The words of our text almost sound like poetry. Is creation really groaning and travailing? If so, how does that happen? What does it look like? To what extent is it? The answer to each question on the whole subject matter is as if creation were a single individual that has to bear the weight and the consequence of sin. To Paul, creation was greatly affected by what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. Creation is not just a label or a figment of someone’s imagination that accumulates all the animals and vegetation and clouds and volcanoes into one magnificently define thing.
Creation is what God did. It was his artwork painted on the canvas of nothingness. It was what he wanted because he wanted to do it. It was a demonstration of his power and loveliness. It was a gift to mankind that he might treasure it; appreciate it . He gave the privilege of naming the creatures that wondered about everywhere. God provided for their physical sustenance. Creation entertained man with its jovial waterfalls and cool waters of the afternoon. So, what does it mean to say that creation is groaning and travailing?
When Adam fell in sin, God pronounced on him the curse of hard work that he would have to till an uncooperative soil. He would have to work plowing and digging in the dirt to produce food that God once provided for him free and clear. Not only was Adam cursed with this work, but the soil itself was cursed. Instead of being cooperative with him, instead of being fresh and lose and rich that he could use easily, the soil became his enemy. From it he would have to wrestle nutrients. Adam and creation, then, struggled against each other while existing under the burden of what he did.
Not only do we have this strain between farmer and soil, there is the anxious travailing of creation as if it was a woman in labor. She experiences her contractions. She experiences momentary rest. Then contractions start all over again. This is the way creation is in travail waiting for the birth time of release when Jesus will come back again to make everything right. This means that creation is groaning under the weight of sin but also is laboring under the pain of sin waiting for the time Jesus returns with relief.
All of creation in one way or the other is straining with the consequence of sin. The soil of creation holds back what once it could’ve easily given while the sin of man holds back what blessings could once have been. Our only hope is in the waiting for our adoption and redemption by the Heavenly Father. In patience we must wait for Jesus, for his deliverance, for his ultimate glory over sin and its consequence.
