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    STUDIA THEOLOGIA ORTHODOXA - Issue no. 1 / 2007  
         
  Article:   THE YEARNING OF CREATION AND THE REVELATION OF THE SONS OF GOD, ACCORDIND TO ROMANS 8,19-23.

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  Abstract:  The yearning of creation and the revelation of the sons of God, accordind to Romans 8,19-23. The first part of this article focused on the rationality of creation which is given in the supreme Reason that is the Logos, the Son of God. Apostle Paul states this reality in the Epistle to the Colossians: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (1, 16). In virtue of this common basis of all creation Apostle Paul views the interdependency between the destiny of human beings and that of the environing nature. Romans is the only Pauline Epistle that point out this truth: “For the eager expectation of the creation is awaiting the revelation of the sons of God…for we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers birth pangs together up to the present time. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (8, 19.22-23). In vv.19-22, Paul describes the yearning anticipation of creation for deliverance and tied that deliverance to the “glory to be revealed” to believers. Now he shows how believers share this same eager hope. The transition from creation to Christians is made via the idea of “groaning”; not only is the creation “groaning together” but “we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption and the redemption of our bodies.” What is very important to be emphasized in this paragraph is the fact that all creation is awaiting the redemption of our bodies. “Redemption” shares with “ adoption” and many others terms in Paul the “already-not yet” tension that pervades his theology, for the redemption can be pictured both as past ( Eph. 1,7; Col. 1,14; Rom. 3,24; and I Cor.1,30) and as future ( Eph.1,14; 4,30). As Paul has hinted in v.10, it is not until the body has been transformed that redemption can be said to be complete; in this life, our bodies share in that “frustration” which characterizes this world as a whole. That means that our redemption is the redemption of all creation as well. We have to recognise here the universal, cosmological aspect of our salvation as an explicit Pauline feature of his Soteriology.  
         
     
         
         
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