And not only [that], but even *we* ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, [that is] the redemption of our body.
Paul has just described a whole creation groaning under the weight of sin. Now he turns to those who have God's Spirit — and says that they groan too. So why do the people who have God's Spirit long the hardest? And what is still missing, if sins are already forgiven?
Writers point to Israel's harvest offerings to explain what the Spirit is to us now:
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 groan does not come despite the Spirit. It comes because of Him. The very taste of what is coming sharpens our sense of what is not here yet:
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.
One thing still ties the believer to the world around him:
You see, the Christian is still linked to the old creation, and the link with it is his body.
This is not the groan of a soul unsure of God. It belongs to a soul already settled with Him:
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.
There is also a limit set on what this groaning may become:
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.
Some writers go further. They say the groan is not for ourselves at all, but for others:
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."
The verse says we are waiting for adoption as sons. Yet believers are already sons. Commentators solve this by separating what is ours by faith from what everyone will one day see:
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.
The word "redemption" here points forward, not back:
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.
That double position makes the Christian hard for the world to read:
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).
- Pledge — The Spirit is the firstfruits, a real first portion of the coming harvest. He is God's pledge of the glory ahead.
- Ache — Because that portion is real, it makes us long for the rest. The more we taste of the Spirit, the more the present grieves us.
- Link — Our body is the one remaining tie to the groaning creation, which is why our groan joins its groan.
- Not guilt — This is the groan of the forgiven and the free, not of an unsettled conscience. God allows a groan, never a grumble.
- Finish — Forgiveness is already ours. What remains is the redemption of the body at Christ's coming. Then our sonship will be seen by all.
For we have been saved in hope; but hope seen is not hope; for what any one sees, why does he also hope?
Paul has just described believers groaning as they wait for the redemption of their bodies. Now he explains that this groan belongs to people who are already saved — saved in a hope they cannot yet see.
One writer sets out what the saved already hold, and what they do not hold yet:
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.
So what is still missing, and when does it come? A commentator answers by reading this verse together with the one before it:
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.
Everyday speech uses "hope" for things that may or may not happen. One writer rules that sense out here:
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.
You do not hope for what you already hold. One writer shows where the believer's certainty comes from, and why it makes him groan:
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.
The believer stands between two fixed points, one behind and one ahead:
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.
How can you tell a hope is real? One writer points to the way it waits:
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.
- Saved — we already have the soul's salvation, forgiveness and sonship. But the body is still mortal, and the curse is still on the world. So "saved" here reaches further than what we now enjoy.
- In hope — in Scripture, hope is not a guess. It is a blessing not yet made visible, resting on the assurance of the God who cannot lie.
- Unseen — no one hopes for what he already sees. Hope is alive because the redemption of the body has not yet come.
- Between — the believer stands between a finished work behind him and a coming display of power ahead. The Spirit is the pledge that links the two.
- Patient — certainty makes the waiting calm, not anxious. Patient waiting is the proof that the hope is real.
But if what we see not we hope, we expect in patience.
The verse just before this one says we are saved in hope. This verse draws out the logic: whatever you already hold is no longer something you hope for. So Christian life means waiting, with patience, for what we cannot yet see.
In everyday speech, "hope" usually means we are unsure. Commentators say the word works differently here. It carries confidence, not doubt.
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."
The way we wait shows what kind of hope we hold. Doubts and fears would make us wait very differently.
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."
So what is it that we do not see? Commentators point to the redemption of the body. That guards the verse from a serious mistake: our forgiveness is not what hangs in the balance.
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.
The thing we hope for is not here yet. One writer sees the beauty of the verse in what that absence works in us.
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.
Quiet waiting can look like not caring much either way. Commentators say the truth runs the other way.
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."
The scene around us stays the same while we wait. What changes is the spirit in which we look at it.
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."
- Unseen — hope is hope only because it is not in hand yet. What a person already has, he no longer hopes for.
- Certain — this hope is deferred certainty, not doubt. The world's hope is almost a synonym for doubt; the believer's is an anchor.
- Bodily — we wait for the redemption of the body at the Lord's coming, not for the salvation of the soul. That we already have.
- Patient — the promise is sure, so delay produces patience, not fear. Patience is the opposite of not caring: only real longing can wait.
- Spirit-taught — a selfish look at the evil around us wears us down. Seen in the power of the Spirit, the same scene leaves us hoping and waiting.
And in like manner the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Romans 8 has already described a groaning creation. Here another groan rises inside the believer, and it is God's own Spirit. Two questions follow: why does a Christian still not know what to pray for, and how can a wordless groan be prayer at all?
The problem here is not sin. We see only part of the picture, so our prayers fall short.
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.
That gap does not shut us out of prayer. It is where the Spirit comes in.
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.
A groan is not a failed prayer. It is feeling that has outgrown speech, and it needs a listener who reads hearts rather than sentences.
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.
The believer feels the groan as his own, yet Scripture credits it to the Spirit. That settles a fear many have — that their groaning is only selfishness or unbelief.
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 Spirit does not stand apart from the believer and plead on his behalf. He works inside, so that when God looks into the heart He finds the Spirit's own desires there. (The ESV reads "intercedes for us." The writer below follows older manuscripts that leave out "for us.")
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.
Christ intercedes in heaven, and the Spirit intercedes within. One writer pictures this double support in a scene from Israel's history, where two men held up the arms of Moses during a battle.
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!
This is why misdirected prayers are not a disaster. He does not answer at the level of our understanding.
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.
- Weakness — Not knowing what to pray for is the admitted condition of every believer here; we know only in part.
- Helper — That very ignorance is where the Spirit steps in. The weakest prayer is not left to its own strength.
- Groan — Feeling too deep for words is not failed prayer; only God can interpret a groan, and He reads it perfectly.
- Within — The Spirit prays inside us, not from outside. When God searches the heart, He finds the Spirit's mind there.
- Answer — God answers the Spirit's desires, not ours. Christ prays above, the Spirit prays within, and the believer is held up on both sides.
But he who searches the hearts knows what [is] the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for saints according to God.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness with groanings too deep for words. Verse 27 tells us what God finds when He looks into the heart that produced them, and by what standard He hears them.
Scripture often speaks of God testing hearts. One writer says the search here has a different aim: God looks for what His Spirit has produced.
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 holds two things together. The heart is mine, but what God finds in it comes from Someone else.
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.
Some Bibles add the words "for us" to verse 26. One writer explains why the shorter reading matters.
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.
The verse gives the measure of this praying: "according to the will of God." The writer below quotes the older wording, "according to God." Either way the standard is God's own character, and that lifts the weight off our search for the right words.
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!
Our stumbling words still reach God — and they arrive carrying a worth that is not their own.
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.
The Spirit prays with an aim in view, and it is not the aim we would pick.
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.
Believers have two advocates, not one.
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.
- Searched — God looks into the believer's heart not to expose evil but to find the good His own Spirit has put there.
- Sourced — the groan is mine, produced in my new nature, yet the power behind it is the Spirit Himself.
- Standard — the Spirit's prayer matches God's own character, so right desire counts for more than right words.
- Supplied — God takes our weak, faltering words and gives them the value of the Spirit's mind.
- Steered — the Spirit prays for God's purpose in our path, not for easier circumstances.