Romans 8:26-30, "Groaning Leads to Glory"

Ken MacLeod

Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

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When something makes you groan, what would you do to make it stop? Have you ever prayed for God to make some person or problem stop or go away and relieve your groaning? As we learn about prayer, we are learning that prayer begins by seeking God’s glory, and as Jesus taught us, it is also seeking God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done in our world and in our lives. But when we look around at our world and when we look at our own lives, there are plenty of reasons to groan. And that’s often what leads us to pray.

Our passage today teaches us that when the Holy Spirit prays for us, groaning leads to glory.

In a Broken World, Everybody Groans

Context: creation groans because we have sinned and broken our world

Romans 8:19 (ESV)

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

and we groan because even after we become believers, we still live in this broken world.

Romans 8:23 (ESV)

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

The world is not as it should be. We are not as we should be. Everyone and everything are groaning. Jesus has begun the redemption and restoration process and believers in Jesus receive a new life, a new start. But the process isn’t complete so we still experience the groaning of a broken world. But believers in Jesus also receive one more gift. It is the downpayment of the kingdom of God. We receive the Holy Spirit. So, while we may groan,

The Holy Spirit helps us.

Romans 8:26 (ESV)

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

The Holy Spirit groans too. But His groanings are very different than ours.

We are so messed up we do not even know what we should pray. In a world this broken, what should we ask God to do? Where would we start? We don’t even know.

We would pray for God to take away our problems. We would ask God to fix all the broken things right now. We would ask for lighter burdens or for Him to take them away completely. But is that His will? We saw last week that to pray in Jesus’ name is to surrender to His authority by trusting Him and obeying His word. In other words, we seek His kingdom come and His will to be done. He promised if we will pray like that, He will do anything we ask. How do we pray in Jesus’ name with that kind of confidence?

The Holy Spirit helps us. He prays for us. Creation groans, we groan, and the Holy Spirit prays with groans. But His groans aren’t like our groans. We groan because we don’t know what to pray. His groans are prayers so deep with meaning that they can’t be expressed by words in any human language. And His groans are moving toward a goal. God the Father understands His “groanings”.

Romans 8:27 (ESV)

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

This is encouraging in two ways. God is the one who searches hearts. You and I have prayed prayers that were wordless groans. We were feeling something we couldn’t put into words, and we just groaned to God. But He searched our heart to see what that feeling was and received the groanings as the true expression of a heart that doesn’t know what we should ask.

But the other encouragement is that the Holy Spirit completes our imperfect prayers. He picks up where we left off. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are perfectly united in mind, heart, and purpose. God the Father who searches our hearts also knows the mind of the Spirit. Their minds are completely open to each other. The result is that the Holy Spirit always prays the prayer we should have prayed. He prays according to God’s will.

Have you ever begun your prayer time by asking the Holy Spirit to tell you what you should pray? Before you begin asking God for things, start by asking Him what you should ask.

If we were left to figure out what we should pray on our own, what would we pray for? Think about that for yourself for a minute. If I was left to pray whatever came to my mind, what would I pray?

We aren’t shallow people. Most of us aren’t praying for luxuries, just for God to provide our needs. Most of us aren’t vindictive, praying for bad things to happen to anyone. But our world is not as it should be and we aren’t as we should be, so we might find ourselves praying for God to take away our problems or to give us what we think we need. But what I think I need, and what God knows I need might be very different. Someone last week said, I thank God sometimes for all the times He didn’t give me what I asked for. I agree. It would have been a disaster every time. Think about it this way: because we aren’t as we should be, our human nature wants a god made in our image who pleases us or does our will. Seeking the will and pleasure of Almighty God above my own does not come naturally.

Paul addresses the obvious question in the next verse. Can I trust that God’s will is better than mine? Will He do something about my groaning?

When the Holy Spirit Prays, Groaning Leads to Glory

Paul begins with reassurance. God’s purpose for us is good.

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

This is a promise that is both very encouraging and hard to swallow all at the same time. If I love God and I’m called according to His purpose, everything God works out in my life is good. Some people could misuse this verse to put a good face on every bad situation. But Paul is a realist. He has already said the world is broken and everyone is groaning until God’s kingdom comes in its fullness and believers are made whole. Can God use all the brokenness and pain for good?

I’m reading through the book of Job right now. That guy loved God and sought God’s purpose, and look what God did to him! Do I love God enough to trust His purpose for me even if it means losing everything I love? It’s hard to trust someone who is all powerful. It’s a little scary to think what He might do. Can I trust that He is also all loving and His purposes for me are good?

What is God’s purpose for us?

Romans 8:29–30 (ESV)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God loves you and has a purpose for your life. It is glorious freedom from bondage to corruption. It is restoration of the image of God in you.

Some restorations just need a couple cans of paint. This restoration is a lot deeper. It’s total. It’s the complete destruction of all the corruption of your sinful nature and replacing it with the nature of Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 29 again,

Romans 8:29 (ESV)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Jesus taught us and showed us through the cross that we have to die and be reborn. The only way to glory is through suffering and death. And Jesus went first. He died as our representative as the atonement for all our sin. Then He was raised for our justification. That means when we unite ourselves with Him through faith, we are made right by Him. So He is the firstborn among many brothers. We are being remade by and through Him. His death has led to glory, for Him and for us. We get to share in His glory. Our faith unites us with Him in His death to sin in the flesh, in His resurrection to new life, and in His glory as ruler in heaven.

So, verse 30 comes in,

Romans 8:30 (ESV)

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God calls us through the gospel to believe in Jesus as our Savior. If that calling leads to your believing in Jesus for your justification from sin, you can be sure He has predestined you for glory. This is His will for you. This is His purpose for your life, that we would live in His kingdom, have eternal life here and now by living in Christ.

This is why everything works together for your good if you love God. If you love God, you want His kingdom to come and His will to be done in your life. Just like Jesus, who prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was crucified, “Not my will but Yours be done,” when we surrender to God’s purposes, it will include suffering and trials and dying to everything we think we need and love in our human nature. But we will also share in the glory of Christ. Because as our human nature with its selfish desires and childish requests is destroyed and restored to the image of Jesus Christ, our life takes on new dimensions.

Our groaning and the groaning of all creation comes from the bondage of our sin and the ways we have broken our world. But by dying to self and living in Christ, you can live free of bondage to sin. You can live free from the bondage to self, self-rule, self-absorption, self-determination. You can be freed to become more like Jesus Christ. Jesus who taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” also embodied that prayer. And He lived according to that prayer. But it took dying to all selfish desires to seek the kingdom of God and His will be done.

Everyone in this broken world suffers. And in our human nature, we might pray that God would take away all suffering and difficulty and discomforts. But when those very things lead us to groan to God in faith, not knowing exactly what to pray, the Holy Spirit takes those imperfect expressions and forms them into new prayers. He is working toward God’s kingdom come and His will be done in our lives. And God loves us so much that He will lead us on paths that lead through suffering to glory.

Amy Carmichael was a British missionary to India. She worked for 36 years to establish an evangelistic and leader training ministry. Along with this, she risked her life to rescue girls from temple prostitution. After so much hard work for the Lord, anyone might have expected that He would provide her with the blessing of a restful retirement. Instead, she suffered a fall that left her bed-ridden for the last 20 years of her life. Instead of giving up, she began writing over 40 books.

In one of those she said, “All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness. All does not mean, all but these paths we are in now. All must mean all. So your path with its unexplained sorrow, and mine with its unexplained sharp flints and briers . . . are just lovingkindness, nothing less.”

Imagine how many times over 20 years she probably prayed, groaning to God to give her strength to get out of bed and work with the many people in need in southern India. But her eyes were on Jesus, and Jesus showed her a way that groaning leads to glory.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

What are some things that happened this week that made you cheerful? What are some things that made you groan?

When we go groaning to God in prayer, not knowing what we should ask, what is your natural tendency?

to ask the Holy Spirit to take over,

to complain,

to ask for God to take away your problem, or

to just say, “help”

What do we learn about God in this passage? What are some of the assurances or promises in this passage that help you?

What does it mean that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose? Can you give examples?

What is God’s purpose for believers in Jesus, according to Romans 8:29-30? What does someone who is being conformed to the image of Jesus look like?

In what ways do you see this conforming happening in your life right now? In what ways is that encouraging? In what ways is the conforming painful and hard?