The Intercession of the Spirit for us and its meaning:
“Being transformed into the image of the Lord”
Romans 8:26-30
(What I really hope is you and I come to know more the Holy Spirit and to have a more intimate relationship with Him )
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
You and I know and believe that by grace we have been saved through our faith. Now we are under grace. But, we know that being under grace doesn’t mean we can live whatever we want. And also know that God justified us through His grace, but He also wants us to live a righteous life. Then the question is: how can we live a righteous life? Do we have to keep the law to live a righteous life? In fact, that is the question Paul is addressing in chapter 7 ) Paul’s answer is very simple but adamant.
7:4 “you died to the law”
7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Paul is saying: We died to the law; We have been released from the law; Now We serve in the new way of the Spirit. Paul's answer is clear: What sanctifies us is not by keeping the Law but by serving in the new way of the Spirit
Then in chapter 8, Paul lays out how or why “we serve in the new ways of the Holy Spirit.”
We serve in the new ways of the Spirit because the Spirit Leads us, He dwells in us, He gives us life (hope), He frees us from fear of condemnation, He testifies that we are children of God, He helps us to put to death the deeds of the body. Those are how or why “we live in the new ways of the Holy Spirit.” as explained in chapter 8.
Now, Paul tells us more reasons through today's scripture verses, Romans 8:26-30, why we serve in the new way of the Spirit?”
“The Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (v. 26)
We kind of know what groan means, so I looked up the dictionaries. They define Groan as a deep, long sound showing great pain or unhappiness or despair or grief; make a low creaking or moaning sound when pressure or weight is applied
1.(He prays for us because He loves us)
That means, the Spirit groans because He is in pain or despair or He is under pressure. Have you groaned recently? I know people with children sometimes groan. My wife and I don't have children, so a few people said to us, "It's much better without children." I don’t necessarily agree with them, but at the same time, it is true that people with children have to live under the burden, under pressure, thus they often feel pain and despair and groan.
But, groaning for children is an indication that the parents care for them and love them. Why does the Spirit groan for us? Because the Holy Spirit is under pressure, in pain or unhappiness or despair? Why does the Holy Spirit intercede for us through groans? Because He deeply cares for us and loves us.
But, though we talk all the time about the love of God and the love of Christ, we don’t talk about much the love of the Holy Spirit. But, as we consider all that He does - His leads us, His dwells in us, He corrects us, He encourages us, He assures us, He frees us from fear, He empowers us. In addition, He is the author of the Bible. That means we know God the Father and the Son of God only through Him. He is so eager to reveal who God is and who Christ is. He started the church; He dwells in the church and gives the gift for the church. He is the main reason why we are who we are as a church - we can’t help but acknowledge and believe He loves us. Indeed, the Spirit is much more involved in our lives than we think He is. In fact, He is the counselor and the helper and the comforter we can come to whenever we have a problem. He is another advocate like Jesus Himself. That’s why He intercedes for us with groaning because He loves us so much.
2. (He Knows us better; in fact, He knows us exactly)
I want to talk about another reason why the Spirit prays for us through groans.
Jesus described God as the father waiting and groaning for the son who took his inheritance in advance and left home and was wasting the money and his life wildly. The father knew his son was ruining his own life but he enjoyed his life - his son didn’t know what he himself was doing and he didn’t see any problem with his life.
But, the father groaned for the prodigal son because He knew his son’s problem exactly. Why does The Spirit groan for us? It is because the Holy Spirit knows us and our problems exactly. In fact, the scripture says, “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The Spirit knows even the thoughts of God”. - 1 Corinthians 2:10-11
The Spirit finds out all things including our hearts and our acts. He knows everything about us including our circumstances. We may think we are okay in spite of our prayerless life. We may think we are okay even though we pray for the wrong thing and we live for wrong motives because we don’t know who we exactly are and what we truly need and what God cares about. That’s why the Spirit groans for us because He knows exactly my problem and my need.
He knows even the thoughts of God. How would we know it is sin not to believe in Jesus unless the Holy Spirit teaches us. How would we know what is righteousness before God unless the Holy Spirit reveals us. We have to remember He is the counselor and the author of the Scriptures with all the answers for us and our problems.. Indeed, the Holy Spirit knows not only our problems but also knows the solution. That’s why He intercedes for us through groans beyond words.
3. Now that I said the Spirit loves us and knows us, I want to talk about that He has a purpose for us
I said, parents sometimes groan for their children because they love them and they know their children better than the children themselves. But, they groan also because they have an earnest desire for their children. They have expectations or purpose for them. So when their children fail in school, or in their job the parents feel more pain and despair than the children themselves because the parents have even stronger wishes and desires for their children than the children themselves.
The same is true with the Holy Spirit. He has strong wishes and expectations for us. That’s why when He prays for us, He prays for us according to the will of God. v. 27 "the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
The Spirit prays for us according to the will of God.
The Spirit knows all things and even the thoughts of God so the Spirit doesn’t pray for us according to our will, but according to the will of God because the Spirit knows that the will of God is for our best interest.
Also, verse 28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”
(God has not called us according to my purpose or my parent’s purpose or my wife’s purpose and my friend’s purpose, but His purpose, the purpose God)
Then what is God’s purpose?
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
The will of God or the Purpose of God: we may be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
For this purpose God foreknew, predestined, called, justified us, and will glorify us.
For this purpose, Jesus Christ humbled Himself and came to us as one of us and died for us, thus became an example to follow.
For this purpose, the Holy Spirit dwells in us leading, counseling, empowering, giving hope and assurance, and praying for us.
Bible tells us our Lord Himself works as the Spirit for this purpose "We are transformed into the image of the Lord, and we are reaching greater and greater glory. This is the work of the Lord, the Spirit." (2 Co 3:18)
The Holy Spirit is like a Sculptor. A sculptor sees the last complete form out of rough rock And he chisels out any part that does not resemble the last complete form. Likewise, the Holy Spirit also sees the image of Jesus in our rough rock-like character. And He chisels out our flawed character which is not like Christ by leading, reproofing, correcting, encouraging, convincing, empowering and even praying for us with groaning in order to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ:
We are saved to serve in this new way of the Spirit to accomplish His will which is to conform to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. For this purpose, the Spirit prays for us through groans because He loves us, He knows and He does all that He does. Let’s get to know Him more and Let’s Honor Him and Let’s render proper attention to Him as we listen and obey Him
