Who can eagerly look forward to the Lord's coming?
Believers—those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit—are the only ones who can eagerly look forward to the Lord's coming. Scripture contrasts them with unbelievers, who shrink from it and are not ready, because they would rather think it away.
Les explains from Romans 8 that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, like the cottontail under constant duress, searching for food and trying to protect itself. But not only creation—believers also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, are the ones who can anxiously look forward to the Lord's coming. Les emphasizes that only believers can eagerly await His return; the unbeliever shrinks from it, is not ready for it, and would like to think it all away. Yet he will not succeed, because Christ is coming, and the world is moving faster and faster toward that final moment when He will intervene in human history and set things straight.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.