Gabe Fluhrer

The whole creation is groaning until now.

And this groan is a resurrection groan.

It's a groan for life to the uttermost.

Life that is encapsulated in the event of Christ's resurrection.

That is the first episode which will to be continued in our resurrection.

And as we groan and long for that, he says, what we're asking for, what we're longing for is that death might be swallowed up by that which is truly life.

And he says, he who has prepared us for this very thing is God.

Don't you love how Paul is so God-centered and so grace-centered?

And he's saying to us, by nature, we don't hope in these things.

By nature, all of us would want to say what Harari said or what Dawkins said.

But instead, he says because of what God has done, who's prepared us for this very thing, is give us a certain future, a certain hope.

And that's what the Greek word, by the way, that Paul uses elsewhere means.

It's not hope in the sense that we think of it today.

My wife calls me and says, are you going to be able to take the girls out hunting with you this weekend?

Well, I hope so, sweetie, but I don't know what the weather is going to be.

Now, what does that mean?

Likely I won't be able to, but we're going to try.

That's not what the word means in the New Testament at all.

It means a guaranteed certainty.

which is why Paul says what he says here.