How would you like to be living in the garden of Eden? There would be no droughts, no heat waves, not even a rainy day—just a mist which would go up every morning and see to it that everything was perfectly watered. No thorns and thistles. No hot factory or frustrating boss. No business setbacks. No need even for a sometimes frustrated, sometimes frustrating pastor. No hand-wringing about how to get the unchurched to visit our worship services. Everything would be perfect. But it isn’t. We don’t live in the garden of Eden. We live in a world corrupted by sin. And that sin causes a lot of frustrations and a lot of discouragements. The apostle Paul was well aware of that when he wrote to his fellow Christians in Rome. He knew that they—and all Christians of all time—would be beset by discouragements. It’s for that reason that the Apostle, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, offers in our text A Word for Discouraged Christians

When Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, he wanted to prepare them for his long awaited visit to Rome. He wanted to pass through Rome and visit the congregation there on his way to Spain, where he had long hoped to make a missionary journey. He was hoping that the congregation there, as had so many others, would receive him joyfully, afford him the chance to teach and preach in their midst, and then send him off on his way, inspired by new friends in the faith and, no doubt, helped along financially by their generous desire to spread the faith. In order to make himself known among these Christians in a more thorough way, he wrote his epistle to them—an epistle which for the reasons mentioned was to be a thorough treatment of the doctrines of Christianity. Paul was convinced of the power of the Gospel, and wanted these Christians to know that he believed and taught the same teachings which they had learned. Naturally he hoped as well to build up their knowledge of the Gospel and to strengthen their faith

Even though he didn’t know most of the members of the Roman congregation personally, Paul did know very well the problems that face all Christians, living here in this world. Even though the intense persecutions which we read about in history books had not yet begun, he knew they were a distinct possibility for his readers. He knew the struggles Christians have with temptation. He knew the frustrations and difficulties we Christians face in a dying, decaying world.

Through those difficulties, Satan tries to tempt us to doubt God's good intentions. After all, isn’t God supposed to be for us, and no one able to be against us? Yet we continue to get sick, continue to grow old. It gets harder to walk for each passing year. We get aches and pains more often, and they take longer to go away.

To discouraged Christians, wondering why they continue to suffer, Paul explains the cause of our discouragements. He says "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it." You know what God had in mind when he created the world. God made this beautiful planet so that he might place people into it who would commune with him, communicate with him and worship him. God wanted to have a perfect, mutually loving relationship with people.

But we people had our own ideas. We weren’t content to live in perfect love for God. We wanted to be like God. When Satan made his tempting suggestion to Eve she and Adam, despite God’s loving warning, disobeyed God. People changed. They no longer trusted God. They were afraid of God. But God didn’t change. He still wanted to love people. In order to do that, God wanted to make sure we know how devastating sin is. Sin completely cuts us off us from God. God wants us to know that, so he saw to it that the world we live in would be a constant reminder that something is horribly wrong.

God had created the world to serve man. Before sin it served to show man how generous and loving God is. After the fall, our world still demonstrates God’s wonderful care for us. But it shows us something else too. It shows us how rotten sin is. It shows us how sin destroys. And in this, God still is doing us a great service. He told Adam in the garden, "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." He told Eve that childbirth would forever be a painful experience. And in our text Paul tells us that "The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

The "frustration" Paul speaks of is the inability of things to function just right. Things work in this world, but not perfectly. California is beautiful, with wonderful soil for growing fruits and wine-grapes. But the land literally groans, every time the continental plates shift, destroying roads and buildings, and sending people scurrying in terror, wondering when "the big one" will come. Tornadoes wipe out whole suburbs. Volcanoes suddenly erupt and bury whole villages. Here in Southwest Michigan, weather can destroy a bountiful harvest. Two weeks ago typhoons battered Japan. And don’t forget the little things—like mosquitoes. They weren’t originally the man eating beasts they have become. The creation is frustrated in its attempt to live up to the conditions of perfection.

The "bondage to decay" Paul speaks of is the continual downward spiral of things on this earth, including us. While the whole world deludes itself into thinking the world is continually evolving into a better place to live, its pretty easy for us Christians to see that the opposite is true. Acid rain destroys forests in Canada, bulldozers destroy jungles and the habitats of countless animals in South America. If you were to eat fish as often as Jesus and his disciples, you'd get mercury poisoning. And every living creature—plants, animals, and people—dies and rots, in "bondage to decay."

But Paul refers to all this as "labor pains." In doing so he’s using the same picture that Jesus used to explain that this pain and frustration and corruption is not and end in itself, but rather a means to an end. Jesus explained in John 16:21 "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."

In the very first verse of our text Paul said that "Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Those present sufferings and discouragements that we put up with here on earth have a cure. It was in order to underline The Cure for Our Discouragements, that Paul wrote these verses.

Paul wrote that "The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, IN HOPE that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." In other words God subjected the world with man in his sin to frustration and discouragement, so that we wouldn’t lose sight of the hope that we have for the future glory which God has promised us.

God doesn’t want his beloved creation—particularly the crown of that creation, man—to be forever stuck in futility, disease and hopelessness. In fact the same God who subjected the world to futility, before he placed his curse upon the ground, made his first promise of the Savior. God didn’t waste any time reaffirming his love for man, after man had shown how little he could love God. God provided a cure for Adam’s discouragements, and he’s provided a cure for our discouragements as well.

In the presence of Adam and Eve, God said to Satan "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Christ’s death on the cross was in perfect fulfillment of that promise. Christ’s descent into hell proclaimed his eternal victory over Satan and his angels to all the occupants of hell. And his resurrection triumphantly shouts his victory over death and decay.

That’s what gives us the sure hope that we have. Through faith, Christ’s victory is our victory. And you can thank the Holy Spirit for that. He lives in the hearts of all who believe. Paul says "We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved." Your Spirit-wrought faith guarantees you all the promises God has made, both for this life and for the life to come. The Holy Spirit is God’s deposit, guaranteeing what we’re still hoping for, "Our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." In other words, we’ve only begun to experience the blessings of Christ’s redeeming us! The glories of eternal bliss, the glorious perfection of our bodies—no more aging, no more pain, no more decay, no more sorrow, no more mosquito bites, no more arguments and frustrations and discouragements—these are all things which we can’t see and haven’t experienced. But when we were saved through faith in Christ, we were saved in this hope.

"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." In encouraging discouraged Christians—people who have come to faith in the sweet and saving message of the Gospel, people whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ through faith, yet people who also must put up with the discouragements about them—Paul says, "Just you wait!" "You can’t even imagine what lies ahead, when your body joins your soul in the perfection and bliss of eternal life with God." "Wait patiently in hope!"

Are you ever discouraged? Are you ever frustrated? I know I am. God knows it too. And these inspired words are his answer. May we trust his promises with all our hearts and say with the Psalmist (Ps 130:5) "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope!" Amen.