Romans 8:23

And not only they - Not only the creation in general. “But ourselves also.” Christians.

Which have the first-fruits of the Spirit - The word used ἀπαρχὴ aparchē denotes properly the first-fruits of the harvest, the portion that was first collected and consecrated to God as an offering of gratitude, Deu 26:2; Exo 23:19; Num 18:13. Hence, the word means what is first in order of time. Here it means, as I suppose, that the Christians of whom Paul was speaking had partaken of the first influences of the Spirit, or had been among the first partakers of his influences in converting sinners. The Spirit had been sent down to attend the preaching of the gospel, and they were among the first who had partaken of those influences. Some, however, have understood the word to mean a pledge, or earnest, or foretaste of joys to come. This idea has been attached to the word because the first-fruits of the harvest were a pledge of the harvest, an evidence that it was ripe, etc. But the word does not seem to be used in this sense in the New Testament. The only places where it occurs are the following; Rom 8:23; Rom 11:16; Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; 1Co 16:15; Jam 1:18; Rev 14:4.

Groan within ourselves - We sigh for deliverance. The expression denotes strong internal desire; the deep anguish of spirit when the heart is oppressed with anguish, and earnestly wishes for succor.

Waiting for the adoption - Waiting for the full blessings of the adoption. Christians are adopted when they are converted Rom 8:15, but they have not been yet admitted to the full privileges of their adoption into the family of God. Their adoption when they are converted is secret, and may at the time be unknown to the world. The fullness of the adoption, their complete admission to the privileges of the sons of God, shall be in the day of judgment, in the presence of the universe, and amidst the glories of the final consummation of all things. This adoption is not different from the first, but is the completion of the act of grace when a sinner is received into the family of God.

The redemption of the body - The complete recovery of the body from death and corruption. The particular and striking act of the adoption in the day of judgment will be the raising up of the body from the grave, and rendering it immortal and eternally blessed. The particular effects of the adoption in this world are on the soul. The completion of it on the last day will be seen particularly in the body; and thus the entire man shall be admitted into the favor of God, and restored from all his sins and all the evil consequences of the fall. The apostle here speaks the language of every Christian. The Christian has joys which the world does not know; but he has also sorrows; he sighs over his corruption; he is in the midst of calamity; he is going to the grave; and he looks forward to that complete deliverance, and to that elevated state, when, in the presence of an assembled universe, he shall be acknowledged as a child of God. This elevated privilege gives to Christianity its high value; and the hope of being acknowledged in the presence of the universe as the child of God - the hope of the poorest and the humblest believer - is of infinitely mere value than the prospect of the most princely inheritance, or of the brightest crown that a monarch ever wore.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rom_8:23

Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit … groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The firstfruits of the Spirit

I. What they include.

1. Pardon.

2. Regeneration.

3. Communion with God.

II. What they inspire.

1. Hope.

2. Aspiration.

3. Patience.

III. What they promise.

1. Final adoption into the family of heaven.

2. The glorification of the body.

3. The beatific vision. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The groaning believer

If our action upon and relation to the creature cause the creature to be subject to so much travail and pain, so, in return, the creature acts upon us, causing us to groan under a burden which it is hard to bear. The action is reciprocal, and our present life appears, for the time, to be a life of vanity and vexation of spirit, and is only partially mitigated by the prospect of the final redemption. Here, then, we have just the counterpart of the picture presented in Rom_8:22.

I. A description of believers. We who have the Spirit as the firstfruits, or the earnest of our inheritance. Take man as man; compare his rich endowments with the shortness of his existance and the vanity of his occupation. And if we pass to the Christian man endowed with the fruits of redemption, what we see of his present life only still more impresses us with a feeling of its vanity. For only look--

1. At the endowments he possesses--the firstfruits of the Spirit. Not merely high mental powers, but the rudiments of a Divine nature fitting for communion with a holy God and fellowship with the pure intelligences of heaven.

2. At the expenditure by which these endowments have been secured. The wisdom of God, the work of Christ, and the operations of the Holy Spirit, are all involved in lifting any one up from the level of mere humanity to that of the family of God.

3. At the consciousness of the endowment as already possessed by us--awakening within us aspirations to do the work that angels do, having a desire to depart and be with Jesus--a training that seems to unfit for the low occupations of earthly life. Who has not wished always to be employed in some heavenly service when he has found himself tied down by the necessity of labouring for the bread that perisheth.

II. Their present sorrowful condition--groan within ourselves.

1. There seems here a kind of retributive action. We have to do with earthly things, and as we have abused them so they seem to press upon us, and so to resent the wrong we have done them. There are sins that God has forgiven, but the effects upon our temporal condition can never be repaired.

2. The discrepancy that seems to exist between the endowment and the service to which it is here devoted. John Howe speaks of a man clothed in scarlet being set to feed swine to express such discrepancy. And, no doubt, if such were the will of God, a loving servant would yield, but then scarlet is not the proper livery for such a service. It may be a discipline for the servant, though it spoil his clothes.

3. It arises from the actual sufferings to be endured, and no affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. We are not Stoics, nor does God wish us to be.

4. There is the liability to temptation and sin. We may, after all, be overtaken by a fault, and whilst we are so exposed we may well groan.

5. There is our proximity to the evil around us. Righteous Lot vexed his soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

III. Their coming deliverance.

1. This is called the adoption, because it will be, not the initiation into the family, but the public inauguration of the heir, on reaching his majority, into the inheritance.

2. It is called the redemption of the body. Redemption is, in Christ, already complete. But in us it is progressive--

(1) There is, therefore, now no condemnation.

(2) Death, when the soul is emancipated from all pollution.

(3) The resurrection, when the body itself shall be emancipated (Php_3:21).

The subject teaches a lesson--

1. Of patience. It is Gods order. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have suffered the will of God.

2. Of hope. Look on. Seek not your rest here. (P. Strutt.)

The inward groaning of the saints

Note--

I. Whereunto The Saints Have Attained.

1. We have, not we hope sometimes we have, nor yet possibly we may have, nor we shall have, but we have. True, many things are yet in the future, but we have already a heritage which is the beginning of our eternal portion--the firstfruits of the Spirit, i.e., the first works of the Spirit in our souls--repentance, faith, love. These are called the firstfruits because--

(1) They come first. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the graces which adorn the spiritual life are the first gifts of the Spirit of God in our souls.

(2) They were the pledge of the harvest. As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, they were to him so many proofs that the harvest was already come. So, when God gives us Faith, hope, charity, whatsoever things are pure, lovely, etc., these are to us the prognostics of the coming glory.

(3) They were always holy to the Lord. The first ears of corn were offered to the Most High, and surely our new nature, with all its powers, must be regarded by us as a consecrated thing.

(4) They were not the harvest. No Jew was ever content with them. So, when we get the first works of the Spirit of God, we are not to say, I have attained, I am already perfect. Nay, they should but excite an insatiable thirst after more.

2. What the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. For the reason that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. Did you hear that groan? It is a traveller lost in the deep snow on the mountain pass. Hear another. The traveller has reached the hospice, is perfectly safe, and is exceedingly grateful to think that he has been rescued; but yet I hear him groan because he has a wife and children down in yonder plain, and the snow is lying so deep that he cannot pursue his journey. Now, the first groan was deep and dreadful; that is the groan of the ungodly man as he perishes; but the second is more the note of desire than of distress. Such is the groan of the believer, who, though rescued and brought into the hospice of Divine mercy, is longing to see his Fathers face.

II. Wherein are believers deficient? In those things for which we groan and wait.

1. This body of ours is not delivered. As soon as a man believes in Christ, his soul is translated from death unto life, and the body indeed becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost; but the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. The greatest piety cannot preserve a man from growing old, nor deliver his body from corruption, weakness, and dishonour. Nor is this little, for the body has a depressing effect upon the soul, and its appetites have a natural affinity to that which is sinful. The body is redeemed by price, but it has not yet been redeemed by power. Now this is the cause of our groaning. The soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered, it sighs to think that its poor friend should still be under the yoke. If you were a free man, and your wife a slave, the more you enjoyed the sweets of freedom, the more would you pine that she should still be in slavery. And so, again, with the saints in heaven. They are free from sin, but a disembodied spirit never can be perfect until it is reunited to its body. They do not groan, but they long with greater intensity than you and I for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.

2. Our adoption is not manifested (cf. verse 19). Among the Romans a man might adopt a child privately; but there was a second adoption, when the child was brought before the authorities, and its ordinary garments were taken off, and the father put on garments suitable to the condition of life in which it was to live. Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; that is, God will dress us all as He dresses His eldest Son. Cannot you imagine a child taken from the lowest ranks of society and adopted by a Roman senator, saying to himself, I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed, and be robed as becomes my rank. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. So it is with us.

3. Our liberty is incomplete. As to our spirits, we have liberty to soar to the heavenly places with Jesus Christ; but as for our bodies, we can only roam about this narrow cell of earth.

4. Our glory is not yet revealed, and that is another subject for sighing. The glorious liberty may be translated, The liberty of glory. We are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. They are waiting till their Lord shall descend from heaven, and the whole of the blood-washed host, wearing their white robes, and bearing their palms of victory, shall march up to their thrones. After this consummation the believing heart is groaning. Let me show you again the difference between a groan and a groan. Go into yonder house: there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. Go to the next house, and there is another much more painful than the first. How are we to judge between them? We will come again in a few days: as we are entering the first house we see weeping faces, a coffin, and a hearse. In the next there is a smiling cherub, and a mother who joys that a man is born into the world. There is all the difference between the groan of death and the groan of life. It is not the pain of death we feel, but the pain of life. We are thankful to have such a groaning. The other night two men working very late were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, Ah, theres a poor Christmas day in store for me. He had been a drunkard, a spendthrift. Now, his fellow workman also groaned. On being asked why, he said, I want to get home to my dear wife and children. I have such a happy house, I do not like to be out of it. So the Christian has a good Father, a blessed home, and groans to get to it, and there is more joy in the groan of a Christian than in all the mirth of the ungodly.

III. What our state of mind is. A Christians experience is like the rainbow, made up of drops of the griefs of earth, and beams of the bliss of heaven.

1. We groan within ourselves. It is not the hypocrites groan, who wants people to believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. Our sighs are sacred things. We keep our longings to our Lord.

2. We are waiting, by which I understand that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, Let me die, nor are we to sit still and look for the end of the day because we are tired of work. We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself.

3. We are hoping (verse 24). Conclusion: Here is a test for us all. You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth, some because of their great losses or sufferings. But the man that yearns after more holiness, that is the man who is blessed indeed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christian experience and aspiration

That this passage is a magnificent one few would deny. The complaint we are likely to make of it is that it is too magnificent; that it transports us into an atmosphere which scarcely any one but a saint or apostle can be expected to breathe. We need, we think, not grand anticipations of a future, but some help in combating the petty temptations of each day. But if we look at these words again we perceive that the man who wrote them must have been more, not less, conversant than we are with the sufferings which common men are experiencing. He had shut himself in no cloister. He hears arising from all creation a groan coming from the sense of actual misery; and the clearest, fullest interpretation of these words may be found in our daily walks. The streets of London can tell us more about the sense of them than all the folios of commentators.

I. St. Paul tells the Roman Church that he and they were waiting for their adoption, or their full recognition as sons of God. There has been a proclamation to men that God has claimed them, without respect of race or circumstances, as His children in His only-begotten Son. And any message less than this has been powerless to satisfy the necessities of men, and has produced no permanent moral effect upon them. If we use all arguments of fear, all arts of rhetoric to convince men that they ought to take care of their souls, a few may be startled out of a sleep to which they will return again. But the mere part will feel that you are bidding them forget the real earth for the sake of a heaven which they can only dream of. But if we will recur to the old and simple scriptural phraseology of the hearth and home--if we will bear witness to men of a Father who has sent the elder Brother of the household to bring them into it, to endow them with the highest rights of children, we shall find that it can bring forth as clear a response from the men of the nineteenth century as from the men of the first.

II. The question how this condition of sonship is consistent with sorrow could be answered by those who believed the Son of God to be the Man of sorrows. In the light of Christs passion all suffering became transfigured. It was the filial token (Heb_13:8). But St. Paul did not intend that they should hug pain and sickness, because a deep truth might be learnt from them. He admits them in themselves to be discords and anomalies. He could not bear to contemplate it, if he were not sure that they were no parts of its original order; and that not being parts of it they were to cease. The revelation of the Son of God in weakness and pain and death, had vindicated the title of sons of God for creatures enduring weakness, pain, and death. The revelation of the Son of God in the glory of His Father would reveal them in the glory for which they had been created.

III. But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Not simply that no sufferings are worthy to be compared with final rewards. The sufferings of the present time are those of the whole creation, of which man is the head, to be excluded from which would be to be excluded from human sympathy, from fellowship with the great Sufferer. So far from being exempt from them, Paul knew more of them than any, but the blessing of the firstfruits of the Spirit; is the possession of a clearer, stronger hope than others. Yet that hope is not a hope for himself, but for his kind.

IV. for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same. Here is the apostles explanation of the puzzle which has tormented men ever since evil entered into the universe. That the guilty will be punished is reasonable, in this our consciences acquiesce. But there is a guiltless part of creation which endures misery. How can that be just? St. Paul feels the difficulty, and this is the refuge. The creation has been made subject to vanity; a very fitting phrase to express the apparent frustration of the end for which it has been called into existence. He frankly admits that the bondage which the mere animal undergoes is not its own fault, and that it has a Divine origin. But in doing so he affirms two mighty propositions--

1. That the innocent, involuntary creature is made the victim of vanity and death for the sake of that higher being who has broken loose from that will which he was created to serve.

2. That this subjection is temporary, and contains the promise of a future emancipation, when the end for which it was ordained has been accomplished. Less than this such language (verses 20, 21) cannot mean--that all the sufferings to which the earth and those that inhabit it are liable, are permitted and designed for the education of those who bear the nature which the Son of God bore; and that no suffering which contributes to this end is, in the judgment of the All-good and the All-wise, excessive or wasted, not even the sufferings and death of the Innocent, the Holy One. But this end being attained, all the forms of physical evil will also be overcome; the involuntary creation will be delivered from its fetters and its shame; the whole regenerated world, in its primal order and harmony, will offer up its sacrifices, through its High Priest and Restorer, to His Father.

V. His teaching, taken fully and literally, involves a renewal of the whole animal creation. If there is to be a restitution of all things, such as God, who cannot lie, promised by His holy prophets since the world began, I cannot understand how that element should be wanting to it. Must the creatures which have ministered to mans wants and delights be shut out from the renovation of our race, by whose degeneracy they are so deeply affected? From these thoughts others are nearly inseparable. The idea of a redemption of nature as consequent upon a redemption of man has often dawned upon the man of science and upon the artist. The one has seen that the laws of the universe can only be fully vindicated when the self-will which has set those laws at defiance has been extirpated; the other, from his deep sense of the sympathy between man and the forms which he contemplates, has been certain that such a revelation of loveliness awaits the purified vision as the highest prophet has only guessed of.

VI. The redemption of the body which St. Paul waited for, must include the removal of whatever hinders the senses from receiving clear and satisfactory impressions of the world with which they are intended to converse. But there is a more obvious force in the expression. The body is enslaved to disease and pain. These are the signs that Death has rights over the body, and that he will assert his rights. St. Paul says that there is another who has an elder, stronger right over it; that Christ by going into the grave and rising out of it has asserted and made good His right; that He will fully exert it. This redemption St. Paul felt that he was sent to proclaim to men because he was sent to proclaim their sonship to God. And so his teaching assumed a profoundly practical character. Fully believing in this redemption men are never to confess Death as a master. Our homage to Christ, our faith in our Divine sonship, implies that we expect a victory for the body; that it was not made so fearfully and wonderfully for nothing; that it shall at last he made like to the glorious body of Him who will subdue all to Himself. (F. D. Maurice M.A.)

The aspirations of a Christian soul

It is impossible to deny the splendour of the idea contained in this passage. But we are tempted to question the possibility of ever realising it. We fancy that such lofty yearnings rise too far above the common highways to give us any strength in meeting the temptations and work of the everyday world. Such aspirations might thrill the spirit of an apostle or a lonely saint, but they are too unearthly to be realised by us. We need some more homely teaching to enable us to meet the temptations of their career. But Paul was no solitary saint, and the men to whom he wrote were surrounded by earthly temptations of the fiercest kind. And yet this practical apostle tells those tempted men that both they and he were praying for the redemption of the body, And in our day such aspirations, instead of being too lofty for our common life, are the only safeguards against its prevalent snares. Note--

I. Their nature. In illustrating this we must dwell on the two phrases on which this nature depends. Firstfruits manifestly refers to the Jewish custom of presenting to God the earliest ears of corn or fruit as a thanksgiving and a prayer. The influences of the Spirit therefore are not merely a promise of the future, they are the actual commencements of the golden harvest of eternal glory. The other phrase, groaning for the adoption, even so far as unto the redemption of the body, means that we are adopted now, but that the body in the bondage of corruption stands in the way of the full realisation of our sonship, and therefore the firstfruits of the Spirit are a cry for its perfect deliverance. Note then--

1. That the firstfruits of the Spirit are a prayer for perfect adoption. We know thatnow we are sons of God; but the more we realise that fact, the more profoundly do we feet that the full manifestation has not yet come. Let us illustrate this by looking at three great firstfruits of the Spirit, experimentally. The Spirit reveals to us our adoption--

(1) By revealing the love of God. There are times when we feel that He loves us; and this feeling clothes life in splendour, and brings into the heart the balm and music of heaven, making poverty, toil, sorrow, endurable things. But is not that always a longing, a prayer? The very greatness of that love--the very feebleness of our emotion in responding to it, make us pray to feel it more.

(2) By the gift of spiritual power. The sign of a son of God is that he is no more in bondage to the passions and habits of the old life. But are we ever kings over ourselves as supremely as we would be? And there, again, the firstfruits of the Spirit are a longing for a perfected adoption.

(3) By the gift of Divine peace. But because that so soon fades, who does not long for the sabbath of eternity?

2. We can now see how these aspirations rise, as Paul says, into a prayer for the redemption of the body. Our present body is the grand hindrance to the attainment of perfect sonship: thought wears out its energies; deep emotion exhausts its vigour; its infirmities, sicknesses, decays, hinder the prayers and aspirations of the soul. And then, above all, the power of the body to perpetuate the influences of past sin renders it a hindrance to the man who feels the firstfruits of the Spirit. And thus it is that we who have the firstfruits must cry for the redemption of the body, because we know that until then we can never reach the love, power, and blessedness, which belong to us as sons of God.

II. Their prophetic hopes. We hope--

1. For the redeemed body; not for the departure of the present body, but for its redemption. We pray not for the death of our present powers of sight and hearing, but for their purified and intensified life. And now mark the prophetic cries which lie hid in that hope. Because it is a firstfruit of the Spirit, it foretells that every bodily power shall come forth, not crushed, but made stronger and brighter from the touch of death.

2. For the redeemed world. This world with all its beauty is fitted rather for a school of discipline than a home of purified spirits, and hence we hope for another and purer world for our final abode. Now mark again how this hope is prophetic of what shall be. Paul, in the context, affirms that the pain and death of the creature form one loud prophetic wail for redemption, i.e., the whole creation joins the Christian cry for a world in which suffering and evil shall have vanished.

III. Their present lessons.

1. We need them all. Let a man lower his hopes and limit his aspirings, and he will easily decline into a low spiritual life in which he will be like a reed shaken by the wind, before temptation. Only he who daily claims the whole eternity of hope as his own is guarded against the snares and pollutions of the world.

2. We must live them all. (E. L. Hull, B.A.)

Christian privileges and prospects

I. The description which is given of Christians by their present privileges. In this chapter we have a remarkable distinction of character. Those in a state of nature are described as in the flesh, aa carnally minded, etc. Those in a state of grace are said to be of the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to be spiritually-minded, to be led by and to walk in the Spirit.

1. Their character, therefore, is formed by the influences of the Spirit (Eze_36:26-27). Our Saviour stated the necessity of being born of the Spirit, and he told His disciples that He would send them the Spirit of truth, etc. The apostle says that we are to be washed by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, etc. By this the earthliness of the affections is refined, and the whole soul is changed into the image of God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.

2. Those who have the Spirit are placed in a high and beautiful relationship. They have adoption into the family of God (verse 14-16; Gal_4:4-6 : 1Jn_4:1-2). The heir of God has to remember that much of his good is future, and he must sketch out to himself those prospects where faith will be lost in sight, and hope in endless praise. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Whatever blessings the Spirit has bestowed, or whatever characters He has impressed, are pledges of the future possession. Has the Spirit destroyed the love of sin, induced a desire for purity--inspired faith, hope, love? These are all to be regarded as pledges of what you shall be in the future; your heaven begun upon earth. These are the seeds of the harvest of glory; the roots of the future tree of blessedness; the embryo of the perfect man; the outline of the picture which shall be finished in eternity; the first streaks of light; the first gleams of that dawn which shall brighten into the splendour of meridian glory.

II. The state of mind in which they are confessed to exist. We groan within ourselves, etc. These emotions are to be considered in connection with similar emotions through the creation. The whole creation is represented as longing for the glorious period when all its misery shall be over, as if in the throes of a new birth. Yes! and man and brute, hills and valleys, earth and ocean, times and seasons, are passing onwards to a glorious deliverance. Yes! and every cloud that darkens, and every affliction that troubles, and every injury which brute sustains from brute, and the rolling of the storm, and the belchings of the volcano, and the commotions of the deep, and the tremblings of the earthquake, are to be all considered as the pangs of nature passing onwards to that end. Oh, when shall these pangs cease! Then the apostle speaks of the children of God, and he declares that they are not in a higher sphere. We are all in this respect in one mass, we also groan, etc.

1. Our state of mind is one which involves--

(1) Pungent sorrow on account of present imperfection.

(a) Sorrow on account of what we see in the world around us. I look on the world around me; it came from the hand of God; it abounds with beautiful views; but still it affords cause for mourning. Look at its sinfulness. It is a world of wickedness. See its misery. Because there is sin there is sorrow. We witness the groanings of poverty, the wasting of disease, the scorn of contumely, the oppressions of power, etc.

(b) Sorrow when we consider our own characters, and our individual experience. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from sin? Who has not cause to exclaim with Paul, I delight in the law of God, after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, etc. Again, we are not only sinners but sufferers. We have much to enjoy, but we have also much to endure; and who among you is not ready to say, we ourselves groan within ourselves, and long for wings, that we might flee away and be at rest?

(2) Earnest desire as to the future. We wait for the adoption, etc. Civil adoption was private and public. Now every child of God is adopted privately at the time of conversion; but there is a day appointed for his public adoption when he will be declared as a son of God. We as Christians wait for this. The time when this shall be is not revealed. But the time shall come when all the redeemed shall appear with Christ in glory.

2. The emotion in reference to this fact, we wait for it. We stand like men on the summit of a lofty mountain, taking a transient view of the intermediate landscape and looking to the distant horizon for our intended dwelling. We wait for it, our minds are fixed upon it, our desires are influenced by it. Prove that you wait for it--

(1) By avoiding the pollutions of the world.

(2) By refusing to place your affections on the world. If ye then be risen with Christ, etc.

(3) By showing in constant and active exertion all the principles of the vocation by which you are called. Are you called to love? then love; are you called to vigilance? then be vigilant; to zeal? then be zealous.

(4) By anticipating with joy the time of your departure from the world. (J. Parsons.)

The yearning of the good for deliverance

1. That is groaning, which is here again considerable two manner of ways.

(1) For the simple passion: we groan. Where that which we may observe from it is this, that even the children of God themselves do groan while they abide here in the world.

(2) There are two things especially which are the ground and occasion of this groaning, whereof we now speak, in the children of God; and that is, first, the burden of sin. The stain and defilement of sin. The proneness and inclination to evil which is in the heart. As proneness to evil, so on the other side indisposedness to good. Distraction in duty and weakness and imperfection of performance. The sins of daily incursion, as we commonly call them for distinction sake, in opposition to greater miscarriages; these slips and failings which we fall into before we are aware in every business.

2. Seeing Gods children do thus groan under their sins, let then all men take heed how they do at any time upbraid therewith them. This serves to confute that opinion which prevails with some kind of people, as if a justified person were exempted from all grief for sin. But secondly, as the servants of God groan under sin in the stain of it, and so far forth as it defiles, so likewise under the guilt of it, and so far forth as it exposes to punishment. The second is taken from misery and the affliction which they meet with here likewise. This proceeds, first, from the consideration of their common nature. Secondly, it proceeds also from grace, forasmuch as they have a real apprehension of deliverance which belongs unto them. This is that which puts them upon groaning to be delivered, because by faith they know that there is One that hears their groans and takes notice of them. Thirdly, it is sometimes also from weakness and want of faith, especially there where it is in the excess and extremity of it. This teaches them accordingly what to expect while they live here below. This world is a vale of tears, wherein the best that are are subject to fighting and groaning. The second is in the additional illustration. And that is in ourselves. Under which phrase and manner of expression we have divers things intimated to us as concerning this sighing and groaning of the children of God, three things especially. First, that it is secret and hidden, it is not always discerned; we groan in ourselves, that is we groan to ourselves. This groaning, it is such as all men are not sensible or apprehensive of nor do take notice of it. That which is done within a man, it is done without the privacy of another, because no man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is within him. This is the dispensation of Gods children to be mourning and humbling of themselves for the sins and miscarriages of others, while the parties themselves that occasion it are little sensible or apprehensive of it. Thus does many a godly parent groan for the miscarriages of his children. This, it proceeds from a kind of modesty in them, as in all things else as suitable to the principles of religion. They pray in secret, and give in secret, and grieve in secret, The second is hearty and serious. In ourselves, that is from ourselves. The groanings of Gods children they are not slight, or perfunctory, or superficial; but such as proceed from a deep sense and apprehension of their misery, and the condition in which they are. The third thing implied in this expression is the propriety or peculiarity of their grief. In ourselves, that is by ourselves. We groan within ourselves; that is within our own compass and in our own capacity. We groan not only as beasts do, which are acted only by common sense; nor we do not groan only as men do, which are acted only by natural reason; but we groan moreover as Christians, which are acted by religion and grace, and so have a grief in that respect which is proper unto them. This peculiarity of grief, and so consequently of groaning in Gods children, is founded in these considerations. First, their peculiarity of employment; they have such businesses wherein they are exercised, as none have but they. Peculiar employments breed peculiar distractions and cumbrances which are attendant upon them, because they have still some miscarriage which these are liable unto, and miscarriage is a cause of grief. Now Gods children they have other businesses and employments than other men have, and which they seriously give themselves to. Secondly, peculiarity of contentment; every different comfort has a different grief annexed unto it, either in the deprival or straitening of it. The more delights that any man has in any condition, the more crosses is he likewise subject unto from that condition when these delights shall be suspended. The children of God they therefore grieve by themselves because indeed they joy by themselves. Thirdly, peculiarity of design; they have proper and peculiar ends and aims which they propound to themselves. Look, as any mens desires are, the more oftentimes are their griefs, because desire and hope disappointed it makes the heart sad. Now Gods children they have their peculiar desires and aims and ends: as the glory of God, the good of the Church. The crossing of which unto them is an occasion of greater grief in them. Not so neither. For, first of all, as a Christian has peculiar grief, so he has peculiar joy and comfort which attends it. Secondly, this proper grief of a Christian is a cause of greater comfort to him. His joy is not only joined with his sorrow, but flows from it, according to that of the apostle (2Co_7:1-16; 2Co_8:1-24; 2Co_9:1-15; 2Co_10:1-18). And so now I have done with the first action attributed to believers in this text, and that is groaning, with the amplification of it; We ourselves groan within ourselves. The second thing here attributed to the godly and true Christians is waiting, in these words, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Where we have two things exhibited to us. First, it is an expression of their patience. They wait, that is, they stay (2Co_4:8). The ground hereof is first of all this in the text, because they have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, which though they do not altogether satisfy them, yet they do at least very much qualify them, and occasion this patience to them. Secondly, because they have a spirit of faith whereby they see all those things which do at present befall them working good unto them. The second is earnest expectation. Gods children they do wait for their redemption, that is they do look and long for it (thus Tit_2:13). First, their present evils and afflictions. They wait because they groan, as it is said before of the creature in verses 19, 20 of this chapter. Secondly, their present feelings and pre-apprehensions. They have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and these beginnings do so much the more increase these desires in them. Thirdly, love to Christ. They desire it and long for it as a bride does for the coming of her beloved. Lastly, from the condition of a believer in regard of grace, which is here very weak and imperfect. This waiting of the saints thus declared, it is useful to sundry purposes to us: First, for the intent to which it is brought here in the text, and that it is to assure us that there is such a thing indeed as this is, namely, a time for Christian redemption from their present bondage, and enjoyment of a glorious liberty which shall be bestowed upon them. This it does appear from hence because the children of God themselves do desire it. Secondly, here is a discovery of mens conditions what they are. Those who are indeed Gods children, they do not only groan, but wait; not only mourn under present misery, but also pant after future glory, etc. A worldling is all for the present and to have his contentments here; but a Christian is not so satisfied. Thirdly, Let this quicken us to this groaning and heavenly disposition, and make us labour to find it in ourselves. First, for the object propounded, and that is adoption. Adoption in Scripture-language is of a various consideration, and is taken three manner of ways. First, for the adoption of election, whereby God, before ever the foundations of the world were laid, did appoint us, and set us out to be in the number of His sons and daughters. The second is the adoption of vocation, whereby we being effectually called by the preaching of the gospel, and justified by faith, are by the spirit of adoption incorporated into Jesus Christ and confirmed in the inheritance of sons. The third is the adoption of glory, whereby we shall fully at last obtain the glorious inheritance of children together with Christ. The second is the particular exposition, to wit, the redemption of our body. The redemption. This likewise, as well as that other term of adoption, does admit of a different signification, either namely, as taken for the paying and laying down of the price, or else for the receiving of the thing itself for which the price is paid. Of our body. This is expressed, rather than of our souls. First, because our souls are in their actual redemption already before that time. Secondly, it is here said of the body, because all miseries and afflictions in this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole person. That which we may more particularly observe here is this, that there is a day coming wherein the bodies of all the saints as well as their souls shall be freed from bondage and corruption. Thus it follows upon these special considerations: First, as they are the instruments of a sanctified and regenerate soul, whereunto also they have been companions in duty. Secondly, as members of Christ, who is the Head and redeemed before them; Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (1Co_15:20). Thirdly, as they are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who still abides and dwells in them as His own, and accordingly will raise them (Rom_8:11). Lastly, as together with the soul they do make up the whole person which God hath taken into court with Himself (Mat_22:32). The consideration of this truth is very comfortable to the servants of God. First, in all corporal infirmities and disparagements which are incident to the body here in this life, of sickness and distempers, and restraint and persecution, and the like. Secondly, as to the horror of the grave, and the dreadful apprehensions of that from rottenness and putrefaction, our bodies shall at last be freed from all corruption (Hos_13:14). (Thomas Horton, D.D.)

Adoption still future

1. As embracing the whole man.

2. As consisting in absolute deliverance from bondage.

3. As including manifestation and public acknowledgment.

4. As belonging not merely to individuals, but to the Church as a body. (T. Robinson, D.D.)

The redemption of the body

I. The Christian is a man gathering firstfruits. The harvest is not come. He looks out upon the beauty of nature, and he sees a firstfruit of a renewed and perfect creation. He has a happy thought, it is a firstfruit of an endless and universal joy. He tastes the delights of a pure affection, it is the firstfruitof a world where all is love. He catches a glimpse of Christ, it is a firstfruit of an eternal presence. He plucks from the tree of truth a holy feeling, it is the firstfruit of the rich abundance of a matured saintliness. To him, everything is a firstfruit. If it is not the full glow of summer yet, it is not winter, If the early grapes be so sweet, what shall the vintage be?

II. A man untaught might say, surely those who gather firstfruits at least will have an immunity from sorrow? St. Paul said, We which have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves. I do not find that the Church has less suffering than the world without, only I find it more inward. This inward groaning, what is it, and whence? As soon as a man really receives one of the firstfruits of the Holy Ghost, immediately a very great change takes place in that soul. But how with the body? Is it altered? Some little degree of physical refinement may grow out of the spiritual change; but in the main the body is the same. It prompts the same desires, it leads on to the same sins. Sometimes it inflames us, sometimes it drags us. And so it will be to death, the changed soul in the unchanged body, the redeemed in the unredeemed. Now here is all the con-flict. Of all our misery this is the painful element, the inability of the body to carry out the higher aspirations of the soul. Other things may bring the sigh, the tear, but this brings the groan, When shall I be holy? When will the contest cease? O wretched man that I am, etc. So--

III. Because we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. The moment of death comes, the body and the soul are parted for a while. From that date the redemption of the body begins. It dies, it dissolves, it lies hidden, God works in it as He pleases. Presently, it comes forth; it is another, and yet the same, identical to be known, to be loved, to be embraced, and yet how changed! It is in sweetest harmony with the soul; it is not a whit less spiritual and heavenly than that which once it thwarted. It has taken the image of God; it perfectly reflects Christ. And then, and not till then, its redemption is complete. Hero is the great result of the travail of the believer. Conclusion;

1. All you have to do now with the body is to hold it down and keep it under. And that effort will be your groaning. But only till He comes. His second advent will perfect the reformation of your body, as His first did your soul.

2. There is probably a very close analogy between the redemption of the soul and that of the body. The seed of life sown in death, the long hidden process, the dying first before there is life indeed, the maintenance of the original character, where, nevertheless, all is new, the likeness to Christ in both, the intention of all to serve, in all the perfect sovereignty of God.

3. The focus of faith and hope to all is the coming of Christ. The groaning soul of the believer, carrying the burden of the flesh, looks there. The emancipated spirits of the departed longing to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven, look there. Even while they wait in paradise the redemption of that body, still perfect, is going on, and they stretch on with ardent desire for the moment when He shall bring forth the whole man in the integrity of his being. And in those at this moment who lie in the grave, out of our sight, it is that holy, blessed work which is going on. For that reason we gave them up. We ourselves groan within ourselves till we see them again. But we shall see them lovelier than before, but still the same, more ours, more His, the needful absence for the needful work done, no absence more, all ours and all one for ever. Wait on; He hears the groans of the waiting. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)

Insufficiencies accessories of beauty

Heaven does not take perfect beings and make them more perfect. It takes fallible and incomplete ones, and glorifies them. Even time and the discipline of pain are beforehand in this, turning the very defects of Christians into graces. It is a paradox of art that our glassmakers can only reproduce now the perfection of the ancient stained glass by reproducing its imperfections:--Singularly enough, examinations made of the painted windows, so celebrated as works of artistic genius and skill, of the old cathedrals of England and continental Europe, show that their superiority really consists in the inferiority of the glass, its richness in the poverty of its constituents, in the very perfection of its uneven thickness, and in the imperfections of its surface and its body, all covered, as they are, by the accumulating dust of ages, and honey-combed by the corroding effect of time. Like the facets of a diamond or ruby, each little wave and thread and blister becomes, by interference, refraction and reflection of the light which plays upon it, a new source of the gem-like brilliance, harmony, and beauty which distinguish the painted glass of former centuries. So the inferiorities and insufficiencies of Gods children become accessories of beauty when the rays of His heavenly glory play upon them. The culture of eternity must complement the trial and wear of this lifetime to bring out every charm that here lay in disguise.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:23. And not only they — The unenlightened and unrenewed part of mankind; but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit — Because first-fruits signify the best things of their kind, some think that the apostles, and such as possessed the most excellent spiritual gifts, are spoken of in this passage. But as the privileges described Rom 8:24-26 equally belong to all, it seems more probable that the apostle speaks of believers in general, who had the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on them as first-fruits, or as the earnest of those greater virtues and spiritual endowments, which they shall enjoy in heaven. Even we groan within ourselves — Under many remaining imperfections, and a variety of miseries; waiting for the adoption — For the public and open display of our adoption; to wit, the redemption of our body — From dust and death to glory and immortality, when our heavenly Father shall bring us forth before the eyes of the whole world, habited and adorned as becomes his children. Persons who had been privately adopted among the Romans, were often brought forth into the forum, and there publicly owned as the sons of those who had adopted them. So at the general resurrection, when the body itself is redeemed from death, the sons of God shall be publicly owned by him in the great assembly of men and angels. Thus our Lord, Luk 20:26, terms those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the heavenly world, the children of God, because they are the children of the resurrection; they being hereby manifestly shown to be his children. The apostle therefore had good reason to call the redemption of our body from death, the adoption. Besides, it is that by which the saints are enabled, as the children of God, to inherit the kingdom of their Father.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Romans

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY

Rom 8:23.

In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have received ‘the Spirit of adoption.’ They become sons of God through Christ the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from God through Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as that new life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers have received ‘the Spirit of adoption,’ and by it they cry ‘Abba, Father.’ But the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of sin. It is sluggish and inapt for high purposes; it still remains subject to ‘the law of sin and death’; and so is not like the Father who breathed into it the breath of life. It remains in bondage, and has not yet received the adoption. This text, in harmony with the Apostle’s whole teaching, looks forward to a change in the body and in its relations to the renewed spirit, as the crown and climax of the work of redemption, and declares that till that change is effected, the condition of Christian men is imperfect, and is a waiting, and often a groaning.

In dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, we note-

I. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give definiteness and solidity to the conception of immortality.

Before the Gospel came men’s belief in a future life was vague and powerless, mainly because it had no Gospel of the Resurrection, and so nothing tangible to lay hold on. The Gospel has made the belief in a future state infinitely easier and more powerful, mainly because of the emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection and a future bodily life. Its great proof of immortality is drawn, not merely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility of earthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave, nor from the intuitions and longings of men’s souls, but from the historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of His Ascension in bodily form into heaven. It proclaims these two facts as parts of His experience, and asserts that when He rose from the dead and ascended up on high, He did so as ‘the first-born among many brethren,’ their forerunner and their pattern. It is this which gives the Gospel its power, and thus transforms a vague and shadowy conception of immortality into a solid faith, for which we have already an historical guarantee. Stupendous mysteries still veil the nature of the resurrection process, though these are exaggerated into inconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personal identity; but if the choice lies between accepting the Christian doctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spirit disembodied and yet active, there can be no doubt as to which of these two is the more reasonable and thinkable. Body, soul, and spirit make the complete triune man.

The thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the longings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes from unwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. As Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, ‘Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.’ All thoughts of the future which do not give prominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly and uninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel those who are accustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they feel that they cannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was their servant and instrument, through all the years of their earthly consciousness.

II. ‘The body that shall be’ is an emancipated body.

The varied gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the Christian Church served to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of that indwelling Spirit which were yet to come. Chief amongst these our text considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritual body. This transformation our text regards as being the participation by the body in the redemption by which Christ has bought us with the great price of His blood. We have to interpret the language here in the light of the further teaching of Paul in the great Resurrection chapter of 1Co 15:1 - 1Co 15:58, which distinctly lays stress, not on the identity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with ‘the body of glory,’ but upon the entire contrast between the ‘natural body,’ which is fit organ for the lower nature, and is informed by it, and the ‘spiritual body,’ which is fit organ for the spirit. We have to interpret ‘the resurrection of the body’ by the definite apostolic declaration, ‘Thou sowest not that body that shall be. . . but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him’; and we have to give full weight to the contrasts which the Apostle draws between the characteristics of that which is ‘sown’ and of that which is ‘raised.’ The one is ‘sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.’ Natural decay is contrasted with immortal youth. The one is ‘sown in dishonour,’ the other is ‘raised in glory.’ That contrast is ethical, and refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in relation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to the ideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the appetites. The one is ‘sown in weakness,’ the other is ‘raised in power’; the one is ‘sown a natural body,’ the other is ‘raised a spiritual body.’ Is not Paul in this whole series of contrasts thinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ appeared before him? And had not the years which had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended Christ the prophecy and the pattern of what His servants should become? We have further to keep in view Paul’s other representation in 2Co 5:1 - 2Co 5:21, where he strongly puts the contrast between the corporeal environment of earth and ‘the body of glory,’ which belongs to the future life, in his two images: ‘the earthly house of this tabernacle’-a clay hut which lasts but for a time,-and ‘the building of God, the house not made with hands and eternal.’ The body is an occasion of separation from the Lord.

These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to decay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and no refreshment of sleep. ‘The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,’ suggests strength constantly communicated by a direct divine gift. And from all these negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes. The two young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem as young if we saw them to-day.

Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for communication with the external universe. We know that the present body conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take cognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes and telescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our ear hears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is silence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call ‘inferior’ seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. Balaam’s ass saw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in the body. It is possible that that body which is the fit instrument of the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply, thinking more wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely, remembering more firmly and judging more soundly. It is possible that the contrast between then and now may be like the contrast between telegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity, between photograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness, between a full-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completeness of the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self.

But, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires which may lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid cares and weary toil. ‘The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.’ The redeemed body will have in it nothing to tempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the spirit and a source of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, it has its weaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. We must not be tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to ‘How do the dead rise, and with what body do they come?’ But we can lift our eyes to the mountain-top where Jesus went up to pray. ‘And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling’; and He was capable of entering into the Shekinah cloud and holding fellowship therein with the Father, who attested His Sonship and bade us listen to His voice. And we can look to Olivet and follow the ascending Jesus as He lets His benediction drop on the upturned faces of His friends, until He again passes into the Shekinah cloud, and leaving the world, goes to the Father. And from both His momentary transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we can draw the certain assurance that ‘He shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’

III. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ’s indwelling Spirit.

It is no natural result of death or resurrection, but is the outcome of the process begun on earth, by which, ‘through faith and the righteousness of faith,’ the spirit is life. The context distinctly enforces this view by its double use of ‘adoption,’ which in one aspect has already been received, and is manifested by the fact that ‘now are we the sons of God,’ and in another aspect is still ‘waited’ for. The Christian man in his regenerated spirit has been born again; the Christian man still waits for the completion of that sonship in a time when the regenerated spirit will no longer dwell in the clay cottage of ‘this tabernacle,’ but will inhabit a congruous dwelling in ‘the building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’

Scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a merely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to be satisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to both elements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second. It lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body as well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between the two, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that the process must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that the spirit must first be transformed, and then the body must be participant of the transformation.

All that Scripture says about ‘rising in glory’ is said about believers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They who have the Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it receive the glorified body which is like their Saviour’s. It is not enough to die in order to ‘rise glorious.’ ‘If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ The resurrection is promised for all mankind, but it may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living and no glory, nor any beauty and no blessedness. But the body may be ‘sown in weakness,’ and in weakness raised; it may be ‘sown in dishonour’ and in dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised a living death. ‘Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ Does that mean nothing? ‘They that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.’ Does that mean nothing? There are dark mysteries in these and similar words of Scripture which should make us all pause and solemnly reflect. The sole way which leads to the resurrection of glory is the way of faith in Jesus Christ. If we yield ourselves to Him, He will plant His Spirit in our spirits, will guide and growingly sanctify us through life, will deliver us by the indwelling of the Spirit of life in Him from the law of sin and death. Nor will His transforming power cease till it has pervaded our whole being with its fiery energy, and we stand at the last men like Christ, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit, ‘according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:23 we believers also groan: “Groaning” expresses a frustrated longing for God’s deliverance from the difficulties and oppression of this life (see Exod 3:7; Lam 1:22; Ezek 24:17; 2 Cor 5:2). • we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory (literally we have the first harvest of the Spirit): In the Old Testament, the phrase first harvest or firstfruits often describes the offering of the first and best part of a harvest to God (see Exod 23:19; Lev 2:12; 23:10; cp. 1 Cor 15:20, 23). The Holy Spirit is God’s pledge that he will see his work in us through to its conclusion (see Eph 1:14). • Although we have already been adopted by God as his children, the full rights of that adoption—our inheritance (see Rom 8:17)—are not yet ours. In this life, Christians live in tension between the “already” of redemption and the “not yet” of the glory to be revealed.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 8:23. Οὐ μόνον δὲ, but [and] not only) The conclusion is drawn from the strong groaning [of the creature] to that which is much stronger [that of ourselves].—αὐτοὶ—καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ, ourselves—even we ourselves) The former αὐτοί, ourselves, is to be referred [has reference] by antithesis to the creature [the whole creation groaneth] Rom 8:22: the latter refers to Rom 8:26, concerning the Spirit [maketh intercession for us with groanings]; and yet one and the same subject is denoted [the two αὐτοί belong to ἡμεῖς]; otherwise, the apostle would have said, αὐτοὶ οἱ την ἀπαρχὴν κ.τ.λ. [the article οἱ would have followed the first αὐτοί, had it referred to a different subject from the second αὐτοί].—τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος, the first fruits of the Spirit) that is the Spirit, who is the first fruits; see 2Co 1:22, note. We are a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures, Jas 1:18; and we have the first fruits of the Spirit; and the same Spirit enters into all creatures, Psa 139:7, a passage, from which the groaning of the creature is distinctly explained. The sons of God are said to have the first fruits, so long as they are in the way [whilst as yet they have not reached the end, when they shall have full fruition]. They who possess the first fruits, and the good, which attends the first fruits, are the same.—ἔχοντες, having) This word involves the idea of cause; because we have.—ἐν ἑαντοῖς, in ourselves) It implies, that the groaning of believers is widely different from the groaning of the creature.—στενάζομεν) Στενάζω here, and in Rom 8:22, signifies to desire [yearn after] with groaning; comp. 2Co 5:4.—τὴν) This article shows by the apposition, that this sentiment, if it be resolved [analyzed], is contained in it, the redemption of our body is what constitutes the adoption.—τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν [redemption] deliverance) This will be at the last day, which already at that time they were setting before themselves as being at hand; ἐλευθερία, liberty [Rom 8:21], is a kindred expression to this ἀπολύτρωσις.—Comp. Luk 20:36. [That liberty is not intended here, by which we are delivered from the body, but that, by which the body is delivered from death.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:23. Climax of the foregoing proof that the ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι, ὅτι κ.τ.λ. of the κτίσις, Rom_8:21, is well founded. Otherwise, indeed, we Christians also would not join in that sighing.

οὐ μόνον δέ] scil. πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις στενάζει.

What follows must be read: ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ, τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς στενάζομεν. See the critical remarks. But we also on our part, though we possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, sigh likewise in ourselves.

τὴν ἀπαρχ. τ. πνεύμ.] τ. πν. is the partitive genitive, as is involved in the very meaning of ἀπαρχή Comp. Rom_16:5; 1Co_15:20; 1Co_16:15; Jam_1:18; and all the passages of the LXX. and Apocr., where ἀπ. stands with the genitive of the thing, in Biel and Schleusner. Comp. Herod. i. 92; Plat. Legg. vii. p. 806 D; Dem. 164. 21; Thuc. iii. 58. 3; Soph. Trach. 758; Eur. Or. 96; Phoen. 864; Ion. 402; also ἀπαρχὴ τῆς σοφίας, Plat. Prot. p. 343 A; and ἀπαρχαὶ ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας, Plut. Mor. p. 172 C. By the possessors, however, of the ἀπαρχὴ τοῦ πνεύματος, are not exclusively meant the apostles, who at Pentecost had received the first outpouring of the Spirit, and among whom Paul includes himself on account of his miraculous conversion (Origen, Oecumenius, Melancthon, Grotius, and others). He means rather the Christians of that age generally, since in fact theyin contrast to the far greater mass of mankind still unconverted, for whom, according to Joe_3:1, the receiving of the Spirit was still a thing of the future (Rom_11:25 ff.)were in possession of that, which first had resulted from the communication of the Spirit, and which therefore stood related to the collective bestowal as the daybreak. So, on the whole, Erasmus, Wetstein, Morus, Reiche, Köllner, de Wette, Olshausen, Köster, and Frommann; see also Müller in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1871, p. 618. Paul does not say simply τὸ πνεῦμα ἔχοντες, but, in the lofty feeling of the privilege, which he discovered in the earlier calling and sanctification of the then Christians: τὴν ἀπαρχ. τ. πν. ἔχ.; even we, though favoured so pre-eminently that we possess the first-fruit gift of the Spirit, cannot refrain from sighing likewise. This we remark in opposition to the oft-repeated objection, that it was not an element of importance whether they had received the πνεῦμα at the first or a few years later; and also in opposition to the quite as irrelevant objection of Hofmann, that the conception of a measure of the Spirit to be given forth by degrees is nowhere indicated. This conception has no place here, and the Spirit is one and the same; but if, in the first instance, only a comparatively small portion of mankind has received it, and its possession in the case of the remaining collective body is still in abeyance, this serves to constitute the idea of an ἈΠΑΡΧΉ in relation to the whole body. Nevertheless, the sense: best gift of the Spirit (Ch. Schmidt, Rosenmüller), is not conveyed by τ. ἀπαρχήν, because that must have been suggested by the context, and also because Paul could not have regarded the later communication of the Spirit as less valuable. Further, the sense of a merely provisional reception of the Spirit, taking place, as it were, on account, in contrast to the future full effusion in the kingdom of heaven (Chrysostom and other Fathers, in Suicer, Thes. I. p. 423; Calvin, Beza, Pareus, Estius, Calovius, Semler, Flatt, Tholuck, Philippi, and Bisping; comp. also Pfleiderer), is not contained in ἀπ. τ. πν., because Paul, had he wished to speak here of a preliminary reception in contrast to the future plenitude, must necessarily, in accordance with the connection, have so spoken of that of the ΥἹΟΘΕΣΊΑ or ΔΌΞΑ, not of the Spirit, and because a full effusion of the Spirit at the Parousia is nowhere taught in the N. T. The Spirit already received, not a new and more perfect reception of it in the future αἰών, by its quickening activity leads to and conditions the eternal ΖΩΉ, in which God is then all in all (1Co_15:28). Others, again, make Τ. ΠΝ. an epexegetical genitive of apposition: the Spirit as first-fruits, namely, of the state of glory. So Bengel, Keil, Opusc., Winer, p. 495 [E. T. 667], Baumgarten-Crusius, Reithmayr, Rückert, Maier, Hofmann, Zahn, and Engelhardt; comp. also Flatt. But however Pauline the idea may be (2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:3; Eph_1:14; comp. Rom_2:5), it would, when thus expressed, be liable to be misunderstood, since the readers were accustomed to find in the genitive with ἀπαρχή nothing else than that, of which the latter is a portion; and how intelligibly Paul might have expressed himself, either in accordance with 2 Cor. l.c. and Eph. l.c., by τὸν ἀῤῥαβῶνα, or by Τ. ἈΠ. (scil. τῆς υἱοθες.) ἘΝ Τῷ ΠΝΕΎΜ.! This applies, at the same time, against Fritzsche, who takes ΤΟῦ ΠΝΕΎΜ. as genitive of the subject, and the first gifts of the Spirit as in contrast to the σωτηρία which the Spirit will give to us in the ΑἸῺΝ ΜΈΛΛΩΝ. Against this it may also be urged that the Holy Ghost is not described in the N. T. as the Giver of eternal life (not even in such passages as 2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5; Eph_1:14; Eph_4:30; Gal_6:8). It is God who, in like manner as He calls and justifies, confers also the eternal δόξα (Rom_8:30). The Spirit operates to eternal life by His government (Rom_8:2), and is the ground (Rom_8:11) and pledge (ἀῤῥαβών) of that life; but He does not give it.

ΚΑῚ ΑὐΤΟΊ] Repeated and placed along with ἘΝ ἙΑΥΤΟῖς with earnest emphasis: et ipsi in nobis ipsis. The latter is not equivalent to ἐν ἀλλήλοις (Schulthess and Fritzsche), but denotes, in harmony with the nature of the deep, painful emotion, the inward sighing of the still longing of believers; which suffers, is silent, and hopes, but never complains, being assured of the goal that shall be finally reached. Hofmann incorrectly would join κ. αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς with ἜΧΟΝΤΕς. But this would leave the ΚΑΊ, which, according to the common connection with ΣΤΕΝΆΖ., has its appropriate correlative in the sighing of the ΚΤΊΣΙς, without a reference. For, when Hofmann sets it down as the object of the ΚΑΊ to emphasize personal possession on the part of the Christians in contrast to the future participation of the κτίσις, there is thus forced on this ΚΑΊ the meaning of already; and this all the more arbitrarily, since καὶ αὐτοί just precedes it in the quite common sense of et ipsi (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 151; Breitenbach, ad Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 10), and its emphatic repetition is very appropriate to the lively emotion of the discourse.

υἱοθες. ἀπεκδεχ.] whilst we wait for the adoption of children. It is true, believers have already this blessing (Rom_8:15), but only as inward relation and as divine right, with which, however, the objective and real state does not yet correspond. Thus, looked at from the standpoint of complete realization, they are only to receive υἱοθεσίαν at the Parousia, whereupon the ἈΠΟΚΆΛΥΨΙς ΤῶΝ ΥἹῶΝ Τ. ΘΕΟῦ and their ΔΌΞΑ ensues. Comp. also Mat_5:9; Mat_5:45; Luk_6:15. In like manner the ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ is a present possession, and also one to he entered on hereafter. Comp. on Rom_5:19; and see on Gal_5:5; Col_3:3 f. Luther incorrectly joins ΥἹΟΘΕς. with ΣΤΕΝΆΖ., which, with an accusative, means to bemoan or bewail something (Soph. Ant. 873; Oed. C. 1668; Dem. 690. 18; Eur. Suppl. 104; and often elsewhere).

τὴν ἀπολ. τ. σώμ. ἡμ.] epexegesis: (namely) the redemption of our body from all the defects of its earthly condition; through which redemption it shall be glorified into the σῶμα ἄφθαρτον similar to the glorified body of Christ (Php_3:21; 2Co_5:2 ff.; 1Co_15:51), or shall be raised up as such, in case of our not surviving till the Parousia (1Co_15:42 ff.). So, in substance (ΤΟῦ ΣΏΜ. as gen. subj.), Chrysostom and other Fathers (in Suicer, Thes. I. p. 463), Beza, Grotius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, and most modern expositors. On the other hand, Erasmus, Clericus, and others, including Reiche, Fritzsche, Krehl, and Ewald, take it as: redemption from the body. This is linguistically admissible (Heb_9:15); we should thus have to refer it, not to death, but to deliverance from this earthly body through the reception of the immortal and glorious body at the Parousia, 1Co_15:51. But in that case Paul must have added to τοῦ σώματ. ἡμῶν a qualitative more precise definition, as in Php_3:21

Remark.

If we adopt the common reading (ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν ἀπ. τ. πν. ἔχοντες, καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ κ.τ.λ.), which Ewald and Umbreit follow, while Rückert, Philippi, Tholuck, and Hofmann declare themselves in favour of ours (see the crit. remarks), αὐτοὶ … ἔχοντες is understood, either as meaning the Christians of that age generally, and καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοί the apostles (Köllner, following Melancthon, Wolf, and many others), or Paul alone (Koppe, Reiche, Umbreit, and many others); or, the former is referred to beginners in Christianity, and the latter to those who have been Christians for a longer time (Glöckler); or, both (the latter per analepsin) are referred to the apostles (Grotius), or to the Christians (Luther, Beza, Calvin, Klee, Maier, Köster, and Frommann). The interpretation referring it to the Christians is the only right one; so that ἡμεῖς brings into more definite prominence the repeated subject. The ἔχοντες, without the article, is fatal to every reference to subjects of two sorts.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:23 . Second testimony to the glorious future. οὐ μόνον δὲ sc. ἡ κτίσις not only all creation, but we Christians: we ourselves, τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες . τοῦ πνεύματος is gen of apposition: the spirit which Christians have received is itself t the first fruits (elsewhere, the earnest: see on Rom 8:17 ) of this glory; and because we have it (not although: it is the foretaste of heaven, the heaven begun in the Christian, which intensifies his yearning, and makes him more vehemently than nature long for complete redemption), we also sigh in ourselves υἱοθεσίαν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι , τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν . The key to these words is found in Rom 1:4 . Christ was Son of God always, but was only declared to be so in power ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν , and so it is with believers. They have already received adoption, and as led by the spirit are sons of God; but only when their mortal bodies have been quickened, and the corruptible has put on incorruption, will they possess all that sonship involves. For this they wait and sigh, and the inextinguishable hope, born of the spirit dwelling in them, guarantees its own fulfilment. Cf. Phi 3:21 ; 1Co 15:51 ; 2Co 5:2 ; and for ἀπολύτρωσις in this sense, 1Co 1:30 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:23

And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, etc. Not only does the whole creation thus groan, but we ourselves, we Christians, who have a foretaste of heavenly bliss, the first fruits of the glorious inheritance, we groan within ourselves, and long for the consummation of glory. The first fruits was that portion of the productions of the earth which was offered to God. From the nature of the case, they contained the evidence and assurance of the whole harvest being secured. The idea, therefore, of an earnest or pledge is included in the phrase, as well as that of priority. This is the general if not constant use of the word in the New Testament. Thus Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept, 1Co_15:20, not merely because he rose first, but also because his resurrection was a pledge of the resurrection of his people. See Rom_11:16; Rom_16:5; 1Co_16:15; Jam_1:18. In all these places, both ideas may be, and probably ought to be retained. In the passages before us, what is here called the first fruits of the Spirit, is elsewhere called the earnest of the Spirit, Eph_1:14, etc. The phrases, the Spirit which is the first fruits, and the Spirit which is an earnest, are therefore synonymous. The Spirit is the first fruits of the full inheritance of the saints in light. The expression in the text, therefore, is descriptive of all Christians, and not of any particular class of them; that is, it is not to be confined to those who first received the influences of the Spirit, or were first converted.

The interpretation given above, of this clause, is the one most commonly received, and the most natural. There is, however, great diversity in the MSS. as to the text, although the sense is substantially the same, whichever of the various readings be adopted. The common text is: οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες, καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς στενάζομεν. This may mean, Not only (the κτίσις), but they having the first fruits of the Spirit, and we ourselves groan, etc. A distinction is thus made between those who have the first fruits of the Spirit, and those meant by we ourselves. Those who adopt this interpretation suppose that Paul intended by we, either himself individually, or himself and the other apostles. This view of the passage, however, is not the natural one, even assuming the correctness of the common text; and is impossible, if the true reading be ἡμεῖς αὐτοί, as found in the MSS. D. F. G., and adopted by many critics. The αὐτοὶ in the first clause, and the ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ, refer to the same class of persons, and indicate the subject of the verb στενάζομεν. It is more doubtful what force should be given to the participle ἔχοντες. As the article is omitted, most commentators render it, although having. Even we groan, although having the present influences and support of the Spirit. In our version, and by Calvin, Beza, and Bengel, it is rendered as though the article was used, οἱ ἔχοντες, even we who have, i.e. the possessors of. This is more pertinent, as the apostles object is to designate the class intended by we. The article in such cases is not always used, (see Rom_8:1,) according to the common text. In the phrase ἀπαρχὴ τοῦ πνεύματος, the genitive may be taken as the genitivus partivus. In favor of this is the signification of the word, and its ordinary use. In such expressions as first fruits of the corn and of the wine, of the dead, and others of a like kind, the genitive indicates that of which the first fruits are a part. This gives a good sense here. Believers now possess and now enjoy, in the indwelling of the Spirit, a prelibation of what they are to receive hereafter a part of the full measure of divine influence in reserve for them. Still the analogy of Scripture is in favor of taking the genitive as the genitive of apposition. The Holy Spirit is the ἀπαρχή; or as it is said in Eph_1:14; 2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5, ἀῤῥαβὼν, the earnest of the Spirit. The inheritance of the saints in light, is that of which the Spirit is the first fruits and the earnest.

Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, as expressing the internal load by which the believer is now oppressed. Waiting for the adoption, υἱοθεσίαν without the article; waiting for adoption. There is a sense in which believers are now the sons of God and partakers of adoption. But the full enjoyment of their blessedness as the children of God, the time when they shall he recognized as υἱοί, and enter upon their inheritance as such, is still future. Here Christians are in the condition of νήπιοι, minor children; their introduction into the state of υἱοί, in the sense of adult sons entitled to their inheritance, is their υἱοθεσία, for which they now wait, (ἀπεκδεχόμενοι,) with patient, but earnest desire. What, therefore, in the foregoing verse is expressed by the manifestation of the sons of God, is here expressed by the single word adoption. Even the redemption of the body. The redemption of the body is not so in apposition with the adoption, that the two phrases are equivalent. The adoption includes far more than the redemption of the body. But the latter event is to be coincident with the former, and is included in it, as one of its most prominent parts. Both expressions, therefore, designate the same period: We wait for the time when we shall be fully recognized as the children of God, i.e. for the time when our vile bodies shall be falsified like unto the glorious body of the Son of God. How much stress Paul laid upon the redemption of the body, is evident not only from this passage, and that in Phi_3:21, just quoted, but also from the whole of 1 Corinthians 15, especially the latter part of the chapter. The time of the resurrection of the body, or the manifestation of the sons of God, is the time of the second advent of Jesus Christ. See 1Co_15:23, Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christs, at his coming. 1Th_4:16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive, etc. This is the period towards which all eyes and all hearts have been directed, among those who have had the first fruits of the Spirit, since the fall of Adam; and for which the whole creation groaneth and is in travail even until now.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fifthly, if the rest of the world looks for a restoring, groaning as it were for it, and that not in vain, let it not grieve us also to sigh, yea, let us be more certainly persuaded of our redemption to come, forasmuch as we have the firstfruits of the Spirit.

Even from the bottom of our hearts.

That last restoring, which shall be the accomplishment of our adoption.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And not only they, but ourselves also--or "not only [so], but even we ourselves"--that is, besides the inanimate creation.

which have the first-fruits of the Spirit--or, "the Spirit as the first-fruits" of our full redemption (compare Co2 1:22), moulding the heart to a heavenly frame and attempering it to its future element.

even we ourselves--though we have so much of heaven already within us.

groan within ourselves--under this "body of sin and death," and under the manifold "vanity and vexation of spirit" that are written upon every object and every pursuit and every enjoyment under the sun.

waiting for the--manifestation of our

adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body--from the grave: "not (be it observed) the deliverance of ourselves from the body, but the redemption of the body itself from the grave" [BENGEL].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves also] Neither the Gentiles only, but we Jews also, (however we belong to a nation envious of the heathen,) to whom God hath granted the first fruits of the Spirit; we sigh among ourselves for their sakes, waiting for the adoption; that is, the redemption of our mystical body, whereof the Gentiles make a very great part. Lightfoot's works. vol. ii. p. 359 and 707.

The scope and design of St. Paul in these verses may be thus summed up:-The apostle shows that the whole creation is in a suffering state, into which it has been brought by the disobedience of one man, Adam; therefore, it was made subject to vanity-pain, sickness, and death; not willingly, for mankind had no part in that transgression which "brought death into the world and all our wo;" but God subjected the whole, purposing to afford them a deliverance and infusing into every heart a hope that a more auspicious era should take place; and it is through the influence of this hope, which every man possesses, that the present ills are so patiently borne, because all are expecting better days. The great deliverer is the Messiah, and the Gospel days the auspicious era which God intended to bring forward. They who believe in Christ with a heart unto righteousness are freed from the bondage of their sinful corruption, and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and they look forward with joyous expectation, waiting for the general resurrection, when their bodies also shall be redeemed from corruption, and the whole man, body and soul, be adopted into the family of heaven ABOVE, as their souls had been previously adopted into the family of faith BELOW. And although it may be said that the redemption provided by the Gospel can not be an object of hope to those who have never heard of it; yet, as every man has hope, and this hope is inspired by God for this very purpose; that it may be the means of supporting them in the ills of life, and God, in inspiring it, had respect to the glorious state of Christianity, therefore it is this state, in effect, that the whole creation are longing for. So Jesus Christ is said, by the Prophet Haggai, Hag 2:7, to be the desire of all nations; and yet not one of the nations of the earth had, at that time, heard of him. And thus, as Dr. Whitby has very properly remarked, "desire and expectation are ascribed to creatures, in reference to things they want, and which tend to their advantage; notwithstanding they explicitly know nothing of them."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. And not only so, etc. There are those who think that the Apostle intended here to exalt the dignity of our future blessedness, and by this proof, because all things look for it with ardent desire; not only the irrational parts of creation, but we also who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God. This view is indeed capable of being defended, but there seems to me to be a comparison here between the greater and the less; as though he said, “The excellency of our glory is of such importance even to the very elements, which are destitute of mind and reason, that they burn with a certain kind of desire for it; how much more it behoves us, who have been illuminated by the Spirit of God, to aspire and strive with firmness of hope and with ardour of desire, after the attainment of so great a benefit.” And he requires that there should be a feeling of two kinds in the faithful: that being burdened with the sense of their present misery, they are to groan; and that notwithstanding they are to wait patiently for their deliverance; for he would have them to be raised up with the expectation of their future blessedness, and by an elevation of mind to overcome all their present miseries, while they consider not what they are now, but what they are to be.

Who have the beginnings, etc. Some render the word first-fruits, (primitias,) and as meaning a rare and uncommon excellency; but of this view I by no means approve. To avoid, therefore, any ambiguity, I have rendered the word beginnings, (primordia, the elements,) for I do not apply the expression, as they do, to the Apostles only, but to all the faithful who in this world are besprinkled only with a few drops by the Spirit; and indeed when they make the greatest proficiency, being endued with a considerable measure of it, they are still far off from perfection. These, then, in the view of the Apostle, are beginnings or first-fruits, to which is opposed the complete ingathering; for as we are not yet endued with fullness, it is no wonder that we feel disquietude. By repeating ourselves and adding in ourselves, he renders the sentence more emphatical, and expresses a more ardent desire, nor does he call it only a desire, but groaning: for in groaning there is a deep feeling of misery.

Waiting for the adoption, etc. Improperly indeed, but not without the best reason, is adoption employed here to designate the fruition of the inheritance to which we are adopted; for Paul means this, that the eternal decree of God, by which he has chosen us to himself as sons before the foundation of the world, of which he testifies to us in the gospel, the assurance of which he seals on our hearts by his Spirit, would be void, except the promised resurrection were certain, which is its consummation. For to what end is God our Father, except he receives us after we have finished our earthly pilgrimage into his celestial inheritance? To the same purpose is what he immediately subjoins, the redemption of the body. For the price of our redemption was in such a way paid by Christ, that death should notwithstanding hold us tied by its chains, yea, that we should carry it within us; it hence follows, that the sacrifice of the death of Christ would be in vain and fruitless, except its fruit appeared in our heavenly renovation.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(23) Nor is it only the rest of creation that groans. We Christians, too, though we possess the firstfruits of the Spirit, nevertheless inwardly groan, sighing for the time when our adoption as the sons of God will be complete, and even our mortal bodies will be transfigured.

Which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.—Though we have received the first partial outpouring of the Spirit, as opposed to the plenitude of glory in store for us.

The adoption.—The Christian who has received the gift of the Spirit is already an adopted child of God. (See Rom_8:15-16.) But this adoption still has to be ratified and perfected, which will not be until the Coming of Christ.

The redemption of our body.—One sign of the imperfect sonship of the Christian is that mortal and corruptible body in which the better and heavenly part of him is imprisoned. That, too, shall be transformed and glorified, and cleared from all the defect of its earthly condition. (Comp. 1Co_15:49-53; 2Co_5:1 et sea.; Php_3:21.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. not only they] The word “they” (inserted by our Translators) perhaps indicates that they understood the passage of conscious individual beings; the world of man. (See long note on Rom_8:19.)

the firstfruits] Same word as Rom_11:16, Rom_16:5; 1Co_15:20. The idea is not that “we” have the Spirit before others have it; but that we have that measure of the Spirit which is the specimen and pledge of the fulness hereafter. St Paul now contrasts the impersonal and unconscious creation, utterly incapable of the Divine Gift, with the human subjects of grace. The word “firstfruits” is used to suggest the thought of incompleteness and anticipation.—Cp. the similar word “earnest;” 2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5; Eph_1:14.

groan within ourselves] As our Lord once did (Joh_11:33; Joh_11:38). In Rom_7:14-24, we see one great instance of this “groaning” of the saint for entire freedom, in his whole being, from the power of sin. There too we see that the longing for freedom is linked with the thought of the body as the citadel of temptation, in its present state. Cp. 1Co_9:27 for another vivid picture of a “groaning” conflict, and there too in view of the body.—“Within ourselves:”—because the cause of the groan is emphatically within. Not outward afflictions so much as inner conflict are our burthen.

waiting for] Same word as “waiteth for,” Rom_8:19; where see note.

the adoption] i.e., obviously, the final realization of our adoption; for already the believer is “the child of God;” Rom_8:14; Rom_8:16. So great and blissful a crisis will the “manifestation” of the son-ship be that it is here viewed as the beginning of the son-ship.

the redemption, &c.] The realized adoption will bring this with it, will imply and involve this. The Brethren of the Incarnate Son of God will not realize the fulness of their Brotherhood till their bodies shall be “like the body of His glory,” (Php_3:21)—The Adoption, and the Redemption of the Body, are not identical terms; but the former includes the latter, as necessary to it.—“Redemption” here (as Luk_21:28; Eph_1:14; Eph_4:30; but not Eph_1:7,) obviously means the actual and realized deliverance. The redemption-price is paid already; the redemption-liberation is to come.—See note on Rom_7:24.

Again remark this unique feature of Revealed Religion; an immortal prospect for the body.

Some expositors take the body here to be the “mystical body;” the Church. But the context is clearly against it, giving us as the main idea the struggles and longings for a better future in respect of material things.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only they, but ourselves also,.... Not only they Gentiles, but we Jews likewise:

which have the firstfruits of the Spirit: meaning either the apostles, who were all Jews, and who most of them received the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit on the day of "Pentecost", which was the day of the firstfruits, Num 28:26; and to which there seems to be an allusion here; or else the Jewish converts in general: to the Jews the promises of the Messiah were made; to them he first came; the Gospel was first preached unto them, and some of them first believed in Christ; they had the grace of God communicated to them in conversion, which they received as the firstfruits, with respect to an after increase; or in regard to glory, like the firstfruits, grace is of the same kind with glory, and is a pledge and earnest of it; saints judge by grace the firstfruits, what glory is, and therefore long after it; now of these persons thus described it is said,

even we ourselves groan within ourselves; their groans were inward from their hearts, not hypocritical or were among themselves, common to them all; and that not merely on their own account, the corruptions of their hearts, the sufferings they endured for the sake of the Gospel, and in a longing expectation for the heavenly glory, but also for the conversion of the Gentiles, for which they incessantly laboured, and prayed night and day;

waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Adoption is explained by the redemption of the body; and by the one may be known what the other means: by "the redemption of our body" is not meant the redemption of God's elect, body and soul, by the blood and death of Christ, which was already finished; and which the saints, who had received the firstfruits, were partakers of in themselves, and therefore could not be said to be waiting for it: but it designs either the redemption of the natural body, by the resurrection from the dead; when the bodies of the saints will be delivered from that mortality, corruption, weakness, and dishonour, under which they lie in the grave; when they will be refined and spiritualized, and freed from everything which makes them an incumbrance, and an uneasiness to their souls or spirits now; or else the redemption of the mystical body the church, of which the Gentiles make a considerable part, and is to be understood of a deliverance of the church, from the distresses and persecutions it then laboured under; or rather of a making up of the body, the church, by a redemption or deliverance of that part of it, which lay among the Gentiles, from that vanity and bondage of corruption, to which it was subject, into the manifestation and glorious liberty of the sons of God: and then by "adoption" is meant, the special grace of adoption, manifested to the Gentiles in their effectual calling; which the Jews who had received the firstfruits of the Spirit were waiting for, and had good reason to expect, from many prophecies in the writings of the Old Testament; and to which they were the more encouraged, by many appearances of the grace and power of God, attending the ministry of the Gospel among them; and which adoption will be more fully manifested in the resurrection morn; wherefore also the inheritance, which the whole mystical body the church will then enter upon the possession of, may well be called "the adoption", because the saints are adopted to it; adoption gives them the title to it, none but adopted ones will enjoy it; and their enjoyment of it will be the full manifestation and completion of the grace of adoption; this saints are waiting for, both for themselves and others, and it is worth waiting for; for it is "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fades not away, reserved in the heavens", Pe1 1:4, and there is good ground to wait for it; it is a bequest of their heavenly Father, who has adopted them; it is a gift of his free grace; it is already in the hands of Christ, with whom they are co-heirs; and they have already the Spirit, as the earnest of it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Ver. 23. The firstfruits] Which the creatures have not, and yet they groan: how much more we!

The redemption] Our full and final deliverance.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Redemptionem corporis, i.e. complete happiness, says St. John Chrysostom, p. 119. Greek: toutesti ten apertismenen doxan.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The apostle had asserted and concluded, Rom 8:18, that there is a future glory to be revealed hereafter in the saints, such as infinitely transcends their sufferings now; and this he had confirmed from the earnest expectation of the creature, (the pronoun they is not in the original), and now he further confirms it from the expectation which is in believers themselves.

The first-fruits of the Spirit; hereby he means that righteousness, joy, and peace, which believers have in this life; these are the fruits of the Spirit, and called first-fruits in regard of their order; and in regard of their quantity, they are but a handful in comparison of the whole, little in regard of the fulness which they shall have in heaven; and in regard also of their signification, the grace and comforts of the Spirit of God in this life are pledges to us of that abundance and fulness of joy, which we shall partake of in the life to come, as the first-fruits of the Jews were an evidence to them of the ensuing crop.

Groan within ourselves; among ourselves, say some, but it is better read in our translation, within ourselves. It expresses the manner of the saints groaning under sin and affliction; it is inward, and from the heart.

Waiting for the adoption: now we are the sons of God; why then should we wait for what we have already?

Answer. We have the right, but not the full possession, of our inheritance: the apostle himself explains his meaning in the next words.

The redemption of our body; i.e. our perfect deliverance from sin and misery; this phrase is used in other places; see Luk 21:28; Eph 4:30.

But why of our body, and not of our souls? Because their souls would be in actual possession of the inheritance before that day, or because the miseries and troubles of this life are conveyed to the whole man by the body, so that the redemption of the body is in effect the redemption of the whole man.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Not only they—Rather, it, referring to the whole creation.

Ourselves—What was true of man’s creaturely nature, and even of the whole creation, was true of Paul and his fellow-Christians, with this specialty, that what was in others a waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, was in them something infinitely better, namely, a waiting for the redemption of OUR body.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And we too, while in this mortal body, must needs share in this universal groaning; but, having already the firstfruits of the Spirit the earnest already of a diviner life we especially yearn all the more for deliverance, and expect it hopefully.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And even we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit - That is, the Spirit, who is the first-fruits of our inheritance. The adoption - Persons who had been privately adopted among the Roman were often brought forth into the forum, and there publicly owned as their sons by those who adopted them. So at the general resurrection, when the body itself is redeemed from death, the sons of God shall be publicly owned by him in the great assembly of men and angels. The redemption of our body - From corruption to glory and immortality.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

adoption

Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sighing hope of the Christians and the Spirit’s intercession:

v. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

v. 24. For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

v. 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

v. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

v. 27. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

But not only so, not only does the whole creation groan and long for deliverance, but also we ourselves that have the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves sigh within ourselves, longing for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We Christians, having received the Spirit of God from above, have the first-fruits of the future world, of the heavenly glory, in our hearts, as a definite guarantee of the full bliss which shall be ours in the future, Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22. And yet sighs arise from the depths of our soul, groans and cries for deliverance. We Christians are deeply affected, painfully touched, by the woes and miseries of the present world. And therefore our sighing incidentally represents and expresses our anxious, eager longing for the full revelation of our sonship. We are children of God even now, by faith, through the working of the Spirit. But we long to enter into the full possession and enjoyment of our inheritance above, into the redemption of our body, the complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin. All eyes and all hearts are directed toward that blessed hour when Christ will finally and completely deliver our mortal body from the bonds of vanity and of death, when He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Php 3:21.

The Christians are sure of the final participation in the deliverance of the body and of the full enjoyment of their sonship. But meanwhile the present time, the time in this world, is a time of waiting and hoping. We have the glories of heaven in expectation or prospect: salvation is a blessing which we have in hope, which we are sure of possessing in the future. For if the object of hope, the full enjoyment of our adoption, the perfect deliverance from sin and its consequences, were a matter of the present time and possession, then we could not speak of hope; for if one sees a thing before him, why should he yet hope? Hoping and seeing exclude each other. And so the apostle concludes regarding the peculiarity of hope, its essential feature: If we hope for that which we see not, then we wait through patience and endurance, we steadfastly and longingly wait for it. At the present time we Christians are placed under the obligation of patience, under the necessity of anxious expectation. Knowing the certainty of our future bliss, all the affliction of the present time and life cannot shake our hope. "Salvation, in its fullness, is not a present good, but a matter of hope, and, of course, future; and if future, it follows that we must wait for it in patient and joyful expectation. " (Hodge.)

Having shown that all creation longs for deliverance, and that the Christians are likewise groaning and sighing for the full revelation of their salvation and its glorious blessings, the apostle now states, for our further encouragement, that the Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our infirmity. Although we Christians have the knowledge which pertains to our salvation and are sure of the final revelation of the glory of God in us, yet we are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of our faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. The divine assistance, therefore, is so necessary because we Christians have not the proper conception of the manner and importunity of prayer for the things that we are in need of; our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance: He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christians finally converge, the salvation of our souls. And not only that, but He Himself intercedes for us with sighings and groanings that cannot be clothed in the speech of man. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers’ hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body. And then their tottering faith is renewed in strength, then a new joy and consolation takes possession of their hearts, and the believers may again look up to God in believing confidence. All such inarticulate sighs in the hearts of the Christians, although they are not and cannot be clothed in the words of human speech, are nevertheless fully intelligible to God. He that searches, investigates, the hearts is fully conscious of, perfectly acquainted with, the mind of the Spirit. The omniscient God knows what the Spirit has in mind in those groanings whose content cannot be expressed in the words of human language. For the Spirit intercedes for the saints, as the believers are fitly called on account of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ which they have experienced, in a manner which agrees fully with the will and with the glory of God. With holy, godly zeal, in full accordance with the immeasurable, divine content of our hope, with the fervor of divine love He intercedes before God in our behalf, to insure to us the glory which has been prepared for us in heaven. Thus the unspeakable greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us, and for our possession of which the Holy Ghost adds His interceding pleading and groaning, is a source of permanent, glorious comfort to the Christians.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only they; that is, all the creatures in this visible creation, join in this, they groan together; they do not some groan, and others sing; some travail in pain, and others in pleasure. But they all groan and travail together in pain until now, that is, until the glorious manifestation of the sons of God; but not only do they groan, but we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, &c.

Observe here, 1. A special description of God’s adopted children; they have the first-fruits of the Spirit; that is, they have the Holy Spirit in its sanctifying gifts, and graces, and comforts, in some measure; called here first-fruits, because of the smallness of their quantity.

The first-fruits were but an handful, a little portion in comparision of the whole crop; yet was it an evidence and pledge that God would give them the full crop. Thus grace is an earnest of glory, it is a pledge of everlasting life; the beginnings of grace here are certain forerunners of the accomplishment of glory hereafter.

Observe, 2. The actions attributed to the fore-mentioned persons: they groan, they wait.

1. They groan, We who have the first-fruits of the Spirit do groan; they groan under the burden of sin and affliction:

the guilt of sin, the pollution of sin, the sad remains of indwelling sin, make them groan;

their proneness and inclination to evil, their backwardness and indisposition to good, make them groan;

their too frequent backslidings, their daily infirmities make them groan;

their sufferings also from God, and from man for God’s sake, cause them to groan;

but it is added, We groan within ourselves; that is, secretly to ourselves, undiscerned by the world, and in a manner peculiar to ourselves, as persons influenced by religion and grace: as Christians have joys and comforts, so have they griefs and groans, peculiar to themselves.

2. For the redemption of their bodies; that is, for their resurrection, for their redemption from mortality and corruption, for the redemption of their whole man, soul and body, do believers wait; their bodies were members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, instruments of, and companions with the soul in holy duties; and accordingly, the hour is coming, when the complete redemption both of soul and body shall be fully and finally perfected; but in the mean time they groan and wait for it.

Learn from the whole, That all sanctified Christians, who have received the first fruits of the Spirit, do groan and wait for a much better state than what they do at present enjoy.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. “And not only so, but we ourselves, having the earnest of the Spirit,”

i. e., the heavenly prelibation we enjoy in the regeneration and sanctification of the Holy Spirit, which is a foretaste of the heavenly felicity which awaits us, “and we ourselves also groan among ourselves, awaiting the sonship,” i. e., the “redemption of the body.” Even these bodies of ours are to become the sons of God in the coming glorification, where they will be transfigured into the similitude of our Savior’s glorious body, which ascended up from Mt. Olivet. The vivid conception of Paul here portrays the body holding in electrical anticipation its own coming glory and groaning to enter into the heavenly splendors of the transfiguration.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body . [And not only do we recognize this vast, unuttered longing of nature, but we find similar groanings even within ourselves, though occupying a much more privileged and advantageous position than nature, having, in the firstfruits of the Spirit, an earnest or inspiring foretaste of the good things to come, and yet, despite our advantage, so exceedingly desirable is the glory yet to be revealed, that even we ourselves groan within ourselves because of those parts wherein we are nearest akin to the material creation, waiting for the time to come when we shall be openly revealed as the adopted children of God, by those changes which culminate in that transformation brought about by the resurrection--when our mortal, corruptible, weak, dishonored, natural body shall be transfigured into the immortal, incorruptible, powerful, glorified, spiritual body, thus accomplishing the redemption of the body.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. Not only they, but ourselves also. Not only does the world groan, but Christians, “though they have the first fruits of the Spirit,” a pledge of a rich and full harvest, groan. There is an eager longing for the fuller enjoyment promised. Waiting for our adoption. We are already adopted children, but rather in expectation that in realization. We have not received the inheritance, the full “revelation of the sons of God.” The redemption of our body. When the full adoption comes, we will not have these poor, frail, dying bodies, subject to weakness, sinfulness and decay, but spiritual bodies. “For in this we do groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2).

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

who have the firstfruits of the Spirit

Paul compares believers' receiving the Holy Spirit to the firstfruits and vegetables of the season to grow. This emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is only the beginning of what God will give to believers. AT: who have the first of the gifts God gives to us, namely, the Holy Spirit" (See: Metaphor)

waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body

Here "our adoption" means when we become full members of God's family, as adopted children. The word "redemption" means when God saves us. AT: "waiting for when we are fully members of God's family and he saves our bodies from decay and death" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)

For in this certain hope we were saved

You can translate this in an active form. AT: "For God saved us because we hoped in him" (See: Active or Passive)

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he can see?

Paul uses a question to help his audience understand what "hope" is. AT: "But if we are confidently waiting, that means we do not yet have what we want. No one can confidently wait if he already has what he wants" (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

firstfruits

Holy Spirit

adoption

redeem

confidence

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

23. καὶ αὐτοὶ. We Christians, though we have the earnest of the Spirit and of freedom, ourselves still find our body in bondage, not yet fully emancipated.

τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τ. πν. ἀπ. only here in this connexion; cf. ἀρραβών, Eph 1:14; 2Co 5:5: and cf. 2Co 5:1-5 for a fuller expression of this thought.

υἱοθεσίαν. Cf. 15; Eph 1:5. υἱὸς marking privilege rather than nature, υἱοθεσία = putting into that position of privilege; to privilege character must be brought to correspond; consequently the word suggests a process, and may be used either of the beginning of the process (Rom 8:15) or of the end as here, or of the whole (Eph. l. c[163]); cf. Westcott on Eph. l. c[164]

[163] l. c. locus citatus

[164] l. c. locus citatus

τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν. Cf. on Rom 3:24. This word too indicates a process, not a finished act; cf. Eph 1:7; Col 1:14. Here and Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30 it is used to name the object for which the Spirit is given. So 1Co 1:30 Christ is our ἁγιασμὸς καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις. The simple verb is used of the beginning of the process, 1Pe 1:18; cf. Heb 9:12. The fundamental texts are Mat 20:28; |[165] Mar 10:45. N. Eph 1:10 connects man’s redemption and the destiny of creation, as here.

[165] | parallel to

τοῦ σώματος ἡ. The body: because (1) the body had become the seat of sin and death (Rom 7:24, Rom 8:11): (2) it is through the body that man is connected with the physical creation. The redemption of the physical organism of man’s life has a far-reaching effect upon all related physical creation; cf. 1Co 15:51-54; Php 3:21.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23.] The text here is in inextricable confusion (see var. read.), but the sense very little affected. But (moreover) not only (the creation), but even ourselves, possessing (not ‘who possess,’ οἱ ἔχοντες, but ‘though we possess’) the firstfruit of the Spirit (i.e. the indwelling and influences of the Holy Spirit here, as an earnest of the full harvest of His complete possession of us, πνεῦμα and σάρξ and ψυχή, hereafter. That this is the meaning, seems evident from the analogy of St. Paul’s imagery regarding the Holy Spirit: he treats of Him as an earnest and pledge given to us, Eph 1:14; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5, and of His full work in us as the efficient means of our glorification hereafter, ver. 11; 2Co 3:18. Various other renderings are,—(1) ‘the first outpouring of the Spirit,’ in point of time,—Wetst., Reiche, Kölln., Mey., al.,—which would be irrelevant: (2) ‘the highest gifts of the Spirit,’ as the Schmidts, al.

The gen. πν. may be partitive or subjective:—the firstfruit of the Spirit,—which Spirit is the harvest,—or the firstfruit of the Spirit,—which the Spirit gives:—or even in apposition, the firstfruit of the Spirit, i.e. which consists in (the gift of) the Spirit. I prefer the first, from analogy—the Spirit being generally spoken of as given, not as giving,—and God as the Giver), even we ourselves (repeated for emphasis, and ἡμεῖς inserted to involve himself and his fellow-workers in the general description of the last clause. Some (Wolf, Kölln.) have imagined the Apostles only to be spoken of: some, that the Apostles are meant in one place, and all Christians in the other) groan within ourselves, awaiting the fulness of [the (or,] our) adoption (ἀπεκδ., as above, ver. 19, but even more strongly here, ‘wait out,’ ‘wait for the end of.’ Our adoption is come already, ver. 15, so that we do not wait for it, but for the full manifestation of it, in our bodies being rescued from the bondage of corruption and sin. This which in Gr. is expressed by the verb, in Eng. must be joined to the substantive. The omission of the art. before νἱοθ. is probably on account of its preceding its verb,—νἱοθ. ἀπεκδ. = ἀπεκδ. τὴν υἱοθ., for emphasis’ sake) the redemption (in apposition with νἱοθ., or rather with the fulness of sense implied in νἱοθ. ἀπεκδ., q. d. ‘expecting that full and perfect adoption which shall consist in …’) of our body (not, ‘rescue from our body,’ as Erasm., Le Clerc, Reiche, Fritz., al.,—which though allowable in grammar,—see Heb 9:15,—is inconsistent with the doctrine of the change of the vile and mortal into the glorious and immortal body,—Php 3:21; 2Co 5:2-4,—but the (entire) redemption,—rescue,—-of the body from corruption and sin).

24,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. οὐ μόνον δέ. Not only does nature groan, but we Christians also groan: our very privileges make us long for something more.

τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ Πνεύματος: ‘the first-fruits, or first instalment of the gift of the Spirit.’ St. Paul evidently means all the phenomena of that great outpouring which was specially characteristic of the Apostolic Age from the Day of Pentecost onwards, the varied charismata bestowed upon the first Christians (1Co_12. &c.), but including also the moral and spiritual gifts which were more permanent (Gal 5:22 f.). The possession of these gifts served to quicken the sense of the yet greater gifts that were to come. Foremost among them was to be the transforming of the earthly or ‘psychical’ body into a spiritual body (1Co 15:44 ff.). St. Paul calls this a ‘deliverance,’ i. e. a deliverance from the ‘ills that flesh is heir to’: for ἀπολύτρωσις see on 3:24.

ἔχοντες ἡμεῖς: ἡμεῖς is placed here by א A C 5. 47. 80, also by Tisch. RV. and (in brackets) by WH.

υἱοθεσίαν: see on ver. 15 above. Here υἱοθ. = the manifested, realized, act of adoption—its public promulgation.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 23. “And not only only so, but we also,which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

The connection between this passage and the preceding one is obvious at a glance; it is found in the idea of groaning. The groaning of believers themselves, men already animated with the breath of God, rises as it were on that of nature. Of the three or even four readings presented by the documents, we must first, whatever Volkmar may say to the contrary, set aside that of the Vatic., which rejects the ἡμεῖς, we, in the middle of the verse; this pronoun is indispensable to emphasize the contrast between believers and nature. And whence could it have come into all the other texts? We may also set aside the Greco-Latin reading (D F G). By putting the pronoun: we ourselves also, at the beginning of the sentence, after the words: not only but, it obliterates the forcible reaffirmation which these words contain when placed in the middle of the sentence: “We also...we ourselves also”...The two other readings differ only in this, that the Alexandrine ( אA C) places the ἡμεῖς, we, before καὶ αὐτοί, while the Byzs. place it between the two words: and we ourselves. The difference of meaning is almost imperceptible (we ourselves also; also we ourselves). It is probable that the Alexs. have displaced the ἡμεῖς, we, to bring it next the participle ἔχοντες. This is the reason why we have translated according to the received reading.

Several commentators have thought that in saying first we, then adding we ourselves also, the apostle meant to speak of two different subjects, for example, Christians and apostles (Mel.), or Christians and Paul himself (Reiche). But in this case the article οἱ before the participle ἔχοντες would be indispensable; and what object could there be in such a distinction in the context?

The logical connection between the participle ἔχοντες, having, possessing, and the verb στενάζομεν, we groan, should be rendered by the conjunction though: “Though already possessing, we still groan (ipsi nos habentes).”

The expression: the first-fruits of the Spirit, is so clear that it is difficult to understand how it should have given rise to dispute. How has it occurred to commentators like De Wette, Olshausen, Meyer, to apply it specially to the Spirit bestowed on the apostles and first believers, to distinguish it from the Spirit afterward bestowed on other believers? What importance can this difference have for the spiritual life, and where is a trace of such a distinction to be found in the N. T.? It would be preferable to regard the word first-fruits (with Chrys., Calv., Thol., Philip., Bonnet) as referring to the fact that Christians here below receive only a beginning, while there will be given to them above the entire fulness of the Spirit. In this sense the genitive would be the complement of the object: The first-fruits of that gift which is the Spirit. But the apostle is not here contrasting an imperfect with a more perfect spiritual state; he is contrasting an inward state already relatively perfect, with an outward state which has not yet participated in the spiritual renewal; this appears clearly from the last words: waiting for the redemption of our body. The genitive is therefore the complement of quality or apposition: “The first-fruits which consist of the Spirit Himself.” This meaning is proved, besides, by the attentive comparison of 2Co 1:22 and Eph 1:14. The apostle means: “We ourselves, who by the possession of the Spirit have already entered inwardly into the new world, still groan, because there is a part of our being, the outer man, which does not yet enjoy this privilege.”

Hofmann joins the regimen: within ourselves, to the participle ἔχοντες: we who have within ourselves. But is it not superfluous to say that the Holy Spirit is possessed inwardly? This regimen is very significant, on the contrary, if we connect it, as is grammatically natural, with the verb we groan: “We groan often inwardly, even when others do not suspect it, and when they hear us proclaiming salvation as a fact already accomplished.” The disharmony between the child of God and the child of the dust therefore still remains; and hence we wait for something.

This something St. Paul calls adoption, and he explains it by the apposition: the redemption of our body. No doubt our adoption is in point of right an acquired fact (Gal 4:6). It is so in reality on its spiritual side, for we already possess the Spirit of our Father, as Paul has developed it, Rom 8:14-16. But the state of sons of God will not be fully realized in us until to the holiness of the Spirit there be added the glory and perfection of the body. It needs hardly be said that the expression: the redemption of our body, is not to be interpreted in the sense: that we are to be delivered from our body (Oltram.). For this idea, applied to the body itself, would be anti-biblical; faith waits for a new body; and if it applied to the body only as the body of our humiliation, as Paul says, Php 3:21, this specification would require to be added, or at least Paul would require to say τοῦ σώματος τούτου, of this present body. The complement of the body is therefore evidently the genitive, not of the object, but of the subject: it is the body itself which is to be delivered from the miseries of its present corruption. We see from 2Co 5:4 that Paul desired not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon: that is, to receive his glorified body, by the power of which his mortal body was to be as it were swallowed up. It is by the transformation of the body only that we shall become completely sons of God. Comp. the affirmation, which is not identical, but analogous, made in reference to Christ Himself, Rom 1:3-4.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.