“The Spirit Intercedes for the Saints” Romans 8:12-17, 26-27

One of the most interesting books in the Bible is that of Job. Job, a righteous man in God’s eyes, is allowed to endure hardships unimaginable to many of us, yet he remained faithful. His appearance was so bad, that his friends who came to console him were so horrified at his appearance that the Bible says they hardly recognized him. They spent seven days and nights in silence with Job before Job finally said something.

While Job was discussing his dilemma with his friends, he made this statement: “He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot” (Job 9:32-35).

Thus has it ever been—we want to talk with God about matters, we want to hear what He has to say. Too often, we fail to understand that, as new creations, that is exactly what God has provided us. By the presence of His Holy Spirit, God has given us what Job yearned for—the chance to speak openly with God and to listen to Him in return.

Central Truth: Being a new creation in Christ, we are able to communicate with God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit:

1. Frees us to live for Christ(12-14)

Paul’s letter to the Romans is his introduction to them. As such, he wants them to know what he understands of the Gospel. The result is a letter that contains the theology of Paul in a very readable way. Paul introduces the power of the Gospel, then discusses why everyone in the world is in need of God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ. The apostle then discusses how God has worked through Christ and the Holy Spirit to set us free from sin and make us servants of Christ.

Oddly enough, going from servitude from one master to another would seem at first blush to be not much of a change. The difference is that becoming a servant of Christ sets us free from bondage to sin and to the Law. No longer are we seeking to earn God’s favor—it has been freely disposed to us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, because of our new relationship and our new position, we are serving Him out of love and commitment. We do what we do not because we have to but because we want to. We believe His words are the words of life, and so we gladly follow and do His bidding.

As we look at these first few verses, Paul is summarizing why we obey Christ. The reason is that we are obligated to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit because we are now children of God. This obligation again is not a “have to,” but a faith statement of love and commitment. We no longer wish to indulge the things of the flesh—which lead to death—but now want to embrace our new life as a new creation through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that “puts to death the misdeeds of the body,” which allows us to live in Christ. It is this Spirit that not only allows us to live for Christ, but He also brings us into our very precious relationship with the Father.

2. Makes us God’s children (15-17

One of the most interesting things about Jesus’ ministry is the introduction of the concept of God as Father. Malachi refers to God as the Father in the sense that all life is created by Him, but Jesus takes the idea and makes it into a personal, intimate relationship. Jesus begins the Model Prayer with the phrase, “Our Father, Who is in heaven. . .” He constantly refers to God as His Father. There is a deeper awareness of God because Jesus introduced the idea of God as Father.

About 30 years ago, Kim and I were in a Bible study and one of the questions was, “In light of the realization that all fathers are not ideal, that some are abusive or absentee, is it appropriate to continue to refer to God as ‘Father’?” My response was, “Yes, we should.” I will readily grant that not all dads are examples of the ideal father—we have all fallen short. The Bible acknowledges this. Jesus reminded us that we, who are imperfect, are willing to give what is good to our children. Nonetheless, even if we had the worst father in the world, we still have an idea of what a father should be. We all understand that a father is someone who is supposed to have our best interest at heart, someone who will want to guide us and protect us and provide for us. Because of this, it is very important that we refer to God as Father.

I say all this because of the verses we look at now. We receive the Spirit of sonship, allowing us to call out to God as “Abba, Father.” This “abba” is the informal term that a child would often use to refer to their father. It’s the equivalent of “dad” or “daddy.” The Spirit that takes us away from being slaves of fear brings us into a very real and close relationship with the God of the universe. This God we can now call “father” using the most intimate of terms, and He will not turn away.

The term suggests that God is not a stern, Victorian-age father, but one who is actively involved with His children. To put it in terms we would understand, He shows up at all our games, our school activities and our shows. He takes the time to read us bedtime stories, to tuck us into bed, to kiss our boo-boos.

The significance of these verses cannot be stressed enough. I remember reading stories of Abraham Lincoln. He was said to be an indulgent father who doted on his sons. I’ve read that his son, Tad, could and would often interrupt cabinet meetings to show his father something or ask his father a question. The president, in the middle of the Civil War, would stop what he was doing and tend to his son’s interruption. Maybe we should say that Tad should have been directed as to boundaries, but what Lincoln was teaching his son was that Tad was the most important person in the world to his father.

That’s what God does for us. We think sometimes that God is too busy or too involved in much grander things than our small lives, but that doesn’t matter. He cares. He cares enough to want to pay attention to our interruptions. He is never too busy for us. He is always available.

3. Makes our prayer life effective (26-27)

The wonderful thing about the role of the Holy Spirit is not just that He frees us to live in Christ or even that He enables us to become the children of God. One of the wonderful roles of the Holy Spirit is that He also makes it possible for us to communicate with God in an intimate way.

Really, when we think about it, it makes perfect sense that the same Spirit who enables us to cry, “Abba, Father” is also the one who takes our small efforts to speak and makes our word intelligible to God, as well as makes God’s will known to us. We looked at our awareness of God’s thoughts and ways earlier in this series, but now we also see that He works to make our words known to the Father.

When we first moved to Port O’Connor, Stephen was three years old, still learning to speak. Sometimes, his words would be hard to understand. There was a man in our church, Rupert, who Stephen seemed to like to speak to. One day, Rupert told me in an apologetic tone that he had a hard time understand- ing Stephen. I told him that I understood, and if I was around when Stephen talked to him, I would interpret.

That’s the role of the Holy Spirit. The beauty of this promise is that it goes in line with God’s knowing us better than we know ourselves. Remember, in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus told us God knows our needs before we ask Him (Matthew 6:12); this passage supports this truth. God knows our needs, and He knows our thoughts. He knows the way we feel and the way we see our world. When we come to Him in prayer, then, He wants us to know that our words will be taken in the way they’re meant to be taken. He wants us to understand that He takes our feeble efforts to speak with Him and puts them into a language that makes sense. The glorious thing about this passage is that it assures us that our prayers are not only being heard, but they are being understood and communicated faithfully and accurately.

Not only is the Spirit interpreting our words, but He is also interceding on our behalf. It’s sort of like, “Father, Your child is asking You to intercede for him (or her) at work, claiming things are difficult. This is a genuine concern, Father, and I, also, ask that You act accordingly.”

Conclusion

The promise that we are a new creation bestows on us immeasurable gifts and benefits. By being a new creation in the image of God, by being brought to life by the Holy Spirit that indwells us allows us not only to know God’s ways, but assures us that God knows our ways, as well. He is involved in our lives as a loving, caring Father is involved in the lives of his children’s lives. We are set free to worship Him and serve Him and follow Him and love Him. We are enabled by this Spirit to become all that God wants us to be if we will only let Him.