Frustration, Part 3

The Groaning of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8v26-27

18^th January 2014

We've been looking at Romans 8v19-25, which talks about the frustration, futility and emptiness of human life in the present age. Two weeks ago, we saw how all creation is groaning as it waits to "be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" and how we - the church - are also groaning as we wait for the fulfilment of God's plan of salvation. Last week, we looked at how glorious life will be at that time.

This week, we return to the present age, and see that not only does all creation groan, not only do God's people groan, but the Holy Spirit Himself groans. Paul writes:

Romans 8v26
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 with groans that words cannot express

The Holy Spirit sees the frustration that comes to all Christians in this age. He knows how futile our lives sometimes seem, how hard we struggle and how little we seem to achieve, how we contend against the habits of sin in our flesh, how we long to see more of the kingdom of God than we see now, and He groans for us. And He intercedes, that is, He prays for us.

We see only through a glass darkly, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12. That's the AV translation - the NIV says "we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror". We don't see the kingdom of God as clearly as we want to and, as a result, we don't know how to pray. We often don't know what the mind of God is.

Of course, that's partly due to our own laziness in not studying the Bible as assiduously as we should, and partly down to our own sin, obscuring the word of God to us. But it's partly just the way it is. We can't see Jesus and His kingdom as well as we will one day.

And, because we don't always know how to pray, the Holy Spirit helps us. He knows we're weak. He knows we're sort-sighted. He knows we still sin. He knows we don't know the Bible as well as we could. So He helps us to pray. He intercedes for us.

However, there's a difference of opinion about what Paul meant when he said that the Holy Spirit prays with groans that words cannot express:

Some believe that the Holy Spirit groans with us in the sense that He empathises with our situation, living in a battle against our own flesh and in the futility of the present age, and He prays for us - more or less independently of us - to the Father.
Some believe that Paul is talking about speaking in tongues (we know from 1 Corinthians 14 that speaking in tongues is mostly a way to pray, much more than it's a way to prophesy) and Paul's saying that God enables us to pray in tongues because it enables us to pray with a profundity that we can't express in our native language.
Some believe that the Holy Spirit comes upon us when we pray, and causes us literally to groan out loud to God. God hears our groans and understands them. God understands what we're groaning about, in a depth that we can't express to him in words.

I think all three of these are true. The interpretation you prefer may depend on your theology. A charismatic Christian - someone who believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit - may want to see speaking in tongues as the explanatio, whereas a non-Charismatic won't. Some whose prayer lives are more developed may identify with the idea of groaning in prayer, and so may want to see that as Paul's main thought here. Those with a high view of the Holy Spirit and a low view of humanity may tend towards the idea of the Holy Spirit having to pray for us because we're so rubbish at praying for ourselves.

But the important point for me is that the Holy Spirit groans for the same reasons as we do. He hates our sin even more than we do. He's looking forward to the second coming of Jesus even more than we are. He knows what a difference it'll make even more than we do. He's excited about it.

Romans 8V27
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

This verse can baffle us, because God knows everything, and so of course He knows the mind of the Holy Spirit. Why does Paul bother to say his?

I think Paul means that God knows the mind of the Spirit because they agree. When two people have the same view of a particular subject, it's said that they know each other's mind on that matter. God knows the Holy Spirit's mind in that they see things the same. Of course they do. The Holy Spirit always prays in accordance with God's will. Of course He does. And this makes His praying far more effective that ours.

The Holy Spirit prays for us, and He does so perfectly. God the Holy Spirit knows what's good for us, just as God the Father knows what's good for us. And that's what He prays for. It's of enormous comfort to us when we realise that.