Studies in Romans

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 10, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 24.

Studies in Romans

The Intercession of the Spirit.

Rom. 8:24-27.

THE book of Romans contains climax after climax in its presentation of the deliverance from sin. In the study of previous verses in the book, we have learned, among other things, of the plan by which the Lord gives us His own righteous life in exchange for all our past life of sin; we have learned of the plan by which He gives power to keep us in the life of right-doing; how He gives us control over every fleshly lust; how He adopts us into His own heavenly family as sons and daughters, making us "joint-heirs" with His own Son; and then we come, in the next verses to be considered, to the further climax of the knowledge of the fact that our heavenly Father has arranged for His own Holy Spirit to pray for us:

"For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Rom. 8:24-27.

We are saved in hope. "But hope that is seen is not hope." The life that is beyond can not be known by sight. Neither do we have the knowledge that comes by sight in our salvation from sin; this knowledge comes by faith thru the operations of the mind. This knowledge that comes by faith fills us with hope. And so we are willing to wait patiently for that which has inspired our hope.

While in this waiting, testing time, knowing the strength of the sinful tendencies that we have to combat, we might be tormented by fear lest we should eventually fail of reaching that for which we are striving; therefore the Lord gives us the strong and assuring promise: "In like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity." The mighty power of the Spirit of God is given to help our infirmity. Our weakness is recognized, and the Lord sends His own omnipotent strength into that very weakness so that we may be sure of constant victory. Human weakness can not successfully combat sin; but divine power can, and this power comes to each of God's children thru the agency of the Spirit.

A hundred pounds would seem an impossible load for the average man if he were asked to carry it half a mile; but the same hundred pounds would not be felt by a powerful locomotive in case the weight were thrown upon a car of its moving train. And so it is in the matter of overcoming sin. If we have power enough with which to combat sin, the task is not only rendered possible, but it is handled with ease. The gift of the Spirit of God is also the gift of the mighty power of God.

Said the Master to His disciples, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8. Here is the secret of the whole matter: "Ye shall receive power." The question is not in regard to the magnitude of the sins we have to combat, but it is the plenitude of the power that our God sends to us and places within us. The task of overcoming the sin may seem to us an insurmountable one. The clamorings for gratification and indulgence may seem so strong as to be past the possibilities of control. But all of these clamorings, these besetments, these lusts, are swallowed up in the infinite ocean of divine power.

Then we need not, and we should not, live in the agony of fear lest we should not be able to overcome. We should live amid the delights and the adorations produced by the knowledge and the experience that pervades the soul thru the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

"For we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered." Christians are often asked to pray for people; but we may have the

Spirit of God Himself to make intercession for us. He goes into the very depths of our inner hearts and lives, and brings forth those things that can not be uttered—longings and yearnings that we have no power to express; He goes even deeper than that and brings petitions before the throne of God for things that we do not understand and that we can not appreciate the need of, “for we know not how to pray as we ought.”

Then when the Spirit presents before the throne of God these deep things—things that our fellow men who live the most intimately with us could not understand if we should try to tell them, yes, even things that we ourselves do not understand about ourselves and about the far-reaching possibilities of our defects and failings, yet are they intelligible to our Father. For “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

God searches our hearts. He knows what they contain. He knows what we each and every one need in order to perfect our characters. And so He sends His Spirit into our hearts to search out everything that stands between us and perfection, and this is all brought before His throne so that it may be put out of the way, destroyed forever thru the atoning blood of Christ.

Then those who are afraid that there may be some sin that they will overlook and so not have it confessed and put out of the way may take courage. We are not left to the task of searching our own hearts in our finite strength. If we but place our cases in His hands, the divine Father will do this searching, and every hidden spring of evil will be uncovered, and strength and wisdom will be imparted to put it all away. If we place our cases with Him and keep them there, we may rest assured that there is no possible chance for failure. He who is infinite in power and wisdom can assure success in each case. T.