The Firmness of Our Hope; the Spirit Helps Our Infirmity (Romans 8:24–26)

Rom. 8:24. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

He brings the reason why, having received the firstfruits, we still lament. Because we have not received everything yet. We have received a part, as a faithful pledge, but the final, perfect, we still hope for, though we know with certainty that it too already belongs to us; but since it is extremely good, we cannot help but grieve, yearning to receive it as soon as possible, just as in another place the Apostle spoke of himself as burning with desire to depart from the body and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). “In this hope,” he says, “we were saved.” This does not mean that we are not yet saved. No; we are saved: “we were saved.” If anyone dies now, he will receive everything belonging to salvation. But while we live here, we do not hold in our hands everything belonging to those who are saved. The reception of salvation in its perfection is the object of our hope. “What we will be has not yet appeared,” says the holy Apostle John (1 Jn. 3:2). Thus, in hope we are saved. Hope by its nature is such that it does not hold in its hands, does not have before its eyes that which it hopes for. If it did, there would be no place for hope. Who holds something in his hands before his eyes—does it befit him to hope for what is visible and held? So too we hope, because we do not yet have everything in our hands before our eyes. We have already received much—received the forgiveness of sins, the power to overcome sin and be cleansed from passions, filial boldness before God, are deemed worthy of special divine visits and gifts that bless us beyond measure. But this is not yet everything. The final will appear in the radiance of resurrection and reigning with Christ. For this better thing we wait in hope.

But why is our salvation arranged and ordered thus? This is according to the nature of our weak humanity. Give us everything in our hands and we would immediately squander it all. But when a part is given and it is said: if you are faithful, you will receive something better, so much better that you cannot even imagine it—then this keeps us in due order and in earnest seeking and fulfilling of the conditions under which receiving that better thing is placed. This gives opportunity to show faith and faithfulness so that what is to be received is in some way also earned. Holy Chrysostom says: “We should not seek everything here but hope. The only thing we bring as a gift to God is that we believe Him when He promises future blessings. This is the only path to salvation. If we lose this path, we lose everything we have brought as a gift to God. I ask you, the Apostle says: are you not guilty of countless evil deeds? Are you not a lost man? Has not judgment been pronounced upon you? Have not all attempts to save you seemed vain? What then saved you? Only hope in God, only faith in what is promised and given by God—you could not bring anything greater as a gift to God. And if hope saved you, keep it now too. Since it has already brought you so many blessings, it is evident it will not deceive you in the future. If, finding you dead, lost, captive, an enemy, it made you a friend, a son, free, righteous, a fellow heir, gave you blessings such as no one ever expected, then after such generosity and kindness, will it forsake you afterward? Therefore do not say to me: hope again, expectation again, faith again. Through this you were saved at the beginning—this is the only gift you brought to the bridegroom. Therefore preserve it and keep it. If you will seek everything here, you will ruin your merit through which you were glorified.”

Rom. 8:25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Here to the end is brought the explanation of why we also groan. We have received, he said, the firstfruits, but we have not yet received the perfect, the complete—it we hope for, we await, but do not yet see, do not yet hold in our hands. With such hoping is inevitably joined waiting, and with waiting comes patience. Thus it is natural that we wait for this hoped-for, awaited, still unseen thing with patience. And patience, though the certainty of hope alleviates it, is still something burdensome. This is why we groan, even though we have the firstfruits, even though we have not the slightest doubt about receiving it.

But in explaining our present position thus, Saint Paul had in view not merely this explanation but rather wanted to impress upon us that if this is how things are, if we must necessarily wait and while waiting endure with patience, then endure with magnanimity, in unfailing hope for the better and more perfect, whatever may befall you in your external circumstances. To wait with patience in hope—this should be the characteristic, essential trait of ours. Holy Chrysostom says: “If you will seek everything here, what then of hope? Hope itself is a firm confidence in the future. Can God demand more of you after He Himself has given you all His blessings? He demands of you one thing only—hope, and He demands it so that you yourself might contribute somehow to your own salvation. God crowns the one who hopes as He would crown one who labors, suffers, and endures countless trials.” But if he does not at once pass to where hope is crowned but remains here amid the trials of hope itself, then the value of his hope, through being tested by patience, becomes incomparably higher. “When you hear about patience, understand in it the thought of struggles and intense labors. For a Christian must endure, waiting not for what is visible but for what is hoped for by faith” (blessed Theophylact). To keep hope strong, one must remain faithful to Him who through promises gave birth to and nourishes hope, and this requires labor, sweat, and struggles both within and without.

Rom. 8:26. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

“Likewise,” ωσαύτως—here does not denote comparison but conjunction: also in like manner. Holy Chrysostom read the text thus: “likewise also the Spirit. By weaknesses are not meant moral failures but those by which patience is tested. We, he said, have received a pledge, receiving the Spirit, and we expect to receive the final full payment in the future; and we groan about it—we groan both because it is so bright and especially because, being destined for such a most radiant state, we are now extremely straitened and humiliated. But however difficult such a position, we, relying on the pledge, wait with patience for the full payment, not doubting in the least that we will truly receive it. Thus hope—the expectation and waiting for the better and more perfect—constitutes the distinctive mark of the Christian spiritual disposition. Having come to this point, the holy Apostle now fixes attention on this hope and encourages it by presenting its firmest foundations. The reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit is itself already a firm foundation of hope, even the source of all other foundations; but it is in a sense a deductive one. Relying on it, we wait with complete confidence and patiently endure all difficulties. But we thus dispose ourselves: what about the Spirit? Likewise the Spirit also helps us in this work of enduring the weaknesses or difficulties that beset us—both by comforting the heart and driving away the bitterness of external troubles with spiritual sweetnesses, and by teaching us how, worthily of God, to pray to God.”

The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. We, having received the Spirit, through good thoughts about God’s arrangements encourage ourselves toward patience; but the Spirit Himself is not in us like an inactive deposit in the treasury of our nature but as a life-giving power producing not merely hopeful thoughts but hopeful good disposition. “Helps us,” συναντιλαμβάνετοα—defends us together with someone. With whom? With us. When we by our good thoughts strive to encourage ourselves toward hopeful patience, then the Spirit of God comes to our aid and instills in the heart the most magnanimous patience in hope. “Although patience is properly your work,” Holy Chrysostom says, “yet the Spirit is given to you to encourage you to hope, and through it to alleviate your labors.” Let us add to this the words of Oecumenius: “Do not think that you will be overwhelmed by the weight of patience. The Spirit will not let you be overwhelmed by it but will be your helper in this work. We ourselves are weak and without the help of the Spirit cannot even accomplish patience itself.” But the Apostle speaks of more than this—he speaks not of help about to come from the Spirit but of help already present, as though to say: see how the Spirit helps you, and do not lose heart. The very fact that you endure and show magnanimity in your weaknesses testifies that the Spirit helps you. Blessed Theophylact writes: “Having mentioned patience, he encourages the hearer and says that the Spirit strengthens us as well. Therefore, not growing weak in hope and patience, you bring only hope and patience, and the Spirit helps you.”

This is the first help from the Spirit—that He pours comfort into the heart amid difficulties and thereby gives patience strength and magnanimity. And the second is that He teaches us how we ought to pray in this case and Himself places prayer in the heart. In difficulties, sorrows, and trials we usually turn to God in prayer; but in doing so we seldom find the trace of God and pray rather for what we desire, having no assurance that it is also salutary for us. But the Spirit of God, finding prayer and bringing forth prayer, inspires us to pray precisely for what is most needful. This most needful thing is either distinctly impressed on the mind by Him or is reduced to a general disposition of self-abandonment to God. You know all things, O Lord, and as You know, arrange for me what is most needful! And this is the true Spirit-moved prayer, which all the holy men of prayer place on the highest rung of the ladder of ascent to God in prayer.

“For we do not know how to pray as we ought.” One person prays for health, but it may not lead him to good. Another prays to be freed from poverty, but poverty is useful for him. Another asks for intelligence, but it would be his ruin. Even among spiritual needs not all satisfaction is salvific in the sense we understand it and pray for. Holy Chrysostom says: “By these words the Apostle shows both how great is the Spirit’s care for us and teaches the Romans not to count as beneficial everything that appears so by human judgment. Since it was natural for the Christians of that time, who were beaten, driven out, forced to endure countless trials, to desire rest and count it beneficial for themselves and to ask God for such grace, Paul says: do not count for yourselves as truly beneficial what appears so to you. We have need of God’s help even to know what is beneficial for ourselves. How weak and insignificant is man in himself! Therefore the Apostle said: ‘We do not know how to pray as we ought.’ But that the disciple might not be ashamed of this ignorance, he revealed that the very teachers are in ignorance. For he did not say: you do not know—but: ‘we do not know.’ But that he said this not from humility was shown in other circumstances. Although he continually asked God in his prayers to see the Romans, yet this did not come to pass immediately according to his request. Regarding the thorn given him in the flesh, that is, regarding tribulations, he prayed repeatedly and did not at all receive what was asked. And in the Old Testament neither Moses, who asked to see Palestine, nor Jeremiah, who prayed for the Jews, nor Abraham, who interceded for the Sodomites, received what they desired.” Let us continue with the words of blessed Theodoret: “Do not ask,” the Apostle says, “for deliverance from sorrows; for you do not know what is beneficial, as God the Ruler knows. Entrust yourselves to the One who holds the helm of the universe; for He, even if you do not ask but only groan according to the action of the grace dwelling in you, will wisely direct what concerns you and provide what will be beneficial for you.”

“But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.”

“Intercedes,” ύπερεντυγχάνει—which means to speak for someone before the powerful and to speak with extremely strong speech that does not cease until it obtains what is asked. Thus, he says, the Holy Spirit given to us “intercedes” for us before God. When he says “intercedes”—he clearly indicates that this was known to all and by all. What a blessed time that was! But what does this intercession mean? We ourselves, he says, do not know how to pray, but the Spirit prays for us—the Spirit within us. How does this happen? The Spirit prays, and we do not even know it—or does the Spirit pray, bringing forth His prayer through our consciousness and feeling? It cannot be that man does not know his own prayer. He only knows that it is not his, though it is in him; it has been formed apart from him, but he knows it, and knows whence it comes. The Spirit of God places a true prayer in the heart, and man, having received it, offers it to God in the meaning and power in which it was placed. He is passive in this, not active. In the next verse it is said that the One who searches hearts knows this prayer—knows it because He sees it in the heart or as it comes from the heart; and evidently the Spirit places it in the heart—that is, He acts in this not apart from consciousness and feeling. In the early Church, in assemblies, a spirit of prayer sometimes came upon someone. He would stand and ask permission to utter this prayer and, having received permission, would utter it. This means he was conscious of it, felt it formed in his heart, and in its utterance had his share of freedom.

This will be clearer if we apply it to something that happens in our time. In our time the same thing happens in prayer that comes upon us. Ordinarily we pray according to prayer books or with our own words. There are prayers and sighs that occur in us, but we ourselves deliberately stir them up in ourselves. And this is prayer. But sometimes an impulse to prayer comes upon us of itself and compels us to pray and gives us no rest until the prayer pours out completely. This is either the same as what the Apostle speaks of or something like it. The content of such prayers is seldom determined by any particular object; but it almost always breathes surrender to God’s will, entrusting ourselves to the guidance of God who knows better than we what is beneficial for us, both inward and outward, and desires this more strongly for us than we do ourselves, and is ready to give and arrange for us everything, only if we do not resist. All the prayers handed down to us by the holy Fathers are of the same origin, are Spirit-moved, and therefore remain effective to this day.

Holy Chrysostom says: “These words: ‘The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words’—are not clear, because the miracles which were then numerous have now ceased. Therefore I need to tell you about the condition of that time; by this the Apostle’s words will be explained. What was that condition like? To everyone who received baptism then, God communicated some gift, which was generally called the Spirit. One had the gift of prophecy and predicted the future; another the gift of wisdom and taught the people; another the gift of healing and healed the sick; another the gift of power and raised the dead; another the gift of tongues and spoke in different languages. Besides all these gifts, there was also the gift of prayer (which must be supposed to be common to all). Whoever had this gift (whenever it was activated in him) prayed for the whole people. Since, not knowing much of what is beneficial for us, we ask for what is useless, in the early Church the gift of prayer came upon someone who alone asked for what was beneficial for all the Church and taught others to pray. Thus the Apostle here calls Spirit both the gift itself and the soul which receives it, intercedes before God, and groans. For the one deemed worthy of such grace would stand in the assembly and, with great contrition, with the innermost sighs falling down before God, would ask for what was beneficial for all. Understanding this, Paul says: ‘The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.’”

Why are such groanings called “too deep for words”? Either because of their special power, unusual in ordinary prayers, or because they are born in a mysterious way, or because in this utterance is a prayer which man by himself would never have uttered. Ambrosiaster writes: “Here it is said that the Spirit of the Lord intercedes for us not with ordinary human utterances but according to the nature of His own being. For when He who is from God speaks to God, He must speak as He who is from whom He comes speaks. So it is customary with us that one does not speak to a fellow citizen in any other language. But the Spirit given to us pours Himself forth in our prayers to cover with His action our inexperience and lack of foresight and to obtain for us from God that which is beneficial for us.”

And perhaps there is in the word “too deep for words” this thought—that these groanings inspired by the Spirit cannot be fully expressed in human speech: the heart feels them, but the mind cannot grasp them and the tongue cannot express them. This thought accords with experience and is confirmed by the following words: “He who searches our hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit”—as if to say: be not troubled or disturbed by the fact that your tongue cannot utter in all its force the prayer placed in your heart. God knows what is in your heart and knows what the Spirit who placed it there wishes, and does not need your clarity and eloquence of speech for this.