In Romans 8:26-27 an amazing promise is made to the suffering children of God. The previous metaphor Paul has used is that we are like women in labor who are groaning in our pain but full of hope for what is about to happen. The "baby" is not here yet and it is all very painful, but we are absolutely confident that this pain is not for nothing but is about to result in a glorious end, the return of Jesus and the resurrection of our bodies from the grave and the whole universe made new.
Paul begins his next sentence with a curious word, "likewise" or "in the same way". In the same way that we groan and wait in hope so the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. What is our weakness? First, it is the weakness that comes from our sufferings and second it is the weakness of our ignorance. We do not know what to pray for as we ought. Paul has just told us that the sufferings we encounter in this present world are like labor pains, the necessary precursor to birth. As he said in v. 17, all who share in the glory of Christ are going to suffer these things with Christ. Therefore, should we ask God to take away the pain or not? What exactly does God want to do in this situation? We do not know.
Let me be specific: I do not know whehter or not it is God's will to heal my son's broken brain in this life or not. He can, if he wants to but he has not told me whether or not he wants to heal him now. I do not know whether or not God aims to heal me of cancer. I do not know if he wants to releave me of the pain of chemo therapy. He has not told me. I have no doubt that God can heal and can enable to go through chemotherapy pain free if he wants. But does he want? Or does he have another good purpose for the suffering? Like he did in Paul's case when he refused to alleviate the apostle's chronic, painful ailment (2 Corinthians 12:1-10) even though Paul asked three times.
So how does the Spirit help us? First, in the same way that the creation groans and believers groan so too the Holy Spirit groans with us and for us. He intercedes for us with groans. This means that while we don't know what to pray in the midst of our suffering, the Holy Spirit does know what to pray. And his prayers for us are not indifferent, unsympathetic prayers but prayers that are offered in full recognition of the pain we are enduring. The Holy Spirit in some sense shares our pain and also our hope that the pain will one day end with the return of Christ. He cares for us and knows our pain and knows God's plans and so he knows exactly what we need that accords with God's will.
That is the second point in v. 27. "The one who searches hearts" is God the Father. God the Father knows perfectly what the Spirit is praying on our behalf and always answers the Spirit's prayers with a yes because the Spirit always prays in accord with the will of God. The Holy Spirit fully knows us and sympathizes with us and he fully knows the Father's will and so he always asks God to do for us exactly what we need.
This does not mean that we do not pray. We are commanded always and everywhere to pray. Later in this letter Paul himself says, "be constant in prayer." Even though we often do not know what to pray yet we need not be afraid to ask for whatever we want because even when we ask amiss in the midst of our sorrow and suffering, the Holy Spirit always asks God the Father to meet our real needs in perfect accord with God's perfect will.
So "suffering with Christ" means that we are never afraid that God does not care or that he does not know what we need. It means that we are always confident that the Triune God is with and working in and through all the suffering for our eternal good. It means that we are "constant in prayer because we know that the Spirit himself is always praying for us with groans in perfect accord with God's will.
1 comment:
Excellent. Yes. Amen.
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