"And in like manner (as helping with respect to our bodies) 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. But He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He intercedes for saints according to God. But we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to’ those who are called according to purpose" (Romans 8:26-28, J.N.D. trans.).
This last verse is closely connected with the intercession of the Spirit. The Apostle states both what "we do not know," and what "we do know." "We do not know what we should pray for as is fitting," but "we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God." This statement comes in to meet the need of an exercised soul and not as an abstract doctrine. It is through the groanings, the perplexities, and the difficulties in proving what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God, that we are led to leave all things in His hand, rather than choose for ourselves; to rest in holy confidence that under His wise master hand all things are working together for good, although we may not know what to pray for in a given situation.
To illustrate what these "weaknesses" ("infirmities" in the Authorized Version) may be to which the Spirit joins its help_ which to us is an intelligent sigh or groan_let us consider a Christian father of a family laid on a bed of sickness. His own personal gain would be to depart and be with Christ, but he sees those around him whom he is bringing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and his anxiety is for them. Shall he plead to be raised up for their sakes? He is in a strait; conflicting thoughts rise within. He is deeply exercised. He knows not what to pray for. He feels almost as though he could not pray. He groans inwardly. Here is the intercession of the Spirit. The conflict ends. His times are in the hands 6f the Lord. If God takes him, He can "turn His hand on the little ones." God can take better care of them than the father, and He will not take away the father without filling the father’s place Himself. Such an exercise of soul therefore, under God’s hand, is working together with other things for good, bringing out into prominence God’s promises as blessed realities and leading the soul to look unto Jesus as the perfect pattern and to say humbly, yet sincerely, "Not my will, but Thine be done."
These "weaknesses" then, or infirmities, while they result from our being still in the flesh and in the world, are not common to man as man, but are characteristic of "the saints." Being in and of one creation for a time, yet belonging to another creation essentially and forever, we groan because of the strangeness of our actual condition. One special weakness is that, due to our condition, we are unable intelligently to ask God to meet our need. We are perplexed and drawn different ways. The soul may labor to pour itself out before God and yet not know how to utter its complaint or what to ask for. Here the Spirit comes in to our help and by means of a groan or a sigh makes intercession for us. "He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit." He knows what the real need is and what the right remedy is, because the intercession of the Spirit is according to God’s perfect understanding of our case, and not according to our ignorance. This is a doctrine_a truth_that is of solid comfort to the soul.
The Lord has made known in former times His deep interest and concern about the tears of His children (Psa. 56:8) and has assured them that "in all their affliction He was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9). But until redemption was actually accomplished by the work of Christ on the cross, the doctrine of the intercession of the Spirit could not be announced. Until the Lord Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit could not come down from Heaven to dwell in the Church as the other Comforter and to take His place of intercession. It is only when the flesh and the Spirit are understood to be in total opposition to one another, and we have learned to judge the flesh according to’ God, that we discover that there may be intelligence with God in a sigh or a groan.
In detailing his experience in Philippians 1:21-26, the Apostle Paul furnishes us with an example of a weakness to which we are all subject on account of our present condition. His perplexity resulted from his personal spiritual feelings drawing him one way and his spiritual judgment another. There was nothing sinful in this conflict. However holy and pure his personal feeling_a feeling only possible in one born of God_it needed to be lost in the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. One, only, could say in perfection, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." We must, indeed, take perfection as our example, but in our case, personal feelings have often to be crossed, and always to be exercised in order to bring us into approval of and delight in the will of God.
"For me," says the Apostle, "to live is Christ, and to die gain; but if to live in flesh is my lot, this is for me worth the while:and what I shall choose I cannot tell" (Philippians 1:21-22, J.N.D. trans.). The sum of human life is, to many who are of the world, a dilemma between two evils; and unfaithfulness often brings Christians themselves into a like predicament. In the case of the Apostle, however, it was a choice between two blessed things:his own personal joy to be with the Lord, and his service to the Lord in serving the saints. To be "in a strait betwixt two" is an instance of the weakness resulting from the condition in which we are as Christians in the world.
Our groanings, then, caused by the frequent perplexities of our circumstances, form the basis of the Spirit’s intercession before God. In result, we understand in the intelligence of faith |and learn to appreciate how that "all things work together for good" to us, combining to serve God’s will in our lives.