CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 8:26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.—The divine Spirit works in the human spirit. ἐντυγχάνω, to light upon, to meet with a person. Then to go to meet a person for supplication. Hence to entreat, to pray; ὑπέρ, with genitive of person, to make intercession for any one.
Romans 8:27.—Though the prayer be, as some interpret the words, indistinct and inarticulate groanings, yet the divine Spirit can interpret every prayer which is inspired by Him.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 8:26-27
The spirit temple.—We are exhorted to remember St. Chrysostom’s celebrated saying with reference to the Shekinah, or ark of testimony, the visible representation of God among the Hebrews, “The true Shekinah is man”; the essence of our being is a breath of heaven, the highest being reveals itself in man. The highest being reveals itself in the spiritual man, for the divine Spirit helps our general weakness, suggests and leads our devotions. A radiancy of glory illuminates that human temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells.
I. Man is still a temple, but in ruins.—On the front of the human temple might once be read the inscription, “Here God dwells.” But the glory has departed; the lamps are extinct; the altar is overturned; the golden candlesticks are displaced; sweet incense is exchanged for poisonous vapour; homely order is turned into confusion; the house of prayer has become a den of thieves; Ichabod may be read on the ruins. The divine Spirit must purify the courts, restore the ruins, beautify the desolate places, and make a temple where incense and a pure offering shall arise to the Lord God of hosts.
II. Believing man is a temple restored.—It is sad to walk among the ruins of a deserted temple. It is pleasant to see that temple being reconstructed and rising out of its ruins even more beautiful than before. A saved man is a reconstructed temple. The broken carved work is so repaired that it surpasses in beauty the primeval glory; the altar is re-erected; the lamps glow with divine light; the golden candlesticks gleam with heavenly lustre; sweet incense floats through the aisles; gracious strains of music rise and swell to the lofty dome.
III. The believing man is a temple glorified.—We visit some earthly temples because they enshrine the sacred dust of departed heroes. They are like chapels of the dead. The temple of a believing man enshrines the living. The Holy Spirit glorifies the human spirit by His indwelling and His co-operating agency. We are to be the living temples of a living and indwelling Spirit. The essence of the spiritual man’s life is, not a mere breath from heaven, but an abiding and a life-giving influence.
IV. The believing man is a temple supported.—Our stone temples are supported by external buttresses. The weakness is repaired by outward appliances. The temples of spiritual humanity are supported by inward appliances. The Holy Spirit is the directing agent. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity, helps our general weakness, and makes us divinely strong. Hope is a sustaining grace. The Holy Spirit is a sustaining influence; likewise the spirit also. The human and the divine conjoin to subserve the gracious needs of a spiritual man groaning, sighing, and waiting for the infinite good.
V. The believing man is a temple inspired.—We cannot breathe into temples of stone divine yearnings. The Holy Spirit breathes into the temple of the spiritual man glorious aspirations. Our sighings after the infinite good are not our own; they are produced in us by One greater than our hearts. The groanings of the divine Spirit’s productions are not the groanings of a creation subject to bondage, vanity, and corruption, but the sighings of a renewed soul for a vaster and a higher life. These groanings tell of the kingdom of God within a man. The poet’s song sometimes tells of saddest thought; these groanings sing the poem of God’s kingdom established.
VI. The believing man is a temple where true worship is offered.—The earthly temple is not built and set apart to be admired as a piece of architecture. The Christian man is not set apart to be the lifeless monument of divine grace. Here true prayer is offered,—no Gregorian chants; no pealing anthems; no angel-voiced boys sweetly warbling words they do not feel; no elaborate prayers either read, extempore or memoriter, for the prayer is unformulated, unexpressed, What a strange worship! Groanings and sighings are heard in the temple—heard not by human ears, but by the divine mind. The divine Spirit in the human spirit maketh intercession. The temple is thus blessedly consecrated.
VII. The believing man is a temple where divine interpretations are given.—Our interpretations are often no interpretations. Misleading words are sometimes used to conceal our ignorance. The Spirit’s interpretations are real. “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.” He knoweth also the true mind of the yearning nature.
VIII. The believing man is a temple where divine harmonies prevail.—Here are harmonies not heard by human ears. The human will is made submissive to the divine will. Intercessions are going on within us and above us according to the will of God. A life according to the divine plan is a life of harmony. Temple service conducted by the Holy Spirit has not one discordant element. Let us learn the condescension of God and the true dignity of man. God by His Spirit dwells with and in men upon the earth. The true dignity of man consists in being the habitation of God by His Holy Spirit. Let the lamps of light and of love be ever trim, the one shining with heavenly brightness and the other burning with pious fervour. Let the beauties of holiness adorn the temple. In prayer let us seek to catch the tones of the still, small voice of the indwelling Spirit. Let man open the door of his heart-temple to the divine Seeker. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Can man let Him wait? Behold the desolation, and behold the true Repairer. Behold the discords, and behold the true Harmoniser. Surely man will say, Come in, Thou heavenly Restorer; take full possession of my nature; let my human spirit be the temple, unworthy though it be, for the divine Spirit!
Unutterable groans.—“Groanings that cannot be uttered.” It is with the Holy Spirit that we are here brought face to face, or set side by side. As Christ does the whole work for us, so the Holy Spirit does the whole work in us. He is not visible, nor audible, nor palpable; but not on that account the less real and personal. Here, it is His way of dealing with us and our infirmities that it is particularly referred to. We are described as feeble men, bearing on our shoulders a burden too heavy to be borne; He comes up to us, not exactly to take away the burden, nor to strengthen us under it, but to put His own almighty shoulder under it, in the room of (ἀντι) and along with (συν) ours; thus lightening the load, though not changing it; and bearing the heavier part of it with His own almightiness. Thus it is that He “helpeth” (συναντιλαμβάνεται) our infirmities; making us to feel both the burden and the infirmity all the while that He helps; nay, giving us such a kind and mode of help as will keep us constantly sensible of both. This is especially true in regard to our prayers. Here it is that His “help” comes in so effectually and so opportunely; so that we are made to “pray in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 1:20), to “pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). Let us, then, learn:—
I. True prayer is from the indwelling Spirit.—It is He that wakes up prayer in us, both as to its matter and its manner. We knew not what or how to pray.
II. True prayer takes the form of a divine intercession.—We have Christ in heaven on the throne, and the Spirit on earth in our hearts, interceding; Christ pleading for us as if we were one with Him, the Spirit pleading in us as if we were one with Him and He with us.
III. True prayer often takes the form of groans.—The longings produced in us by the indwelling Spirit are such as cannot give vent to themselves in words. Our hearts are too full; our voice is choked; articulation is stifled; we can only groan. But the groan is true prayer. Man could not interpret it; we ourselves do not fully understand it. But God does. “He knows the meaning of the Spirit’s ‘groans’ ” (Baxter). For thus we groan with the rest of a groaning creation; and all these groans are at length to be heard and fully answered.
1. Put yourself into the hands of the Spirit, for prayer and everything else.
2. Grieve not the Spirit. He is willing to come to you, and take up your case; but beware of grieving Him.
3. Pray much. Pray in the Spirit. Delight in prayer. Cherish the Spirit’s groans.—H. Bonar.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 8:26-27
Prayer.—True prayer is not pestering the throne with passionate entreaties that a certain method of deliverance which seems best to us should be forthwith effected; but is a calm utterance of need, and a patient, submissive expectance of fitting help, of which we dare not define the manner or the time. They are wisest, most trustful, and reverent who do not seek to impose their notions or wills on the clearer wisdom and deeper love to which they betake themselves, but are satisfied with leaving all to His arbitrament. True prayer is the bending of our own wills to the divine, not the urging of ours on it. When Hezekiah received the insolent letter from the invader, he took it and “spread it before the Lord,” asking God to read it, leaving all else to Him to determine, as if he had said, Behold, Lord, this boastful page. I bring it to Thee’ and now it is Thine affair more than mine. The burden which we roll on God lies lightly on our own shoulders; and if we do roll it thither, we need not trouble ourselves with the question of how He will deal with it.—Maclaren.
The Spirit helps in our groaning.—The Holy Spirit, by means of the gospel which explains the meaning of the death of Christ, makes us conscious of God’s love; and thus gives us the confidence of children, and elicits the cry, My Father God. Since this cry is the result of the Spirit’s presence in our heart, it is the cry both of our own spirit and of the Spirit of God. It is uttered amid weariness and sorrow. Our present circumstances are utterly at variance with our true dignity as revealed by the Spirit. The contrast makes the present life a burden, and compels us to look forward eagerly to the day when we shall take our proper place as the sons of God. Our dissatisfaction with present surroundings, and our yearning for something better, give rise to inward groanings which words cannot express. Since these are a result of the filial confidence with which the Spirit by His own presence fills our hearts, they are the groans both of our own spirit and of the Spirit of God. Whatever is at variance with our dignity as sons is at variance with His purpose touching us. Whatever hinders the full development of our sonship hinders His work in us. Hence our yearning is the expression of His mind concerning us. Therefore by moving us to yearn He groans and yearns within us. By so doing He helps us in a way in which we specially need help. Left to ourselves, we should desire and long for that which is not good. But now we are sure that our longings are according to God’s will, for they are wrought in us by His Spirit. Again, since our longings express the purpose of the Spirit, they plead with God for their own fulfilment. To gratify our yearnings is to accomplish the purpose of His own Spirit—i.e., of Himself. Therefore by filling our hearts with His own desires and purposes concerning us the Spirit within us cries to the Father above us. This cry the Father cannot refuse to answer. That the voice is inaudible does not lessen its efficacy; for God hears the silent wish of the heart. He knows the purpose for which the Spirit has come to dwell within us—knows it to be in accordance with His own will, and to be a purpose of blessing for men whom God has made specially His own. In short, our own yearnings, resulting as they do from the presence of the Spirit, are themselves a pledge of their own realisation.—Beet.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Romans 8:26. Gray’s teleautograph.—“The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.” Through Christ the Holy Spirit communicates our desires to God and God’s grace to us. He speaks our particular wants to God Professor Gray’s teleantograph enables one to transmit his own handwriting by wire to a great distance. What is written in Chicago is reproduced in facsimile in a distant city. It is especially adapted for commercial purposes and the practical work of business men. So God’s Spirit reproduces our desires, words, and deeds; and we have a witness in heaven and a record on high: all is spoken in heaven.—Benignitas.