“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose… Those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” ~Romans 8:26-30
All of creation is groaning. We ourselves are groaning. And God’s Holy Spirit, seeing all this, watching all this, experiencing all this with his creation and with his people–now the Spirit’s groaning with groans that words cannot express. God’s Holy Spirit lives and works in that shared pain.
“He who searches our hearts” is God. He knows what’s inside our hearts. And I know God comes across things in our hearts we’d like to keep hidden. But God is looking for the sound of his Spirit’s groaning. When we are sharing the world’s pain, when we’ve decided to embrace the world’s pain and sit with it and live with it and groan with it, we realize we don’t have any answers. We don’t know what to do. We don’t even know what to pray for! And that’s where God’s Spirit comes in very obviously. God the Creator, our Father, is always in constant communion with his Spirit who lives in the hearts of his people. God totally understands what his Spirit inside us is saying, even when we don’t. Our God hears and answers the prayers of our heart, even when they don’t feel like prayers, even when it just feels like heartache or hopelessness or inadequacy. When the pains and the groanings of the world weigh heavy on your heart, you become one with the loving and groaning and redeeming working relationship and conversation between the Father and the Holy Spirit.
It’s a mystery, for sure–I don’t understand it. But the Bible says God works through that for glory. For our glory. And ultimately for his.
The present pains and sufferings are not even worth comparing with that coming glory (Romans 8:18). Paul can’t find the words, he can’t describe the difference between where we are right now and the glory that’s coming. Everything he might say falls short. He doesn’t even try.
God has called us and justified us and will glorify us (Romans 8:30).
We know that in all things–even in the sharing of so much pain–maybe especially in the sharing of pain–we know that in all things, God works for our good! For ultimate glory! (Romans 8:28)
We share in the sufferings in order to share in God’s glory (Romans 8:17).
The devil means all of this mess for evil; God our Father is working through it for good. By the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ and by the power of his Holy Spirit, it’s going to be good. As Christians, we don’t shake our heads and wring our hands and say look what’s happening to the world. We open our eyes and lift our hands and say look who came into the world!
All of God’s plans for the restoration of the world, all of God’s promises for glory for us and for all creation–all of what God is bringing about for our good–it’s all “Yes” in Christ Jesus. It’s not sometimes “Yes” and sometimes “No.” In him, in Christ Jesus, it is always “Yes!”
“No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him, the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” ~2 Corinthians 1:20-21
Sin’s dominion over us and over this world is being broken. Our bondage to corruption and decay is coming to an end. And the Church speaks the ‘Amen.’ We say it! ‘Amen!’ We believe it! ‘Amen!’ And we live it! ‘Amen!’
The Holy Spirit guarantees the glory that’s coming because of Jesus. When the politicians say ‘No,’ God says ‘Yes’ in Christ. When the culture says ‘No,’ God says ‘Yes’ in Christ. When your friends say, ‘No,’ when the peer pressure says ‘No,’ when your family says ‘No,’ when your favorite network or website or app says ‘No,’ when your gut says ‘No,’ when all the experts say ‘No,’ our God says ‘Yes’ in Christ every time! Every time! All the time! Yes, yes, yes in our risen and coming Lord Jesus!
Hey, we’ve got a vaccine for COVID and measles and polio. We’ve got flu shots. Pneumonia shots and shingles vaccines. But not for the sin that has plunged God’s world into so much. There’s no shot, there’s no pill, there’s no medicine for this pain that has us and all creation groaning. The only prescription for the pain is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the only cure.
Romans 8:18-28 are about the prescription. This is God’s plan, this is his purpose, to redeem us and shower us with the heavenly glory of his Son and our undying hope in his plan. It’s a divine plan that provides fully for your eternal future. A loving and gracious plan that leads to ultimate glory for all God’s children. And Paul wants us to come away from this passage, not with a bunch of theological questions, but with an increased assurance and confidence that the God who began a good work in us will indeed bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. That’s the promise. That’s the hope.
Everything you do and say, everything people do to you or say about you, every experience you will ever have, it’s all lovingly used by our God for our good. You don’t always understand. You don’t always enjoy it. But we know our groanings are not in vain. They serve an eternal purpose that’s being worked out by the Creator of Heaven and Earth who groans right along with us to make it happen.
We do see sin and the sorry state of our world, but we also see our God’s redeeming love and power. So life for us is not a dreary waiting for some inevitable end to the death and decay, it’s an eager anticipation of the liberation, it’s an exciting hope and joy for the restoration and re-creation that’s already here and is still coming. It’s not a weary defeated kind of waiting. It’s a pulsing, active, vivid expectation and hope.
Hey, the pain and the groaning is real. But so is the glory! We’re not finished yet! God’s not done! He has a plan for you and for the whole world and it is glorious! He has established his risen Son on his eternal throne and the whole world that’s been plunged into pain by the ravages of our sin is being redeemed. The renovation is coming. The new heavens and new earth is coming. This is our Father’s world and he will do whatever he sees fit. And he sees fit to appoint it and us to groaning right now and glory forever.
Peace,
Allan
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