“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22).

On the Sixth Day, man had been created in God’s image and likeness—the very climax and goal of creation (Genesis 1:26,27). But on this Sixth Day, God, made in the likeness of man, finished the even greater work of redemption.

Under the great Curse, the whole creation had long been groaning and travailing in pain. But now, the Creator Himself had been made the Curse (Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 52:14), and it seemed as though the Creation also must die. Though He had made heaven and earth on the First Day, now He had been lifted up from the earth (John 3:14) and the heavens were silent (Matthew 27:46). Though He had made the waters on the Second Day, He who was the very water of life (John 4:14) was dying of thirst (John 19:28).

On the Third Day, He had made the dry land, but now the “earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51). He had also covered the earth with trees and vines on that Third Day, but now the true vine (John 15:1) had been plucked up and the green tree (Luke 23:31) cut down. He had made the sun on the Fourth Day, but now the sun was darkened (Luke 23:45) and the light of the world (John 8:12) was burning out. On the Fifth Day, He had created life, and He Himself was life (John 11:25; 14:6), but now the life of His flesh, the precious blood, was being poured out, and He had been brought “into the dust of death” (Psalm 22:15). On the Sixth Day, He had created man and given him life, but now man had rejected Him and was putting Him to death.

The creation has been groaning and travailing in pain ever since Adam’s sin, but its Creator has paid the price for its redemption, and therefore it will someday “be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). HMM