Romans 8:18

8:18-25 The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time! Indeed the whole creation seems to wait with earnest expectation for the period when the children of God shall be manifested in the glory prepared for them. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. Yet this deplorable state of the creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in bondage to man's depravity. The miseries of the human race, through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the world is not always to continue as it is. Our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, quickens our desires, encourages our hopes, and raises our expectations. Sin has been, and is, the guilty cause of all the suffering that exists in the creation of God. It has brought on the woes of earth; it has kindled the flames of hell. As to man, not a tear has been shed, not a groan has been uttered, not a pang has been felt, in body or mind, that has not come from sin. This is not all; sin is to be looked at as it affects the glory of God. Of this how fearfully regardless are the bulk of mankind!

Believers have been brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists rather in hope than in enjoyment. From this hope they cannot be turned by the vain expectation of finding satisfaction in the things of time and sense. We need patience, our way is rough and long; but He that shall come, will come, though he seems to tarry.

{20} For I {t} reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (20) Thirdly, that this glory which we look for surpasses a thousand times the misery of our afflictions. (t) All being well considered, I gather.

For I reckon; i.e. I make account, I certainly conclude: see Romans 3:28 . The word is borrowed either from arithmeticians, who by casting their accounts do find the true and total sum; or from logicians, who by considering the premises do draw the conclusion. Not worthy to be compared; the word properly signifieth that part of the balance which goeth down: q.d. If the sufferings of this life be weighed with the glory to come, they will be light in comparison. These words, to be compared, are supplied in our translation to make up the sense. Revealed in us; it is revealed to us, and it shall be revealed in us. This text is a confutation of the popish doctrine of merit and human satisfaction.

(18-25) The mention of “suffering” and of “glory” recalls the Apostle to a sense of his own position—what he had to go through, and what was the hope that he had to animate and encourage him. A vivid impression of the stormy life of the Apostle at this period is given by Acts 19:23-41 ; 2Corinthians 6:4-5 ; 2Corinthians 11:23-28 . But he counted it as nothing ( Philippians 3:8 ) as compared with his triumphant out-look into the future. Here, then, there follows a statement of the nature of the Christian’s hope viewed, not only as it affects the individual, but also in its cosmical aspect. (18) Revealed in us.—Upon us—i.e., reaching to us, and illumining and transfiguring us. The Coming of Christ is always thus conceived of as a visible manifestation of glory in those who take part in it.

Romans 8:18 . The passage extending from this verse to Romans 8:27 is described by Lipsius as a “threefold testimony to the future transfiguration which awaits suffering believers”. In Romans 8:19-22 there is the first testimony—the sighing of creation; in Romans 8:23-25 the second, the yearning hope of Christians themselves, related as it is to the possession of the first fruits of the Spirit; and in Romans 8:26 f. the third, the intercession of the Spirit which helps us in our prayers, and lends words to our longing. λογιζόμεθα γὰρ κ . τ . λ . λογίζομαι is a favourite word with Paul: the instance most like this is the one in Romans 3:28 . It does not suggest a more or less dubious result of calculation; rather by litotes does it express the strongest assurance. The insignificance of present suffering compared with future glory was a fixed idea with the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 4:17 f. For οὐκ ἄξια … πρὸς see Winer, 505 (d). With τὴν μέλλουσαν δόχαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι cf. in Galatians 3:23 τὴν μέλλ . πίστιν ἀποκαλ . The unusual order emphasises the futurity, εἰς ἡμᾶς = toward and upon us. The glory comes from without, to transfigure them. It is revealed at the ἀποκάλυψις ( 1 Corinthians 1:7 , 2 Thessalonians 1:7 , 1 Peter 1:7 ; 1 Peter 1:13 ; 1 Peter 4:13 ), the glorious second coming, of Christ, and is indeed His glory of which they are made partakers.

18. 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—that is, "True, we must suffer with Christ, if we would partake of His glory; but what of that? For if such sufferings are set over against the coming glory, they sink into insignificance."

Romans 8:18 . Γὰρ , for ) The reason assigned,[94] why he just now made mention of suffering, and of glorification.— ΤΟῦ ΝῦΝ ΚΑΙΡΟῦ , of the present time ) The cross [laid on the children of God], in the New Testament is greater than it formerly was, but it is of short continuance. καιρὸς , a short time; the present and future are opposed to each other.— πρὸς , to be compared with ) that is, if they be compared together.— εἰς ἡμᾶς , with respect to [towards] us; comp. 2 Corinthians 5:2 . [94] Aetiologia. See Appendix.

Verses 18, 19. - For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. (So, as in the Revised Version, or upon us, as Tyndale and Cranmer, rather than in us , as in the Authorized Version. The expression is εἰς ἡμᾶς , and the idea is of Christ appearing in glory, and shedding his glory on us, cf. 1 John 3:2 .) For the earnest expectation of the creature (or, creation ) waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God . "Revelatur gloria: et tum revelantur etiam filii Dei" (Bengel). God's sons will be revealed as being such, and glorified (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:5 ; also 1 John 3:2 ). Ἠ κτίσις , in this verse and afterwards, has been variously understood. The word properly means actus creationis , and is so used in ch. 1:20; but usually in the New Testament denotes what has been created, as, in English, creation. Sometimes, where the context limits its application, it denotes mankind , as Mark 16:15 and Colossians 1:23 ; or it may be used for an individual creature (cf. Romans 8:39 ; Hebrews 4:13 ). Where there is nothing to limit its meaning, it must be understood of the whole visible creation, at any rate in the world of man. Thus in Mark 10:6 ; Mark 13:19 ; 2 Peter 3:4 . And so here, except so far as the context limits it; for see especially πᾶση ἡ κτίσις in ver. 22.

It is, indeed, apparently so limited to the part of creation of which we have cognizance at present; for see οἴδαμεν in ver. 22, which denotes a known fact. But is there any further limitation, as many commentators contend? Putting aside as untenable, in view of the whole context (see especially ver. 23), the view of those who understand the new spiritual creation of the regenerate to be meant, we may remark as follows: (1) That ἡ κτίσις includes certainly all mankind , not excepting the regenerate. Καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ in ver. 23 means that "we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit" are included, not that we are a class apart. (2) The whole animal creation is included too. So general a term as πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις could not surely have been used if man only had been meant. And it is obviously true that the whole sentient creation, as well as man, has a share now in the general suffering. To the objection that the irrational creatures cannot be conceived as sharing in the "hope" and "earnest expectation" spoken of, it may be replied that, so far as it seems to be implied that they do, it may only be that the apostle, by a fine prosopopeia , conceives them as feeling even as the human mind feels concerning them. But, further, conscious hope and expectation does not seem, if the language of the passage be examined, to be distinctly attributed to them.