Romans 8:18-27
July 19, 2026
We seem to do a lot of waiting these days. We wait for our food in the drive through line of a fast food restaurant. We wait for packages to be delivered from Amazon. We wait on the phone to speak to a live customer service representative. We wait for our television shows to resume after the commercials are completed.
We even have waiting rooms at places like the auto repair shop or the doctor’s office, but I don’t think anyone ever looks forward to being in one of those rooms. While the rooms might be very nice, filled with televisions, comfortable chairs, and work stations where you can plug in your phone or laptop computer, those rooms are often filled with anticipation. We dread having the auto repair technician tell us that more needs to be done on our cars than simply changing the oil. A leak was found that needs to be repaired or filters are dirty that need to be replaced. Your front tires are wearing down or your brake pads are making a strange noise. As a result, it’s going to cost us a lot more money and take more time than we had anticipated. Waiting at the doctor’s office or at a hospital is never enjoyable, as well, especially when the doctor is running late. All kinds of things start going through your mind. Will I need more tests? Does the doctor have bad news concerning my test results? Has my cancer come back? How much longer will it be before I can see my loved one? But you are relieved when you finally get the news from the doctor that everything is fine or the surgery went as planned and you will be able to see your loved one shortly.
It would be nice if you could know in advance that your car was not going to need any additional work or that the outcome of a medical procedure was going to be fine. It still might not make the waiting any easier, but maybe it would be a little more bearable knowing that the waiting would be worth it.
Sometimes it might feel like we are living our lives as though we are constantly in a waiting room, but as Christians we have some great news as the Bible tells us that someday our waiting will be over as our lives in this sinful world will come to an end. Do you ever wonder what it will be like on that day? Paul tells us in our second lesson for today that it will be glorious, saying in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Now there are certainly many wonderful things in this life as God blesses us with family, friends, and all kinds of good things to see, do, and experience. But most of us probably would not describe everything we go through in life as glorious. In fact, Paul’s words in verse 18 describing the Christian life as “the sufferings of this present time” may appear to be very appropriate for some of us today. But the suffering that Paul is referring to is not necessarily the suffering that comes from an illness or a broken down car. The suffering he refers to is the type that comes from living our lives as Christians, while battling against sin and Satan’s temptations. And that’s hard. Just think about all of the temptations and selfish impulses we face on a daily basis and how hard it is to do the things that God wants us to do. It’s a struggle to trust the Lord’s promises that He is going to use all things for our good when things at home or at work may appear to be crashing down on us many times.
There is plenty of suffering and struggling that we go through as Christians, and sometimes the “glory” that God promises seems to be very far away. As a result, we might even begin to wonder if the wait, the struggles, and the sufferings are worth it. Maybe we even question at times if the “glory” God tells us about in His Word is really waiting for us at the end of our lives in this world. So in those moments, it is important for us to remember these words of Paul in verse 18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Note that Paul doesn’t say that this glory “might” or “maybe” or “possibly could be” revealed to us. He says this glory “is to be reveled to us,” meaning there is nothing uncertain about it, it will happen. In fact, the glory of heaven was certain even before we began waiting for it. Before the creation of the world, God saw you sitting in the glory of heaven with Him. But He also knew in order for that to take place, we would need to change, we would need to be made ready for heaven, because in order for us to live with a perfect God in His heavenly home, then we would need to be perfect. But we are not perfect and no matter how hard we try we cannot change our sinful natures to make ourselves perfect.
So God decided that He would be the one to change us. He sent His Son, Jesus, to this world as one of us and He lived the perfect life we were to live; and then He was crucified on a cross and died the death we were to die for our sin. In Jesus, God changed and restored us to look perfect. And that change takes place in each one of us in our baptism as God fills us with His Holy Spirit, who enables us to believe in Jesus as our Savior. That change also takes place as people hear the Word of God being preached, taught, and read to them, and the Holy Spirit then calls people to faith in Jesus through that Word. As a result of that gift of faith, we are then covered with Jesus’ perfection, so that when God looks at us He sees a perfect person who is ready for heaven.
Therefore, the same thing that happened to Jesus will happen to us. I don’t mean we are all going to be crucified on a cross, but just as Jesus’ death was immediately followed by His resurrection from the dead and eternal life in heaven, the same thing will happen to us at our death. We will immediately be made alive again, no waiting, and we will live in God’s heavenly kingdom forever – free from all sufferings and struggles. No more disappointments or doctor’s visits. No more cancer treatments or disease. No more sinful nature to daily struggle against, temptations to fight, or guilt to carry. All of that will be gone as we will enjoy the glory that God has prepared for us in His heavenly kingdom. A glory that He sees you experiencing someday as He looks into the future.
It’s kind of like getting a letter from the doctor with good results from your surgery before you even knew that you were going to be having surgery. That would certainly make the waiting room experience a little different. You would still have to sit in the waiting room, but you could do so with the confidence of knowing how it was going to turn out.
It’s tempting while sitting in the waiting room of this world to lose sight of what we’re waiting for and to focus only on the suffering and the struggles of this life. So to help us with this waiting and the circumstances of life, God gives us something that He doesn’t give to the rest of creation. He gives us His Holy Spirit, to live within us and to help us in our weakness. The Holy Spirit is always with us to encourage us in the midst of the challenges and difficulties that we will endure. And one of the specific ways that the Holy Spirit helps us is with prayer.
Sometimes the sin and destruction that we experience in this world can leave us speechless and unsure of what to pray about or to say. Sometimes we may not even know what we should ask for or even what we truly need. So Paul tells us at the end of our text that the Holy Spirit knows what to say and ask even when we can’t come up with the words or a thought. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and helps us to pray to the God who loves, forgives, and cares for us; who makes each one of us holy and perfect in His sight, and who will make all things new.
Let us thank God today for our fellow Christians for whom the wait is over, who are right now experiencing the glory of heaven that we look forward to sharing with them for eternity. And let us also thank God that He has already sent us the “results” that indicate the wonderful outcome of all this waiting, which truly strengthens us in our sufferings. It is the glory of heaven that God guarantees is waiting for us that allows all of us to say with Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Yes, despite the challenges and heartaches we all experience, the wait
