51. Redemption of our Body
Romans 8:23 We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We groan within ourselves while we wait for the redemption of our bodies, but this is a promise that we will certainly receive. We wait in faith for what is certain to come. The body will be redeemed. The body was created by God to belong to Him, but it has been captured, kidnapped and enslaved by the Enemy. Sin has enslaved us; Satan has kidnapped us; Death has captured us. Our bodies are under the power and dominion of the Enemy because we are born in original sin and continue to sin.
As long as we sin the Enemy owns and controls the body. But Jesus has come from the Father to pay the ransom price with His innocent suffering and death and His holy and precious blood. The sin is forgiven; Death and Satan have no legal right or claim to us any longer. Once He has drawn us to Himself through the Gospel we are redeemed, that is, we are bought and paid for and now we belong to Another; we belong to our Beloved, who loves us and cares for us all the way through this life until our life’s end; and He will finish what He started.
But the body in which the new man lives is still wracked and wrecked by sin; Sin tries to stake its claim to the body, causing pain and suffering, injury and illness, and finally physical death. But we say, “No! We have been redeemed.” The full reclamation and redemption of the body has not yet happened; we do not feel redeemed and restored; we still feel pain and death. But in the face of pain and death we are not discouraged or in despair, because we believe and know that we will be fully redeemed when we shed this mortal coil. While we wait we groan; if we could hear creation it is groaning, too, while it waits for our redemption.
During the groaning and in the midst of the suffering we also rejoice and shout with joy for our redemption is drawing closer every day. We rejoice because we have the Promise. The Promise sustains us and lifts us above the groaning.