Introduction
Last week we were thinking about what Paul says in Romans 8 about how the whole creation groans and we ourselves groan.
The whole creation groans because the whole creation has been subjected to frustration ever since Adam sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. Since that time, nothing has been the way it was meant to be and we have storms and floods and droughts and earthquakes and volcanoes and other kinds of natural disasters. And the farmer might do everything right throughout the growing season to tend his crops, but in the end the crop is ruined because there’s been too much rain or too little rain or too much sun or too little sun. The farmer does everything right, but in the end his work is frustrated because of the way the world is.
Creation is frustrated because it’s not the way it’s supposed to be. And therefore it’s as if the creation is groaning.
And not only does the creation groan, but we ourselves groan inwardly as we wait for the day when our present experience of suffering will come to an end and we’re made perfect in body and soul in the presence of God in the life to come. Paul said at the beginning of last week’s passage that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us one day. So, for now our life is full of troubles and trials and sorrow and there are things that make us weep. And who knows? Perhaps you’ve been weeping this week. And perhaps things have happened to you this week which have made you groan. But the day will come, when Christ returns, when our present suffering will come to an end and our groaning will be no more and we’ll become perfectly holy and happy in the presence of our glorious God. We’re not there yet. And so we have to wait for it. And we wait for it patiently. But we know that that day is coming; and it’s coming because of Christ our Saviour who died to bring us to God.
So, the whole creation is groaning. We ourselves are groaning. And according to Paul in today’s verses, the Holy Spirit is also groaning. The Holy Spirit, who dwells in every believer, intercedes for us or he prays for us with groans that words cannot express.
Our weakness
Paul says in verse 26 that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Blessed Trinity, whom the Father sends to his people through Jesus Christ our Saviour. It’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to repent and to believe the good news about Jesus Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us more and more and who enables us to live holy lives of loving obedience to God. It’s the Holy Spirit who equips us with all the talents and abilities we possess by which we’re able to serve God and one another in our daily lives. And it’s the Holy Spirit who helps us in our weakness.
Now, notice that Paul refers to our weakness and not to our weaknesses. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. There are things we’re good at and there are other things we’re not so good at. And what we’re good at and what we’re bad at varies from person to person. You’re strong in one area of life and weak in another area of life and so am I. That’s the way we all are, because not one of us has perfect knowledge or ability in all areas of life.
But Paul is not referring here to our strengths and weaknesses and to the talents we possess and to the talents we lack. He’s not talking about weaknesses in the plural, but to our weakness in general. He’s talking about the human condition. He’s talking about what is true for all of us since we’re fallen people who live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world, where nothing is the way it’s supposed to be and where everything is subject to frustration and decay. And we’re fallen people whose lives are spoiled by sin and brokenness. And so, our whole life, our whole existence in this world, is characterised by suffering and frustration and weakness. That’s what Paul is referring to in verse 26.
But we have the Holy Spirit to help us. So, when we have to move something which is too heavy for us to move on our own, then what we need is a friend to help us. We want someone who can take one end and we can take the other end and together we’re able to lift this box or table or whatever it is and move it. And the Holy Spirit is the one who has been sent from heaven to give us the help we need to cope with all the troubles and trials of life and with all the things that make up our present weakness. Because of God’s overflowing love for his people, God the Father sends the Spirit through his Son into our lives to help us.
We don’t know what to pray for
And one of the ways he helps us in our weakness is by helping us to pray.
So, Paul says in verse 2 that we don’t know what we ought to pray for. And again, we need to note carefully what Paul says and what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that we sometimes don’t know what to pray for and on those occasions we need the Spirit to help us. Nor is he saying that when we don’t know what to pray for, we can rely on the Spirit’s help. He’s not saying that we don’t know what to pray for sometimes. He’s saying we don’t know what to pray for full-stop. We don’t know what to pray for ever. He’s saying this is always true for us and we never really know what to pray for. The problem that we always face when we bow our heads to pray is that we don’t know what to pray for.
But how can Paul say this about us? After all, didn’t the Lord Jesus give us the Lord’s Prayer to teach us what to pray for. Didn’t he teach us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for God’s name to be hallowed and for his kingdom to come and for his will to be done and for our daily bread and for forgiveness and for protection from evil? The Lord taught us to pray for these things. And doesn’t Paul himself teach us in 1 Timothy 2 to pray for all those in authority over us? So, we do know what to pray for, don’t we? We know what to pray for because the Bible tells us what to pray for.
And so, what can Paul mean when he says here quite clearly that we don’t know what to pray for? The way I’ve explained it before is that, of course, we want to pray according to God’s will. Our Shorter Catechism teaches us that prayer is the offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will. So, we want to pray in accordance with God’s will. And while we know God’s will in part, because he’s revealed it to us in his word, we can’t know the whole of God’s will. Or we can’t know the depths of God’s will. If you’re ever on a small boat, you can see things that are just below the surface of the water. You can see fish swimming near the surface, for instance. But you’re not able to see into the depths of the water. You can’t see what’s crawling along in the darkness at the bottom of the ocean. And while God has revealed some of his will to us in his word, there are others things which we cannot know because he hasn’t revealed them to us.
And the example I’ve used in the past is the example of Paul himself who tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 that he prayed to God three times, asking God to take away from him the thorn in his flesh which he was suffering. We’re not sure exactly what he meant by the thorn in his flesh, but it was something that caused Paul to suffer great pain and he says it tormented him. And he tells us that he prayed three times for the Lord to remove it from him.
And it turns out that Paul did not know what to pray for, because instead of taking the thorn away, which is what Paul was praying for, God gave him the help he needed to put up with it. Instead of taking the thorn away, God gave him the strength he needed to endure it. And in this way, he discovered the greatness of God’s strength and power.
And so, Paul didn’t know what to pray for. He was praying for the wrong thing.
And how can any of us know what to pray for, because how can we possibly fathom the depths of God’s will for us? How can we in our present weakness possibly know and understand God’s thoughts? And in view of what Paul will say in verses 28 and 29 and 30 about God working all things together for our good, how can we possibly understand how God is able to use the troubles and trials we suffer in this life to conform us to the likeness of his Son? How is God able to use all my sorrow and sadness and suffering to renew me in Christ’s image? I can’t possibly understand it. And if I don’t understand it, how can I pray about it?
The Spirit prays for us
But the good news is that we have the Holy Spirit to help us. And according to Paul in verse 26 the Holy Spirit helps us by interceding for us or by praying for us with groans that words cannot express.
Now, from time to time you’ll hear people groan or sigh when they’re praying. Perhaps you’ve done it yourself. You’re groaning when you pray because of the sorrow you’re feeling or because of the mental or physical pain you’re experiencing. Or sometimes at a prayer meeting, people will mutter something to show they agree with whatever is being prayed for.
But that’s not what Paul is talking about here, because he’s not talking about us groaning. He’s talking about the Spirit groaning. This is an activity which the Holy Spirit performs. And it’s something we can’t hear, because it’s the Holy Spirit, praying to God the Father on our behalf and expressing things to the Father which cannot be expressed in words.
Now, if you glance forward to verse 34, you’ll see that Paul says in that verse that the Lord Jesus is at God’s right hand and is interceding for us. So, according to verse 34, the Lord Jesus is interceding for us in heaven. So, what’s the difference between what the Lord Jesus is doing for us when he intercedes for us in heaven and what the Holy Spirit is doing for us when we pray?
I like the way one theologian [Kuyper] explained it. He said that the Lord Jesus appears before the Father on our behalf to obtain for us all that he has won for us by his life and death and resurrection. So, the Lord Jesus is standing in heaven and he’s praying for our forgiveness, which the Father is willing to bestow on us. And that means that the Lord Jesus is praying for us as our heavenly High Priest. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit, when he prays for us, is like a mother who is praying for her sick child. The child may be sleeping or he may be unconscious or he may be so young that he doesn’t understand what’s happening to him. And so, he’s not able to pray. But the mother knows what’s wrong with her child and the danger he’s in. And she’s kneeling at his side and she’s pleading to God on his behalf. If the child were older and if he was conscious, he could pray for himself. But because he’s so young and because he’s unconscious, he cannot pray. But his mother prays on his behalf.
And we’re like that sick child, because we’re weak and we don’t know what to pray for. We can’t tell what God’s will is for us. But the Holy Spirit knows God’s will for us and he knows what we need and he knows what to pray for. He knows how to pray to God about all the troubles and trials we’re suffering. And he knows how to pray to God about all the sorrow and sadness we’re feeling. And he knows how God is able to use all of these things for our good and how to use them to conform us to the likeness of our Saviour.
The Spirit prays according to God’s will
And how does the Spirit know what to pray for? That’s what verse 27 is about. And we’ll take the second half of the verse first, because in the second half of the verse Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. When Paul refers to the saints, he means believers. A saint is someone who possesses the Holy Spirit. And since every believer possesses the Holy Spirit, then every believer is a saint. And the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. So, because of our present weakness, you and I don’t know what to pray for. We don’t know how to pray according to God’s will. But the Holy Spirit knows. And the Holy Spirit knows what God’s will is because the Holy Spirit is God. He’s the third person of the Blessed Trinity and he possesses one and the same divine will as the Father and the Son.
And so, the Holy Spirit knows what God’s will is for you. And he’s able to pray for you in accordance with God’s will. He’s able to pray to the Father, asking the Father to work out his will for you and to use the troubles and trials and sorrows of life to bring you to perfection in the presence of God in glory.
So, the Spirit in your heart knows how to pray for you in accordance with God’s will for you. That’s what Paul is saying in the second half of verse 27. And in the first part he says that God the Father, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit. And so, as God the Father searches our hearts when we bow in prayer, he finds there the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit in your heart is busy praying for you in accordance with the Father’s will for you. Whereas you and I don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit always knows what to pray for. When the troubles and trials of life overwhelm us and we can’t make sense of them and when we can’t work out how they fit into God’s will for us, the Holy Spirit knows. The Holy Spirit knows.
And so, you don’t need to worry about praying for the wrong thing. I was in a shop the other day and I asked for and paid for the wrong thing. And perhaps we worry that we’ll ask God for the wrong thing. But you don’t need to worry about that, because the Holy Spirit is able to speak up on your behalf and to ask the Father for the very thing you need. And the Father’s will for you is good, isn’t it? The Father’s will for you is good, because the Father loves you with an abundant, overflowing love and he only ever wants what is good for you. And because he loves you, then he sends his Spirit into your heart to intercede with him for you, so that you will receive everything you need for today and tomorrow and for the next day and for all the days until the Father brings you to himself in glory.
And so, you don’t need to be afraid to pray. And you don’t need to be timid when you pray or worried that you’ll say the wrong thing. Some of us may not pray very much, because we think we’re not very good at it. But none of us is good at it, because all of us are weak. And the good news is that we’re not on our own when we pray, because the Spirit is with us to help us.
I was listening to an interview with an author this past week and one of the things he said is that the important thing for a writer is that he should write something every day. What you write may not be very good, but it’s important that you write every day, otherwise you’ll never finish writing the book. And our prayers are not very good, because we’re weak and we don’t know what to pray for. But the important thing is that we pray: that we pray at home and at the midweek and in church before the evening service and on all other occasions. The important thing is for us to pray. And when we pray, the Spirit is also praying in us and for us. And God the Father always hears and answers his prayers for you.
And the reason we’re able to go to God in prayer and call him ‘Father’ is because God the Father sent his only begotten Son into the world as one of us to offer up his life on the cross as the once-for-all perfect sacrifice for sins. And through faith in him, we receive forgiveness and peace with God and we’re adopted into God’s family so that we can call him ‘Father’ and pray to him. And because he has become our Father through Christ, he gives us his Spirit to help us. And because he has become our Father though Christ, he hears and answers our prayers.
