The Spirit Helps in Our Weakness (Romans 8:26-27)

“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. 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” (Rom. 8:26-27, ESV). 

Divine-Human Collaboration

“Likewise” or “in the same manner”—pertaining to “what we do not see” and our “hope” that sustains us with patient endurance in cooperation with God (vv. 24-25)—“the Spirit” (as per vv. 9a, 11, 14, 16) “helps with”¹ “our weakness.” This is yet another divine-human cooperative effort (cf. v. 16),² wherein the Spirit is not doing the praying for us, nor are we praying without the Spirit’s intercession.³

Intercession in Prayer

In contrast to what “we know” (vv. 22, 28), when “we do not know what to pray for as we ought,” whether struggling to identify our deepest needs or to find the right words to express them, or to apprehend the will of God in particular areas of our lives and the lives of others, divine help is available. While we may preface our feeble requests with the qualifier, “your will be done” (cf. 1:10; 15:32),⁴ double-intercession is at work as the Spirit intercedes from within praying hearts on earth and as Christ intercedes at the heavenly throne (v. 34).⁵ This occurs in conjunction with God’s providential care (v. 28). 

The “groanings too deep for words” are different from the “groanings” of creation and of God’s suffering children (vv. 22-23).⁶ The adj. ἀλάλητος, “unexpressed, wordless” (BAGD 34), does not convey the sense of “unintelligible” as much as “unspoken.” “While far from being devoid of content, meaning, and intent, they nevertheless transcend articulated formulation.”⁷ Assurance, then, is given “which the unready of speech may well lay to heart, that all prayer need not be formulated but that the most inarticulate desires (springing from a right motive) may have a shape and a value given to them beyond anything that is present and definable to the consciousness.”⁸

The Divine Will

God “searches hearts”⁹ and “knows what is the mind [φρόνημα] of the Spirit [πνεῦμα],” or perhaps “the mind of the [human] spirit,” synonymous with the human “heart” [καρδία] (cf. vv. 5-8).¹⁰ If “the Spirit” is intended, we are reminded of the perfect unity within the Godhead, inclusive of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (cf. vv. 8-10, 14-17, 32-34; also 1 Cor. 2:10-11, 16). Rather than an explanatory “because,” the conjunction ὅτι here seems more descriptive, “that” the Spirit “intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God” in that the Spirit’s intercession is in fact God’s will (v. 26), and God always answers prayers in accordance with what he wills (v. 28), and he wills to hear and answer the prayers of those sanctified (1:7; 15:30-32), and the intercession of the Spirit is for those who live and pray in accordance with God’s revealed will (1:10; 12:2). Precision of meaning is not necessary here when all of the above are biblically affirmed.¹¹ 

The “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…. our failure to understand God’s purposes and plans, to see ‘the beginning from the end,’ does not mean that effective, powerful prayer for our specific needs is absent.”¹² See 1:10; 10:1; 12:12; 15:30; Eph. 3:20; Phil. 4:6-7; Jas. 4:13-18; and compare Psa. 88:1-2, 13.

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ The compound συναντιλαμβάνομαι (also occurring in Luke 10:40) is comprised of two prepositions, σύν ("together with") + ἀντί ("over against" or "corresponding to") and the verbal λαμβάνω ("take hold of").

     ² Note also “with” Christ (vv. 17, 32), and the providential working of God (v. 28).

     ³ Paul uses two different words that essentially convey the same meaning: ὑπερεντυγχάνω, to “plead” or “intercede” (v. 26), and ἐντυγχάνω, to “appeal,” “entreat,” “petition” (vv. 27, 34; 11:2). See BAGD 270, 840. 

     ⁴ Cf. Matt. 6:10; 26:39, 42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 12:27; Acts 18:21; 21:14; 1 Cor. 4:19; 16:7; Heb. 6:3; Jas. 4:15; 1 John 5:14.  

     ⁵ See also Heb. 4:14-16; 7:24; 9:24; 1 John 2:1.

     ⁶ Against the popular glossolalia interpretation, see D. J. Moo, Romans 524-25; E. F. Harrison, “Romans” 96. Whatever biblical tongue-speaking entails, it was not intended for every Christian (1 Cor. 12:7-11, 28-30), whereas the Spirit’s intercession in prayer is. 

     ⁷ J. Murray, Romans 1:312. “Even though we’re unable to verbalize our deepest desires, God knows them …” (R. Mohrlang, Romans 139). 

     ⁸ W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans 213-14.

     ⁹ 1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chron. 28:9; Psa. 7:9; 17:3; 139:1, 23; Jer. 11:20; 17:10; Acts 1:24; 15:8; 1 Cor. 4:5; Rev. 2:23.

     ¹⁰ The term “heart” [καρδία] represents a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual core, involving the cognitive (10:6, 8-10), emotional (9:2), and impetus of action (6:17). 

     ¹¹ Matt. 6:9-10; 7:20-21; 12:50; Eph. 3:20; 5:10, 17; 6:6; 1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 6:3; 10:7, 9, 36; Jas. 4:15; 1 Pet. 1:12; 3:17; 1 John 2:17; 5:11-15.

     ¹² D. J. Moo, Romans 526. 

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