Charles Spurgeon Commentary Romans 8:20-22

"For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." — Romans 8:20-22 (ASV)

For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

"The whole creation." It is the same word all through; so I have put the same word. The whole world is in its pangs and birth-throes, and there can never come its complete deliverance into the new heavens and the new earth, unless there is also the manifestation of the children of God, and their deliverance from all that now hampers and hinders the divine life that is within them.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Just as our body is, so to speak, the world, the earth in which our spirit dwells: so this big earth is the body in which the Church dwells. This body has its pains, and so this creation has its pains. But as this body is to rise again, so this creation also, though it groaneth and travaileth, is to be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

And what a world it will be when the curse that fell on it through the sin of Eden will be removed by the glorious Atonement of Calvary, and when the blood of Christ that fell to the ground—which, you will remember, has never gone away from the earth but is somewhere still—will have fully redeemed the world. The whole world will then be a trophy of the Redeemer's power.