Romans 8:27

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.

But not only so, not only does the whole creation groan and long for deliverance, but also we ourselves that have the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves sigh within ourselves, longing for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We Christians, having received the Spirit of God from above, have the first-fruits of the future world, of the heavenly glory, in our hearts, as a definite guarantee of the full bliss which shall be ours in the future, Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22. And yet sighs arise from the depths of our soul, groans and cries for deliverance. We Christians are deeply affected, painfully touched, by the woes and miseries of the present world. And therefore our sighing incidentally represents and expresses our anxious, eager longing for the full revelation of our sonship. We are children of God even now, by faith, through the working of the Spirit. But we long to enter into the full possession and enjoyment of our inheritance above, into the redemption of our body, the complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin. All eyes and all hearts are directed toward that blessed hour when Christ will finally and completely deliver our mortal body from the bonds of vanity and of death, when He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Philippians 3:21.

The Christians are sure of the final participation in the deliverance of the body and of the full enjoyment of their sonship. But meanwhile the present time, the time in this world, is a time of waiting and hoping. We have the glories of heaven in expectation or prospect: salvation is a blessing which we have in hope, which we are sure of possessing in the future. For if the object of hope, the full enjoyment of our adoption, the perfect deliverance from sin and its consequences, were a matter of the present time and possession, then we could not speak of hope; for if one sees a thing before him, why should he yet hope? Hoping and seeing exclude each other. And so the apostle concludes regarding the peculiarity of hope, its essential feature: If we hope for that which we see not, then we wait through patience and endurance, we steadfastly and longingly wait for it. At the present time we Christians are placed under the obligation of patience, under the necessity of anxious expectation. Knowing the certainty of our future bliss, all the affliction of the present time and life cannot shake our hope. "Salvation, in its fullness, is not a present good, but a matter of hope, and, of course, future; and if future, it follows that we must wait for it in patient and joyful expectation. " (Hodge.)

Having shown that all creation longs for deliverance, and that the Christians are likewise groaning and sighing for the full revelation of their salvation and its glorious blessings, the apostle now states, for our further encouragement, that the Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our infirmity. Although we Christians have the knowledge which pertains to our salvation and are sure of the final revelation of the glory of God in us, yet we are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of our faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. The divine assistance, therefore, is so necessary because we Christians have not the proper conception of the manner and importunity of prayer for the things that we are in need of; our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance: He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christians finally converge, the salvation of our souls. And not only that, but He Himself intercedes for us with sighings and groanings that cannot be clothed in the speech of man. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers' hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body. And then their tottering faith is renewed in strength, then a new joy and consolation takes possession of their hearts, and the believers may again look up to God in believing confidence. All such inarticulate sighs in the hearts of the Christians, although they are not and cannot be clothed in the words of human speech, are nevertheless fully intelligible to God. He that searches, investigates, the hearts is fully conscious of, perfectly acquainted with, the mind of the Spirit. The omniscient God knows what the Spirit has in mind in those groanings whose content cannot be expressed in the words of human language. For the Spirit intercedes for the saints, as the believers are fitly called on account of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ which they have experienced, in a manner which agrees fully with the will and with the glory of God. With holy, godly zeal, in full accordance with the immeasurable, divine content of our hope, with the fervor of divine love He intercedes before God in our behalf, to insure to us the glory which has been prepared for us in heaven. Thus the unspeakable greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us, and for our possession of which the Holy Ghost adds His interceding pleading and groaning, is a source of permanent, glorious comfort to the Christians.