21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
21 because
The reason for the eager anticipation of creation is that it will also be delivered one day from the bondage of corruption.
the creation itself [emphatic] also will be delivered [set free by God]
The curse was not permanent. When God completes His program for the salvation of His people, He will deliver inanimate creation itself to its pristine state.
from the bondage of corruption [decay, degradation]
Present creation is in a state of entropy. All about us we see evidences of death and degradation. Men die, plants die, animals die. Death and decay are at work in this present world. Everything in the universe is becoming more disorganized and less purposeful (except where humans intervene). The original curse caused creation to enter into a state of corruption. One day in the future God will set creation free from corruption and decay. Even the bodies of Christians will no longer be worm food in that day. Creation will not share in the liberty of grace but it will share in the liberty of glory, the future renovation of creation.
into the glorious liberty [freedom] of the children of God.
There will come a time when all Christians will be liberated from sin, the sin capacity, and all physical limitations due to sin. Creation itself will share in the freedom of glorified children of God. God will renovate creation itself when Jesus comes at His Second Coming. This will have two stages. First, God will renovate the present cosmos at the Second Coming. Secondly, God will create a “new heaven and new earth” after the millennium (Re 21:1).
PRINCIPLE:
One day the Lord will purge the entire universe of the curse by a great conflagration.
APPLICATION:
One day God will renovate the present heavens and earth by a great conflagration. Although it will still be the same heavens and earth we presently experience, it will be a renewed heaven and earth.
2 Pe 3:13, Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Believers are even now “children of God,” but these children have a future because Jesus bought and paid for them through redemption. Their bodies are presently marked with the scars of time, but those same bodies will be transformed. This corruptible will put on incorruption. That will be glory for believers. There will be no more death, no more pain, no more suffering.
