Experience of Grace #7 - Eager Expectation
Description
In Romans 8:18–27, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund explores how the groaning of creation, the Christian, and the Holy Spirit all point toward a hope that outweighs present suffering. Whatever pain or hardship you're carrying, this message offers a powerful reminder: it's not the end of the story.
Summary & Application
It's Not the End of the Story
When was the last time you groaned? Not a polite sigh, but a deep, gut-level response to something broken, painful, or simply not right. A diagnosis that changes everything. A relationship that has fractured. A hope that didn't come to pass. Most of us know this feeling — and many of us carry it quietly, wondering whether our groaning is a sign of weak faith.
In Romans 8:18–27, the Apostle Paul offers a surprising answer: groaning is not a failure of faith. It is, in fact, one of the ways we learn to hope.
In a recent message from our series Experience of Grace, Kurt walked through this passage and showed that the word "groaning" appears three times in these verses — describing the groaning of creation, the groaning of the Christian, and the groaning of the Holy Spirit. Together, these three groanings point us toward the same truth: this is not the end of the story.
1. The Groaning of Creation (Romans 8:18–22)
Paul opens this section with a sweeping claim: all of creation has been subjected to futility and is currently groaning under the weight of it. This is not poetic exaggeration — it is theological diagnosis. The decay, erosion, and brokenness we observe in the world around us are not design features. They are symptoms of a creation waiting to be set free.
The analogy Paul uses is striking: creation groans like a woman in labor. The pain is real. No one would minimize it. But it is not purposeless pain — it is pain moving toward something. "The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).
Kurt offered this perspective from author Mark Buchanan: heavenly-mindedness is not escapism from reality but the sanity that allows us to "enjoy earth's pleasures without debauchery and to endure life's agonies without despair."
Every storm, every act of decay, every moment when the world feels like it's falling apart is a reminder that things are not as they should be — and not as they will be.
2. The Groaning of the Christian (Romans 8:23–25)
If creation groans, so do those who follow Jesus. Paul is direct about this: "We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23).
This is where many people get stuck. There is a persistent assumption that faith in Jesus should produce a life free from disappointment, pain, or longing. But Paul names the inward groan of the believer not as a spiritual deficit, but as the natural posture of someone who lives between the "already" and the "not yet" — who has tasted grace but has not yet received its fullness.
Viktor Frankl, writing from his own experience of imprisonment at Auschwitz, observed that the people who fared worst were those who had fixed their hope to a specific milestone. When it passed without relief, they were devastated. Those who endured held a deeper conviction: that their suffering was not pointless, and that good would ultimately prevail — even if they couldn't yet see it.
This is precisely the shape of Christian hope. "For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently" (Romans 8:24–25). Groaning and hoping are not opposites. They are companions on the same road.
3. The Groaning of the Spirit (Romans 8:26–27)
Perhaps the most tender dimension of this passage is what Paul says about the Spirit of God: "The Spirit himself intercedes for us with wordless groans" (Romans 8:26). When our pain runs too deep for language, when we don't even know how to begin to pray, the Spirit takes our groan to the Father — not in spite of our weakness, but through it.
This passage immediately precedes one of the most well-known verses in the New Testament: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Kurt pointed out that this promise carries weight precisely because it is grounded in the Spirit's active, groaning intercession. We see a small piece of a very large story. God is making moves on a three-dimensional chessboard we cannot fully see — but his Spirit is weaving something better than we can yet anticipate.
Ben Sasse, facing a recent diagnosis of aggressive cancer, expressed this tension plainly: "Death is terrible. We should never sugarcoat it. It's not how things are meant to be. But death can be called the final enemy — it is an enemy, but it's actually not the final word."
The Grace in the Groan
The experience of grace does not eliminate groaning. It reframes it. Whether your groan today is small — a frustration, a setback — or significant — a diagnosis, a loss, a broken dream — this passage speaks directly to it.
Kurt closed with a series of honest examples: a pregnancy test that came back negative. A diagnosis worse than expected. An addiction that returned. A relationship in pieces. To each one, Paul's answer is the same: this is not the end of the story. Creation is groaning toward its release. The Spirit is interceding with your words when you have none. And God, who did not spare his own Son, is working all things — not some things — together for good.
For Reflection
Where in your life are you currently experiencing groaning — and how might this passage invite you to see that groan differently, not as a sign of failed faith but as part of an honest, expectant hope?
When you don't know how to pray about a particular situation, how does it change things to know that the Spirit is interceding on your behalf with the full knowledge of both your heart and God's will?
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Mark Buchanan
"This form of escape keeps us human. If heavenly mindedness is a form of escapism, it's the second kind—a remembrance and expectancy, a groaning for home, a longing that sustains us no matter how dark it gets. Heavenly mindedness is sanity. It allows us to enjoy earth's pleasures without debauchery and to endure life's agonies without despair. It allows us to see things from the widest possible perspective and in the truest possible proportions."
C.S. Lewis
"If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the next world that they have become so ineffective in this world."
⚠️ Flag: Commonly attributed to Mere Christianity*, but source should be verified before publication.*
Viktor Frankl (paraphrased)
People in the concentration camps who fixed their hope to a specific date or milestone (e.g., "I hope we'll be out by Christmas") were most devastated when those milestones passed. Those who fared best held a conviction that their suffering was not pointless and that good would ultimately prevail.
Ben Sasse
"Death is terrible. We should never sugarcoat it. It's not how things are meant to be. But death can be called the final enemy—it is an enemy, but it's actually not the final word. Because once we have died, there will be no more tears."
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Opening Prayer
God, as we are gathered today, we ask that you would speak to each of us—that my words would reflect your Word in content, in tone, and in emphasis. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Introduction
When was the last time that you groaned? What I mean is: you just had one of those gut-level reactions to something frustrating—where you said, “Ugh,” to something.
Here is the last time that I groaned. It was earlier this week. I wanted to cut down a small tree that had started to grow in a way that wasn’t pleasing to me. I went to get my chainsaw out, which I had salvaged from my father-in-law’s garage a few years ago, and I couldn’t get it to start. I had this moment of guttural dissatisfaction. That is a small frustration in life—a small groan. I did get it going, and I did cut down the tree.
Some of us have groans that are trivial. Some of us have groans that are significant. Most likely, most of us have both—where we respond to things and say, “I wish this were different. This feels broken. This doesn’t feel right.”
Today we are looking at Romans 8:18–27, part of our series through the book of Romans. We have talked about the gift of grace in Romans 1–5. In chapter 6, there is a pivot to the experience of grace. And in chapter 8, the Apostle Paul is addressing what it is like to live with grace.
Here is the statement Paul makes in verse 18: “I consider that this present suffering is not worth being compared with the glory that will be revealed.”
My guess is that many of us hear that and think, “Don’t whine about your suffering—there are good things coming.” It doesn’t feel very comforting. In fact, if your groaning feels significant, that sentiment might even feel as though it diminishes your suffering. But what I’d like to do today is show you from Romans 8:18–27 how our groaning actually helps us consider our present suffering as not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed.
In this passage, the word “groaning” is used three times—in verse 22, verse 23, and verse 26—to describe the groaning of creation, the groaning of the Christian, and the groaning of the Holy Spirit. These three groanings show us why we can say: “I consider that my present suffering is not worth being compared to the glory that will be revealed.”
1. The Groaning of Creation (Romans 8:18–22)
We are told that creation is subject to futility because of the one who subjected it. Everything in all of creation has a sense of erosion and futility—a groaning within it. And not only that, but this very groaning is a way for us to understand that one day it will be set free. The analogy used is of slavery: something bound will one day be released.
Author Mark Buchanan writes about two kinds of escapism. The first is self-medication—escaping from reality. The second is the escape of a prisoner of war who seeks to break out of a grim compound because all he wants is to go home. Buchanan writes:
“This form of escape keeps us human. If heavenly mindedness is a form of escapism, it’s the second kind—a remembrance and expectancy, a groaning for home, a longing that sustains us no matter how dark it gets. Heavenly mindedness is sanity. It allows us to enjoy earth’s pleasures without debauchery and to endure life’s agonies without despair. It allows us to see things from the widest possible perspective and in the truest possible proportions.”
What groaning does is remind us that it’s not the end of the story. When we see groaning in creation, we can say: this is not its intended final state.
C.S. Lewis writes: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the next world that they have become so ineffective in this world.”
The Apostle Paul says that creation groans—like someone in slavery awaiting redemption. He also uses the analogy of birth pains. If you have ever been in the room when someone has given birth, or given birth yourself, you know there is groaning. It is real pain, not imagined pain. But usually what follows is this: it was worth it because of what came. Not “I want to minimize it” or “I want to go through it again,” but “it led to something greater.” That is exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying.
So in the midst of your frustration, pain, and hardship, every time you experience groaning in creation, it is a reminder: this is not the end of the story. When a storm rolls through and brings damage—that’s not the end of the story. When you see decay—a tree that needed to be cut down, or something built by human hands that is crumbling—that’s a reminder: things are not as they should be, and not as they will be. When you look in the mirror and say, “I’m not as young as I used to be”—that’s a reminder. When you experience hurt and see evil—that’s a reminder: things are not as they should be, and not as they will be.
2. The Groaning of the Christian (Romans 8:23–25)
The idea of a Christian is one who has been transformed by the work of Jesus Christ—through faith in him, recognizing their own sin. Here, the reference is clearly to a person of faith, as Paul uses the plural “we” and speaks of having the first fruits of the Spirit and awaiting “the adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Verse 23 says: “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
A lot of times this is where people get stuck, because they say: “If I’ve come to faith in Jesus Christ, I shouldn’t have groaning or disappointment. Things should start to work.” This is one of the reasons some people struggle with faith altogether—they say, “I tried to believe, and things didn’t go the way I wanted. Where is God?” But ultimately, believing in Jesus—being a follower of Jesus—is what gives you ultimate hope.
Notice how Paul talks about expectation and hope in verses 24–25: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently.” The groaning leads us toward expectation and hope.
In Viktor Frankl’s works written after his imprisonment at Auschwitz, he talks at length about how people experienced the concentration camps. He observes that the people who struggled the most and were most demoralized were those whose hope was fixed to a certain event or timeline—those who said, “I hope we’ll get out by Christmas,” or “I hope by my next birthday this will be over.” When they hit those milestones and nothing had changed, they were devastated. But the people who did best were those who had a conviction that said: “This suffering is not pointless, and one day good will prevail—even if I don’t see it right now.”
So the groaning of the Christian is not simply saying, “God will give me what I hope for right away.” It is saying, “There is an expectation that God’s way will win out in the end and that God is at work.” The Psalmist groans, asking, “God, why have you let this happen?” Jesus groaned in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying, “Father, if it be your will, take this cup of suffering from me.” Sometimes we are surprised when we groan—but this passage tells us not to be surprised. Instead, it calls us to have hope, to not give up, and to use our groaning as an occasion for eager expectation of what God will do.
What that means is that in the midst of pain—even pain from choices we have made—we can say: “God is not done, and this is not the way things will ultimately be.”
Ben Sasse, a senator from Nebraska, was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and is in the process of dying. He is also a committed follower of Jesus. He wrote: “Death is terrible. We should never sugarcoat it. It’s not how things are meant to be. But death can be called the final enemy—it is an enemy, but it’s actually not the final word. Because once we have died, there will be no more tears.” His faith in the midst of that says: I am groaning. The groan is real. But there is a real hope that this is not the end of the story.
3. The Groaning of the Spirit (Romans 8:26–27)
Verse 26 says: “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with wordless groans.”
Some people have seen in this verse a reference to speaking in tongues or ecstatic utterances. I don’t think that is what is in view here. This is more the idea that the Spirit intercedes without words—taking our groaning and bringing it to God on our behalf.
Verse 27 tells us that God searches our hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s purpose according to the will of God. In other words, when our weakness comes face to face with our reality, the Spirit of God—without words—intercedes, because he knows our hearts and the will of God, and he is bringing about an end that is for our good, even when we cannot see it.
It is significant that these verses precede one of the better-known verses of the Bible: Romans 8:28. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.” Not some things. Not most things. Everything—according to his purpose. And the reason you can have faith in that is in part because the Spirit’s groaning is responding to our groans and to the groans of creation.
Here is one way to think about it: we can only see what we can see. We see something that is a cause for groaning. It is like we are seeing a game of checkers, but God has a three-dimensional chessboard and is making moves that we may not see or understand—moves we do not have to like, and can groan about—but his Spirit is weaving something even better than what we can anticipate.
When you don’t know how to pray and your groaning feels too deep for words, this passage tells us that the Spirit himself intercedes for us if we are God’s children.
I love that the word translated “I consider” in verse 18 is the same word used repeatedly in Romans 4—the word “reckon” or “account.” It was the word used to say that the righteousness of Christ was accounted to us. Here Paul says, “I reckon—I consider—that this present suffering is not worth comparing to the future glory.” In a sense, he is calling back to chapter 4: if you have been someone to whom the righteousness of Christ has been reckoned, then you do not need to reckon your current suffering as equal to future glory. If you have come to trust Jesus Christ, this is not blind faith—it is faith based on a promise that says: if I have received this kind of grace, then I can have hope, whatever that means in my circumstances.
Application
The experience of grace means that when you are groaning—whatever that groaning is—you can say: it’s not the end of the story.
If you have been hoping that a pregnancy test would be positive and it isn’t—it’s not the end of the story. If the diagnosis is not the one you hoped for—it’s not the end of the story. If an addiction has returned that you thought was behind you—it’s not the end of the story. If there is brokenness in a relationship—it’s not the end of the story. Because God is not done.
As a community of people, we want to be those who can acknowledge the groanings and hardships of life together. Sometimes in Christian communities, people act as though there is no groaning—no hardship, everything is fine. But we also want to be a community of hope, where we say that this is not the end of the story and that God is still at work. One way or another, God is weaving something into groaning.
A Conversation with Emily and Corey D’Angelo
Today I want to share a portion of a conversation I had with Emily and Corey D’Angelo. Emily has been part of our adult ministry team here at our Wexford campus for about eight years, serving as Director of Women’s Ministry since 2018. She and Corey are long-faithful followers of Jesus. Emily recently received a devastating diagnosis. The full conversation will be available on our Perspectives podcast.
Kurt: Tell us a little about your recent diagnosis.
Emily: At the beginning of May 2026, I was confirmed to have pancreatic cancer that has metastasized to the liver. It was a long wait leading up to this diagnosis. It came from a routine screening with a pancreatic oncologist, just to check on my pancreas after a year of abdominal pain. We were somewhat relieved that there was finally a reason for that suffering—but then it led to many tests and a lot of medical terminology we are still learning. Throughout that two-month waiting process, I was hoping for the best. Corey, though, was reading and researching and learning what this meant for us.
Corey: I think it’s normal—from what I’ve talked with others about and read—that I have already begun some sort of grieving process, at least contemplating the idea of navigating life without Emily. I was talking with our son Micah about that on our drive back from Colorado, and he said, “Dad, I’m not there yet. I feel like we should be celebrating, not grieving.” I was floored. I said, “You know what? You’re right.” I should be celebrating this wonderful person I have been privileged to be married to for the last 35 years and enjoying that—not looking too far down the road. My youngest son brought that up, and I appreciate it so much.
Kurt: That raises an interesting question: you want to live with hope, you want to trust that God can heal, but at the same time you want to be mentally prepared—not so fixed on hope that you are not dealing with reality, but not catastrophizing either. How do you envision living in both the reality and in hope and faith?
Emily: That is a great question, Kurt. This journey has been physically painful for me. On the days I wake up with shooting pains from the pancreas and back, I do not wake up hopeful—I wake up with dread, if I am honest. But what turns me around every time is getting into the Word, getting into the Psalms, reading and praying through them, journaling them. It might be a two-hour process, but it turns me back around. I am suffering physically, but that is not the greatest suffering there is in the world. There is spiritual and mental anguish that people suffer. Aligning myself with the Word of God brings me back to a hopeful place every time.
Kurt: Thank you both for taking the time today. You are loved, and I know there will be so many praying for you. I want to say on behalf of the church: you do not have to hold it together for anyone. We know that your faith is real, whatever ups and downs come. We will pray for you, pull for you, and love you through however God is going to work in this.
Emily & Corey: Thank you, Kurt.
Benediction
Receive this benediction from 2 Corinthians 13, knowing that no matter what your groans are today, it is not the end of the story:
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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