Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 4 Study # 3
January 29, 2008
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<376> Thesis:   The Father's response to the Spirit's intercession is effectual. Introduction:   It seems to be pretty obvious on the surface of the text before us that Paul wishes to give the Romans a "boost of confidence" in the face of both undeniable and inescapable sufferings. At the beginning he approached this desire by declaring the incomparable glory that comes out of the "seed" of the sufferings, and in the text before us now he approaches this desire by declaring that we have a potent "Co-laborer" in the details of the "dailies". The two major theses are related: the incomparable glory is not unrelated to the responses we give to the sufferings and neither is the aid of the "Co-laborer" unrelated to those responses. The glory is the end result of those responses and the help of the "Co-laborer" is the means to those responses. This evening we are going to pursue Paul's role of encourager in regard to his doctrine of the impact that is made by our "Helper". We have seen that the primary action of our "Helper" is intercession, which we have defined as "prayer for us to the God above us regarding the problems in us". The main question that this primary action raises is this: What is the impact of this intercession? The text before us suggests a partial answer. The straightforward implication of 8:27 is that the Father responds to the intercession of the Spirit according to the nature of that which has caused the Spirit to "groan". But, what is the nature of that response?