Romans 8:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see how the Apostle puts the hearer to shame? He speaks as if saying: Do not be worse than creation, and do not cling to the present. Not only should you not cling to it, but you must groan over the delay of your departure from here. If creation itself does this, it is far more fitting for you, who are endowed with reason. But even this was not enough to shame you. Therefore the Apostle added, “And not only this, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves.”

By these words he moves the hearer to despise the present things. He speaks as if saying: Do not be worse than creation, and do not cling to what is present. Rather, even groan because you do not yet possess the future glory. If creation groans, how much more must you do so.

Paul’s words up to verse 23 should not be understood as though trees, vegetables, and stones suffer. That is the error of the Manichaeans.

Nor should one think that the holy angels are subjected to vanity, or that they will be freed from the bondage of death, since they are immortal.

Here “creation” means the human race.

Every creature is manifested in man, not because all the angels and higher powers are in him, or heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them.

Rather, it is because every creature is, in part, spirit, in part, soul, and in part, body.

“We know,” he says, “that all creatures groan and travail until now,” for their humiliation requires this. Since the time when man subjected all creatures to himself in the hope that God was the sun, the moon, and all the other creatures, they have groaned and still groan. They await the birth of sons in the resurrection of life, sons who can know creatures as creatures and the Creator as Creator.

The moon exists for you and is subject to the will of God. Creation is subjected to vanity not voluntarily, but by the will of Him who subjected it, in hope. Therefore the moon does not change by its own will. You change. The moon groans and travails in its change, while you, not understanding, often rejoice in this. The moon often awaits your redemption, so that it may be freed from the bondage in which all creation abides. But you create obstacles to your freedom from sin and to the freedom of the moon. Thus, because of your folly, not its own, you still wait and do not turn back.

To groan means to be grieved. The sense is that every creature groans and is grieved to this day in its daily labor.

The creatures themselves carefully display their labors. The sun and the moon do not fill the space appointed to them without toil.

The spirit of the animals also shows its service with a loud sound. For we see that they roar, unwilling to be driven together for work.

All of them await rest and liberation from servile labor.

If this bondage were for God’s benefit, creation would rejoice and not grieve. But it grieves because it has been subjected for our sake to the bondage of corruption.

Every day it sees its labors vanish, and every day it gives birth to its labor and loses it. Therefore he rightly grieves whose labor leads not to eternity, but only to corruption.

Here the Apostle included invisible creation also, for he said, “the whole creation.” For a more precise understanding of this place, I shall recall the Gospel saying. The Lord said that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents (Lk 15:7). If they rejoice over repentant sinners, then plainly they are grieved when they see our iniquities.

Here Paul collectively calls all the righteous creation, those who lived from Adam and Eve until the time of Christ. Adam and Eve themselves, who are called creation, also groan as they await the reward of virtue promised by the Lord. “And not only it, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit.” Here the whole creation means the righteous who lived after Adam and before Christ’s coming. They travail together with Adam and Eve until they await the adoption promised by the Son of God.

“The whole creation groans together with us.” The subjection of creation to vanity and corruption, being the natural consequence of our corruption, causes creation to groan, or suffer. It suffers not only over its own lot, but also over our corruption. This suffering of creation is seen in the fact that it fears death and flees from it. By this it shows that death is unnatural both for itself and for us, and it teaches us also to flee death and seek means of deliverance from it.

“For we know.” This word suggests that there is more in the Apostle’s speech than personification. Indeed, what prevents us from supposing a hidden, common groaning of all creation over its sorrowful condition together with us?

Animals have understanding and sensation. In plants, traces of sensation and impulses are evident. What prevents us from supposing some obscure feeling even in the processes of crystallization and chemical affinity?

Beyond this there remains something in which no feeling seems visible: the elements and forces. But over these too one must suppose something ruling, ordering, and governing.