Groaning In Labored Birth

There is a reason the new life in Christ is made like being pregnant. You are having Christ formed in you IF you are cooperating with the Spirit in your life.

Being in the room when my daughters were born was an unforgettable experience.

Of course, I was a spectator. It was my wife who was doing all the work!

And it wasn’t always a “fun” experience. In fact, I was “invited” to experience some of that pain while holding the hand of my bride during labor. The woman has a very strong grip!

Pregnancy is such a powerful icon of the Christian life!

We men, of course, aren’t able to experience this particular human ability. That is reserved for women alone.

But we can all learn the lessons of giving birth and having life formed within us. In fact, we MUST learn these lessons.

The Holy Spirit is given to us to form Christ in us, and then we display all the evidence of having Christ formed in us as we make Him visible in our homes, workplaces, and our society through our choices, priorities, and actions.

Look at our lesson today in Romans 8:22-27:

BRETHREN we know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The whole context of this passage from St. Paul to the Roman Christians is about the reality of the follower of Jesus becoming this “new creature;” this adopted child of God who is transformed into being “like Christ” and who walks “in the Spirit” instead of following the temporary ways of “the flesh.”

Paul wants us Christians to appreciate why doing the hard work of following Christ and being made “like Christ” is worth all this swimming against the tide of a world that is going the wrong way.

And he does this by comparing our spiritual labors to, well, labor!

Paul says we are “in labor” and, in fact, all of creation is “in labor.” But the question is what are we “pregnant” with in the first place, and Who is the Father?

All the Faith is about seeing the character of Christ developed in your life; to create the “family resemblance” so that, at the awesome judgment seat of Christ, you will be clearly recognizable!

But that formation takes focused work.