01.03. PRAYING BY THE SPIRIT

3. PRAYING BY THE SPIRIT For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18) The Bible teaches that we must pray through the Son, to the Father, by the Spirit. But not everyone has the Son (1 John 5:12), and not everyone has the Spirit (Romans 8:9); therefore, not everyone can pray to the Father. It is important to understand the relationship between prayer and the exclusivity of Christianity, because if not everyone has access to God, then one who prays better possess a correct sense of what and who he is before God. Is he still the enemy of God, or has God changed his heart and given him the gift of faith to embrace the gospel? The exclusivity of Christianity continues to be important and relevant for the Christian, since he ought to retain a sense of gratitude and awe that he has indeed been chosen to approach God: "Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts" (Psalms 65:4, NKJ). Rather than having the arrogant and foolish attitude that God should thank the human individual for believing in the gospel, the human individual should develop his new life "in fear and trembling" (Php 2:12-13), knowing that he is permitted in God’s presence solely because of God’s pleasure and discretion. The Christian had done nothing to deserve salvation, and in himself he was no better than the non-Christian, who would be condemned to endless suffering in hell. The Christian can thus say nothing to congratulate himself, whether of his good sense for choosing Christ, since Christ says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16), or for his moral superiority, since "Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). So then, let him who boasts boast not about himself, but about what God has done for him in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:31). The Christian in himself was not intellectually and morally superior to the non-Christian. But make no mistake about it - once God changes and saves him, the Christian is indeed intellectually and morally superior. False humility and scriptural ignorance may cause many believers to deny this, but the Bible teaches that we have been enlightened and sanctified in Christ, and our spiritual growth involves increasing in knowledge and holiness. Also, the Bible calls unbelievers foolish and wicked in contrast to those who have been changed by God through Christ.

If you do not have superior wisdom, as God defines wisdom, then you have not been enlightened; if you do not have superior character, as God defines character, then you have not been transformed. Therefore, if you are not intellectually and morally superior than the unbelievers, then God has not done any work in you, and you are not even a Christian. To deny that Christians are intellectually and morally superior to non-Christians is to contradict Scripture, and insult the work of God. The Holy Spirit gives Christians access to God, so as to make prayer possible. But he helps us in another way as well: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. (Romans 8:26-27)

Some of the Greeks understood our limitations when it comes to prayer, and had reached corresponding conclusions about it: "Pythagoras forbade his disciples to pray for themselves, because, he said, they could never in their ignorance know what was expedient for them. Xenophon tells us that Socrates taught his disciples simply to pray for good things, and not to attempt to specify them, but to leave God to decide what the good things were."29 The Christian is not in such an unhappy condition, since Scripture reveals a considerable amount of knowledge about the will of God, so that from it we can deduce much information to understand and interpret our particular situations. The Bible itself claims to be sufficient, meaning that if you have complete knowledge of its content, and if you fully follow what it teaches, you will never transgress the will of God. Of course, no one has complete knowledge of the Bible, and no one fully follows it, and thus we must often ask God for his forgiveness. The point is that the Bible itself contains sufficient information, so that when we fail to live a perfect life before God, we may never say that it is because the Bible contains insufficient information (2 Peter 1:3). That said, since we often do not know everything about a situation, even our own, and since we cannot know all the relationships between various events and options, we sometimes do not know what is the best thing to pray for in any situation. We may know what we want when it comes to our personal lives, but even then we may not know whether what we want is always best, or whether it conforms to the specific plan that God has for our lives. This is just to say that we are not omniscient, and not that Scripture provides insufficient information. Failing to know everything is not a sin, but there remains the practical problem of not knowing what to pray. That is, it is not an issue of lacking the necessary information to achieve holiness, since the Scripture is indeed sufficient, but it is an issue of practical helplessness because of our human limitations. The Spirit gives us access to God so that we may pray, but we do not always know for what we should pray. So, Paul says, "the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." What does this mean?

First, we need to clarify what "groans that words cannot express" may mean. If it is meant that these "groans" represent thoughts that are inexpressible by means of words, then this appears to be impossible. If words are only arbitrary signs that represent thoughts, then in principle words are capable of expressing any thought. For example, "X" can be a word representing any thought at all. No matter how profound a given thought is, if a mind can think it, then words can express it. In fact, "X" can designate an entire proposition or even all the propositions in an entire book; therefore, in themselves words are always adequate to express any thought. But if the "groans" are not thoughts, and if they are not meant to produce thoughts in another mind, then they are not meant as vehicles of expression at all, and thus the word "cannot" would appear to be inapplicable to verbal communication. That is, there would be a category mistake if the verse indeed says that some thoughts cannot be expressed in words, since all thoughts can be expressed in words. And anything that can be expressed must either be thoughts, or must generate thoughts in another mind. Otherwise, the transaction cannot be rightly called communication. The verse must be translated or understood differently. Or, maybe this verse is saying that we do not have the intellectual clarity or ability to put these groans into words, but it is not saying that words themselves, or language itself, is deficient in expressing thoughts. In any case, we must reject the popular notion that language is inherently incapable of expressing many things. This is nothing more than an anti-intellectual prejudice. The above shows that any limitation in expression must be in the mind, and not in language itself.

However, if Paul is indeed saying that the Spirit provides a solution to our limitation by "groans that words cannot express," so as to limit the ability of language itself to give expression to thoughts, then my argument must be wrong and we should not explain away the passage, but we must accept that there is indeed an inherent limitation in language. But a careful examination of the passage shows that we need not come to such a conclusion. Douglas Moo points out that the term translated "that words cannot express" in the NIV appears only here in biblical Greek, and the meaning implied by its etymology is more properly denoted by, "unspoken" or "wordless."30 Likewise, Thomas Schreiner writes, "it much more likely means ’without speech,’ the absence of any vocalization at all."31 Whatever the "groans" are, they are not thoughts that are meant to be spoken; therefore, the verse does not say that there are any inherent limitations in language itself in giving expression to thoughts. The groans are not literal audible sounds, but they are metaphorical. We find ample support for such an interpretation from the verses that precede our passage:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:18-23)

Paul describes the tension and the frustration that we experience by living in the imperfect present while expecting the perfect future. We long for the completion of our salvation, even "the redemption of our bodies." And thus our "groaning" is not an audible sort, but a metaphor for the tension and frustration that we now experience. That this "groaning" is metaphorical is even clearer when we see that, in a sense, the creation itself shares this tension and this frustration, and "has been groaning" along with us. But the creation itself is not a rational entity, and does not literally groan as a woman suffering "the pains of childbirth." Therefore, the "groaning" in these verses represent an intense anticipation for the fulfillment of the plan of God, rather than an audible sound.

Paul writes that, in some sense, the Spirit also groans for the will of God to be fulfilled. Romans 8:26 says, "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Since we do not always know for what to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us with "groans" that are not audibly uttered. But what does this mean? What is the nature and mode of this intercession?

Schreiner writes the following:

These groanings are not audible. They are the inexpressible longings that arise in every believer’s heart to do and know the will of God. That the groanings arise in the hearts of believers is suggested by Romans 8:27, which says that "God searches the hearts." This is most naturally understood to refer to the hearts of believers. God searches the hearts of believers and finds unutterable longings to conform their lives to the will of God. The Holy Spirit takes these groanings and presents them before God in an articulate form. Even though believers cannot specify these requests to God adequately since they do not know his will sufficiently, the Holy Spirit translates these groanings and conforms them to God’s will.32 The passage indeed implies that believers "do not know his will sufficiently,"33 and that the passage says that the Holy Spirit does something about it, and this "something" is related to the "groans" mentioned. However, I disagree with Schreiner when he says that these groans are "in the hearts of believers" in the sense that these are the groans of the believers, which the Spirit transforms into acceptable prayers to God.

According to Schreiner, Romans 8:27 suggests that the groans are in the hearts of the believers because it says that "God searches the hearts." Although I agree that the "hearts" are the hearts of the believers, I disagree that the verse supports his conclusion. We need to read the entire verse, which says, "And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will." The words, "he who searches the hearts" merely identify which "he" we are talking about. The next words tell us what "he who searches the hearts" actually does ­ - he "knows the mind of the Spirit." Now, verse 26 says that the Spirit "intercedes for us," and Romans 8:27 says that the Spirit "intercedes for the saints," so that it is the Spirit’s prayer that God hears in this passage, and not that of the believers.

Assuming an understanding of the context of this passage, that is, at least Romans 8:18-28, we may paraphrase as follows: "We do not always know for what to pray, but the Spirit prays for us inaudibly. Now, he who knows our thoughts also knows the Spirit’s thoughts; therefore, although the Spirit prays inaudibly, God hears the Spirit’s prayers for us. And such prayers are effective, since the Spirit prays for us in accordance with the will of God." The reason Paul refers to God as the one "who searches our hearts" may be because the Spirit is one who indwells believers, so that Paul seems to say, in effect, "He who knows your thoughts also knows the thoughts of the Spirit who lives in you."

Douglas Moo arrives at a similar conclusion, and writes:

Moreover, it is likely that the groans are not the believer’s but the Spirit’s....it is preferable to understand these "groans" as the Spirit’s own "language of prayer," a ministry of intercession that takes place in our hearts in a manner imperceptible to us. This means, of course, that "groans" is used metaphorically....I take it that Paul is saying, then, that our failure to know God’s will and consequent inability to petition God specifically and assuredly is met by God’s Spirit, who himself expresses to God those intercessory petitions that perfectly match the will of God....

Romans 8:27 continues Paul’s discussion of the intercession of the Spirit and focuses on the effectiveness of this intercession. The reason for this effectiveness is the perfect accord that exists between God, "the one who searches hearts," and "the mind of the Spirit." God, who sees into the inner being of people, where the indwelling Spirit’s ministry of intercession takes place, "knows," "acknowledges," and responds to those "intentions" of the Spirit that are expressed in his prayers on our behalf.34

I have heard several preachers maintain that our passage does not teach that the Spirit prays for us, but that the Spirit helps us to pray. They say that the Spirit will not do something for you that you are supposed to do yourself, although he will help you do it. However, it begs the question to say that this passage does not teach that the Spirit prays for us because it cannot be true that the Spirit prays for us. Rather, since this passage teaches that the Spirit prays for us, it means that it is true that the Spirit prays for us.

Hebrews 7:25 indicates that Jesus Christ "always lives to intercede" for believers. Thus he has a ministry of intercession through which he prays for believers, and this ministry occurs independently of the believers themselves. In addition, it occurs in heaven, so that it is indeed "imperceptible to us." What our passage teaches is that the Holy Spirit also has a ministry of intercession. These preachers miss the point of the passage, whose very intent is to tell us that the Spirit has a ministry of intercession through which he prays for believers, and that this is an act that occurs independently of the believers themselves, so that it is also "imperceptible to us."

These same preachers that I have heard would teach that Christ is interceding for us, and they find no conflict between this ministry of intercession and our own responsibility to pray. If we can acknowledge that Christ prays for us, then it is irrational to insist that the Spirit cannot also pray for us, especially when our passage explicitly states this. Christ prays, the Spirit prays, and we pray ­ - there is no conflict between these three.

Jesus refers to the Spirit as "another Counselor" (John 14:16, or "Advocate"). That the Spirit should have a ministry of intercession for the benefit of Christians fits very well with his ministry of being the second Advocate, paralleling the ministry of Christ as the first Advocate. Christ now serves as our Advocate in heaven, and the Spirit now serves as the indwelling Advocate on earth. Both of them pray for us.

Just as the fact that Jesus Christ has a ministry of intercession on our behalf does not prevent or discourage us from praying, the fact that the Spirit also has a ministry of intercession on our behalf should not prevent or discourage us from praying. It may very well be true that the Spirit helps us pray, but the passage under discussion is saying that he himself prays for us to God, and since his prayers are always in accordance with the will of God, they are always effective, and this is something that we will examine later in this chapter.

Another contrary interpretation of our passage is that the "groans that words cannot express" refer to speaking in tongues. Since we do not always know for what to pray, the Spirit grants us words to speak in a language that we do not understand so as to bypass the limitations of our minds. However, if our interpretation of this passage is correct, we have already eliminated the possibility that Paul is referring to tongues. Our interpretation says that it is the Spirit who prays in inaudible "groans" in a manner that is apart from and imperceptible to believers, but this description excludes tongues altogether. This is not to say that the Bible does not endorse speaking in tongues; whether it does or not, this passage does not seem to have tongues in mind. This brings me to a point related to speaking in tongues, although it is not directly relevant to our passage. Regardless of whether we think speaking in tongues is for today, and regardless of what we think it does, many people who speak in tongues use it in a way as to avoid having to struggle through the difficulties of praying in English (or their known languages). That is, whenever they find it hard to express themselves in English, or whenever they find it hard to extend the length of their prayers, they will simply begin speaking in tongues, and thus avoid having to exert further effort in prayer. As a result, some important aspects their spiritual growth are halted. This is one criticism that Neil Babcox offers against speaking in tongues. Although he thinks that speaking in tongues is not for today, even if he is wrong about this, what he says below is still applicable: At no time are we more aware of our weakness and inadequacy than when we kneel to pray....In the face of such spiritual helplessness, tongues can become a crutch. For example, when I found myself mute and dumb in His presence, I could far too quickly remedy the situation by praying in tongues. Again, when I was oppressed with a sense of guilt and felt alienated from God, it was far more easy to pray in tongues than to search my heart for the cause of the guilt. But what was all of this if it was not an evasion? Whereas previously I could avoid the difficulties inherent in prayer by resorting to tongues, now I found myself praying, "Lord, teach me to pray."35

There are various reasons why you may have trouble praying in English, but almost all of them relate to deficiencies in the mind. Maybe your thoughts are unclear; maybe you are easily distracted; maybe you lack the ability to put your thoughts into words; or maybe your ignorance of scriptural teaching prevents you from properly relating to God. Whatever the reason may be, rather than giving up or resorting to tongues, you must struggle to attain fluency in prayer. And since most of the problems are in the mind, this is the area that you must work on. Peter Kreeft writes, "The first cause of a specifically human act is always internal, not external. By ’a specifically human act’ I mean one like asking a question, creating a work of art, making a moral choice, affirming another person, or appreciating the beauty of nature ­ or praying....That is why thought is where the action starts....Thought is the first battlefield."36

Although spiritual growth involves much effort and much struggle, if we have some sense of direction and purpose, and if we know what to work on, then the effort and the struggle will bear good fruit. The struggle in prayer should not consist mainly in forcing yourself to pray when you cannot pray well, but it should involve developing a spiritual mind by reading and thinking. If you wish to pray better, then you must make your thoughts clearer and richer. Thus the most important thing you can do to improve in prayer is theological study and reflection, which consists of much reading and thinking. For example, you will not be able to enrich your prayer and worship by engaging the divine attributes if you do not know about them. Meaningful prayer and worship depends on theological knowledge. Therefore, reading a book on systematic theology does much more to improve your prayer life than reading one that is specifically about prayer, but whose content is mainly pragmatic, anecdotal, or otherwise theologically shallow.

Jesus would sometimes spend an entire night praying, from evening to morning (Luke 6:12). The content of his mind was very rich and his knowledge was very broad. We cannot attain to his level, but we can strive to become better. And the Spirit is involved in all of this ­ it is he who grants us knowledge and understanding, who causes us to recall and obey the words of God, and who transforms our thinking and our character through Scripture. Although our passage does not specifically refer to the Spirit’s role in helping us pray, but rather indicates that the Spirit prays for us, other biblical passages assure us that he is here to help us in every aspect of our spiritual life, including our struggle to pray better by establishing a foundation of greater knowledge and deeper reflection regarding the things of God.

Paul has been telling us about the Spirit’s ministry of intercession. Because the Spirit always prays "in accordance with God’s will" (Romans 8:27), his prayers are always effective. Romans 8:28 then describes the result of such an effective ministry: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."37 The HCSB is better: "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose."38

Although Peter Masters is addressing another topic, the following warning against what he calls "pietistic speaking" also applies to how believers often misuse Romans 8:28 :

Many Christians have picked up a manner of thinking and speaking which is highly destructive to genuine guidance. We may call it ­ pietistic speaking. These friends constantly ascribe all kinds of everyday events to the special and direct intervention of the Lord, as though their lives were filled with minor miracles. They believe this kind of thinking and speaking is what the Lord wants from His people. They think that it reflects gratitude and a spiritual attitude. However, this trend often leads to a form of spiritual "superstition"...

It is significant that when believers pick up the habit of pietistic thinking and speaking, they tend to focus on...earthly rather than spiritual matters. And most significantly, they are usually good events, and not hard or painful ones. We have heard friends say: "The Lord sent a bus for me this morning," and, "The Lord enabled me to pass my exam, because actually I did very badly." Other comments about the Lord’s direct interventions concern everyday affairs like the weather, or the Lord preventing the cakes from burning....

We must not drift into the idea that only small, earthly and good things are examples of His providence. Why should we single out life’s happy surprises and coincidences as instances of God’s work in our lives? Why not talk about the days when nothing remarkable happened? Why not talk about illnesses and times of failure? After all, God superintends all that happens to His children.39 The relevance of the above to a correct understanding of Romans 8:28 is in the fact that we must define "good" the way God defines it, and not the way we would like to define it. In our passage, Paul is trying to give us a proper perspective from which to interpret the things that we suffer in this life. He says in Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." So when Romans 8:28 says that "all things work together for the good," the "all things" should really include "all things." In fact, Romans 9:1-33 indicates that even the creation and destruction of the reprobates serve to glorify God and edify Christians. But the main emphasis on Romans 8:28 appears to be on suffering. Most people assumes this to be so even without noting the context of the passage, but they may still misunderstand the verse if they assume a false definition of "good." For example, the verse cannot mean, "All things, whether good or bad, work together for your good ­ - that is, to make you rich." The "good" in our verse cannot mean material riches because that is not how God defines "good." Jesus says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). Nor can the verse mean, "All things, whether good or bad, work together for your good ­ that is, to make you popular," because God does not define "good" as popularity. Our answer is in Romans 8:29, which says that God has predestined us to be "conformed to the likeness of his Son." Thus God defines the "good" in Romans 8:28 as that which functions to further our sanctification. To the extent that we fail to focus on spiritual things, this may not be the top item on our agenda, but God is greatly concerned with it, and he works all things ­ - even the lives of others and the destinies of nations - ­ to effect our sanctification. "It is God’s will that you should be sanctified...For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7).

However, this is not to say that God does not give us pleasant things. In the context of admonishing wealthy people, Paul writes that God "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Timothy 6:17). The point is not that God only gives us pleasant or unpleasant things, or that only certain things further our sanctification, but that all things work together by the providence and wisdom of God to further the great purpose of our sanctification, which refers to our increase in knowledge and in holiness (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24). But then we return again to the exclusivity of Christianity, for all things work together for good, not for everyone, but only for "those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Paul writes, "If anyone does not love the Lord ­ a curse be on him" (1 Corinthians 16:22). We have already seen from other verses that the wrath of God remains on non-Christians, and there is no escape from judgment except through Jesus Christ. Who then are "those who love God"? Are they those who have chosen Christ by their own "free will"? Are they those who have the good sense and moral propensity to accept the gospel? Scripture states that no one can choose God unless God has first chosen him. Thus the verse says that those who love God are those "who are called according to His purpose." It does not say that they are those who love God because they have chosen to love him according to their own reasons, but that they love God because they have been chosen by him according to his own purpose. Those who loved God are those who have been "summoned by preference."40 The rest of humanity will be "thrown into the fire and burned" (John 15:6). In the plan of God, they serve to produce an environment in which the chosen ones may increase in sanctification, and to promote the glory of God by their destruction and damnation. Their lives have no positive meaning for themselves. Many are appalled and outraged at such a God who is sovereign, and who dares to exercise his sovereignty, but "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" (Romans 9:21).

PRAYER AND THE DIVINE NATURE In the introduction to the previous section, I mentioned that God is defined by the sum of his attributes. Some of these attributes are his sovereignty, knowledge, and transcendence ­ or, we may say that God is all-powerful, God is all-knowing, and God is spirit. Stephen Charnock is credited as having said, "It is impossible to honor God as we ought, unless we know him as he is."41 Accordingly, there is an intimate relationship between prayer and the divine attributes; the former is impossible without knowledge of the latter.

Let us suppose that you are responsible for making a speech at a banquet honoring a distinguished professor. Now, if you think that the professor is a man when she is a woman, if you think that her field is physics when it is history, and if you think that she comes from Texas when she is from India, then your speech is not going to make much sense, and both the professor and the audience would think that your speech is referring to someone else.

Likewise, many people pray to "God," but if they were to describe him, what we hear may not correspond at all to the biblical God. If this person’s "God" is completely irreconcilable with the Bible, can we say that he is praying to God, and can we say that this person is a Christian? The Israelites pointed to the golden calf that they had made and declared, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). But God himself disagreed.

If your "God" is a "golden calf," then you are not a Christian. From the biblical perspective, you are an idol worshiper. Of course, you can say that you are a Christian ­ anyone can say that ­ - but you are not one by biblical definition. And if your definition of "Jesus" is too far off, then you are not a Christian even if you define "God" in terms of the biblical divine attributes.

Therefore, let no one say that theology is unimportant or impractical ­ - it is the most important factor in the Christian life and the necessary foundation for the "practical" issues to be intelligible. Besides its inherent value, theology is the prerequisite for all spiritual activities, including prayer. People say that if you want to know God, then you should pray. No! If you do not know something about God first, then you cannot pray. If you do not have at least a minimal but biblical conception of God,42 then you may just be praying to an entity produced by your own imagination instead of the true God, which is idolatry. Thus if you want to know God, study the Scripture, then pray to this God that it teaches you about. As Christians, we may know something about the divine attributes, but we do not always pray as if these attributes are true of God. Christians who dare not explicitly deny the attributes of God nevertheless often implicitly deny them when they pray. We must correct this, or our prayers will not please God and glorify him as much as they should. For example, God’s omniscience has a number of implications for prayer, and we must pray "as if" God is omniscient, because he really is. Imagine a prayer whose content assumes or implies that God is powerless, ignorant, and local. Such a prayer insults God rather than glorifies him.

We will be discussing three divine attributes and their implications for prayer, but you must make the effort to learn more about God. As you learn more about him, you should consider the implications that this new knowledge has on your prayers, and thus make your prayers increasingly consistent with the way God is as revealed in Scripture.