Lorenzo Palon

Ecclesiastes & Romans in Conversation

Some parts of the Bible feel like they’re pulling in different directions. Take Ecclesiastes and Romans 8, for example.

Ecclesiastes looks at life and says what many of us feel: “All is vanity” (Eccl 1:2). The Hebrew word hebel means vapor—something real but fleeting, impossible to hold. The Preacher observes that “what has been is what will be… and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9). People live, work, suffer, and die—and the world goes on unchanged.

He explores work: “I hated all my toil… seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me” (Eccl 2:18).
He looks at justice: “In the place of justice, wickedness was there” (Eccl 3:16).
He confronts death: “The same event happens to the righteous and the wicked” (Eccl 9:2).

It’s not despair. It’s realism. But it can feel like a closed loop—where no matter how hard we try, time eats everything¹.

But then Paul writes something that sounds like a reply.

In Romans 8, he agrees that the world is groaning. Creation is in “bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21). We ourselves, even with the Spirit, “groan inwardly” (Rom 8:23). Paul even uses a Greek word (mataiotēs, v. 20) that mirrors hebel². Creation, like us, experiences frustration. Vanity, even.

But here’s the difference: Paul’s groaning isn’t resignation. It’s pregnancy.

“The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now…” (Rom 8:22).

Labor pains hurt—but they lead to something. Paul calls that something “the glory to be revealed” (Rom 8:18). What Ecclesiastes named as the end, Paul names as the beginning of something new—because he’s writing in light of the resurrection³.

Not a Contradiction—But a Journey

Ecclesiastes gives us permission to feel lost. Paul gives us permission to hope. They belong together.

Ecclesiastes says, “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward…?” (Eccl 3:21). Paul says: we do know—because “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom 8:11).

Ecclesiastes closes with, “Fear God and keep his commandments” (Eccl 12:13)—a wise, humble posture. But Paul builds on this with news: God is not only to be feared, but trusted as the One renewing all things. Not just commandments—but consolation and new creation⁴.

Not Whatever Happens

The world shrugs: “Whatever happens, happens.”
Ecclesiastes sighs: “All is vanity.”
But Paul dares to say: “Creation itself will be set free… and share in the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).

The future is not empty. It’s already been invaded by resurrection.

So we don’t ignore the ache. We groan with it. But not as those who are stuck in the cycle—rather, as those who believe that God is breaking the cycle open⁵.

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Footnotes

1. James D.G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 464. “Paul does not deny the sense of futility that pervades creation… he names it, but places it within a narrative of hope.”
2. N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 1063. “Paul’s choice of mataiotēs directly echoes the LXX use of hebel, joining the biblical lament tradition to a new eschatological vision.”
3. N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 96–98. “The resurrection is not the abandonment of creation but the guarantee of its renewal.”
4. Dunn, The Theology of Paul, 472. “The law is not dismissed but fulfilled in the life of the Spirit. Paul reframes obedience through belonging.”
5. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 1069. “Hope, for Paul, is not optimism. It is the settled trust that God’s future has already broken into the present.”