Romans 8:26 - Meaning and Application

The apostle points to two more privileges that belong to true Christians. The first is the help of the Spirit in prayer. While we live in this world, hoping for what we do not yet see, we must keep praying. Hope includes desire, and when that desire is lifted to God, it becomes prayer. We groan in our need.

We are weak in prayer. We do not know what we should pray for as we ought. We often do not know what to ask for, because we are not wise judges of what is best for us. Who knows what is good for a person in this life? (Ecclesiastes 6:12). We are short-sighted, and we usually favor the flesh, that is, our sinful self. We also tend to want the goal without the path that leads to it. “You do not know what you are asking” (Matthew 20:22). We are like foolish children who cry for fruit before it is ripe and fit for them (Luke 9:54-55).

We also do not know how to pray as we ought. It is not enough to do something good, we must do it well and in the right order. Here we often struggle. Our graces are weak, our feelings are cold, our thoughts wander, and we do not always find a willing heart for prayer (2 Samuel 7:27). Paul speaks in the first person, “we know not,” and includes himself with the rest. All believers complain of foolishness, weakness, and distraction in prayer. If Paul himself felt this need, how little reason do we have to try to pray in our own strength!

But the Spirit helps our weakness, especially our weakness in prayer, where we are most likely to stumble. The Spirit helps us through the Word, which gives rules and promises, and he helps us in the heart by dwelling in us and working in us as a Spirit of grace and prayer, especially when we are suffering and faith is most likely to fail. For this purpose, the Holy Spirit was given. “Helps” means he helps alongside us, like someone helping another person lift a heavy load by lifting at the other end. He helps with us, meaning he works with us as we use the strength we have. We must not sit still and expect the Spirit to do everything. When the Spirit goes before us, we must stir ourselves into action. We cannot do it without God, and he will not do it without us.

What kind of help is this? The Spirit himself intercedes for us. He shapes our requests, forms our petitions, and draws up our plea for us. Christ intercedes for us in heaven, and the Spirit intercedes for us in our hearts. In this way, God has kindly provided for his praying people. As an enlightening Spirit, he teaches us what to pray for. As a sanctifying Spirit, he stirs up holy desires. As a comforting Spirit, he quiets our fears and carries us through discouragements. The Holy Spirit is the source of all our desires and longings toward God.

This intercession comes with groanings that cannot be put into words. That shows the strength and earnestness of the desires the Holy Spirit creates. There can be true praying in the Spirit when no words are spoken, as when Moses prayed (Exodus 14:15) and Hannah prayed (1 Samuel 1:13). It is not polished speech or clever language that the Spirit works in us, but faith and earnestness. These groanings cannot be fully expressed because the soul is so pressed with temptations and troubles that we do not know what to say or how to say it. Yet the Spirit intercedes with these unspoken groans. When we can only cry, “Abba, Father,” and commit ourselves to him with humble confidence, that is the Spirit’s work.

This intercession is also according to the will of God (Romans 8:27). The Spirit in the heart never goes against the Spirit in the Word. Desires that oppose God’s will do not come from the Spirit. When the Spirit intercedes in us, he always bends our will toward God’s will: “Not as I will, but as you will.”

These intercessions are sure to succeed. “He who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is” (Romans 8:27). For a hypocrite, whose religion lives only in the tongue, it is dreadful that God searches the heart and sees through every disguise. But for a sincere Christian, who makes his duty a matter of the heart, it is a comfort that God searches the heart. Then he will hear and answer the desires we cannot put into words. He knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8). He knows the mind of his own Spirit in us. Just as he always hears the Son interceding for us, so he always hears the Spirit interceding in us, because that intercession is according to his will. Nothing more could be done for the comfort of the Lord’s people in their prayers to God. Christ said that whatever we ask the Father according to his will, he will give us. But how do we learn to ask according to his will? The Spirit teaches us that. That is why the seed of Jacob never seeks in vain.

The second privilege is this: all providences, that is, all God’s dealings in our lives, work together for the good of those who belong to Christ (Romans 8:28). Someone might object that believers still face many troubles. Even if the Spirit intercedes for them, their sufferings go on. That is true. Yet the Spirit’s intercession is always effective in this way, that no matter what happens to them, all things are working together for their good.

We should notice the character of the saints who share in this promise. They are described by marks that belong to all who are truly sanctified, that is, made holy by God. They love God. This includes all the soul’s movements toward God as the highest good and final goal. Our love for God is what makes every providence sweet, and therefore useful. Those who love God make the best of all he does and accept it well. They are also the called according to his purpose, effectually called, meaning God truly brings them to himself according to his eternal plan. This call is effective, not because of any merit in us, but because of God’s gracious purpose.

The privilege of the saints is that all things work together for their good, meaning all the providences of God that concern them. Everything God does, he does for them (Psalm 57:2). Their sins are not part of what he does, so they are not included here, though even his allowing sin can be made to serve their good (2 Chronicles 32:31). But all God’s providences belong to them, merciful ones and painful ones, personal and public alike. All of them are for good. That may mean temporal good, as with Joseph’s troubles, or at least spiritual and eternal good. What is truly good for them is what does good to their souls. Either directly or indirectly, every providence tends toward the spiritual good of those who love God, turning them from sin, drawing them closer to God, loosening their hold on the world, and fitting them for heaven. Work together.

They work in different ways, just as medicine acts on the body in different ways according to the doctor’s purpose, yet all for the patient’s good. They work together, like several ingredients in a medicine that all serve one purpose. God has set one thing against another (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

The word used here points to the strong harmony of Providence, God’s wise rule over all events, and to its steady purpose. It is as if all the wheels move as one wheel (Ezekiel 10:13). Some read the verse this way: He works all things together for good. The good does not come from any special power in the events themselves, but from God’s power and grace working in, with, and through them.

We know this with certainty from God’s word, from our own experience, and from the experience of all believers.