Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought… I. WHAT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY PRAYING ARIGHT? 1. Negatively. (1) Not praying aright in a legal sense, without any imperfection in the eye of the law. The best prayers of the best saints have always been attended with blemishes (Isaiah 64:6). (2) Not praying aright in a moral sense, wherein the most rigid hearer can discern nothing contrary to the precepts of morality. A prayer may be so far right as no unlawful thing may be prayed for in it, and yet may be naught (Luke 18:11). The matter may be very good where the manner of praying spoils all. (3) Not praying aright in a rhetorical sense. Words, voice and gesture are of little moment before God (1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Corinthians 2:4). It may be a right prayer where the sentences are broken (Psalm 6:3), and where there is not a wrong word there may not be one right affection. 2. Positively, it is praying aright in an evangelical sense. This implies — (1) Sincerity in prayer 2 Chronicles 29:17), in opposition to formality and hypocrisy (2 Timothy 3:5; Psalm 17:1). (2) A perfection of parts in prayer, though not of degrees, i,e, (a) Praying for things agreeable to God's will revealed in His word of command of promise (1 John 5:14). (b) Praying in a right manner (Jeremiah 39:13). Hereunto are required praying graces and affections in exercise, as faith, fervency, humility, reverence, and the like. Where these are wanting the duty will be reckoned but bodily exercise (1 Timothy 4:8). Such praying is right in so far as it is acceptable in the sight of God, i.e., capable of being accepted according to the rule of the gospel. It is a sacrifice fit to be laid on God's altar, a prayer which may be put in the Mediator's hand, that through His intercession it may be actually accepted. II. ALL OUR PRAYING ARIGHT IS DONE BY THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT. It is done by the help of the Spirit dwelling in us and actually influencing us (Galatians 4:6). This is clear — 1. From Scripture testimony. The Spirit is the Author of our whole sanctification, whereof praying aright is a part (2 Thessalonians 2:13; Philippians 3:3). It is by Him we have access to God in worship (Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 6:18). 2. We are spiritually dead without the Spirit indwelling, and spiritually asleep without the Spirit influencing (Ephesians 2:1; Song of Solomon 5:2). Neither a dead man nor a sleeping man is fit to present a supplication to the king. 3. There is no praying aright without sanctifying grace, nor without that grace in exercise (John 9:31; Song of Solomon 3:1). Where grace is not in exercise there is incense indeed, but no pillar of smoke ascending from it to heaven; spikenard indeed, but no smell thereof. 4. To praying aright is required a light of the mind and warmth of affections, the former for the matter, the latter for the manner. And it is a false light and warmth that makes some natural men think that sometimes they pray aright (Isaiah 58:2). But all genuine light and vital warmth comes from the Spirit (Ephesians 1:17, 18; 2 Timothy 1:7). III. IN WHAT RESPECTS OUR PRAYING ARIGHT IS SO FAR DONE BY THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT THAT IT IS JUSTLY RECKONED HIS WORK. 1. All that is right in our prayers is from the Spirit, and all that is wrong in them from ourselves (1 Corinthians 12:11; 1 Peter 1:22; with 2 Corinthians 3:5). In the incense of our prayers there is smoke that goes up towards heaven, ashes that remain behind on the earth. It is the fire from the altar that sends up the smoke; it is the earthly nature of the incense that occasions the ashes. 2. None pray aright but as they are members of Christ and children of God (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15; John 15:5). Now it is the Holy Spirit of the Head that dwells in and actuates all the members acting as members (1 Corinthians 12:11, 12). 3. The Spirit is the principal cause of our praying aright; we are but the instrumental causes of it (James 5:16). As the sound of the horn ceases as soon as one ceases to wind it, so does our praying aright on the withdrawing of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:5). 4. All our praying graces, as all others, are in their exercise the product of the Spirit and His work in us (Galatians 5:22, 23). In prayer these are brought forth into exercise — the man acts faith, love, etc. — and therein the soul of prayer lies; but look on them as they are so brought forth from the stock, and they are the fruit of the Spirit, though the believer is the tree they hang on (Isaiah 44:3, 4). IV. THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN OUR PRAYING ARIGHT, OR WHAT HIS INTERCESSION FOR US IS. Note — 1. The difference betwixt Christ's intercession and the Spirit's. (1) Christ intercedes for us in heaven at the Father's right hand (ver. 34); the Spirit intercedes in our hearts upon earth (Galatians 4:6). (2) Christ's is a mediatory intercession between God and us (1 Timothy 2:5), but the Spirit's is an auxiliary intercession to us, whereby He helps us to go to God. (3) The Spirit's intercession is the fruit of Christ's, and what is done by the sinner through the Spirit's intercession is accepted of God through the intercession of Christ. In a word, the difference is such as is between one who draws a poor man's petition for him, and another who presents it to the king and gets it granted. 2. The help of the Spirit in prayer. (1) More generally. He acts in it — (a) As a teaching Spirit (John 14:26). It is our infirmity that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought." He helps our ignorance (1 John 2:27). (b) As a quickening Spirit (Psalm 80:18). "He maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered," setting the gracious heart working towards God with the utmost earnestness. (2) More particularly. (a) He excites us to pray (ver. 15) He impresses our spirits with a sense of a Divine call to it, and so binds it on our consciences as duty to God; then He inclines us to the duty, that we willingly comply with it (Psalm 27:8). (b) He gives us a view of God as a gracious and merciful Father in Christ (Galatians 4:6); and hereby He works in us a holy reverence in God (Hebrews 12:28), and a holy confidence in Him (Ephesians 3:12). This confidence respects both His ability and willingness to help us (Matthew 7:11). Without this there can be no acceptable prayer (Hebrews 11:6; James 1:6), This is it that makes prayer an case to a troubled heart. Hence the soul, though not presently eased, draws these conclusions, Its designs my good by all the hardships I am under (ver. 28); He pities me under them (Psalm 103:13); He knows the best time for removing them, and will do it when that comes (1 Samuel 2:3). (c) He gives us a view of ourselves in our own sinfulness anti unworthiness (John 16:8; Isaiah 6:5). Hereby He works in us — humiliation of heart before the Lord (Genesis 18:27; Luke 18:13; Ezekiel 36:31); cordial confession (Psalm 62:8); hearty thanksgiving for mercies received (Psalm 116:11, 12); a high value for the Mediator and His righteousness (Philippians 3:9). (d) He gives us a view of our wants and the need we have of the supply of them (Luke 15:17). This may be seen, comparing the Pharisee's and publican's prayers (Luke 18:11-13). Here He acts as an enlightener, opening the eyes of the mind to discern the wants and needs we are compassed with (Ephesians 1:17, 18); as a remembrancer (John 14:26); as a forewarner of what we may need (John 16:13)(e) He gives us a view of the grace and promises of the covenant (Psalm 25:14; John 14:26). And here the Spirit brings to remembrance the grace and promises suited to our case (Genesis 32:11, 12), and unfolds that grace and these promises, causing to understand them in a spiritual and saving manner (1 Corinthians 2:12). Hereby the Spirit teaches what to pray for, according to the will of God, and in what terms to pray for it, the terms of the promise agreeable to the grace of the covenant. Hereby, too, He fills our mouths with arguments, helping us to plead and pray (Job 23. 3, 4), and stirs up in us a faith of particular confidence as to the thing prayed for, so that we are helped to pray believingly (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 Timothy 2:8; James 1:6; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:13), and works in us a holy boldness in prayer (Ephesians 3:12). (f) He raiseth in us holy desires for the supply of our wants, "groanings which cannot be uttered." Thus we are made to pray fervently (James 5:16; Romans 12:11). (g) He gives us a view of the merit and intercession of the Mediator (Ephesians 1:17). Hereby He points us to the only way of acceptance of our prayers (John 14:6), lays before us a firm foundation of confidence before the Lord (1 John 2:1; Ephesians 3:12), and furnishes us with an answer to all objections that an unbelieving heart and a subtle devil can muster up against us, in prayer (vers. 33, 34). (h) He manages the heart and spirit in prayer, which every serious soul will own to be a hard task (Jeremiah 10:23); He composes it for prayer (Psalm 86:11); He fixes it in prayer, that it wander not away in the duty (Ezekiel 36:27); and reduces it from its wanderings (Psalm 23:3). (i) The Spirit causes us to continue in prayer from time to time till we obtain a gracious answer, and so makes us pray perseveringly (Ephesians 6:18), by accounting for the delay of our answer in a way consistent with God's honour and our good, and so satisfying us in that point (Psalm 22:2, 3); by strengthening faith and hope, which have the battle to fight in this ease (Ephesians 3:16); and by continuing and reviving on our spirits the sense of our need, which, pinching us anew, obliges to renew our suit for relief until the time we get it (2 Corinthians 12:8). (T. Boston, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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