All Creation Groans, Pt. 2
Study Guide, July 20, 2025
Pastor Clay Olsen
When people ask me, “How are you doing?”, I often answer with, “Which part? The Inner Man or the Outer Man? The Inner Man is doing pretty well, but the Outer Man has some issues.” That’s meant to be light-hearted, of course, but it’s also based upon a fact of life in this present world. In fact, it behooves every one of us (and you gotta love the word ‘behooves’, right?)…but it behooves every one of us to carry the understanding about this present life that the Apostle Paul carried with him and revealed to us. And it’s found in 2 Cor 4:16-17- “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 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.” NASU
We could spend considerable time just unpacking that ‘glory’ part and the ‘unseen’ part, but for this study, we are looking into the ‘outer man’ and ‘inner man’ parts. Therefore, to better understand what’s going on in our own lives, as well as the lives of others around us, we need to better understand what’s going on in this present world in which we live. And I keep saying ‘present world’ because this world is not the way God intended it to be, nor is it the way it is soon going to be when it’s time for God to first renovate this world, and to then resurrect it. But until God does that, what we have is a world that is decaying and suffering from the effects and damages of the destructive presence of sin in this world of humanity and in our present environment.
Remember, in our science classes we learned about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that, as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted. In other words, there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more disordered state. The second law of thermodynamics also points to the process of ‘entropy’. And ‘entropy’ is the gradual process at work in this world which continually moves things into decay and disorder.
Have you ever wondered why things naturally fall apart, why your coffee cools down, or why your socks always seem to vanish in the laundry…maybe not that one… It’s like what your office and garage can look like unless you re-order or re-organize it from time to time. Think of a melting ice cube. It starts as a neat, solid block (low entropy) and turns into a puddle of water (high entropy). Entropy is what happens if you park a new car in the woods and leave it there for many years. When you come back it has become covered with rust, dust, and decay of its parts. Entropy happened to it! Beach erosion and food spoilage would be some other examples…as so would ‘aging’. As organisms age, they experience a gradual decline in the organization and function of their cells, tissues, and organs, which can be described as an increase in entropy. Again, these everyday things are examples of entropies.
The thing is, it’s essential to know that we live in a world of ‘entropy’…where everything in creation, from the Stars to the Earth to our own bodies are all subject to decay and disorder…basically…to ‘mortality’. Thankfully, ‘mortality’ does not have the last word on it all, for God, who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End…God has the last word on behalf of His people! And He had the Apostle Paul tells us about it.
We often read this passage at a Celebration of Life service for a fellow believer who has moved from this present Earth to the Eternal Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. But it’s meant to be a guiding light for everyday living…so let’s read it! 1 Cor 15:50-57- “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
NASU
By the way…it’s an oldie, but you just can’t pass up the time a Church had a sign with that verse over its Nursery that said: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed!” Clever, for sure! Now, yes, praise God that in His new world we will enjoy an immortal body, with perfect health, and in fullness of joy each day of Eternity! That is the coming reality for every Born-Again child of God. But the present reality is that, until we live in that world, we will live in this world…and this is a world of mortality.
For any mortal human being, mortality means that no matter how healthy they may feel at any given time, the reality is that their mortal body is still in decay and wasting away. Note the New Living Translation of that passage: 2 Cor 4:16-18- “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
We should ‘camp out’ on those last two verses and spend some “Praise God” time on those truths, right? But we must face the truth that we live in a mortal world, a dying world, and in mortal bodies, dying bodies, awaiting the immortality of our body. Our soul is already immortal. In fact, every human being is an immortal soul. But not every immortal soul also has an immortal spirit. Only those who have turned to God in repentance and received Jesus in faith as their Savior have had their dead spirit raised up to eternal life in union with Jesus Christ. And those ‘in Christ’ will also be given an ‘immortal body’ like that of Jesus’ own immortal body.
But back to our present mortality. Mortality means that even when a person is partially well in his or her body, he or she is also partially ill in their body. Their body is presently undergoing decay and is, in fact, wasting away…that is – dying. When he or she is no longer partially well, but completely ill, that is when their body dies. But, again, physically speaking, until we die, the mortal body is decaying. Sorry, that is not intended to depress you…it’s intended to impress you with the wonder over any measure of wellness and health you now are experiencing at all! You see, most people’s expectations of this mortal world and of their own mortality are completely unrealistic…and so are many Christians as well.
We live in a world cursed by sin. Why are any of us forgiven? Because of the love and grace and mercy of our God and Savior. We live in a world of sickness and disease. Why do any of us ever experience any measure of health and physical well-being? Because of the continuous healing working of God in us and for us day after day. We live in a world that is in decay and is wasting away. Why do any of us have any hope and joy at all? Because our ‘inner man or inner woman’…our inner Spirit is being renewed day by day in our eternal union to the Spirit of Christ, who is the Lord of life and giver of all good things in the lives of His children. It is this greater reality of our inner man or inner woman, that is in a secured and eternal relationship with our Creator and our Redeemer, that is to be the greatest reasons for our daily rejoicing and encouragements as we fight the good fight of faith in this temporal world.
Now then, when you live in a dying and decaying world, any experience of good health is really an exception, not the norm. We each need to let that reality sink into our Worldview. I recall reading about a former President’s conversation with a Doctor when his grandchild was very sick. He said how surprised he was that a person so young could be so sick. And the Doctor responded by saying that is not what surprised him. No, he said, with all of the viruses and harmful bacteria and sickness that everyone is exposed to every day, what surprised him was that anyone was ever well at all! Friends, that is the reality of this sin-damaged and mortally infected world in which we live. Realistically, we ought to be surprised about the times that we have any measure of good health at all.
Think about it: Every day God is healing people. Many insightful Doctors always respond to patients and families, who thank them when they experience healing, with a statement that, as Doctors, they can only treat their illness…because only God can heal. God is the only One who heals people. And they are absolutely right!
And that takes us to a most wondrous revelation in Psalm 103. Many of us love Psalm 103. My Parents used to read it together every morning. It starts out: Ps 103:1-3- “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases…: NASU Note that ‘pardons all your iniquities’ and ‘heals all your diseases’ are both in the ‘present tense’, meaning that this is an ongoing activity of our God, especially in relation to us, His children. This is a fascinating revelation of God’s continuous works…meaning that the Psalmist reveals that, for the child of God, God is not only continuously cleansing us from the presence of our iniquities, He is also continuously healing us from the presence of our sicknesses and diseases! In fact, in His general grace with unsaved people, and in His special grace with His saved people, if God were not actively healing people from the constant barrage of harmful bacteria and deadly viruses that infests and infects our present world, then there would be even less semblance of any of the general health that many the world over experience and enjoy on a day to day basis.
Each of us, like the Psalmist, as we offer our daily blessings and thanks to God, and seeking to not forget, but to remember all His benefits…should also be thanking God for both cleansing us from our all our iniquities and for healing us from all our diseases. And that brings us to another aspect of God’s works in relation to healings.
Note carefully: Therefore, since God is presently and continuously healing us from illnesses that we are not even aware of, and since God is actively healing us from illness we are aware of, the real question therefore is never “Why does God not completely heal me…from whatever illness you are experiencing?” No…you see, we no longer have to wonder about the ‘Why’, because the Psalmist already revealed that God is healing us. So that releases us from worrying about the ‘why’ and now we can just turn our attention to the ‘When’. When will God completely heal me…from whatever illness it is that you have”, for as the Psalmist revealed – God is continuously healing us from ALL diseases.
And that both relieves us of the angst and the stress of the ‘Why’ and the ‘If’ and the ‘How’ about our sicknesses and our sufferings, and it replaces all of that with trusting in and resting in the ‘When’ and the ‘Then’ and the ‘Wow’ about our sicknesses and sufferings. What we are to know is that God is healing us from all our diseases, just like the Psalmist knew. Healing is not a matter of ‘If’, it’s just a matter of ‘When’.
Now then, when the healing is sudden, immediate, and can’t be explained by natural processes, we call it a ‘miracle’. Technically, yes, but practically, since all healing is from God, what we call ‘natural’ still has the fingerprints of the ‘supernatural’ all over it. When a baby enters the world, many, who do not recognize the fingerprints of God, simply see the baby as a natural addition to this natural world. But for those who know their God, they see the fingerprints and the handiwork of God all over this precious gift from God, as they look upon this ‘miracle’ of God.
Remember this: Part of the spiritual blindness of mankind is that unconverted people do not see the supernatural fingerprints of God all over every part of this so-called natural world…from the planets and the stars to the living and breathing beings of life on earth. You say, ‘breathing’? Breathing is about as normal and as natural a physical process as there is, so people think. But that is not all that it is. For the Prophet Daniel revealed to a Babylonian King that God held his very breath in His hand. And the Apostle Paul declared and clarified this a group of Athenian philosophers: Acts 17:24-25- “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” NASU
How about that? Even the very breath that unbelievers use to deny God is being given to them by God. How ironic, how foolish, and how sad. But, again, the more that we learn to see the supernatural hand of God at work in this so-called natural world, from the daily giving us the very breath we breath to the daily supplying us with the very strengths we have to the daily healing us from the various sicknesses that bombard us, the more we will be able to see the miraculous works of God at work each day! And then, like the Psalmist, we too can say: – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases…”
So many Christians so needlessly worry and wrestle over ‘if’ God will heal them, or the ‘why’ they are not yet being healed, and so on, when instead, like the Psalmist, they could be resting in the fact that God truly is presently and continuously healing them from sickness they don’t even know about, and from the ones they do know about. And thus, they can then be praising and blessing Him for His healing works in them, and also trusting in the blessed truth that God is at this very moment both cleansing them from all their iniquities and healing them from ALL their diseases !
And, at the same time, we must also know, like the Psalmist knew, like the Prophets knew, like the Apostles knew…they all knew that since they could rest in this truth that God was healing them, that they could also rest in the ‘timing’ of God’s healing for them. They could rest in both God being their Deliverer, and rest in the timing of His deliverance. And so, we are to know and to rest in that as well. Remember, that is what the Psalmist also testified: “My times are in Your hands.” (Ps. 31:15) ‘Praying’ is in our hands….’Timing’ is in God’s hands…and we are to trust Him with that all of the time.
They rested in knowing that the healings themselves would either be immediate, or the healings would be in time…or even that the healings would be in eternity…meaning, the healings would either be ‘temporal’ or they would be ‘eternal’. But they would be certain! Again, that is what we must know and rest in as well.
We’ll continue this quest into the questions of suffering and struggles in this life, but we can daily dwell on the truths of God’s immeasurable love for us and His constant care with us and His daily sharing in whatever it is we are going through…along with His grace and works to deliver us through it all.