THE BELIEVER’S PORTION IN THIS WORLD IS ONE OF GROANS AND DESIRES

1. It is the groaning of grief. Inarticulate, Rom 8:23. Grief over sin, our own and that all around us.

2. It is the desire for perfection. As the sick desire health so the child of God longs for full deliverance from the imperfections of the flesh. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life, verse 4. It is not the unclothing of death but the robing of immortality that we desire.

3. The believer has a burden that weighs us down. Verse 4.

THIS CONDITIONING OF US FOR HEAVEN IS THE WORK OF GOD

This confidence wrought within the soul of the believer was of God, 

1. Life’s trials and distresses tend to prepare us for heaven. God is working this out in us by the trials of life, verse 5. As the trials of the Hebrews in Egypt aroused a desire for the promised land, even so is it with us.

2. In addition, we have the earnest of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit within is a down-payment. We are assured therefore that we will enter our new home.

3. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit’s ministrations make us long for heaven. He provides a foretaste of glory. That which we may enjoy here is something of the life that will flow in its fullness in glory.