23. And not only they, but ourselves also--or "not only [so], but
even we ourselves"--that is, besides the inanimate creation.
which have the first-fruits of the Spirit--or, "the Spirit as the
first-fruits" of our full redemption (compare
2Co 1:22),
moulding the heart to a heavenly frame and attempering it to its future
element.
even we ourselves--though we have so much of heaven already within
us.
groan within ourselves--under this "body of sin and death," and under
the manifold "vanity and vexation of spirit" that are written upon every
object and every pursuit and every enjoyment under the sun.
waiting for the--manifestation of our
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body--from the grave: "not (be
it observed) the deliverance of ourselves from the body, but the
redemption of the body itself from the grave" [BENGEL].
JFB.
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