For we know that the whole creation groaneth
As a woman with child, ready to bring forth: for it is added,
and travaileth in pain together until now;
regeneration is owing to the grace of God, which is compared to
"seed", of which men are born again; the means of conveying it is
the Gospel, and ministers are the instruments of begetting souls
to Christ, and who travail in birth till Christ be formed in
them: now the Gospel being carried by the apostles into the
Gentile world, and being succeeded there, it was like a woman big
with child, ready to bring forth many sons to God; for as it was
prophesied, so it came to pass, that "more are the children of
the desolate, than the children of the married wife", ( Isaiah 54:1 ) ; and
these births were attended with pain. The apostles preached the
word with much contention, and the Gentiles received it in much
affliction, though with the joy of the Holy Ghost; as a woman
rejoices when a man child is brought forth, though the birth has
been attended with pain and labour. This was an united groan, and
travail of all the converted Gentiles in the several parts of the
world, together with the ministers of the Gospel, earnestly
desiring more instances of conversion among them; and this
vehement desire had appeared "until now", from the first time of
the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, to the writing of
this epistle; and supposes, that though there were many spiritual
births, there were more to come; as there has been, and will be
more abundantly, in the latter day: and moreover, this painful
labour, and these united groans for spiritual births, the
apostles were well acquainted with, and therefore could say, "we
know" by their preaching among them, in whom they could easily
observe, and do in their writings take notice, how eagerly
desirous they were of having the Gospel preached unto them.
(The whole creation was brought under a curse because of Adam's sin. This curse will be removed in the eternal state when Christ will restore the creation to the way it was in the beginning. Editor.)