Life after Lockdown (Romans 8:18-25)

Throughout Romans, Paul highlights some of the tensions faced by Christians living in the world. 

For example, the tension between having new Holy Spirit given desires but still having an unredeemed body afflicted by sin, famously leading to the anguished cry:  

I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do (ch.7).

Cosmic Lockdown

In chapter 8, he highlights that such tensions extend even to the level of the Cosmos itself. So even though the new age of freedom & liberation in Christ has broken into the world through the Gospel - the Universe itself remains in bondage & decay. The consequence of which is felt in our lives every day.

One of those effects can be to generate a huge sense of frustration in us. Christians ‘taste’, through the Holy Spirit, something of Christ’s good rule in their lives. Yet the ‘full meal’ and the complete satisfaction that would bring remains elusive.  So we live, all too aware (painfully at times), that our greatest hopes are yet to be fully realised.

God’s Lockdown

The middle section of Romans 8 paints a very vivid picture of that strain. We continue to inhabit a creation, including our bodies, that is still subject to decay & death. It’s a creation where things go wrong, malfunction and fail. It’s a universe longing to be free but is held back & suppressed under the ongoing ‘lockdown’ of God Himself (v20).

It is a state of affairs, Paul is very aware that can be particularly testing and wearisome for Christians. Indeed, it can even cause them to doubt their faith. Is the Gospel really true in promising new life and blessings? Why do my greatest hopes often seem so out of reach? Am I really a child of God when life seems such a challenge and feels so messy?

Which, of course, is why Romans, supremely ch.8, is written - to encourage & reassure us as we wrestle with this tension.

Our current ‘Covid-19 Lockdown’ is a microcosm of such frustration. It’s a living reminder of how tiring it is to live in state of limbo and restriction. Even after just a few weeks and despite the relative comforts many of us enjoy – many are getting bored by the smallness of life, its limitations and restricted routines. Many feel fatigued and worn-down by the confinement and lack of stimulation. Others are understandably anxious about the constant threat lurking out there to their security and health.

Getting back to normal

Not surprisingly then, most of us are longing to get back to normal. For the day when we’ll be able to go further than the local park and visit somewhere more interesting than Aldi - whether that be the thought of climbing some remote hills, or walking along a beach, going out for meal or flying abroad and exploring a foreign market.

We want to be able ‘to do life’ without the worry of harming others or being harmed. Of getting back to work without the inconveniences and worry of financial loss or economic calamity.

And oh! – to have the physical human company again of separated friends and family. To sit around in the same room, to share a meal, and greet each other with a hug.

The lifting of our Covid-19 lockdown will be a great day but, as Romans 8 reminds us, the greater Cosmic Lockdown will still be in place. Our lives will still be restricted by our frail bodies and we’ll continue to contend with a cursed and dysfunctional world. Our work and best efforts will still be subject to uncertainty and decay. And those we love will continue to be separated from us (death is not reliant on Covid-19).

Life after Cosmic Lockdown

So, as we long for the lifting of our Covid lockdown it’s a reminder to keep longing for Christ and His Return. Because only then will there be the final liberation from all that binds and frustrates us. Only on that day will there be complete:

Liberation: freedom from sin, no more hurt and no more hurting;

Restoration: the reversal of decay & decline, no more loss;

Reunion: no more tears, no more separation.

But best of all, we will see Jesus and be like Him. We will experience, finally and fully, life lived in the inexhaustible joy & blessing of God. The ‘full meal’ - satisfied forever!

This is our true hope, so wait patiently for it (v25) - the great and ultimate lifting of all Lockdown.