Romans 8:18

The passage extending from this verse to Romans 8:27 is described by Lipsius as a “threefold testimony to the future transfiguration which awaits suffering believers”. In Romans 8:19-22 there is the first testimony the sighing of creation; in Romans 8:23-25 the second, the yearning hope of Christians themselves, related as it is to the possession of the first fruits of the Spirit; and in Romans 8:26 f. the third, the intercession of the Spirit which helps us in our prayers, and lends words to our longing. λογιζόμεθα γὰρ κ. τ. λ. λογίζομαι is a favourite word with Paul: the instance most like this is the one in Romans 3:28. It does not suggest a more or less dubious result of calculation; rather by litotes does it express the strongest assurance. The insignificance of present suffering compared with future glory was a fixed idea with the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 4:17 f. For οὐκ ἄξια … πρὸς see Winer, 505 (d). With τὴν μέλλουσαν δόχαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι cf. in Galatians 3:23 τὴν μέλλ. πίστιν ἀποκαλ. The unusual order emphasises the futurity, εἰς ἡμᾶς = toward and upon us. The glory comes from without, to transfigure them. It is revealed at the ἀποκάλυψις (1 Corinthians 1:7 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 4:13), the glorious second coming, of Christ, and is indeed His glory of which they are made partakers.