Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Just like with “groan” in the preceeding verses, we see a different verb here in 26-28 that shows us the flow of Paul’s thoughts. He says that we don’t know… something. But God knows something else. And therefore, we can know something.

We Do Not Know

This is where our question from the first blog post again comes into view. Surely, in general we know how to pray. So we pray the Lord’s Prayer, or ask God for His will to be done in our lives. The point is that we do not know specifically how to pray as we ought. For what? For anything? The concept here seems to be for God’s will, since the Spirit understands God’s will according to the next verse.

So we spend much of our lives trying to discern specifically everything before we act. But is this what God requires of us? Is this what it means to pray for His will? The key to understanding the will of God in this passage is to understand what Paul means when he writes “our infirmities”.

Three possible interpretations exist here.

1)       “Our infirmities” could mean our inability to pray
2)       “Our infirmities” could mean our sufferings, as per verse 18 and on
3)       “Our infirmities” could mean our desire to be glorified, but our inability to do so

“Our infirmities” probably relates to all three of them. We suffer now, being in our bodies, struggling with our sin nature. We don’t really know how to pray as we should for our ongoing walk with Christ, and we certainly can’t be glorified on our own.  Ultimately, we cannot do God’s will, and figuring out God’s will in every situation isn’t the point. You can’t. You don’t even know how to pray for it. More often we pray according to our own lusts and desires, as per James 4:3.

Paul doesn’t say here “figure it out, pray harder”… he simply says we don’t know how to pray as we should. And if we keep trying to figure it out in every which way that it will be, we’ll create God’s will in our minds, and then act upon it.

God Does Know

So instead, the Spirit of God literally helps by bearing your burdens. Just like Pastor was talking about last week. How? By intercession... the Spirit comes to the Father on your behalf. 24/7/365. This is Trinity communication… God communicating with Himself. The mystery of this is profound. There’s a parallel to this elsewhere in Scripture. In 1 John 2:1, we’re told that Christ is our intercessor when we sin. This tells us that because of our “infirmities” the Spirit intercedes for us. Christ intercedes for us when we fall, and the Spirit is interceding, praying for us when we’re walking. Christ lifts, the Spirit leads.

There is one in heaven, the Son of God, who “intercedes on our behalf,” defending us from all charges that might be brought against us, guaranteeing salvation in the day of judgment (8:34). But… but Paul also asserts in there verses an intercessor “in our heart,” the Spirit of God, who effectively prays to the Father on our behalf throughout the difficulties and uncertainties of our lives here on earth. (Moo, 527)

The picture is of God the Father looking into each human heart, where the Holy Spirit lives, and knowing what the Spirit is praying for… the perfect will of God. This is God the Spirit and God the Father being in perfect communion as one, causing the will of God to be accomplished in our life, because God knows His own will for you.

We Do Know

But he doesn’t just say that God knows His own will. Look at the flow again… we do not know how to pray. God the Father knows how the Spirit is praying, in perfect accordance with God’s will. So we know that all things work together for “our good.” Now, some would scoff… my life doesn’t look good. How can my divorce, the death of my loved one, the loss of my job factor into “all things working together for good”?

But the promise of this verse doesn’t have to do with temporal well-being, it has to do with the timeline. The Holy Spirit is praying for and securing things in our lives that will help us sustain our Christian walk and ultimately lead us to our final salvation with Him.

So it is not so much that you must pray for the will of God, but through the ministry of the Spirit in your life, the Spirit is both praying for and providing God the Father’s will for you. And look at how Paul defines this… “all things working together for good” is slightly redefined in verse 29. What does it say? For those whom He foreknew He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. God’s will for you all the time is that you would look more like His Son, that you would be more glorified and therefore bring Him more glory in your life. This is the will of God Scripturally.

So how do you pray for the will of God? Two quick points of application.

First we must realize that “God’s will” is not wrapped up in what we think is best, or merely our desires, but what will make us more Christlike in this life. This is always God’s concern… sustaining His kids for their journey home for His own purpose... namely, His glory. When you are weighing options, do you ever ask the question… “God, what will glorify You most in my life?” What will bring out an opportunity for those firstfruits to show themselves? How can I look more like Jesus? Instead of holding out for your options to play out, ask, "God, don’t give me this job or this women or this thing if it will distract me from You! Only give me what will glorify You in my life!"

Second, do your realize that as you pray with some measure of ignorance, the Spirit is praying specifically, knowing precisely what God’s will is? Do you realize that you may not know every bit of God’s will in a situation, but that He has promised that all His will for you will be accomplished? You will be matured, and finally glorified, because it is not you doing it. It is the Spirit in you, as He applies God’s will to your life. So pray for that… not that you would be given strength to do God’s will, but that God would, by His strength, accomplish His will in you.

Romans 1-3 is saturated with the basic concept that all of humanity needs a Savior from their sins. That visibly in human life and invisibly behind the scenes, the basic problem on the earth not the environment, it’s not war... these are all echoes of a deeper problem: mankind's sin, resulting in God's wrath. Thus, mankind needed a Savior, Whom God provided… Romans 5:1-2 speaks of this:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Justification (Birth in Christ)

Christ went to a cross so that God would exchange your sin for Christ’s righteousness. What did that mean for Christ? Honestly, it meant damnation. Damnation so you wouldn’t have to endure it. Does that mean he went to hell? In a sense, yes. As He hung on that cross, and the sun was darkened, and the Father forsook the Son, he endured what could theologically (if not properly) be called hell. He did this for you… and gives to you the gift of faith that by trusting in Him for your salvation, your sin and the eternal consequences that accompany it can be exchanged for God’s righteousness through Christ. That is what the good news of Christ means.

Sanctification (Maturity in Christ)

In Romans 6, Paul tackles head on the question of what it means to be a growing Christian. Believers in Rome and throughout the world, much as today, treated Christ’s sacrifice as a get out of hell free card, one that gave them free liberty to sin as they chose. The thought of this is staggering. Why… why… why? Why would you keep on sinning and thinking nothing of it after what Christ did on the cross?

Paul’s response? “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” He continues in chapter 6, speaking about how on account of Christ we should be yielding our bodies to serve him. And there is a practical application to your everyday lives… namely, that being saved by Christ, you begin to look more and more like Him. This is sanctification… as we act like Him we are cleansed from sin.

Glorification (Perfection in Christ)

Now, we normally see the connection between justification and sanctification quite well. But what do we normally think about the idea of glorification? If you’re like me, you think that “I’m not perfect now, nor will I ever be, until I die”… and then God bridges the gap. This is accurate to a degree, but it almost sounds like a cop out. There is a connection between your sanctification and your final point, where you’ll be finally saved. It’s this connection that we’re going to examine… what’s supposed to be going on your sanctification is working towards a goal… namely glorification.

A well-known preacher was once asked by a visitor “what does it mean to be sanctified?” The preacher responded “to be more glorified!” When we see salvation as a progression… becoming more Christlike until we are perfectly Christlike, we get a clue into how to properly interpret the passage we’ll look at shortly. Am I arguing for Wesleyan Perfectionism? Certainly not. But we butcher the text if we decide to treat salvation as anything less then a natural progression.

Is “Perfection” Here and Now?

It’s not for no reason that justification is likened to being “born again”, or that sanctification is referred to as maturing. Specifically Paul does this with sanctification, in Colossians 1:28, Colossians 4:12, Ephesians 4:13, and 1 Corinthians 14:20. Again, we’re talking about a process... here likened to maturity.

But the Scripture also speaks about within this process there being a level of perfection… that this spiritually maturing process has as its goal total perfection in the image of Christ. This, more then anything, is where people will balk. They see a connection between the birth and the maturing, but they don’t see how the maturing fits into perfection. Why is this? I think there are two reasons:

James 1:4-5 tells us that trials produce endurance which produces completion and perfection…. in this life.

In Philippians 3:15, Paul seems to think that perfection is possible in this life, when he says “as many of us as be perfect be thus minded.” At first blush, this seems to mean that Paul thinks that he’s perfect. The word for “perfect” in the New Testament is not so much the idea of complete Christlikeness, but maturity in your Christian life. Thus, Paul uses this same word for “perfect” to describe an adult man in 1 Corinthians 14:20. Thus, there is a state of maturity that Paul expects all Christians to progress to in this life.

However, just a few verses before this, Paul says that he isn’t perfect yet. In verse 12, Paul tells us that he is still striving for the prize. What is the prize? It’s the call of God that is found in Christ Jesus. What is the prize? Christ Himself. He is the final goal of our faith and our maturity, as we discussed from Ephesians 1 a few months back. We become like Him, and we get Him.

So there is a concept of “perfection” in this life that is maturity, where you are still growing and you still are not perfected in Christ. But there's also a concept of "perfection" that is a final and complete conformity to Christ, in both inward glorification and outward glorification. Even in the two passages from Philippians above, there are two different Greek words typically translated "perfect". We will take one to mean "state of maturity", and one to mean "state of completion". Paul wants believers to move to maturity... but maturity in no way means we are no longer growing. It's a process that is started, continued, and completed by Christ.

Now that we’ve seen the timeline of salvation that is here in Romans, we’re going to zoom in towards the end of that timeline, to Romans 8. Now, the same theologian who said that Romans was like the crown jewel on an engagement ring also said that if we’re to continue that analogy, we’d find that Romans 8 is the pinnacle, shiniest, part of the jewel. Why? This is the part where our sanctification and our glorification meet. Romans 8 has been called the most encouraging chapter of the Bible. I mean, look at how it starts: because of Christ there is no condemnation for you. And it ends with the fact that because of Christ, there is no separation. God will neither condemn the Christian, nor separate Himself from the Christian. Period.

With this assurance, we still see a struggle and progression towards perfection, and as we look closely, we see that we aren’t alone in struggling and desiring for glorification. We’ll see next blog the nature of our desire as Paul describes it, and compare that to what we commonly find today.

Went to a screening of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight on Friday night. Interesting and complex, it basically transcends the genre of comic book movies on which it is based. At its very core, it's a morality play. What intrigued me so much was one sub-plot within the movie. Batman refuses to kill anyone, instead opting to let them stand trial and be served justice. The sub-plot involves the main villian (the Joker played by the late Heath Ledger) attempting to force and manipulate Batman into killing. This involves at least two scenes where the Joker gives Batman the opportunity to kill him.

I won't spoil the movie, but this sub-plot intrigued me to no end. I found myself wanting Batman to come out on the other end without killing anyone. As if the good guys won only if they don't become bad guys. Thus, it transcended the genre where the assumption of victory only comes with the bad guy's death. Instead, victory only came if the good guys didn't give into the dark side. If they didn't compromise their morals. And in this case, the only way was for the good guys not to kill.

It got me thinking on a whole rabbit trail of ideas, that led (in my mind) to the idea of Christian pacifism. Especially what we find in the early church... where people were unwilling to serve as soldiers in the Roman army. Where Christians would let there loved ones die, knowing that they would receive Christ... rather than take action or vengence against those who did not know Christ. They wouldn't take things into their own hands, but instead trusted God to be their avenger. Do we do this anymore today? Do we trust God to be our avenger? Or do we think of how we must protect ourselves continually? Is our protection our job... or His?

Pax.

I remember asking various friends over the years what marriage was like. Asking for advice, what it was like, whether it was worth it, etc. Now, I'm in the same position. Everyone asking if it's really all that it's cracked up to be.

Absolutely.



Pax.

So we're back, as of Monday night. Yes, it was a blast. Thanks to my Dad for coming up with the idea and pulling it off. We had much fun. A few (actually a lot) more pics...

The boys listen to Enric preaching at Timberland on Sunday morning (the church currently meets in the local high school).



They also serve a great potluck after every service, which we partook of...



Jonny and Ryan...



Ryan and me...



Michael, haven't you learned not to take pictures of yourself on my camera that I could potentially use on my blog?



Ryan overviews the lay of the parts as he begins to assemble a dresser at the apartment.



Jonny and Melchor put together the slats for the bed.



Ryan and Mike with the completed dresser.



Dad and Ryan go at the bug corpses on the windshield of the Insect Slayer.



Goofin' in the car.



Melchor looks determined to drive on Monday morning.



Gerry stares me down at a Mobil.



Jonny looks accusatory while Mike zones.



Ryan got an extra shot of espresso in his frap... can you imagine him bouncing off the walls?



Great trip... thank you guys, for everything.

Pax.