Fault Lines are opening increasingly around the globe. Subductions are taking place on the ocean floor. Frictions grind at the shifting of tectonic plates. Tsunamis arise from undersea upheavals. Earthquakes abound. All of these are increasing in scale and frequency.
Romans chapter 8 has a lot to say about fault lines—three kinds, specifically. The first is the “groaning” — deep sighs — in divisions within nature itself, which the Apostle Paul likens to birth pangs that happen before childbirth.
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:19) Damaged by the sin of Adam and the subsequent sins of fallen humanity, the natural order of things continues in a process of disruption.
Wild winds lash our ocean shores, volcanoes erupt and throw molten lava into the skies and steaming mud down mountainsides, spreading across rice fields and into villages, ruining whatever they are unable to suffocate. Huge, long cracks threaten to split continents; swirling cyclones suck roofs into the sky, and tornadoes tear houses and, at times, towns apart. All leaving damaged people wondering why such things are now becoming almost everyday occurrences.
The reconciling of the old order of things by its induction into a new, spiritual order through the Resurrection will resolve all of the natural disruptions that are now taking place. Winds and waves obeyed the words of Jesus during his ministry, and every form of planetary unrest will cease with the now imminent Resurrection.
The second frictional fault line is caused by the deep longing within us as we await the spiritual change in our bodies from mortality to immortality. Until then, our physical bodies are being transformed to match perfectly the new creation that we are within. (2 Corinthians 5:17) A frictional fault line can open up between who we are as God sees us in opposition to how we see ourselves.
This fault line becomes less frictional as the Spirit of God works the nature of Christ in us through the daily process of sanctification, a long word which simply means “set apart “. Jesus justified us through his shed blood on the Cross and our belief in his “finished work”. Between the hour we first believed and that of the coming resurrection, we are being changed into our Lord’s image “from glory to glory”. An immortal body will bring to an end this great but at times torturous process!
The third fault line is the friction that takes place between knowing that we should pray but not always knowing what we ought to pray for (Romans 8:26). “Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses: for we know not what we pray for as we ought: for the spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26 & 27)
Not in known or unknown words, which by definition are “uttered” as in Acts 2:4, but with unutterable “groanings”. The nearest most people would come to such inner are likely the inner “groanings” within a football follower, as the imminent loss of his or her team as time is fast running out at an end-of-season Premier Match.
A prayerful read and reread of Romans chapter 8 will decrease any Frictional Fault Lines that are taking place in your life. I hope that this post will be helpful.