08/18/2026
Yesterday, I preached an expository sermon based on Romans 8: 18-39. On the part where I was explaining verses 20-25, I disagreed with Paul and tried to offer a better way of looking at God’s relationship to the universe. Paul claims that creation was subjected by God to futility as it goes through processes of decay, in hope to set it free from decaying later. That strikes me as absurd. In Paul’s mind, God created a decaying world, in order to set it free from such predicament later. I propose a different way of looking at it. For me, the universe, or everything in it, by its very own nature is decaying. That makes everything futile. Many scientists may be correct in claiming that there is, naturalistically, no cosmic purpose or meaning. However, God, out of love, must have intervened by infusing it with cosmic purpose or meaning through the promise of redemption. We can only hope for its realization, given that we have no knowledge of its fulfillment.
