Grace For The Journey

  Did you know that “groaning” is a great grace from God, and that it is to be the mark of the Christian on the way to glory?  The Bible makes it clear that groaning identifies those who are awaiting the glories of the life to come.

Between

Justification (the instant you were saved)

And

Glorification (the time you enter into your eternal rest)

Groaning is to be the default language of every Christian.

Is it yours?  Let’s see from the Bible why it should be . . .

The Bible says in Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now.”

The apostle Paul tells us that all of creation groans because of sin through deterioration, decay, and death.  Creation is awaiting the day when Jesus will make all things new.  Under the divine decree of Almighty God, creation suffers – not because of anything it did, but because of what Adam did through original sin and what we do through our continual sin.

The Bible also says in Romans 8:23, “And not only that, but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

Paul confirms that not only is creation groaning, but believers are groaning as we wait for the return of our Lord.  We, who are sinners by both nature and habit, groan because of the corruption and futility that exists in us and the world around us.  We mourn because we do not do the good we want to do, but the evil we do not want in our lives is what we keep on doing (Romans 7:19).  The difference between what we currently are (great sinners) and what we one day will be (sinless sons and daughters) causes us to groan even more.

The Bible also says in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Paul assures us that along with creation and the Christian, the Holy Spirit groans also, interceding for us with “groanings too deep for words.”  The Spirit of Christ testifies to the fact that something is terribly wrong with us and with the world around us, causing us to groan and long for the day when we will live with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth.

The groaning the Bible speaks about is a deep, inward, agonizing ache of the heart in response to the sinfulness and brokenness of this fallen world.  It is not the whining, grumbling, and complaining we frequently engage in when our plans are thwarted, our agenda is interrupted, and our preferences are put on hold.  Broken people in a broken world are to be groaning for the return of our Lord, because then He will make all things new.

If we are not groaning, we have grown too comfortable with the things of this life.  Sad  this is the condition of far too many in the American evangelical church today.  When we find fulfillment in things other than God we don’t groan!  Yet, God in His grace wants to break the power our possessions have over us.  This will only happen as we look more to our Savior than to our stuff to meet our deepest needs and longings of the heart.

The life of the Christian is to follow the path of grace, groaning, and glory.  This journey focuses our hope beyond a life defined by the horizontal to a life directed by the vertical.  To be sure, the Kingdom of God has come, but it is not yet fully what it will be; therefore we groan!   And the only people who are groaning for the glory of God are those who have surrendered their will to His will . . . their goals to His goals . . . their desires to His desires.  They are living for the Kingdom of the Savior rather than the kingdom of the self.

What we need to remember is that He who began a good work in us” is not finished with us yet (Philippians 1:6).  And that should make us groan with anticipation of what we shall one day be – like Him!

In a sermon preached on September 28, 1885, Charles Spurgeon said: “We cannot help feeling that we need somewhat more than this visible world can offer us.  Many of us find our greatest joy in the cultivation of that feeling, for it is to us the token of our spiritual nature and the prophecy of immortality.  To us, this life is mainly worth living because it promises to be the introduction to a better life.”

Godly groaning brings our concerns and cares to the God’s concerns and cares, and this is the only place for the Christian to live.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”