Romans 8:18-39 · Featured Study
The Groaning Creation
Paul weighs everything this present time can inflict against the glory ahead and calls the comparison not worth making. Then he lets us hear three groans: the creation, ourselves, and the Spirit himself. This page walks Romans 8:18-39 in order: the creation subjected to vanity and waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, our own groan for the redemption of the body, the Spirit’s intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered, all things working together for good, the golden chain of 8:29-30, and the closing hymn, who shall separate us.
Summary
Romans 8:18-39 sets the sufferings of this present time beside the glory to come and refuses the comparison. Along the way Paul lets three groans be heard, the creation's, ours, and the Spirit's own, then climbs through the golden chain to the hymn that closes the chapter: nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
- The sufferings are weighed against the coming glory and found not worthy to be compared (8:18)
- The creation was subjected to vanity and groans like a woman in labor, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God (8:19-22)
- We ourselves groan for the redemption of the body, and the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings which cannot be uttered (8:23-27)
- All things work together for good, toward a good named in the next verse: likeness to the Son (8:28-29)
- Foreknew, foreordained, called, justified, glorified: the chain holds, and nothing can separate us from the love of God (8:29-39)
Not Worthy to Be Compared
8:18: the scale that will not balance
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.” Romans 8:18
The verse before this one ended with a condition: heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, “if so be that we suffer with him” (8:17). Paul does not move past suffering; he weighs it. The word rendered “I reckon” is an accountant’s word. He puts the sufferings of this present time on one side of the scale and the coming glory on the other, and reports that the scale will not balance. He wrote this as a man whose sufferings were not theoretical: beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked. The chapter’s first half is walked on its own page, No Condemnation, which reads Romans 8 whole; this page slows down over what follows the weighing.
For I reckon that the sufferings, etc. - If the glory that is to be revealed be the enjoyment of God himself, (see above, Rom 8:17 (note)), then the sufferings of this life, which, when compared with eternity, are but as for a moment, are not worthy to be put in competition with this glory which shall be revealed in us. This case is perfectly clear.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Rom 8:18
They cannot merit that glory; and, if suffering for Christ will not merit, much less will doing. They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory. The sufferings are small and short, and concern the body only; but the glory is rich and great, and concerns the soul, and is eternal.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
Rom 8:18
The Creation Waits
8:19-22: subjected to vanity, groaning and travailing
“For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19
“For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:20-21
Paul personifies the natural order. The creation did not choose its condition; it was subjected to vanity, to futility and decay, when the ground was cursed for man’s sake in Genesis 3:17. But the subjection came “in hope.” The sentence that names creation’s bondage names its deliverance in the same breath, and ties that deliverance to ours: the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God, because its liberty arrives with theirs.
For the creature--"the creation." was made subject to vanity, not willingly--that is, through no natural principle of decay. The apostle, personifying creation, represents it as only submitting to the vanity with which it was smitten, on man's account, in obedience to that superior power which had mysteriously linked its destinies with man's.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Rom 8:20
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:22
The groan of 8:22 is a specific kind of pain. The verb rendered “travaileth” is the labor of childbirth. Labor pain is real pain, and it is pain with a direction: it ends in a birth, not a burial. That is the chapter’s honest reading of the present world. The pain is not denied, and it is not final.
For the whole creation groaneth together - With joint groans, as it were with one voice. And travaileth - Literally, is in the pains of childbirth, to be delivered of the burden of the curse.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
Rom 8:22
She groans and endures in her own change: you do not understand, and you often rejoice. She frequently awaits your redemption, so that she may be freed from the common servitude of all creation: you bring hindrance to both your redemption and her liberty.
Ambrose of Milan· The Six Days of Creation, 397Latin Father
Rom 8:22
The groaning of a mother in labor is both bad and good news. The bad news is that this is going to hurt. The good news is that something is going to happen.
Tony Evans· “The Language of Prayer” (TonyEvans.org), 2026Evangelical
Rom 8:22
The word for waiting: the head thrust forwardapokaradokia, 8:19
The noun rendered “earnest expectation” appears only here and at Philippians 1:20. It pictures a watcher craning the neck, the head thrust forward toward what is coming. Paul gives the posture to the whole natural order.
For the earnest expectation - ἀποκαραδοκία apokaradokia. This word occurs only here and in Php 1:20, "According to my earnest expectation and my hope," etc. It properly denotes a state of earnest desire to see any object when the head is thrust forward; an intense anxiety; an ardent wish; and is thus well employed to denote the intense interest with which a Christian looks to his future inheritance.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
Rom 8:19
We Ourselves Groan
8:23-25: the firstfruits, the adoption, the hope
“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.” Romans 8:23
The second groan is ours. Believers already have the firstfruits of the Spirit, the first sheaf of a harvest whose full weight is still in the field, and the taste sharpens the longing rather than ending it. What we wait for is named precisely: not escape from the body but “the redemption of our body,” resurrection. Verses 24 and 25 then give this waiting its proper name, hope, and its proper posture, patience: hope that is seen is not hope.
It is our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, which both quickens our desires and encourages our hopes, and both ways raises our expectations. The first-fruits did both sanctify and ensure the lump. Grace is the first-fruits of glory, it is glory begun.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
Rom 8:23
The Spirit's Own Groaning
8:26-27: intercession deeper than words
“And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; 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.” Romans 8:26-27
The third groan is the Spirit’s own. Paul’s starting point is a weakness every believer knows from the inside: we do not know how to pray as we ought. The answer is not a better technique but a Person. The Spirit himself takes up our case and intercedes with groanings deeper than language, and the Father who searches hearts reads that intercession perfectly, because it runs according to his own will. Prayer in this passage is not a performance God grades; it is a work God himself carries from both ends, the Spirit interceding within us here, the risen Christ interceding for us at the right hand (8:34). The Spirit who does this is present and active, the same Spirit this chapter has named as indwelling, leading, and witnessing from its first verses.
The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities - The same Spirit, το πνευμα, mentioned before as bearing witness with ours that we are the children of God; and consequently it is not a disposition or frame of mind, for the disposition of our mind surely cannot help the infirmities of our minds. The word συναντιλαμβανεται is very inadequately expressed by helpeth. It is compounded of συν, together, αντι, against, and λαμβανομαι, to support or help, and signifies such assistance as is afforded by any two persons to each other, who mutually bear the same load or carry it between them.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Rom 8:26
Our understandings are weak, particularly in the things of God our desires are weak; our prayers are weak. We know not - Many times. What we should pray for - Much less are we able to pray for it as we ought: but the Spirit maketh intercession for us - In our hearts, even as Christ does in heaven.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
Rom 8:26
All Things Work Together
8:28: the most quoted verse, read carefully
“And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
The verse does not say all things are good, or that they will feel good. It says God is working them together, the way a baker works bitter and bland ingredients into one loaf, and it names the people for whom this holds: them that love God, them that are called according to his purpose. The good in view is defined by the very next verse, conformity to the image of his Son. Read with 8:29, the promise is not that circumstances will improve but that nothing which happens to a believer is wasted.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God - To understand this verse aright, let us observe: 1. That the persons in whose behalf all things work for good are they who love God, and, consequently, who live in the spirit of obedience. 2. It is not said that all things shall work for good, but that συνεργει, they work now in the behalf of him who loveth now, αγαπωσι; for both verbs are in the present tense.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Rom 8:28
The Golden Chain
8:29-30: five links, one Workman
“For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30
Older writers called these two verses the golden chain: five links, foreknew, foreordained, called, justified, glorified, and one subject doing every verb. No link is missing and none is left to us to forge. The last verb is the startling one. “Glorified” is past tense, spoken of a glory the chapter has just said is still future, so certain in God’s purpose that Paul writes it as already done. The aim of the whole chain is stated inside it: conformity to the image of his Son, that Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren.
He only affirms that this is the method whereby God leads us step by step toward heaven. He glorified - He speaks as one looking back from the goal, upon the race of faith. Indeed grace, as it is glory begun, is both an earnest and a foretaste of eternal glory.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
Rom 8:30
WELL said the Apostle in another place, "All things are of God." And here in this passage all works of Divine Grace are evidently so. The pronoun, "He," is repeated yet again and again, as if to set the Lord always before us. ... It is of God all the way through. There is not an inch of ground left to he covered by the creature's foot.
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 627: “Justification And Glory”, 1865Particular (Reformed) Baptist
Rom 8:30
Foreknew: a dispute held graciously8:29, the readings and who holds them
What does “whom he foreknew” mean? The church has read it two main ways. One reading takes it as foreknowledge of persons and their faith: God knew beforehand who would believe, and foreordained those. Wesley and the Methodist line read the passage this way, within God’s “gracious design of saving a lost world by the death of his Son.” The other reading takes foreknowledge as God’s prior setting of love on persons themselves, a choosing knowledge, so that the whole chain from first link to last is God’s sovereign work; Spurgeon preaches it so above. Barnes states the question honestly and declines to pretend it is simple. Both readings are held by honored voices on this site’s own roster, and this page names them rather than adjudicating them.
For whom he did foreknow - The word used here προέγνω proegnō has been the subject of almost endless disputes in regard to its meaning in this place. The literal meaning of the word cannot be a matter of dispute. It denotes properly to "know beforehand;" to be acquainted with future events. But whether it means here simply to know that certain persons would become Christians; or to ordain, and constitute them to be Christians, and to be saved, has been a subject of almost endless discussion.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
Rom 8:29
To them that are called according to his purpose - His gracious design of saving a lost world by the death of his Son.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Evangelical
Rom 8:28
Who Shall Separate Us
8:31-39: four questions and the hymn that answers them
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:31
The argument ends and the singing begins. Paul fires four questions in a row, who is against us, who shall accuse, who condemns, who shall separate, and each one answers itself the moment it is asked, because each is measured against something God has already done: he gave his Son, he justified, Christ died and rose and intercedes. John Bunyan recorded 8:31 breaking into his own long spiritual darkness:
That word came suddenly upon me, What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
John Bunyan· Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, 1666Puritan
Rom 8:31
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
“Spared not” is the Greek Old Testament’s word from Genesis 22, where Abraham withheld not his son, his only son. The argument runs from the greater to the lesser: the costliest gift has already been given, so no smaller gift can be in doubt.
But this is inconceivable if Christ be not God's "own (or proper) Son," partaker of His very nature, as really as Isaac was of his father Abraham's. In that sense, certainly, the Jews charged our Lord with making Himself "equal with God" (see on Joh 5:18), which He in reply forthwith proceeded, not to disown, but to illustrate and confirm.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Rom 8:32
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Romans 8:33-34
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Romans 8:35
The list in 8:35 is not rhetorical decoration; every item on it happened to Paul, and within a decade of this letter it would be happening to the Roman believers who first heard it read. The question of whose love is meant, ours for Christ or his for us, has its own small history among the commentators, held in the panel below.
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Romans 8:37
He conquers who does not yield to those who lead on by force, but he is more than conqueror who voluntarily invites sorrows for a demonstration of his endurance.
Basil of Caesarea· Homilies, 379Greek Father
Rom 8:37
Whose love: two readings of 8:35, both held by honored voicesBarnes and JFB
Barnes reads “the love of Christ” as our love to Christ: no trial can make a believer stop loving the Saviour. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as Christ’s love to us, pointing to the chapter’s closing words, “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The two readings arrive at the same assurance from opposite ends, and neither commentator is set against the other here.
Who shall separate us - That is, finally or entirely separate us. This is a new argument of the apostle, showing his strong confidence in the safety of the Christian. From the love of Christ - This expression is ambiguous; and may mean either our love to Christ or his love to us. I understand it in the former sense, and suppose it means, "Who shall cause us to cease to love the Saviour?"
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
Rom 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?--This does not mean "our love to Christ," as if, Who shall hinder us from loving Christ? but "Christ's love to us," as is clear from the closing words of the chapter, which refer to the same subject.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Rom 8:35
Romans 8:38-39 (ASV)
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Ten named powers, and then a clause that closes every loophole: nor any other creature. Everything that is not God is a creature, so nothing that exists outside of God himself can break the bond. The chapter that opened with no condemnation closes with no separation. Where this assurance sits in the fuller doctrine, with the warning passages presented honestly beside it, is walked at Eternal Security.
Human nature cannot by itself maintain the struggle against angels and heights and depths and any other creature; but when it has felt the Lord to be present and dwelling within, it will say in the confidence of receiving divine help: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"
Origen of Alexandria· On First Principles, 231Greek Father
Rom 8:39
But in the marriage of Christ and His bride, there is neither divorce nor separation.
R. C. Sproul· The Inseparable Love of God, 2017Reformed
Rom 8:35
The Words Underneath
the groan and the adoption
The words underneath
stenazo: to groan
Greek · G4727Strong's entry: to make (intransitively, be) in straits, i.e. (by implication) to sigh, murmur, pray inaudibly
Stenazo, to groan: the word family behind the chapter's three groans, the creation's (8:22, in compound), ours (8:23), and the Spirit's groanings which cannot be uttered (8:26).
6 times in the New Testament · stenazo, in full →
huiothesia: adoption (as son)
Greek · G5206Strong's entry: the placing as a son, i.e. adoption (figuratively, Christian sonship in respect to God)
Huiothesia, adoption: the Roman legal act of placing as a son. Received already at 8:15, and still waited for at 8:23, where its full form is named as the redemption of our body.
5 times in the New Testament · huiothesia, in full →
The Voices
with the work named
Commentary on the Bible (1832) · public domain
Weighs the sufferings against eternity at 8:18, and unpacks the Greek verb behind "helpeth" in 8:26: two persons carrying one load between them.
Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710) · public domain
On the firstfruits of the Spirit: grace is the firstfruits of glory, it is glory begun.
Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) · public domain
Hears the whole creation groaning with one voice, in the pains of childbirth, and reads 8:30 as one looking back from the goal upon the race of faith.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · public domain
Carries the word study at 8:19 (apokaradokia, the head thrust forward) and names the foreknowledge dispute at 8:29 without settling it.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) · public domain
Reads 8:32 as an argument for the deity of Christ, God's own Son as really as Isaac was Abraham's, and 8:35 as Christ's love to us.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 627, "Justification And Glory" (1865) · public domain
Preaches the golden chain as God's work from first to last: not an inch of ground left for the creature's foot.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) · public domain
Records 8:31 arriving in his own darkness: that word came suddenly upon me.
The Six Days of Creation (c. 397) · cite-only, modern English translation
Preaches the groaning creation through the moon itself, which awaits our redemption to be freed from the common servitude.
Homilies (c. 379) · cite-only, modern English translation
Distinguishes the conqueror from the more than conqueror at 8:37.
On First Principles (c. 231) · cite-only, modern English translation
On 8:39: human nature cannot hold the field alone, but can when it has felt the Lord dwelling within.
The Inseparable Love of God (2017) · cite-only, in copyright
Reads the bond of 8:35-39 as a marriage in which there is neither divorce nor separation.
"The Language of Prayer" (TonyEvans.org) · cite-only, in copyright
Hears the labor groan of 8:22 as bad news and good news at once: it hurts, and something is about to happen.
Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal. Every quote above is drawn byte-checked from the site's verified quote pool for Romans 8, with the specific work named.
Word studies
The Hebrew and Greek under this study, each word in its own room.
Where it leads
Featured studies9
- No Condemnation: Romans 8 whole, the arc from 8:1 to 8:39
- Eternal Security: the doctrine 8:38-39 anchors
- The Romans Road: the letter's own path to salvation
- Faith and Works, James and Paul on the Same Abraham, MannaFest
- Hagar and Sarah: the Allegory, MannaFest
- In Christ: the Positional-Truth Thread of Ephesians, MannaFest
- Jacob Have I Loved: the Election Thread, MannaFest
- Justification by Faith: the Verdict of the Cross | MannaFest
- Living Hope, 1 Peter 1:3–9, MannaFest
Read it1