_THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER IN THE SAINTS: THEIR PRESENT AND ETERNAL WELFARE IN THE LOVE OF GOD_
ROMANS viii. 26-39
In the last paragraph the music of this glorious didactic prophecy passed, in some solemn phrases, into the minor mood. "_If we share His sufferings_"; "_The sufferings of this present season_"; "_We groan within ourselves_"; "_In the sense of our hope we were saved_." All is well. The deep harmony of the Christian's full experience, if it is full downwards as well as upwards, demands sometimes such tones; and they are all music, for they all express a life in Christ, lived by the power of the Holy Ghost. But now the strain is to ascend again into its largest and most triumphant manner. We are now to hear how our salvation, though its ultimate issues are still things of hope, is itself a thing of eternity--from everlasting to everlasting. We are to be made sure that all things are working now, in concurrent action, for the believer's good; and that his justification is sure; and that his glory is so certain that its future is, from his Lord's point of sight, present; and that nothing, absolutely nothing, shall separate him from the eternal Love.
But first comes one most deep and tender word, the last of its kind in the long argument, about the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. The Apostle has the "groan" of the Christian still in his ear, in his heart; in fact, it is his own. And he has just pointed himself and his fellow believers to the coming glory, as to a wonderful antidote; a prospect which is at once great in itself and unspeakably suggestive of _the greatness_ given to the most suffering and tempted saint by his union with his Lord. As if to say to the pilgrim, in his moment of distress, "Remember, you are more to God than you can possibly know; He has made you such, in Christ, that universal Nature is concerned in the prospect of your glory." But now, as if nothing must suffice but what is directly divine, he bids him remember also the presence in him of the Eternal Spirit, as his mighty but tenderest indwelling Friend. Even as "that blessed Hope," so, "_likewise also_," this blessed present Person, is the weak one's power. HE takes the man in his bewilderment, when troubles from without press him, and fears from within make him groan, and he is in sore need, yet at a loss for the right cry. And He moves in the tired soul, and breathes Himself into its thought, and His mysterious "groan" of divine yearning mingles with our groan of burthen, and the man's longings go out above all things not towards rest but towards God and His will. So the Christian's innermost and ruling desire is both fixed and animated by the blessed Indweller, and he seeks what the Lord will love to grant, even Himself and whatever shall please Him. The man prays aright, as to the essence of the prayer, because (what a divine miracle is put before us in the words!) the Holy Ghost, immanent in him, prays through him.
Thus we venture, in advance, to explain the sentences which now follow. It is true that St Paul does not explicitly say that the Spirit makes intercession _in_ us, as well as _for_ us. But must it not be so? For _where is He_, from the point of view of Christian life, but _in us_?
[Sidenote: Ver. 26.] =Then, in the same way, the Spirit also=--as well as "the hope"--=helps,= as with a clasping, supporting hand (συναντιλαμβάνεται), =our weakness,[139]= our shortness and bewilderment of insight, our feebleness of faith. =For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know; but the Spirit Itself interposes to intercede (ὑπερεντυγχάνει) for us, with groanings unutterable; but= (whatever be the utterance or no utterance) [Sidenote: Ver. 27.] =the Searcher of our (τὰς) hearts knows what is the mind,= the purport, =of the Spirit; because God-wise,[140]= with divine insight and sympathy, the Spirit with the Father, =He intercedes for saints.=