On Romans 8 and the Integrity of Creation

Abstract: Romans 8:20–22 is the prooftext par excellence for the hypothesis that the natural world is fallen. The basis for that hypothesis is challenged as follows: “subjected to futility” refers principally to Gen 1:26–28, not Gen 3:17–18, and must be interpreted as such; “bondage to decay” is best understood through the OT’s naturalistic view of environmental phenomena; “groaning in labor pains” is not a periphrasis for animal suffering, but a personification of the creation–sin antipathy. While Paul assumes that sin can have extrinsic effects on creation, Rom 8:20–22 does not imply that creation was vitiated intrinsically by the fall, and thus the passage is fully compatible with the notion that the natural world retains the full extent of its prelapsarian integrity.