8:19 creature. “Creature” in Romans 8:19-21 is the same word as “creation” in Romans 8:22. This important passage (Romans 8:19-23) is the main New Testament exposition of God’s primeval curse on His creation because of sin (Genesis 3:14-19), and its promised future deliverance. The latter awaits the unveiling to the world of all those who have been brought into God’s spiritual family.

8:20 vanity. “Vanity” is equivalent to “futility.” Because of sin, the creation was made to operate under a law which specifies a universal process of decay and death. This law of morpholysis is recognized by science as a basic principle pervading the whole universe. It is also called the law of increasing entropy (meaning turning inward) or the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Every system in the physical and biological worlds has a tendency to turn inward and “feed” on itself to maintain its structure and activity, but this simply causes it to run down, disintegrate and die, unless it somehow becomes opened to outside sources of energy, information, food, etc. Even if it does remain an open system, this internal tendency continues to act in opposition to the incoming energy. Since even the latter will eventually be exhausted, the whole creation is thus in bondage to this principle of futility, or “in-vainness.” But since this law has been imposed by God, He also can remove it, and so there still is “hope.”

8:21 corruption. “Corruption” is equivalent to “decay,” and this is yet another way of stating the entropy principle. Everything tends to decay, running down from a created state of organized complexity to one of randomness and disorganized chaos. This law is thus called a “bondage;” the universe is enslaved by it, and there is no natural principle available to supersede it. Such a law is clearly the exact converse of the notion of evolution, which views the universe as gradually organizing itself over long ages by natural processes into its present state of high complexity and activity. The entropy law, which is supported without exception by all observation and scientific study, thus seems to stipulate that evolution on any significant scale is impossible. It also explains the fact that it has never been observed to occur in the present and the fact that there is no evidence it ever occurred in the past!

8:22 whole creation. The reference to “the whole creation” indicates that the divine curse extends through the entire created cosmos, not just to the earth. Scientific observation has apparently confirmed this. That is, the law of entropy operates throughout the cosmos. Since it was man’s sin that brought God’s curse on the ground—that is, the very elements of the created earth, the “dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7) out of which all things were made by God—it may be that his sin had universal repercussions. On the other hand, it may be that Satan’s sin, which took place in the angels’ domain in the heavens, brought on the curse there.

8:22 groaneth and travaileth. The creation is now travailing like a woman about to deliver children. Its delivery into the glorious new age to come is thus associated with the manifestation of the children of God.

8:25 hope. The blessed “hope” of the Christian is “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

8:26 groanings. The whole creation “groaneth” (Romans 8:22), “we ourselves groan within ourselves” (Romans 8:23) and the Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings” (Romans 8:26). The Greek word (stenagmos) refers to intense, yet inaudible, sighing. We who believe in God, the entire creation of God, and God Himself, are all yearning for the day when “there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3).

8:27 he maketh intercession. The indwelling Holy Spirit makes intercession for us here on earth, as God searches our hearts, and the Lord Jesus “ever liveth to make intercession for [us]” (Hebrews 7:25) in heaven. What grace and blessing!

8:27 will of God. If we pray according to God’s will, “we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him” (I John 5:14-15). Yet we often do not know what His will is. But then the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us “according to the will of God.” What comfort and assurance! No wonder “all things work together for good” for those who are the prayer requests of the Spirit.

8:28 the called. Evidently those “who are the called” are the same as those “that love God.”

8:29 foreknow. God’s “foreknowledge” is much more than just having prescience of what will happen in the future, but its full meaning is beyond our finite comprehension. That foreknowledge precedes election is evident from I Peter 1:2, and that it precedes predestination is evident from this verse. The same word (Greek proginosko) is translated “foreordained” in I Peter 1:20, where it clearly speaks of more than merely knowing ahead of time what will happen.

Note also Acts 2:23, speaking of Christ as being delivered to be crucified “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” and Acts 15:18, which reveals that “known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” His works surely were not planned merely by His foreknowledge of what they would be! Similarly, God “foreknew” that Israel would be His people (Romans 11:2), yet He later chose them by His own will. It clearly suggests planning ahead of time, not just knowing ahead of time. Nothing takes God by surprise; His decisions are not determined by our decisions. Yet in every case where God’s planning and predestinating are involved (e.g., Acts 2:23), it is also true those who acted according to His foreknowledge carried out those acts of their own volition. He promises that “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Yet He also says that “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). Our finite minds cannot fully apprehend both truths concurrently, yet we can rejoice in both with our hearts! God understands, because His understanding is infinite, and we rest in that.

8:29 image of his Son. Those whom God has foreknown, and who have therefore come to Christ when God called, will one day be so transformed as to be like Christ Himself (Philippians 3:21; I John 3:2), with the family resemblance as His brethren. This is our pre-destiny!

8:30 glorified. Once this marvelous sequence begins with God’s foreknowledge of those He would call, it is carried through so inevitably that Paul can even speak of us as “glorified” in the past tense. It is already an accomplished fact in the mind and purpose of God.