Is Heaven a Place on Earth? (Part 4)

Romans 8:19-23

One of the key passages of Scripture used by those who insist that resurrected people will live on a physical earth is Romans 8:19-23. Tommy Hicks recounts the history of the “Heaven will be lived out on earth” doctrine, and he cited many “ancients” who held to this view. Chrysostom, for example, argues that the creation will be freed “from the bondage of corruption.” He taught that the earth would be purified by God, and its suffering would cease (Hicks 27).

Augustine speaks of a universal conflagration, after which “the world itself is renewed to some better thing,” which will be totally fit to accommodate men (28). Calvin, commenting on Romans 8, wrote that “there is no element and no part of the world which, being touched, as it were, with a sense of its present misery, does not intensely hope for a resurrection.” He adds that Romans 8:20 teaches that God “inwardly planted the hope of renovation” (30). So, what does Romans 8:19-23 actually say?

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope;

Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

These are the words Paul wrote; the question is, “What do they mean?” Lynn Blair set forth five interpretations in his chapter on Romans 8 in the Annual Denton Lectureship book (1996), edited by Dub McClish (166). Only two of these possess merit. One is that the creation is God’s spiritual creation—or the church. The other explanation involves the creation being the physical earth. These two interpretations are also examined in a later chapter on difficult texts (534-538).

Ktisis

The Greek word ktisis [2937] is found 19 times in the New Testament. Five of those instances occur in Romans 8; two more times the word appears in Romans 1. Six times the King James translated it “creation; eleven times they used “creature.” Other translations vary as to which verses they use “creature” and which the reader will find “creation.” The King James renders ktisis as creature throughout Romans 8, but most translations have “creation.”

The physical earth advocates see the physical creation in Romans 8, and it is not hard to figure out why. In order to reach that conclusion, one needs only to see the physical creation as the figure of speech known as personification—that is, it has human characteristics, such as the idea that it groans and is patient (it waits). With this interpretation, the material creation anticipates “the time when the sons of God will at last be delivered into glory” (Young 537). Certainly, Isaiah 24:4-5 takes this approach:

The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away; the haughty people of the earth languish.

The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

Another example is Isaiah 35:1-2a:

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.

The point is that it would not be impossible for Paul to personify the whole physical creation as being an anxious onlooker to what has occurred and what will yet occur. It also fits the idea of a re-created earth which will be restored to its pristine purity before it was corrupted by sin. Mankind involved the earth in its sins, making of trees idols to be worshiped, for example (Isa. 44:9-17). But is it the physical creation Paul refers to in Romans 8? Many brethren take this view (Hicks 346-58).

The Spiritual Creation

One can also make a case for the creation being the spiritual one, the church. Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The new creation is a Christian, and this new spiritual creation fits Romans 8:19. The verb form of ktisis is used in Ephesians 2:15, where God is said to have abolished the law of the commandments and created (ktizo [2936]) in Himself of two one new man (from Jew and Gentile).

So, how might we view Romans 8:19-23, if the spiritual creation is being referenced? First, we need to go back to the beginning of Romans 8 for the context. The chapter begins by pointing out that Christians do not walk after the flesh, but according to the Spirit (1-8).

Next, Paul points out that Christians are in the Spirit and the Spirit of God dwells in them. And if the Spirit of God dwells in the Christian (and He raised Christ from the dead), He also gives life to the mortal bodies of Christians (9-11). He may be referring to the new life in Christ that Christians enjoy, or the promise of the resurrection just as Jesus was raised up—or both.

However, we have nothing we owe to the flesh, which condemns us, but rather to the Spirit, Who inspires the Word that gives us life (if we follow it) and makes us sons of God (13-14). Christians receive the Spirit of adoption—belonging to God—rather than the spirit of bondage—a term Paul uses to describe life under the Law of Moses (Gal. 4:9). Through dying to sin and being raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-5), therefore, we have been given the Spirit Who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (15-16).

While Paul is completing that thought, he opens up a new one—namely that of suffering with Christ—which receives the focus of attention for the next 23 verses. He begins to speak of suffering with Christ and being glorified with Him. In fact, the depth of the suffering cannot be compared with the height of the glory we shall receive (17-18).

Notice that the physical creation has not appeared anywhere in the context up to now, nor can it be found after verse 22 as Paul completes this section of the book of Romans. But the spiritual creation—especially as it relates to the individual Christian—dominates the discussion.

Now is the time to consider the message of verses 19-22. The earnest expectation of the spiritual creation—in other words, Christians—eagerly awaits what—the revealing of the sons of God. The word translated “revealing” is apokalupsis [602], the same word that is the title of the last book of the Bible. Paul also uses the word in Romans 16:25. Christians desire to know the upshot of all things. What shall we be like in the end (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50-57; 1 John 3:2)? The glory to be revealed [the verb form of 602; here 601) in us is what we are all anticipating and waiting for.

But Christians, the spiritual creation, are subjected to futility (the KJV, and ASV have “vanity”). Someone might wonder how it is or why it is that Christians are subjected to futility. The answer lies in the fact that we are still upon this earth. Because we became Christians does not mean that the sinful appeal of this world has ceased to exist. Yes, it is all vanity (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life), but the appeal is still there. The conflict between flesh and spirit never goes away while we are upon this earth. We shall continue to be bombarded with the vain things of the world and its temptations.

After Jesus was baptized, He was taken out into the wilderness to be tempted by—vain and futile things. Christians would just as soon we were never tempted again, but we will be. Sometimes futility exists even in the church with false teachers promising vain things, such as the notion that it was all right for the flesh to indulge itself without the spirit’s being harmed or affected, as in 2 Peter 2:1-22 (Romans 8:20).

God allows us to be plagued by this futility, but His hope is that we remain steadfast and overcome these hindrances, for which reason we have the Holy Spirit and His Word. Eventually we shall be delivered entirely from the bondage of corruption “into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (v. 21). We have not yet arrived at that point: the whole creation (Christian and unbeliever) groans and labors as we move toward that time. Why would the unbelieving creature be included in the whole creation?

When Paul wrote this letter, the church had been in existence about three decades. It was still suffering birth pangs as the gospel spread, and in Rome it was either undergoing or about to undergo intense persecution under Nero (v. 22). This could be a reference to the turmoil Christianity had caused by turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

The entire creation may have been in a state of uproar due to the gospel, but Christians especially suffered, waiting for the results of the adoption and the redemption of the body. “For we were saved in this hope” (Rom. 8:24a), which will be realized in the judgment. Christians eagerly wait for it with perseverance (v. 25). Meanwhile, the Spirit helps in our weaknesses and intercedes on our behalf (8:26-28).

Regarding the current time, however, we must remain confident that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (8:28). The spiritual creation, Christians, were “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (v. 29). That includes being glorified with Jesus (v. 30).

Romans 8:31-39 provides a list of the many things Christians may have to face (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword, peril). Psalm 44:22 is quoted in regard to what we must expect. But we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (v. 37). Finally, Paul is persuaded that nothing—but nothing—can “separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39).

Thus, Romans 8 begins with the two clear choices in which one may live—walking after the flesh or walking according to the Spirit. However, following Christ is going to bring on adversity, which each Christian must deal with, since all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). Steadfast faithfulness—even unto death—wins the crown of life (Rev. 2:10). God and a great cloud of witnesses wants us to be victorious through whatever we face (Heb. 12:1-2). Jesus endured (Heb. 12:3), and we must do the same. No one can snatch us out of Jesus’ or the Father’s hands (John 10:27-29). Nothing can separate us from their love. The glory we will receive far exceeds the groanings we faced on earth.