The Spirit's Intercession for the Saints

Introduction

Have you ever found it difficult to pray? Have you ever gotten down on your knees, closed your eyes, and your heart wrestled within you and you tried to open your mouth but found that you were largely unable to say anything that had any real meaning to you. There was a desire to pray, but it seemed not an ability to carry it out.

Weakness in prayer overtook the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, so we are not the first to encounter this particular human weakness, but it remains troubling nonetheless.

Our Weakness

Likewise. Paul connects what he is about to say to what he just said. Just as the creation groans and just as we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. What is the likewise comparing? Like what?

The Spirit’s help in our weakness is like the hope we are given as firstfruits of the Spirit. In other words, just as the Spirit gives us hope, so he also helps us in our weakness. Just as creation groans, the Christian groans, and just as the Christian groans the Spirit within the Christian groans.

Weakness. If the Spirit helps us with out weakness, what weakness does he help us with? Remember that this is in the context of Christians groaning for the hope of glory. These weaknesses are conditions that will not exist when our hope is finally realized. Right now we are beset with many weaknesses: pain, sin, inability to do what we ought. Since we have tasted of the firstfruits of the Spirit we know how we ought to live, but we are weak in so many ways and unable to perfectly walk according to God’s will. This is one part of our groaning, but it is not merely us. The Spirit within us helps us in our weakness. How does he help us?

He helps us by giving us a foretaste of the new created state which we are bound for in our hearts.

He helps us by abiding with us, and being the abiding presence of God in us.

He helps us through sanctification: he makes the world less and less attractive to us and makes holiness more and more attractive. Pulling us closer to God and farther away from sin.

He helps us by opening the way to the throne of grace, where we receive mercy and help for time in need.

The following sentence will tell us that this specifically applies to prayer, where he groans and prays on our behalf.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. One of our greatest weaknesses, the weakness that this text specifically mentions, is that we do not know what to pray for as we should. This is strange to us, because if we think of all the things we struggle with, the sins, the pains, the difficulties, the struggles, we don’t often think, “boy, I’m sure lost when it comes to prayer like I should. I really should pray that God would help me in that weakness.” This isn’t a weakness we are often aware of, but it seems to be what Paul is most concerned about. We don’t know what to pray for. Our prayers are often full of things that are not according to God’s will and they leave out what is according to God’s will. How is it that we are not prayer as we ought?

We are weak in sin, often praying sinfully motivated prayers.

We are weak in perspective, often praying for things mistakenly because of our lack of perspective.

We are weak in faith, often praying either half-heartedly or without true belief.

We are weak in our ability to describe our need to God or what we truly need. The Spirit, on the other hand, knows exactly what our problem is.

We are weak because often our hearts are low and oppressed spiritually and we are unable to say much in prayer.

The Spirit’s Help

So knowing that we are so weak and in such need, how is it that the Spirit helps us? We read, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” There is some mystery to this. We do not know exactly what is being referred to here. Who is doing the groaning, the Spirit or the person? It’s not clear, but I would argue it is the Spirit. It seems that the Spirit, in groanings to deep for words, communicates on our behalf with the Father. I say this is the Spirit groaning because He is the active subject in this sentence. Who is interceding? The Spirit. How is He interceding? With groanings. Groanings too deep for words. What is the purpose of these groanings?

They are from the Spirit, and thus have spiritual power.

They are intercessions. That is, they are prayers prayed on our account. The wonder of this is beyond explanation; that God himself prayer for us, interceding, specifically because we cannot pray for ourselves as we should.

The use of the word groanings gives us the idea that what the Spirit is praying for is tied to the hope which we say earlier in this part of the text. Creation groans and we groan, and for what? For the hope that will come with the revelation of the children of God. So we may conclude that the subject matter of these groanings is related to that hope and final end for God’s people. The Spirit is praying for our perfection as God’s people, so that we may inherit what we long and wait for. The Spirit knows what the substance of that is, for us it is rather shadowed and dark from where we stand. Nevertheless, it seems clear that this is the end to which the Spirit makes intercession.

Too deep for words. There is some debate as to what this means. Is this groaning verbal and literal, or simply inside the heart of a believer with the Spirit? Some take this to mean a gift of tongues, but there is nothing in the text to suggest that, nor are tongues ever referred to as groanings. It may be that these deep groanings are imperceptible to the Christian as the Spirit is calling out of him. It may be that these groanings are the result of deep desire for God, fervent prayer and meditation where the person praying is unable to pray as they ought due to their weakness. It may be that some who pray in what they call private tongues are actually just expressing their groanings for the Spirit to work in them. I think this probably looks different in many different people’s lives.

The One who Answers

The fact that God is identified as the one who searches hearts shows that there is some identification between the state of our hearts and the work of the Spirit in them. The Father searches our hearts and perceives something that isn’t coming from mere flesh, something spiritual in them. Indeed, he senses the work and prayers of the third person of the Trinity at work in our hearts.

It is obvious that the Father knows the mind of the Spirit because they are both equally God, but beyond this we are reminded that the Spirit is sent out to do the Father’s will. It was the Father’s will that the Spirit intercede for us, knowing that through the Spirit’s prayers we would come to know God through Christ more and more.

Conclusion