Romans 8:1-13 is one section. It speaks of the law of the Spirit of life. Verses 14 to 30 are another section. It speaks of the need for the children of God to go through suffering before they can be glorified and can become legal heirs. This is why it is hard for us to avoid sufferings and groanings. Not only are we ourselves groaning, but the whole creation is groaning as well. It and we are all travailing in pain and are expecting the revelation of the sons of God. The whole universe is a travailing woman, working to produce a corporate son. This corporate son is Jesus Christ and His many brothers. He is the Firstborn, and His many brothers are the many sons. One day God’s many sons will be revealed. Then all the creation of the whole universe will enjoy complete freedom. When the sons of God are glorified, they will become God’s heirs to inherit God’s inheritance. That will be the time of the millennium, the time of the restoration of all things.
Today, we are in this process of travailing. Not only does the whole creation groan; even we who have the Spirit within us as the firstfruit of the Spirit also groan. This is because we have not yet entered into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Our bodies are not yet redeemed, and we have not yet received the full sonship. We are waiting for the Lord’s return, when our bodies will be transfigured and redeemed. At that time our whole being will enter into glory and will be delivered from the slavery of corruption to enjoy the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
In verse 26 Paul said again: “And in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness; for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” From this we can see that the way the Spirit joins in to help us in our weakness is not rough but fine. It is even in the way of a groaning. Today, although we have the Spirit in us as the firstfruit for our foretaste, the fact that we are yet in the process of entering into glory and into full freedom makes it unavoidable for us to often groan. When we are weak, helpless, and powerless, we can only groan. When we groan, God also groans. While we are groaning, the Spirit who is the law within us spontaneously helps us and groans with us.
In verse 23 it is our groaning. In verse 26 it is the Spirit’s groaning. The Spirit is higher than all creatures; He is omnipresent and omnipotent, and He is very resourceful. Yet when we groan, He groans with us. In our weakness, He joins in to help us. He is the companion in our weakness and for our sake becomes the same as we are. This proves that the One who comes as the law of the Spirit of life regulates us in a very fine way. He groans when we groan. Sometimes, you have some definite burden and problem that you bring to the Lord. You want to pray, but you cannot utter a prayer. You do not know what you should say, and you can only groan. At such times, the Spirit groans within you also. When we are weak, He joins us in our weakness. Actually, He is not a weak One. But for our sake, He joins in and shares our burden.
Furthermore, the moving and operation of the law of the Spirit of life within us is such that it is difficult to tell whether it is our own moving, or His moving in us. Actually, to our realization, the operation of the law of the Spirit within us is just like our own moving. Whenever we feel that we are weak, depressed, and backsliding, we can pray and draw near to the Lord, and spontaneously there will be an operation which revives us. This is the operation of the gentle indwelling law of the Spirit. We may feel that it comes from ourselves and find it very difficult to differentiate one from the other. But we have to know that whatever comes in the way of the Spirit comes out of the law.
The most precious thing for a Christian to have is the law of this Spirit. Hence, we have to pay attention to this law, to cherish the inward feeling of this law, and to live according to the spontaneous operation of this law within us. In this way, we will surely see a wonderful result. I hope that you will all learn to know this law and to experience this law. Do not mistake it as your own moving simply because He operates in a gentle and fine way. This moving is not something out of us. Rather, it is the operation of the Triune God. We need to cooperate with this law and to go along with its operation within us so that God’s element can increase within us and we can grow continually in His life.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Sib, Malaysia on October 29, 1990)
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