How Does the Creation Groan?
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In Romans 8:22, how does the creation groan?
The answer to this question is found within the context of the passage that contains it. The burden of Romans 8 is the relationship of the Christian to the Father through Christ. This relationship is one of Father and child. Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and join-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” There are two things that we need to notice about this verse. First, as joint-heirs with Christ, we “suffer” with him. Second, as joint-heirs with Christ, we will be glorified with him. These two things provide the context for the next few statements.
In verse 18, Paul writes that our present sufferings will not compare with the glory that we will have in heaven. This reminds us of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Paul talks about two different persons who are combined into one in this passage. There is the outward man (body), and there is the inward man (spirit). Both comprise what it means to be a full person. In Romans 8:19, he describes this outward man/body as the “creature” or “creation.” In the Greek, this is a singular noun. In classical Greek the word meant “a founding” or “a settling.” In its loosest sense it means an achievement or work. We would translate the word today, “the created thing” or “the thing created,” i.e. the “creature.” The “creature” of Romans 8 corresponds to the “outward man” of 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. The creature is merely the shell of the true man, the spirit. In this context (Romans 8) you have the “creature” and the “son.” The “creature” being the outward man, and the “son” being the inward man.
Notice verse 20. The creature was subjected to vanity in hope. Paul affirms that there is hope for this creature. Verse 21 says that the creature itself will also be delivered out of the bondage of fleshly corruption into the same liberty that the children/sons of God experience. This doesn’t mean that everyone (i.e. the whole of God’s creation) will eventually be saved or even that the whole of the physical creation will be saved. It simply means that the body/creature/created thing is going to be delivered from corruption to incorruption. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:42. The body, outward man, creature, will be sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. Our physical bodies will be changed and we will then have spiritual bodies. That is what verse 21 is discussing.
Verse 22 gets a bit more complicated. Many translations use the words “all the creation.” But it could be translated “every creature.” The noun is singular and the verbs are singular. The meaning is not only does the body groan and travail, but the spirit groans and travails as well.
So to answer your question, it is not the whole creation that groans. The trees don’t groan. The rocks don’t groan. The sea doesn’t groan. It is the individual creature/body of man, that groans in this passage. This is what we noted earlier in verse 17. We suffer with him, in both body and spirit. That is the whole point that Paul is trying to make. We should not divorce the verse from its context.
Many commentators appeal to in this passage to justify the coming of a second literal earth. They suggest that the “creation groaning” refers to the physical creation and it will be renewed after the second coming of Christ. This is not correct. The Bible teaches that this creation will be burned up (2 Peter 3:7-12). So the creation as a whole is not going to be redeemed. Only the individuals who become sons of God will be redeemed, both body and spirit.
The bottom line is that the “creature” in this passage is simply referring to the body of man. Paul is contrasting the body of man with the spirit of man similar to what he does in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5.