Romans 8:22–27

So the Christian is not in ignorance of the misery of the groaning creation. Led by the Spirit, believers have the mind of Christ and can say, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." Those who reject the fall blame all the misery of a groaning creation on natural causes. In their folly, they imagine they can remove the misery by their own efforts.

First of all, "the whole creation" groans together in the pains of childbirth. The first reference here is to the lower creation, which the fall of man dragged down. God gave Adam dominion over all, and by his sin he ruined all. He was, so to speak, the top link, joined to the Creator with understanding, and every other link in the chain hung on him. When he fell, all creation fell with him; animals became wild and destructive. We may not have ears to hear the groan of the lamb as the leopard pounces on it, or of the fly caught in the web as it feels the spider's bite. But the groaning is there.

There rises up to God a moan from His suffering creatures on this earth, a chorus of sorrow from its four quarters, as day by day passes by.

As Christians we are not fooled by appearances, nor by the mind and will of man. Man would like to hide the evidence of his own guilt and ruin in the wretchedness of a creation dragged down by his fault. For we know that it is all in groans and pains until now. Neither Christ's coming in grace and humiliation, nor the gospel preached in the power of the Spirit sent down from heaven, set this aside. Instead they called believers to glory above it, and to virtue despite it.

The passage states plainly that this universal groan will only cease at the time spoken of here. Then, and not until then, creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God. … How, my friends, can the world enjoy a time of universal rest, and peace, and freedom from evil, while the whole creation groans in the pains of childbirth? Impossible!

The Lord gives wars, famines and earthquakes a very significant character: they are the beginning of birth-pains. It is as if nature were pressing on toward the birth of a new and better time, and could not rest content with the present evil. … Everywhere there is an unrest that cries out for Him. He alone has said — He alone could dare to say — "Come to me, and I will give you rest." And the cry sounds in His ears, and will find its answer.

But our groaning is not a complaint, the fruit of discontent, but the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Spirit directs our eye to the glory, where we shall have no more reason to groan. He leads us to feel, according to the love of God, the suffering of a creation under bondage. At the same time we feel it ourselves, because by our bodies we still belong to it.

What brought creation into the bondage of corruption? How did it get in? Through us. And how will it get out? Through us, when the glory comes! It is a beautiful thought! … We brought them into it, and shall bring them out of it.

The firstfruits were offered up in Israel as the pledge and foretaste of the coming harvest (see Lev. 23:10, 17, 20), so in the Firstfruits of the Spirit we have the pledge and foretaste of the redeemed body and the glory that is ahead.

The firstfruits of the Spirit suggest that what we have in this way is only a pledge of what is still to come. So we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan for that very reason. Our hope of a state so different from the present only makes us groan more over the present.

You see, the Christian is still linked to the old creation, and the link with it is his body.

It is the groaning of those who are justified by faith and have peace with God. It is the groaning of those who have the Holy Spirit living in them, bearing witness with their spirit that they are children of God. It is the groaning of adopted children who long deeply for the full results of adoption.

This groaning is not a complaint that comes from discontent. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. God permits a groan, but never a grumble.

Only the delivered soul groans, or can groan for others. We feel what is all around us, and we feel it as God feels it. That is why it says, "We groan inwardly" (not for ourselves — I do not groan for a dead thing I have been delivered from) "as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons."

In one sense we have received the adoption (Gal. 4:5-7), becoming sons of God by faith. In this case we wait for the adoption, the redemption of the body. Our bodies will be delivered from this world of sin and corruption and conformed to the image of Christ. Then everyone will see that we are sons of God. By faith we have the adoption now; in glory it will be seen.

As the order shows, this means not the forgiveness of sins, which we already have, but the complete deliverance from the effects of sin in our bodies. We wait for that at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

The Christian is always in that sense a riddle. He has Christ as his life, but not yet fully as Saviour (Phil. 3:20); he has, and he has not, salvation; he is waiting for redemption, not as regards the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7), but as to the body (Rom. 8:23).

We do not yet enjoy all that is included in being "saved." We have the salvation of our souls now, and we receive it by faith. We have the forgiveness of sins, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the firstfruits of the Spirit. We are now the children of God; but we are saved in hope, as well as in present possession. We have not all the salvation now. Our bodies are still mortal. We are still in a world where the curse remains, where the usurper rules, and where one universal groan sounds out. But in hope we are saved from all this.

The salvation spoken of here is not security, or freedom from condemnation. The believer already enjoys those. It is a hope he waits for, and even groans for, though he already has "the firstfruits of the Spirit." Nor is it the death of the body, or the spirit going to be with Jesus. Just the opposite; it is "the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body." ... But the body is not yet conformed to Christ's image. The work of adoption is not complete until the body too is redeemed. It is, then, for this we wait. This is the salvation for which we hope. But this "redemption of the body" is what Christ brings about at His coming for His saints.

The redemption of the body is a matter of hope, and in this sense we are "saved in hope." The hope does not imply any uncertainty. It only means the blessing is not yet made visible.

We are saved; but it is by hope. As yet we do not see that for which we hope. If it were visible, then hope would have no place. ... But though we do not see it, yet knowledge is the ground of our hope. The certified assurance of the God who cannot lie is the pure fountain of a Christian's hope. But hope born this way creates desire. Growing desire brings a sickness to the heart. That heart now feels the coming liberty, and this makes the pressure of its still-prolonged bondage weigh on the spirit all the more. A free spirit, in a bound and lowly body, must groan.

We have the redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. But the Spirit we received as a result is only the pledge of the rest. It is in this sense we are saved in hope. We do not yet have what God purposed to give us in salvation — that is, glory with Christ. But the work that saves us is done, and we have it by the Holy Spirit. We have received the Holy Spirit. So we stand between the finished work which saves us and gives title to the inheritance ... and the exercise of power which will bring the full redemption in when Jesus comes again.

Hope is an essential part of Christian character — "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast" (Hebrews 6:19). It is not a matter of vague uncertainty. If it were, we would not wait with patience, but with doubts and fears. Faith gives the certainty that hope will be fulfilled. We do not know when, but faith also makes us content to wait patiently.

Notice that the New Testament sense of hope is never uncertainty, but immature or deferred certainty. Confidence marks it as much as expectation. So we are not left in doubt and uncertainty. Our strength lies in quietness and confidence. The world has its hopes, but they are so steeped in uncertainty that the word hope has become almost a synonym for doubt. The believer, though, is so confident about what makes up his hope that he can say, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Hope is an essential part of Christian character — "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb. 6:19), not a matter of vague uncertainty. If it were, we would not wait with patience, but with doubts and fears. Faith gives the certainty that hope will be fulfilled. We do not know when. Faith also makes us content to wait. This is true "patience of hope."

Notice, it is not for the salvation of our souls that we wait and hope, but for the redemption of the body. It may be from the grave, or we may be changed in a moment. It will be at the coming of the Lord. As to the body, even we have no relief from groaning and suffering until the coming of our Lord. We do not see that yet, and so we wait and hope. It is a fatal mistake to think all this means we do not know we have salvation. The opposite is true. We know we have eternal life — "whoever believes has eternal life." There is no waiting or hoping for that. But we can wait in patience for the redemption of the body.

We are saved now in hope, but that means we do not yet have before us what we hope for. If we see it, how can we still hope for it? How beautiful a thought this is! The hope is so perfect, and carries such complete assurance, that not having it only produces patience in us — not doubt, but patience! All human hopes may disappoint, but the hope God has given us is as sure as if we already had it. We wait with patience, and the patience itself is holy discipline for us.

Can it be strange, then, that we have to keep the word of His patience? That we have to remember what holds judgment back and delays the fulfilment of our hope as Christians? Patience is not indifference about that hope, but the very opposite. If we were indifferent, we could not speak of patience or know it at all: "if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

With this hope shining before us, we can wait with patience for the certain glory that will be revealed in due time. We may look at the sorrows around us in a selfish spirit, or as bystanders who only draw lessons from them. Then the power of evil will make us weary and impatient. If we view it all in the power of the Spirit, we will "wait with patience."

As we look at the growing sorrows of this groaning creation, and feel our own need, we may find relief in prayer. Even then we do not know how to pray as we ought. While we are down here, we know only in part. We cannot take in the greatness and glory of Christ, or the weakness of our own flesh, or the sorrows of the groaning creation.

Our ignorance of how to pray as we ought surely shows us our need of the Spirit's work, and should make us submit ourselves to Him all the more.

Moved by the Spirit of God, we present our needs with an earnestness that no human words can express. A groan always assumes a depth of feeling beyond the power of words to utter. For this reason only God can interpret a groan. That is why Scripture says, "he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit." The Spirit expresses that mind in us by a groan.

So it is my heart that groans, while it says, "the Spirit intercedes" — oh, the wonderful ways of God! It is a great comfort to know these are not selfish groans in me. While I groan along with everything around me, I might think, "Careful, there may be unbelief in that." But it is the Spirit's groan in us. Selfish groans we find in Romans 7. There it is all I, I, I — no Christ and no Holy Spirit until the end of the chapter. Romans 8 is full of Christ and of the Spirit.

The words "for us" in Romans 8:26 are not in the best texts. Like many well-meant additions to Scripture, they only spoil it. Adding "makes intercession for us" here would suggest that the Spirit and the saints are two separate parties. It would make Him someone outside of us, praying on our behalf. The next words show that this is not the meaning. God looks down into the heart. He sees there the desires and prayers the Spirit has worked in. That intercession, made inside the saints and on their behalf, is according to God.

Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on each side… What divine strength this gives in the hour of strong temptation. On one side is the exalted Son of God, in the very presence of God, holding up the hands of faith and making intercession. And on the other side, down here, in the believer, the Holy Spirit is making intercession. How doubly we are held up!

God searches all hearts, and He knows the mind and desire of the Spirit. The Spirit's desires and prayers match the mind of God exactly, whatever our own desires might be. So God hears according to the Spirit's desires, not ours. We can be very thankful for that.

In earlier times, under the law, people always thought of God as the Searcher of the heart, the One who tests the inner life of people. He searched hearts to reward each person according to his work. But the apostle reveals God as the Searcher of the heart with another intent. "He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit." He is not searching the heart to reward the works, or even to refine it as gold is refined. In His search of the heart He finds the inner exercises of the spirit. His search does not end in finding evil, but good — good that He owns as fitting Himself, not evil that He judges and punishes.

The verse credits the thoughts and feelings God searches out to my heart, because the Spirit works in my heart. But it goes on to the source: in my heart it finds the mind of the Spirit... and last of all, it is the Holy Spirit Himself who makes intercession in the saints. It is me, because it is produced in my new nature; but as to the power that produced it, it is not me. The Holy Spirit does it in and by me. It is me as to the act, but it is He as to the source.

The words "for us" in Romans 8:26 are not in the best texts, and, like many well-meant additions to Scripture, they only spoil its perfectness. "Makes intercession for us," inserted in this verse, would give the idea of the blessed Spirit and the saints as two separate parties, with Him making intercession for us from outside of us. The next words show that this is not the sense... So God looks down into the heart and sees there the desires and prayers the Spirit has worked in. And the intercession the Spirit makes there, on behalf of the saints, is according to God.

It is a far deeper thing to have the right desire than to have the right words... "He makes intercession for the saints according to God," in complete agreement with the character and will of God. How much uttered prayer is after all no prayer at all! How useless is eloquence, in view of these groanings which cannot be expressed!

But the God who searches our hearts knows perfectly the mind of the Spirit — what He is working in us. Our imperfect, faulty words go up to Him and reach His ear. They fall far short of expressing what the Spirit means, yet He gives them all the value of His own mind.

He intercedes along that line. His aim is not to make the circumstances of our lives down here easy. He prays according to the aim that God Himself has in all the circumstances He takes us through. God's own finger marks out our whole path, and that path is meant to prosper the work of God in our souls.

We have an Advocate with the Father, but also the Holy Spirit, who has come from the Father and from the Son to be the advocate within us. Part of His action is that He carries on intercession for saints according to God... The twofold divine advocacy covers all our need effectively. Wherever we have a difficulty, wherever a trial, a sorrow, the Spirit never fails. Wherever we are weak or ignorant, the Spirit comes to our rescue.