Our struggle with mortality in concert with the intercession of the Spirit gives context to the mechanics of faith, so to speak. The captivity of mortality in this age is designed to drive us to dependence upon God, who is the only one able to deliver and save us unto immortality. So God works small deliverances throughout our lives to make us believe in the big deliverance to come, and conversely he allows (and sometimes orchestrates—e.g., Deut. 4:27; Dan.11:33; Luke 22:31; 2 Cor. 12:7) small captivities in our lives to make us come to terms with our big captivity to sin and death. This causes us to cry out to him by the groaning of the Spirit within us; and so on and so forth—all of which God works out for our good in the age to come. In this way, temporal captivity and deliverance (i.e., salvation) point to their protological introduction and eschatological conclusion. - John P. Harrigan