Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips


But Paul is also concerned, in Romans chapter 8, about how God gets us there, how God works things together for our good, which is ultimately that we would be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Indeed, that's a wonderful way, isn't it, to think about the whole ministry of the Holy Spirit? What is his passion? His passion is to make you more like the Lord Jesus. [00:00:56]

That, let me assure you, is no mean task. That involves radical transformation in our lives, and often the road is fairly bumpy. I wonder if you remember that illustration that C.S. Lewis uses about becoming a Christian. And he says, "I thought my life was being turned into a nice little cottage, and then somebody started knocking the walls down and running up a turret here, and then transforming the whole thing." [00:01:25]

The Christian life involves difficulties and struggles and suffering. And one of the fascinating ways in which Paul brings this out, in Romans chapter 8, that you probably never noticed before, is that as he moves on throughout the chapter, he begins to use the word 'groaning.' I wonder, sometimes, if people who say they love Romans chapter 8 ever stop to think that one of the most significant and repeated words in Romans chapter 8, is the word 'groaning.' [00:02:50]

Notice, first of all, this is a very important thing for us to grasp, that it's the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives that is, in part, the cause of our groaning. There was a time, I don't know that it's quite so common today, but it bursts on the evangelical scene from time to time, when some notable teacher will say, "Now, if you only take these steps to experiencing the full power of the Holy Spirit, you'll be raised into a new category of Christian life altogether and struggle and groaning and challenge and difficulty -- you'll, as it were, defy those laws of gravity and life will be, essentially, plain sailing -- even health, wealth, and happiness -- if you only have more of the Spirit, you wouldn't be groaning." [00:04:33]

But Paul is saying here, and we need to learn to say to that kind of teaching in response, "Dear friend, the reason I am groaning is because I do have the Holy Spirit. It's because the Spirit dwells in me as the first fruits of the final harvest of my full salvation that I groan inwardly as I wait eagerly and as I long for that day when the final transformation will be made." [00:05:36]

So, this is something you never escape in the Christian life. There's always a not-yet-ness about the Christian life. There's always this sense, "Lord, I continue to feel the influence of sin in my life. I continue to struggle, because I'm not yet finally holy. But Lord, thank you, that I groan because of that." The day you and I stop groaning in this world is not the day we have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but the day we've grieved the Holy Spirit. [00:06:07]

The verb 'helps' there is rather a weak translation of the verb that Paul uses. It'd be very difficult to find a good translation, because the word that he uses -- some of you know German, and sometimes you think that one of the characteristics of the German language is you just stick pieces of words together to make new words. Greek can be like that, as well. The verb that Paul uses here basically is the verb 'to take something.' But then, it has two prepositional prefixes. [00:08:26]

So you need somebody to come alongside you. And you need that somebody, as it were, to stand at the heavy end and to carry the heavy end. You see the marvelous picture this is? He isn't saying when the Holy Spirit comes to help you, he just takes over and you go into a kind of trancelike condition and everything just happens and you can float along in life. No, what the Spirit wants to do is not to do something over your head by placing you to the side, the Spirit wants salvation to work throughout the whole of your life, and he wants to enable you when you're in need, to be given the strength to be able to serve God for His glory. [00:12:08]

The Spirit comes, and it's as though he says, "I'll take the heavy end. You get down to that end." And by his power, he enables us to live for the glory of God. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. That's how Paul is then able to say in verse 28 that we know that for those who love God, God works all things together for our good, for those who are called according to His purpose. [00:13:10]

This is, to me, one of the most touching things of all. Look at verse 28 and what follows. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness." And then, he says this, "We don't know. Sometimes, we don't know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words." We groan as we look forward to our final salvation. The Spirit groans as he helps us and makes intercession for us in prayer. [00:14:59]

He says, "God does not cast you aside, but the Spirit makes intercession for the saints with groans that could never be expressed in words." And because the Spirit knows the mind of the Lord, and because the Lord reads our hearts, we might even be able to say it's when we don't know how to pray for something, and we're longing for God to hear our cries, that's the point in our lives when prayer according to the perfect will of God is being made in our hearts. [00:18:48]

When we don't know what to pray for as we ought, when our hearts are broken and we cannot express to the Father what we need, the Spirit makes intercession for the saints with groans that words cannot express, and he who searches our hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit prays according to the will of God. [00:23:06]

Ask a question about this sermon