Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for saints according to the will of God.
We are members of the very, very elite! Can you imagine being an insider with the Creator of Life who owns the worlds of trees, water, poppies, mountains and the fragrances of Jasmine and lavender. He owns the universe! This trinity-Person has chosen you and me as objects of His love. How can we do anything but bow down in meekness with humility, and with thanksgiving!
Romans 8 gives us a peek at this inside world of God as he reaches down into our created substances shining His eternal-reality into the darkness of souls saturated with earthly pollution. Being born-again is our very stunning second creation, within us, where He shines the light of His glory making visible the first fruits of what is yet to be revealed when our salvation is complete!
We are people who have become diseased after Adam, who was created perfect and complete. But agape love has intervened, providing mercy and grace to people lost and otherwise without hope! That’s us, you and me! Lost sinners redeemed by the Son of God Himself, so that, we, through Him, might turn sin into glory, enjoying His fellowship, participating in His absolute Wisdom and Truth, Righteousness and Agape Love!
In order for us, His created people, to cash in on His amazing grace, we have to turn inward, become vulnerable, recognizing our sinfulness and acknowledge our own self-orientation. We must become empty, prepared, vessels so that, “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us,” verse 4. We are trading in our own human life for God’s Spiritual Eternal Life!
The Person of the Holy Spirit is committed to each human person who has received God’s gift of Spiritual Life. Eternal Life is now growing believers, even while in flesh, into His glory, so that, we may share His Personal presence throughout eternity! This is only possible because Jesus took up our sin, putting it on His cross, in order to give us His eternal righteous Life!
Having been born-again, we must transition from the old life judged by sin into the full fragrance of Jesus’ resurrected Life by bringing our current jar of fleshly clay into submission to our new Life in Jesus. When He returns, our temporarily flesh bodies will also be redeemed, so that, through His surpassing power, we become like Him, inside and out.
Romans 8 is about the Holy Spirit’s “help” in our current weakness of changing out from our present flesh condition into Spiritual maturity in Jesus. The special Greek word for help, as used in this passage, means to come along side and help with a task. Lloyd-Jones uses the example of a person coming to the aid of another by picking one end of a large log and carrying it together to its destination. This depicts the roll of the Holy Spirit in the development of our Spiritual Life in Jesus. It is through the suffering of flesh in self that we are confirmed, strengthened and established in our hope leading to glory!
Our assignment is to learn who God really is and experience the special agape love relationship available in Christ Jesus before we actually see Him face to face. We are in preparation for our eternal estate, not in the self-orientation of our original creation which became sinful flesh, but rather, the righteousness in us of Christ Himself, pure and holy with joy!
Thank you Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank you Lord, for making me whole.
Thank you Lord, for giving to me,
Thy great salvation so rich and free!
The story of Romans 8 specifies the Life of the Spirit joined to our spirit in these jars of clay. He is not only our Hope and teaches us concerning prayer, He is our Spiritual host providing us with divine decorum. If we choose not to grow in grace, we do not loose our salvation, but we do loose the Spiritual maturity we take with us when we see Him face-to-face!
The above two verses not only connect the previous two verses by the word “likewise” but provides a continuous Spiritual focus in our direction because of our “weakness.” Our infirmity, or weakness, is not referring to sin but our Spiritual inadequacy. Jesus also took on our short comings, our infirmity, but He was without sin and always in submission to the Father. When we are born-again, we are created new in the resurrected Christ Jesus.
The King James uses the word “infirmities” instead of weakness. The word in the Greek is singular so “infirmities” is good but perhaps better would be the word “infirmity.” When Adam was created he had no weakness or infirmity. Our weakness is also the outcome of Adam’s sin.
The issue is not only our sin liability, we also lost the glory of being in our original wholeness! Our loss of completeness was a consequence of Adam’s sin in addition to our inherited sin nature! We are now born naturally human without spiritual capacity at God’s level. The redemption of our body will restore us to a full Spiritual capacity as originally intended by our Father God. In the meantime, we must cultivate our Spiritual ears and eyes to hear and see from God’s point of view acquiring Spiritual discernment.
As a natural person, who is born-again, we require the Holy Spirit to grow and mature us Spiritually into the completeness of our original creation and “so much more.” When we become born-again, we become a Spiritual child who is now in Christ Jesus and not in our flesh …. but we are still vulnerable to choose sin.
This brings into focus our basic need for help from our indwelling Holy Spirit to overcome the culture of our flesh which was engrained into our identity as a nature person who had not yet been born-again. A born-again person is one who has been created with a new Spiritual identity. The Holy Spirit is now our Spiritual coach beckoning us to respond to our faith, growing us into Spiritual maturity. This is a long, unique, journey requiring our faith!
So, the “Likewise” introduction to these two verses, not only connects to the “hope” we have in Christ Jesus, in the previous two verses, but also continues with the role of the Holy Spirit to mature our “Spirit, soul and body” in Jesus. We see this role of the Holy Spirit in our born-again life throughout Romans 8.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, v. 2. If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness, v. 10. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you, He will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells within you, v. 11. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, v. 16. We ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly waiting for the adoption of Sons and the redemption of our bodies, v. 23. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our infirmity interceding for us according to the will of God, v. 27.
What the Holy Spirit is witnessing within our new-creation in Christ Jesus is an infirmity limiting our capacity because we have not matured Spiritually. This causes the Holy Spirit to groan with grief because of our condition while at the same time being “in Christ Jesus.” The infirmity we possess can be overcome with the resurrection power of Jesus but requires not our limited and lacking faith, but rather, our hope anchored knowing Him through the Word and prayer in our closet with the door shut.
The Holy Spirit is our witness before the Father of our condition being expressed in language beyond our knowledge. This should give us pause to consider what is being expressed here in these two verses. The Person of the Holy Spirit is grieving unto the Father concerning our Spiritual condition; this is agape love being expressed on our behalf by the Holy Spirit Himself to our Father God!
Praying is just one of the ways the Holy Spirit helps us in our infirmity since we come short of the glory of God in this fleshly jar of clay, even though we are justified by faith as a gift. As we shall see in the next verse, All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to God’s own purpose. Praying is an important component fitting into God’s purpose and part of our calling. Praying is one of the ways we carry our end of the log with the aid of the Holy Spirit as we proceed toward our Spiritual maturity.
We need to keep in view the larger picture of who we are and where we are going. We are now created with a Spiritual identity, the old is past and the new has come. Our calling includes growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Himself. Praying is talking with God, with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. What better way to get to know someone! Jesus instructed us in the Sermon on the Mount to enter into your own closet and shut the door praying to our Father in secret who will reward us openly!
This is part of our Spiritual training! We must come to understand our physical circumstances from God’s point of view. We need to discipline ourselves so that we walk Spiritually even while we are wearing our jar of fleshly clay. This is exactly the point, He who searches hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God Himself. It is the self-mode that is persisting as a distraction from knowing Jesus Himself and the power of His resurrection.
This speaks directly to the Hope issue we dealt with last GraceNotes. We are being both rooted and grounded with the organic life of Jesus within the structure of life that will glory our loving Father God. As Peter put it: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be dominion forever. Amen.
We think we have to do it, no, we have Jesus as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, as we will see next GraceNotes with our Spiritual eyes!