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how might scientific data on climate change be interpreted as creation's 'groaning'?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Romans 8:19-22

For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome around the mid-1st century CE, is discussing the future hope and destiny of believers. In this section, he broadens his scope to include all of creation, describing its present suffering and its future expectation alongside humanity.

What does it mean for us to participate in the hopeful 'liberty of the glory' that creation also awaits?

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Read alongside it

  • Genesis 3:17-19

    Describes the ground being cursed because of human sin, tying human actions to creation's suffering.

  • Colossians 1:15-20

    Presents Christ as the one through whom all creation was made and will be reconciled.

  • Revelation 21:1-5

    Pictures a renewed creation where there is no more suffering, aligning with the hope of liberation.

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