When Adam fell as the covenant head of the human race, his sin did not stay contained to himself; it introduced sin, curse, and death into the whole of God’s creation. Paul describes the result as a creation subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the one who subjected it in hope – and so all creation groans, like the pains of childbirth, waiting for something more.
That waiting is not hopeless. Scripture promises new heavens and a new earth in which the former things will not be remembered or come to mind, and Paul ties creation’s own liberation to the revealing of God’s children – when believers are finally made new, creation will be freed from its slavery to corruption into that same freedom and glory.