By: Brian G. Chilton | November 1, 2021
Romans chapter 8 is perhaps one of the best chapters in the entire Bible. The chapter begins with an exposition of God’s salvific work for our lives, including God’s past, present, and future work. The chapter ends as it describes the eternal love that God has for his children (8:31–39). Romans 8:26–27 is a lesser-known passage of Scripture that finds itself sandwiched between the recognized famed theological treatises. In this passage, Paul describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But he notes that the Spirit of God “intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings” (8:26).[1] What does it mean that the Spirit intercedes for us? Paul notes that the Spirit of God actually prays for us on our behalf. This indicates three things about the Spirit’s prayerful petition for our lives.
The Spirit Uplifts Us in Prayer When We Don’t Know What to Pray
If we are honest, many of us struggle with our prayer lives. At least I know that I sometimes do. However, the powerful aspect of the Spirit’s ministry is that he prays for us even when we do not know what to pray for ourselves. If we find ourselves in a state of being where we know we need to ask God for something, but we don’t even know what to ask for, the Spirit has us covered. Millard Erickson notes that “Thus believers have the assurance that when they do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit wisely intercedes for them that the Lord’s will be done.”[2] While believers often feel defeated due to their perceived inability to pray as they should, the Spirit steps in to assist the believe in ways that he or she does not even recognize.
The Spirit Unites Us in Prayer to a Holy Trinitarian Relationship
Amazing as it is to consider, God exists as an eternal relationship. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed and communed for all eternity as three persons but part of the same Godhead union. Attempting to explain this relationship is beyond the scope of this present article. However, it must be noted that the Triune Godhead exists as a relationship. As amazing as it is to consider the Triune God, it is even more fantastic to acknowledge that the believer is ushered into this divine relationship. This seems to be what Paul has in mind when he notes the “inexpressible groanings” of the Spirit. C. K. Barrett notes that the most likely interpretation of this phrase is that “it seems on the whole more probable that the point is that communion between Spirit (-filled worshipper) and God is immediate and needs no spoken word.”[3] However, Bill Mounce thinks that the groanings come from human beings which leads to the Spirit’s intercession. According to Mounce, “This removes the somewhat difficult image of the Spirit groaning in prayer, but in view of Gethsemane (cf. esp. Luke 22:44) there is no reason to deny emotional/spiritual involvement in prayer to the third person of the Trinity.”[4] Perhaps, it is better to find a middle ground as found in Kenneth Boa’s approach. He argues that the Spirit speaks to the Father in language that human beings cannot understand, thereby “the Father searches the human heart, the abode of the Spirit, to hear the Spirit’s prayer.”[5] Regardless how the Spirit does it, he is in communion with the Father who “searches our hearts.”
The Spirit Undergirds Us in Prayer with Willful Intercession
The Bible notes the intercession that Jesus works on behalf of the believer. For instance, Paul later notes that Jesus is the one who had “died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:34). However, Paul also notes in verse 27 that the Holy Spirit also intercedes for the believer as well. The Spirit’s intercessory works directs each person toward the will of God for his or her life. As Boa notes, the Spirit “intercedes to bring the purposes of God to fruition.”[6] This has in mind the concepts of Jesus’s prayer when he requests that the Father’s will be actualized on earth as it has been decreed in heaven (Matt. 6:10). Like the Son, the Spirit recognizes our weaknesses and speaks on our behalf to bring about God’s intended purposes for each person’s life.
Conclusion
As believers, people often worry themselves over the issues of the day and the possible problems of tomorrow. Individuals often place an exorbitant amount of pressure upon themselves as they place unrealistic expectations on themselves—expectations that may not have come from God. Contrary to popular belief, God is not sitting on a cloud in heaven simply awaiting when to strike a person with a lightning bolt when one steps out of line. Rather, the depiction of Romans 8 is a startling image of a God who desires the best for his children (Rom. 8:28) and works to help each believer in their time of need.
God is not a distant God who enjoys seeing us fail. No. God is a benevolent Being who helps his children in ways that may not always be realized. When the dust settles and we stand in eternity looking back at our lives, I imagine that we will all see that God helped us in ways we never even realized. Such can be anticipated if God is a maximally great and loving Being. Romans chapter 8 teaches just that.
About the Author
Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of the Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate of the Theology and Apologetics program at Liberty University. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has served in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years and currently serves as a clinical chaplain.
https://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Manual-Christian-Apologetics-Essentials/dp/1532697104
Notes
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all quoted Scripture comes from the Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman, 2020).
[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 797.
[3] C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans, Rev. ed., Black’s New Testament Commentary (London: Continuum, 1991), 158.
[4] Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 186–187.
[5] Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Romans, vol. 6, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 259.
[6] Ibid.
Digging Deeper
Brian Chilton, “The Teneability of Divine Prescience in Romans 8:28-30 Based Around the Term ‘Proginosko,” BellatorChristi.com (Oct. 19, 2013), https://bellatorchristi.com/2013/10/19/the-teneability-of-divine-prescience-in-romans-828-30-based-around-the-term-proginwskw/
Brian Chilton, “True Love Must Be Reciprocated,” BellatorChristi.com (Apr. 30, 2018), https://bellatorchristi.com/2018/04/30/true-love-must-be-reciprocated/
Daniel Merritt, “Reconciling a God of Love with the Problem of Evil,” BellatorChristi.com (March 8, 2019), https://bellatorchristi.com/2019/03/08/reconciling-a-god-of-love-with-the-problem-of-evil/
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