Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. (27) Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

The letter to the Romans was written to the faithful in Rome by the apostle Paul. The Holy Spirit has been the main focus of chapter 8 and today’s verses are not introducing a new subject. The Spirit of God is indwelling in every believer and is the primary agent in our sanctification, our spiritual journey. The Spirit, like hope, sustains and supports the believer for He teaches us how to pray. We don’t know what to pray for as we don’t know what’s best for us. The Spirit gives our desires a language heard and understood by God; He intercedes for us and acts as our advocate. In the indwelling Spirit the believer enjoys some of what they are to receive hereafter.

The Spirit teaches us how to pray and guides us in what to pray for; gives us appropriate desires and works within us to awaken certain desires and feelings in our hearts. It is a joint agency of divine and human, more especially in those emotions and aspirations which we are unable to put into words. Some emotions are too big for words. The desires produced by the Spirit are agreeable to the will of God and Paul is teaching here about the release of the soul from the body in which the sin principle dwells – the release from those attitudes and dispositions that turn us from God – the seeking after desires of flesh and mind; seeking to be great in this world. The Spirit makes intercession for us when we don’t know what or how to pray.

The point of our verses today is we should pray according to God’s will as best we can but if God’s decreed will differs from our prayers, the Spirit will correct our requests. This is exactly in line with step 11 of the 12 steps of Acoholics Anonymous: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.”

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (19) For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; (21) because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (20) For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now, (23) Not only that, but we also have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul to the faithful in Rome addressing the certainty of God’s eternal plan of redemption. All of history since the fall is marked by suffering – violence and death are not natural but the result of the curse of man’s sin – this text assumes God is the creator of all that is and it is not by chance or random. Suffering is the result of sin – the whole human race sinned in Adam and the curse of God fell on man- the subjection of corruption was by the voluntary act of man’s divinely constituted head and representative but it was not final and hopeless because in Christ man will be delivered into the glorious redemption – delivered from present misery and desire of future good. Our verses give a wide perspective of God’s great plan of redemption which is at the heart of Paul’s theology. In faith, in Christ, we have been saved and in this power we live. We are sustained in suffering, which is relatively insignificant to eternal life, is Paul’s doctrine of grace. We walk by faith, not by sight.

Paul broadened his view of glorification to include all of creation. Because of the fall God subjected the whole of creation to futility so it never reached the perfection He originally intended it to receive. The whole of rational and irrational creation, animate and inanimate – the whole human race – is under the curse of God because of sin. Paul is thinking about release from this body in which the sin principle dwells. The Holy Spirit who dwells in us at the moment of faith in ways that are not the ways of articulate speech and intercedes for the faithful. There are 2 sets of sons on this earth: the sons of God who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the sons of disobedience. For the latter the future is not glory but the future is wrath. They shall have a resurrection but it will be to judgment and damnation. The faithful shall have a resurrection into life. By God’s command the Israelites were to offer to God the first fruits of their harvest, confident the rest of the harvest will follow. Just so, Christ is called the first fruit of resurrection meaning there are others who are going to be resurrected; that is you and I.

The day will come for the renewal of creation, both man and the renewal of the earth, when the curse of Genesis 3 will be removed. Future glory includes full renewal of creation to its original perfection and purpose. There will be freedom from sin and its corruption including the full redemption of our bodies. Now we are able NOT to sin but in glory we will NOT BE ABLE to sin. From c.s.lewis in his book The Great Divorce (my favorite) he writes “Son, ‘he said, ‘ye cannot in your present state understand eternity…….That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven once attained, will work backward and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say “Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences”: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death.”

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ….(11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh. (13) For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He has just finished with God’s plan of salvation – we are justified in faith in Jesus Christ without the works of the law – and now moves in chapter 8 to the theme of security of believers. He begins with my favorite verse of Romans: 8:1, a statement that required no qualifying clause, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” God sees the believer in Christ Jesus and thus seen, he is free from all condemnation. All question of judgment is settled. We are reminded that two exactly opposite principles are involved. We either live after the flesh as natural man and unsaved/alienated from God or we live after the Spirit, in faith in Christ, reborn of the word and Spirit of God. There are only two ways to live with only two outcomes – to live according to the flesh ends in eternal death; to live according to the Spirit ends with eternal life. Our flesh is our old nature that we were born with and to live according to its desires is self centered and opposed to God.

Sin always destroys lives , always dangles the promise of happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction but that is only bait to lure the victim into a trap which leads to eternal death. We rationalize our behavior, excuse it, tolerate it as normal or even a good thing. Here we also have Paul’s assurance of the continuing struggle that goes on in a believer’s life – sanctification is a process. Since God has claimed the believer we owe nothing to the flesh and are not debtors to its service. The body is for the Lord – Paul is talking here about the body of the living believer who has new life in a body subject to physical death. Because God raised up Christ there is ground to believe He would raise up His people also – the redemption of Christ extends to the bodies as well as the souls of His people.

There is no profit, no holiness, no happiness for those who are out of Christ. The necessity of holiness is absolute while the destruction of sin is a slow and painful process. We are to behave as we believe.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in the newness of life……(8) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. (10) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all: but the life that He lives, He lives to God. (11) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. In today’s verses, Paul teaches the most common and yet unfounded objection to the doctrine of faith is it allows men to live in sin so that grace may more abound and this notion comes from ignorance of the doctrine of sanctification. Such is the nature of the believer’s union in Christ that this living in sin is not merely inconsistent but a contradiction in terms. Union with Christ as the only source of holiness cannot be the source of sin – this is unfounded and absurd. To share His benefits we must be conformed to His life. We are not delivered from sin in order to live in it.

Paul is teaching/ proving that our union, in Jesus Christ is completely opposed to a life of continuing sin. But he knows we are prone to forget our new position in Christ which is the foundation for holy living. In faith in Christ we would live in victory over sin – Christ paid the penalty for us but also provides the power we need to overcome sin on a daily basis. The faithful don’t live in sin as they used to do, now baptized in Christ, because they aren’t the same person. Before we were in Adam and now we are in Christ. In Adam we were dead in sin. In Faith we are dead TO sin and alive in Christ. Paul is talking about what God has revealed, not the knowledge that we gain by personal experiences. Some view salvation as a deliverance only from the consequences of sin and it’s penalty rather than deliverance from its power as well. When we trusted in Christ we were united with Him – a past action with ongoing results. We are not now dead physically but joined to Him in spiritual benefits of His death. Our unregenerate life is over so we do not need to obey our old nature. Knowing who we are in Christ is the foundation of how we are to live in Christ.

Some evidently think that to go on happily in sin – now saying in effect that once we have believed in Jesus Christ we may be rather loose in our Christian life – free from the moral law of God. Being a believer and living in sin is contrary to biblical teaching. If our new life is characterized by sin it’s not the life of salvation. The point is, in faith it is impossible to go on living in sin. But our nature might reason in a contrary way and tell the believer that as long as he/she is under grace and not the law, it matters little how we behave. That the believer is free to sin since his/her works have nothing to do with salvation. BUT as reborn the faithful do not want the liberty to sin. Sin is in one respect a faithful master. It’s payday is sure. It’s wages are death. Scripture clearly tells of divine judgment after sin’s wages have been paid. On the other hand eternal life is a free gift, the gift of God. None can earn it. It is given to all who believe the gospel.