Paul describes the present sufferings of the world. While many religious people describe the same sufferings with angst, Paul describes them with hope and optimism. He claims that the creation, that’s all of creation and not merely people who are being saved, waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. The creation longs for the people of God to experience conversion. As the children of God experience conversion, the creation is being freed from its captivity under the corruption of sinful humanity. Before we experience conversion, each one groans within himself eagerly awaiting adoption and redemption. At the moment of our conversion, we also begin to hope. We do not begin to hope for our salvation since it has already been realized in Christ. Instead, with the creation, we wait eagerly for full liberation of the creation—the consummation of Christ’s kingdom when the work of conversion is finished.

Paul presents an eschatology that is different from what we most often hear in our current society. In Paul’s eschatology, here, God is saving a people for Himself. As those people experience conversion and begin to live for Christ, the world is being renewed through them. Thus, Christ is saving the world and not destroying it, cursing it, or again handing it over to depravity. Creation longs for the body of Christ to rule over it unhindered.

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