The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. . . . because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 

Paul’s words here have been compared to his counsel in Second Corinthians: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (4:17). A Bible authority writes, “The subjected world must give way to the liberated world, creaturely existence must yield to existence as heirs and children of God.”

In verse 18, the Greek noun rendered time (kairos) has the qualitative sense of a fitting or convenient occasion (as opposed to the quantitative meaning of the term khronos). The apostle employs it again in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season [kairos] we shall reap, if we faint not.”