In Tuesday’s Life of Jesus class, we talked about the Holy Spirit, and his sanctifying work in the life of each Christian.
Saint Paul, in Romans 8:26-30, describes one way in which the Holy Spirit is at work:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Leon Morris writes:
Believers are helped in their earthly troubles (in which they groan inwardly, v. 23). Likewise they are helped in their weakness, specifically in their weakness in prayer
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, indwells each Christian believer, and ministers to us in our weakness. He intercedes for us, according to God’s will.
The Spirit’s help preserves and enlarges the hope in which we live…We should notice further that Paul does not say that the Spirit removes our weakness; it is still there, and we live our whole life in conditions of weakness. What the Spirit does is to help; he gives us the aid we need to see us through.
We continue to experience weakness, and we shall for the remainder of our lives in this world. However, the work of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to help us through any and all of the difficulties we will face.
Paul [refers] to the fact that we who are Christians are not the spiritual giants we would like to be (and sometimes imagine we are). We are weak, and left to ourselves we will always be in trouble
We live our lives, depending on God’s strength, not our own.
We must not allow ourselves to be sidetracked by modern notions of what is or is not possible for God. Paul is saying that God is the author of our salvation, and that from beginning to end. We are not to think that God can take action only when we graciously give him permission. Paul is saying that God initiates the whole process.
Our sanctification is not driven by (nor is it limited by) our own resolve, strength, or ability. It is God’s work, through and through. He is at work in us, even when (perhaps especially when) we are not aware of that work. At times, we may be tempted to believe that God’s Spirit is no longer at work in us, and we feel that we have lost our way.
God predestined his people to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. We are to become like Christ (cf. 1 John 3: 1), which…means sanctification. It is Gods plan that his people become like his Son, not that they should muddle along in a modest respectability.
God never stops pursuing his purpose: to make us more and more like Jesus.
This is all part of God’s predestination; he predestined us not only to be released from an unpleasant predicament, but in order that we might become like his Son.