Intercession of the Holy Spirit
“The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Definition
The intercession of the Holy Spirit is his work of interceding for believers before God, especially when they do not know how to pray as they ought. This does not mean the Spirit prays to the Father the way one person prays to another; rather, he stirs up within believers themselves the desires and groanings that Paul describes, so that their own prayer becomes, in substance, the Spirit’s intercession working through them.1
Biblical Basis
Paul writes that “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” (Rom. 8:26-27). This intercession is distinct from, though parallel to, Christ’s own: Paul immediately goes on to describe Christ “at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34) — the Son interceding for believers before the Father in heaven, the Spirit interceding within believers themselves on earth.
Objections and Responses
Does the Spirit himself literally groan, the way the text’s language might suggest? Calvin answers that the “groanings” are not the Spirit’s own groaning as if he suffered any lack, but the believer’s: the Spirit “exciteth in us” the very desires and groans Paul describes, so that a Christian’s inarticulate prayer in weakness is itself the Spirit’s own intercession expressed through him.1 The Spirit’s searching of “hearts” and knowledge of “the mind of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:27) confirms this is God’s own Spirit at work, not a merely human effort at prayer.