Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. 26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (NAS).
Romans 8:26 gives us the very encouraging statement that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans which cannot be uttered. This is a wonderful promise. Here I will explore this promise by looking at the context within the book of Romans and its connection to the larger biblical picture.
In the book of Romans, Paul begins with the conviction that the gospel is absolutely powerful for the salvation of human beings. But then he launches into a long explanation of why the gospel is utterly necessary for humanity. Human beings are universally under sin, whether they are Gentiles who have lived without God’s Law or Jews or have had the privilege of living with the Law. The result of this universality of sin is the universality of judgement; no one can escape the reality of God’s judgement on their sin. Since no one seeks God, there is only one hope for humanity, and that hope is found in the person of Christ, who we apprehend by faith. Instead of the inevitable death which comes to us as the result of being in Adam, we can have life when we are in Christ.
From chapter 6 onwards, Paul began to expound the results of living according to this new life in Christ. Those who have been given the grace of God through Christ have died to sin and have been given the capacity, indeed the necessity, to live in righteousness. The Law no longer rules over them, with its demands that can only ever incite them to greater sin. Instead, those who are in Christ are now subject to the law of the Spirit of life. Christ has dealt with sin in his own flesh and freed us from sin and death. Now, in Christ, we may live a life controlled by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit-controlled life is caught up with the reality that the Spirit shows us that we are children of God.
It is the notion that the Spirit of God shows us that we are children of God which provides the immediate context of the passage which speaks of the Spirit interceding. Therefore, it will be instructive to look at these verses prior to the passage in question.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ– if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (NRSV)
The Holy Spirit is the divine Person who makes the gospel comprehensible to those who hear it. He takes the work of Christ and makes it clear to those who take hold of Christ by faith (another work of the Spirit) that now they are sons of God, people who call God Father. Indeed those who are joined to Christ are heirs of God in the same way that Christ is an heir of God. They will share in the glory of God as Christ shares in the glory of God. Like Jesus, whose sonship we share, those who are joined to him will share in his suffering. This sharing in suffering is often overlooked, because it is not something which we want to consider in our culture of hedonism. Yet it is part of the work of the Spirit join us to Christ in every aspect of Jesus’ experience, including his suffering and subsequently his glory.
Paul seems to realise that his readers may not find his statement about suffering as good news, so he goes on in verse 18 to say, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (NRSV). But then he goes on to explain what that glory means.
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
This glory and our awaiting of it are the immediate context of the Spirit’s groaning. It is here that we must go take a journey back to the beginning of creation to understand what Paul is speaking about. The first three chapters of Genesis testify to the connectedness between humanity and the whole of creation. Chapter one details the creation of the world, culminating in the creation of human beings as the pinnacle of creation. These human creatures are both made in the image of God and given dominion over the rest of creation. Chapter two tells the story from a different angle, but the connection between humanity and creation is still prominent. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15 NIV). This connection must be remembered in chapter three when the two human beings disobey the command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To Adam, God says, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen 3:17). The narrative in these early chapters of Genesis make it clear that the destiny of the creation is fully intertwined with the destiny of the human beings for which it was made.
This goes a long way toward explaining what Paul is talking about when he says that the creation groans:
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
Paul tells us what Genesis does in that the creation has been subjected to futility. If the destiny of creation is caught up with the destiny of the human beings who have dominion over it, then when human beings are given over to sin and death, the creation becomes subject to a curse. That curse involves futility, that is, vanity or emptiness. Ecclesiastes takes up the theme of futility or vanity. The writer explores all the areas of human life and declares them all vanity, all futile, because death is the destiny of every human being. Death makes everything which we do futile. Because the destiny of creation is so bound up with the destiny of humanity, the creation cannot reach its appointed goal while human beings have denied and repudiated their own God-given destiny. Human death makes not only human life futile, but it makes the creation subject to futility and unable to reach its God-ordained destiny.
The creation will be set free from its bondage to corruption and experience the freedom of the children of God. That this is tied up with the resurrection of the dead is demonstrated by the statement in verse 23 that the children of God await the redemption of their bodies. Humanity is currently experiencing the corruption of the physical body (1 Cor 15:42) just as the creation experiences bondage to corruption. The connection between the corruption of humanity and the corruption of the whole creation is necessary and unbreakable, as I argued above. The way in which this corruption will be undone in the creation is also tied up with humanity, in that the corruption of humanity will be undone in the resurrection of the dead, and the corruption of creation will also be undone when this occurs.
23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
The creation groans in anticipation of its release from bondage, and so too do we, who have the first fruits of the Spirit. This groaning is in anticipation of the redemption of our bodies. The resurrection of the dead will bring our human sonship to its completion. The human followers of Jesus are not different in their experience to their Lord. When Jesus was conceived by the Spirit in the womb of Mary he was called the Son of God. “The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God” (Luke 1:35 NRSV). At the point of Jesus’ conception he experienced the first fruits of the Spirit. But it was not until Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead (Rom 1:4) that he experienced the fullness of his human sonship. In the same way, we who follow Jesus experience the first fruits of the Spirit in the present, but will experience the fullness of our adoption, that is, the fullness of our sonship, when we are raised from the dead.
Like the creation, ours too is a groaning in hope. As the resurrection of the dead is not something which we can presently see, except by faith, we must wait with eager expectation. This too is something which we share with the whole creation. The creation also waits eagerly for redemption. Indeed the creation is experiencing birth pangs in its waiting. Birth pangs are not something which occurs without an expectation of an imminent delivery, and so there is an expectation of something which is to come, and to come soon (Rev 22:20). But, as these things are not yet visible, we must wait in faith. Human weakness makes that waiting and hoping something which requires help.
26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Humanity is weak. Humanity was unable to rescue itself from the sin which enslaved it, and therefore Christ had to come and die while we were still weak (Rom 5:6). Indeed, there is weakness in our understanding of the things which God has done in Christ (Rom 6:19). It is therefore necessary that in order to persevere and eagerly wait in hope for the fulfilment and consummation of all that God has promised us we must have help. It is the Spirit of God who helps us to stay people of hope and to eagerly await what is ours, instead of giving into the temptation to live like people with no future, that is, like the worldly ones who do not know God nor his promise, and who are subsequently still living lives of futility (Rom 1:21).
We do not know how to pray in our weakness. But the Spirit intercedes with groans which are unutterable. If human beings are unable to pray appropriately because of their weakness, then surely creation cannot pray as it has no capacity for words. Humanity must have the responsibility to pray for the liberation of its own bodies, but also for the liberation of creation, whose destiny is so caught up with the destiny of humanity. Yet, this task is beyond us in our weakness. So the Holy Spirit enters into the struggle with us to help us to do what we cannot do alone and unaided.
Entering into the struggles of the people of God is a recurring theme in the Old Testament. God heard the groaning of his people who were slaves in Egypt and remembered his covenant with Abraham (Exodus 2:24; 6:5). When the people had entered the land and were oppressed by their enemies as a result of their own rebellion against the Lord, he heard their groaning and rescued them (Judges 2:18). The psalmist writes many times of his groaning in anguish (Ps 6:6; 31:10; 38:9; 102:5). And Lord promises: “Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will arise … I will protect them from those who malign them” (Ps 12:5). Job groans in anguish of body because of his affliction by the satan (Job 3:24; 23:2). But, the eschatological promise of the Lord is that the ransomed of the Lord will no longer groan, but instead joy and gladness will overtake them (Isa 51:11).
It is, therefore, not surprising that the God of Israel would consider the groans of his people. However, Paul’s Trinitarian understanding leads to him to declare that not only does God hear the groans of his people, but he enters into the groans of his people by groaning in the person of the Spirit. His people are not left as orphans (John 14:18) even though their sonship is not yet completed. The Holy Spirit stands on the side of the sons of God and groans with them in their distress and longing for the completion of their salvation. He groans with them as they pray, so that the prayers of the sons of God can be understood by the Father.
“And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Who is he who searches hearts? The Spirit searches all things including the mind of God (1 Cor 2:10), but Romans 8 is surely not referring to the Spirit as this would be a tautology. Rather, the one who claims to search hearts is Jesus himself (Rev 2:23). If Jesus is the one referred to here, then verse 27 suggests a strongly Trinitarian action. The Spirit intercedes, Jesus knows the mind of the Spirit, resulting in intercession according to the will of God the Father.
Since the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, the saints can be assured that, when they are unsure of the will of God, the Holy Spirit will intercede perfectly. There are many times when it is difficult to pray. But this Trinitarian work of intercession should comfort the people of God that the Holy Spirit will successfully intercede on their behalf. This prayer of the Spirit is true intercession as he enters into the situation of the people of God and groans along with their groans. Because the Holy Spirit is able to stand on both sides of the divide, in entering into our groaning as well as knowing the mind and will of God, his intercession must always be effective.
Conclusion
There is a glorious future which awaits the sons of God. We must wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies and the fullness of our sonship. But humanity is weak in sin and needs help. So God has provided that help in the person of the Holy Spirit, who groans with our groaning that he might perfectly intercede for us. Therefore, we know that we cannot fail to reach the fullness of sonship in the resurrection. Creation, too, which cannot pray for itself but only groans, will come to the fullness of its created purpose when the children of God are raised in glory.