Romans 8:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But lest the heretics have occasion to think that the Apostle condemns all present things, he next says: We groan not because we condemn the present, but because we desire something greater.

He expressed this very thing in the words: “waiting for adoption.”

What are you saying, Paul? Why do you continually turn back and forth?

At one time you cry out that we have already become sons. At another you again number this blessing among the objects of hope and write that we must still receive it.

Correcting this by what follows, the Apostle adds: “the redemption of our body,” that is, perfect glory.

Now our lot remains hidden until our last breath, because many who were sons afterward became dogs and captives.

But when we depart from here with good hope, then the gift will become inalienable, more manifest, and greater.

Then there will be no fear that sin and death can alter it.

Only then will grace be secure, when our body also is freed from death and countless sufferings.

The word “redemption” means not a simple ransom, but one after which it is no longer possible to return to the former captivity.

And lest you be perplexed by hearing continually of glory and having no clear notion of it, the Apostle explains the future blessings in detail.

He points to the transformation of your body and, in accordance with it, the transformation of all creation.

He expressed this more clearly elsewhere, saying: “Who will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil 3:21).

And in another epistle he writes: “When this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54).

And to prove that, together with the dissolution of the body, there will follow a change in the condition of all things that share in life, he wrote elsewhere: “For the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31).

For it is true that the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent oppresses the mind burdened with many cares (Wis 9:15).

And although the Spirit once appeared in us and recreates in us the desire for virtue, love of the flesh seems to come forward against Him.

The law that has struck our members rises up fiercely, urging us toward absurd passions.

Therefore we groan, reckoning the redemption of our body as adoption. For we do not thirst to lay aside the body, nor do we say that redemption consists in this.

Rather, we await that the body will become spiritual, that is, one that has forever cast away fleshly and earthly thoughts and the sting of sin.

Such, we affirm, is the spiritual body (cf. 1 Cor 15:44).

If the grace of adoption includes the redemption of our body, then let certain people stop slandering the resurrection.

Let them not reach such madness as to say that the flesh becomes rejected and disappears altogether after falling into the earth.

Nor should they say that something else rises, something spiritual and airy. For this is how they understand “spiritual.”

By the word “firstfruits” he indicated that in the age to come we shall receive a far greater grace of the Spirit.

For if what is given now is called firstfruits and a pledge, it is clear that what is to come is far greater than this.

So also the Holy Spirit, from Baptism onward, has made those who believe in Him capable of receiving all His activities and gifts.

Yet His gifts do not act in everyone in the same measure. They are given to each according to the measure of his keeping of the commandments, so far as he bears witness by good works and shows the measure of faith in Christ.

Therefore he says, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6). And again: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).

That no one destroys Adam’s sin by himself, but only Christ does so according to the measure of faith in Him, hear the Apostle’s words: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3).

And again: “God shows His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

And again: “We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should begin to walk in newness of life,” and so forth.

And again: “He who has died has been freed from sin” (Rom 6:4, 7).

And again: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and not by works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

And again: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8).

And again: “We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the freedom by which Christ has made us free” (Gal 4:31; 5:1).

And again: “As free, yet not using freedom as a cloak for wickedness” (1 Pet 2:16).

Do you see how Scripture calls the struggles by which, as you say, sin is destroyed the works of renewal, freedom, and light?

It also shows the perverted directions of self-determination which you call Adam’s sin. For this is to have freedom as a cloak of the heart, or more precisely of wickedness.

It is to grieve the Holy Spirit, “to do the will of the flesh and of the thoughts” (Eph 2:3), and, “having begun in the Spirit, now to end in the flesh” (Gal 3:3).

And again: “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh” (Rom 8:12).

Knowing this and things like it, and knowing also that doing or not doing depends on our self-determination, divine Scripture reproaches neither Satan nor Adam’s sin, but us.

If you wish to listen reasonably, I shall tell you the chief point of all.

You call the various assaults of thoughts, which change from one form into another, Adam’s sin. But behold, blessed Paul openly and clearly reproves us as guilty in this evil-mindedness.

He says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2).

If this does not depend on our will, but on satanic tyranny, and is a remnant of Adam’s sin, why are we reproved for sin when we fall under its action unwillingly and are tormented by Satan?

Shall we then also be tormented without guilt? Or perhaps, according to you, God Himself is unjust, since He commanded us what is above nature and demands from us what is beyond our strength?

But this is not true.

This means redemption from its passions, its liability to suffering, and its corruption. For here adoption often suffers failure.

But the adoption that exists in regeneration and the resurrection from the dead is perfect and truly firm.

Then, showing more clearly the beginning and kind of renewal and adoption, he says: “We ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption” (Rom 8:23).

He calls the firstfruits of the Spirit the sanctification and grace of the Spirit, which we receive in baptism.

We are freed from sins, renewed, and justified freely by Christ’s grace. All this is the firstfruits of those future blessings.

Having said, “waiting for adoption,” he shows that by adoption he does not mean baptism, but that future, perfect adoption that cannot fall away.

He adds: “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23), indicating redemption from passions and corruption.

For that adoption falls many times. But the adoption that comes through new life and resurrection is truly perfect and firm.

Taking its start from our groaning for the hoped-for deliverance, the Apostle begins to speak about hope. He explains its qualities and the firm grounds of its unshakenness.

These grounds are: first, the firstfruits of the Spirit (see Rom 8:23-27). Second, the eternal decree concerning those being saved (see Rom 8:28-30).

Third, the price of the incarnate divine economy (see Rom 8:31-34). All these grounds rest upon unfailing love (see Rom 8:35-39).

The first ground of Christian hope is the firstfruits of the Spirit. The Apostle fixes attention on them in the present text, as that from which hope of complete deliverance is born and by which it is upheld.

The firstfruits of the Spirit are the forgiveness of sins, power to resist sin, peace of conscience, filial boldness toward God, and in many, special gifts of the Holy Spirit.

All this is a good guarantee that the work of deliverance has already begun. It has begun, is being accomplished, and gives a foretaste of what will be at the end.

Yet this foretaste gives birth to groaning, so that what is awaited may more quickly become reality. For what exactly do we groan in expectation? “Waiting for adoption.”

But we have already received the spirit of adoption. What, then, remains to await? The brightness of a state corresponding to sonship.

Not everything in us is yet in order. From without there are great assaults, and the body is corruptible.

Therefore we groan that all this may pass away, that all constraints and dangers may pass, and that the body may rise. Then we shall appear as sons in the full brightness of sonship.

Saint Chrysostom says: “We too groan, as those who have already tasted the future blessings beforehand.

“What has already been given us is enough to awaken even a man of stone, to draw him away from the present, and to give him wings toward the future.

“This is so both because of the greatness of what has been given, and because these exalted and numerous gifts are only the firstfruits.

“If the firstfruits are such that through them we are freed from sins and acquire righteousness and sanctification, and if the Apostles cast out demons by their shadow and raised the dead by their garments, then imagine what all the future blessings will be.

“And if creation groans, though it is deprived of reason and the gift of speech, and has no knowledge of all these things, then much more ought we to groan.

“But so that the heretics might have no occasion to think that the Apostle condemns the present, he goes on to say: we groan not in condemnation of all that is present, but out of desire for something greater.

“He expressed this very thing in the words: ‘waiting for adoption.’ What are you saying, Paul?

“Why do you turn back and forth? At one moment you cry out that we have already become sons. Then you again count this blessing among the objects of hope and write that we must still receive it.

“The Apostle corrects this by adding the words, ‘the redemption of our body,’ that is, perfect glory.

“Now our lot is still hidden in mystery until our last breath. But when we depart from here with a good hope, then the gift will become inalienable, most evident, and greater.

“Then there will be no fear that sin and death may take anything from it. Only then will grace become unchangeable, when the body itself is freed from death and countless sufferings.

“The word ‘redemption’ means not a simple ransom, but one after which we shall no longer return to our former captivity.

“And so that you may not fall into perplexity when you continually hear of glory and have no clear conception of it, the Apostle reveals the future blessings in detail.

“He changes your body, and in accordance with it, all creation. He expressed this more clearly elsewhere, saying, ‘He will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body’ (Phil 3:21).

“And in another epistle, he says: ‘When this mortal has put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory’ (cf. 1 Cor 15:54).

“To prove that with the destruction of the body all earthly life also undergoes a change in its state, the Apostle wrote elsewhere: ‘For the form of this world is passing away’ (1 Cor 7:31).”

Ambrosiaster pays special attention to why we groan: “After creation, the Apostle adds that we also groan, that we may be delivered from here, since we have been appointed for the blessed life.

“For this world is a sea for Christians. As the sea, stirred by contrary winds, attacks those who sail and exposes them to danger, so this age troubles the minds of believers by the cunning of hostile movements.

“The enemy does this with such variety that one does not know from what to be delivered first.

“If authority ceases to oppose us, he stirs up private persons. If these too are quiet, he kindles a fire through household members.

“If this also gives him no handhold, he sows discord among relatives by his malice, so that the house, struck from four corners, may crack in some part.

“For this reason Christians must desire with all their soul to escape from here more quickly.

“Let Simeon be their example in this. Knowing with what cunning the opposing warfare is waged here, he prayed to be dismissed in peace (see Lk 2:29).

“We all pray for this same thing when we say, ‘Thy kingdom come’ (cf. Mt 6:10).

“The Apostle, as a divine man, has good thoughts concerning us when he says that we groan for deliverance from here, as Simeon groaned. But I see that we are greatly held by the delights of the world.”

Photius, in Oecumenius, reasons: “‘Waiting for adoption.’ What adoption? Have we not already received it through holy Baptism?

“And did you not yourself say a little earlier that we have received the spirit of adoption? Yes, he says. What adoption, then, must we still await?

“He says: that which is manifest to all, accompanied by the redemption of the body from corruption.

“What then? Will this be something other than what has been said? By no means. It is the same thing, only manifested in perfection, visible and known to all.

“For then, after the resurrection of the body and the reception of incorruption, there will be full enjoyment of the promised blessings, the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, and entrance into all the privileges of sonship.

“And now, in the hope of receiving all this, we have received adoption.”