<p>8:21&nbsp;<i>The creation itself also</i>- Ultimately, the creation will share the deliverance which we personally experience now and shall experience in its final term at the Lord&rsquo;s return. The&nbsp;<i>whole</i>&nbsp;of creation earnestly looks forward to the manifestation of the sons of God. The whole of creation was made &quot;subject to vanity, not willingly&quot; - it was not their fault that the curse came upon them. &quot;The&nbsp;<i>whole</i>&nbsp;of creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together&quot;, longing to share in the manifestation in glory of God's spiritual creation. The sadness and bitterness of the animal creation is due to their longing for that day of &quot;the glorious liberty of the children of God&quot; in which they will share.</p><p><i>Shall be delivered</i>- the same word has been used by Paul in speaking of how even now, we have been delivered from slavery to sin and death by becoming &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; (Rom. 6:18,22; 8:2). The same word is also used about our having been made free from slavery to the Mosaic Law (Gal. 5:1), which connection could suggest that the &ldquo;creation&rdquo; here has some specific reference to the entire Jewish system.</p><p><i>From the bondage</i>- Gk. &lsquo;slavery&rsquo;. The idea of being in slavery to sin and the Law has been common in Paul&rsquo;s argument so far. The believer in Christ is saved from such slavery- and God&rsquo;s long term plan is that the entire creation will share in this redemption too.</p><p><i>Of corruption</i>- Used by Paul in Col. 2:22 with special reference to the Law of Moses. But he also uses the word in explaining how our present corruptible body shall be changed to incorruption when Christ returns (1 Cor. 15:42,50). The whole creation will be changed and redeemed as we personally will be. In this sense the work of the Lord Jesus will bring about the creation, or re-creation, of a new earth without the results of Adam&rsquo;s sin. His achievement on the cross in this sense saved the world and not just the believers.</p><p><i>Into the liberty of the glory of the children of God</i>- The redemption and freedom from corruption which the believers shall experience will be experienced by all of creation. When at the end of Romans 11 Paul appears to rejoice in the totality and universality of Divine redemption in Christ, he may well have this in mind. Not that all human beings who have ever lived will be saved, but rather that the whole of creation, in a physical sense, will be saved / delivered just as the believers will have been. Our freedom is &lsquo;of glory&rsquo; in the sense touched upon in Rom. 8:18- the glory of the character of Christ which is latent within us but which is yet to be revealed openly. Paul always uses the Greek word used here for &ldquo;liberty&rdquo; to exalt how believers in Christ have been set free from the Jewish law (1 Cor. 10:29; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 2:4; 5:1,13). He clearly has this at least as a subtext in his argument here, encouraging us to wonder whether by &lsquo;all of creation&rsquo; he has in view &ldquo;all Israel&rdquo;. In this case, his argument would be brought to its full term in Rom. 11:26, when he exalts that finally &ldquo;all Israel shall be saved&rdquo;. When Paul speaks of &ldquo;all AV &ldquo;the whole&rdquo; creation&rdquo; in Rom. 8:22, this is the same word translated &ldquo;all&rdquo; in Rom. 11:26. They will finally share in the blessed redemption made possible by the Messiah whom they crucified, they will also experience the glorious liberty from sin and the Law which was the strength of sin, which was exalted in by those like Paul whom they persecuted and reviled. For it is those who received Jesus as Christ rather than rejected Him as did the Jews, whom the NT styles &ldquo;the children of God&rdquo; (Jn. 1:12). In this sense, Paul in this very context notes that the Jews under the Law are not the true &ldquo;children of God&rdquo;- but the believers in Christ are (Rom. 9:8).&nbsp;</p><p>This &ldquo;liberty&rdquo; in which the NT so frequently exults (Lk. 4:18; 1 Cor. 10:29; Gal. 2:4; 5:13; James 1:25; 2:12; 1 Pet. 2:16) will be fully revealed in the freedom of the Kingdom: &ldquo;the glorious liberty of the children of God&rdquo; (Rom. 8:21). As it will be then, so now: we will not be free to do what we like morally, but within the context of God&rsquo;s covenant, we are free, totally and utterly free, in our service of Him.</p>