls will soon give way to release for our bodies as well. – Jim MacIntosh