“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 the saints according to the will of God.”
In examining this text we can see that it provides some difficulties in interpretation; for instance, what sorts of “weakness”? Whose “groanings”? Groanings from what? Who is it that is searching hearts? Let’s deal with these questions as they approach us in the text.
Last week we saw Paul personify the created world, and he continues with this in verse twenty-two. “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” As we well know, giving birth is a painful and difficult experience, and Paul is saying that creation itself is struggling with labor pains.
Last week we spent a few pages examining verse eighteen and today we will consider the three verses that follow. Since there exists a relationship between verses eighteen and nineteen through twenty-one, let’s consider them together.
As if verse seventeen were not magnificent enough, we come now to one of my favorite verses in all of scripture, number eighteen which reads, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
16 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Last week in examining verses fourteen through sixteen we were introduced to the idea that God calls Christians His children, sons and daughters of God, that He has adopted us into His family, and that out of that relationship we can now call Him our Father, what Jesus Himself called Him. (Mark 14:36) Paul continues with his powerful reasoning in verse seventeen, pointing out that being a child of God has deep implications, namely, that as adopted children of Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, we are therefore also heirs.
There is something very shiny and new that emerges from today’s text
12 “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
I am going to start today’s study by referencing the notes from the ESV Study Bible, p. 2170.
Rom. 8:12 A conclusion is drawn from the previous verses. Since Christians live in the Spirit, they are no longer captive to the flesh and should no longer live according to the flesh.
Rom. 8:13 Those who give their lives over to the flesh will face eternal death, but those who slay the desires of the flesh through the power of the Spirit will enjoy eternal life. God and believers each have a role in sanctification: it must be by the Spirit and his power, but you put to death shows that one must take an active role in battling sinful habits.
In these three verses we see the Trinity displayed loudly and clearly. While some maintain that the word Trinity is not actually in the Bible (and they’re right) the idea of the Trinity certainly is and in these three verses it could not be much plainer. Note the text below:
6 “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”(Romans 8:1-8)