[Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =For the longing outlook of the creation is expecting--the unveiling of the sons of God.= [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =For to vanity,= to evil, to failure and decay, =the creation was subjected not willingly, but because of Him who made it subject;= its Lord and Sustainer, who in His inscrutable but holy will bade physical evil correspond to the moral evil of His conscious fallen creatures, angels or men. So that there is a deeper connexion than we can yet analyse between sin, the primal and central evil, and everything that is really wreck or pain. But this "subjection," under His _fiat_, was [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =in hope, because the creation itself shall be liberated from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God,= the freedom brought in for _it_ by _their_ eternal liberation from the last relics of the Fall. [Sidenote: Ver. 22.] =For we know,= by observation of natural evil, in the light of the promises, =that the whole creation is uttering a common groan= of burthen and yearning, =and suffering a common birth-pang, even till now,= when the Gospel has heralded the coming glory. [Sidenote: Ver. 23.] =Nor only so, but even the actual possessors of the firstfruits of the Spirit,= possessors of that presence of the Holy One in them now, which is the sure pledge of His eternal fulness yet to come, =even we ourselves,= richly blest as we are in our wonderful Spirit-life, =yet in ourselves are groaning,= burthened still with mortal conditions pregnant of temptation, lying not around us only but deep within (ἐν ἑαυτοῖς), =expecting adoption,= full instatement into the fruition of the sonship which already is ours, even =the redemption of our body.= From the coming glories of the Universe he returns, in the consciousness of an inspired but human heart, to the present discipline and burthen of the Christian. Let us observe the noble candour of the words; this "_groan_" interposed in the midst of such a song of the Spirit and of glory. He has no ambition to pose as the possessor of an impossible experience. He is more than conqueror; but he is conscious of his foes. The Holy Ghost is in him; he does the body's practices victoriously to death by the Holy Ghost. But the body is there, as the seat and vehicle of manifold temptation. And though there is a joy in victory which can sometimes make even the presence of temptation seem "all joy" (Jas i. 2), he knows that something "far better" is yet to come. His longing is not merely for a personal victory, but for an eternally unhindered service. That will not fully be his till his whole being is actually, as well as in covenant, redeemed. That will not be till not the spirit only but the body is delivered from the last dark traces of the Fall, in the resurrection hour.