On face, and form, and air ; God's living glory round thee blazed —
A Saint — a Saint was there ! ^
3. But it is at the advent of Christ that, in the Apostle's thought, the sons of God will be manifested. Then shall come to pass the full realization of their adoption, in their attainment to the full privileges of their sonship. Then, when Christ their life is manifested, shall they also with Him be manifested in glory. But this manifestation in glory is here contemplated in relation to a particular feature of it — freedom, the liberty of the glory of the children of God. The advent of Christ will be a glorious emancipation to the children of God. But from what ?
(1) From that bondage to corruption, that subjection to vanity, under which they, in common with all creation, groan. Man is a dying creature. All ilesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Instability and decay cleave to him and to all that appertains to him. Vanity is written upon his person and his possessions, upon his plans and his projects, upon his pomp and his power. We all know this and feel it. From this, then, the children of God are to be set free. But not from this only. It is not simply in reference to mortality that they shall be manifested in glory.
(2) The liberty of the glory of the sons of God will not be merely freedom from dissolution and decay. It is not the liability to this under which they chiefly groan, but the in- firmities of their nature, the moral corruption that attaches to them, the impotence for good, the tendency to evil, to which, by reason of the body, they are subject. The children of God are, indeed, regenerate, but the infection of the old nature still remains. They have crucified the flesh with its afiections and lusts, but it is not dead ; it still writhes and struggles. Though not dominant, sin still indwells. The reptile has received its death-blow, but it has still power to turn and sting. And thus from the lips of the saints proceed such plaintive confessions as these, " My soul cleaveth unto the dust " ; " In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing " ; " The good that I would I do not : but the evil which I would not, that I do. ... 0 wretched
^ J. H. Newman.
44 AN EXPECTANT CREATION
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ? "
^ At His first coming Christ became a partaker of flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy death, and bring life and immortality to light. To this, the gracious purpose of His first coming, He will give full effect when He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Then death shall be swallowed up in victory. Then, at His call, they that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, and they that are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then will He change their body of humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory, and so corruption shall put on incorruption. Then, arrayed in a spiritual body, the children of God shall no longer be subject to pain, infirmity, decay, or bondage of any kind ; they shall be as the angels of God, and, like them, able to serve God, day without night, for ever and ever.^
4. Thus in the time of St. Paul the creation stood in expecta- tion with head erect, with far-oflf look, waiting for the dawn of that day which should make her deliverance through Christ complete. St. Paul knew not what would follow — that after eighteen centuries the expectant creation would still so stand, waiting for deliverance. Still the world is full of misery ; still it waits for redemption ; it is as far off from peace as ever. Strife and struggle, pain and death, are inscribed upon the world's founda- tion stones. They are older than the fall of man. Long before man lived to be tempted and to fall we find theirl history in the stone book of creation. The creation was made subject to vanity ; that is, to constant change. But He who so made it knew the issue. He subjected the same in hope. Only in the way of hope can we yet understand the great story of the creation.
^ We have waited nearly two thousand years, and the language used by those who have lost faith is that they can wait no longer ; that the power of Christ is no more seen. " When the Hebrews," says one of these hopeless writers, " were on their way to the Promised Land they perceived that God was with them. God had spoken and said, ' It lies before you ' ; and by night a cloud of fire landled and marched in their van. Now the celestial light is extinct. We are not quite sure that we have God over our heads. We possess no other light but our understanding, and with this glimmering guidance we must direct ourselves through the night.