A groan is the inarticulate expression of the deep suffering of the heart and spirit from which it comes, and there are a number of examples of this in the Old Testament Scriptures. Yet groaning is not confined to men, for even the beasts of the earth groan in suffering, it may be from lack of food, from disease or other causes. Israel groaned under the bondage of Pharaoh, and as oppressed by their enemies, but God came in for His people in His great mercy, accomplishing their deliverance. Job groaned under the burden of his afflictions, and we read of the groaning of prisoners and of those who are wounded. In the Psalms we have the Spirit of Christ groaning in sympathy with the remnant of Israel, and in Job we read of the poor groaning while the rich are living in luxury.
The Groans of the Son of God
In John 11 there is an amazing spectacle, the Son of God incarnate, the Creator of the vast universe, groaning and weeping in the presence of death. The cause of the Lord’s first groan is given in the words, “When Jesus therefore saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” (verse 33). How deeply distressing it was for the Son of God to witness the sorrow and suffering that sin had brought into the world, and especially into the home of those He loved.
Death, the wages of sin, with all its ravages, had invaded the dwelling place of those He loved, and Mary says to Jesus, as Martha had said before, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Mary well knew that death could not have come where Jesus was, but she had not yet learned that Jesus had come to abolish death, and also to take away the cause of death by the sacrifice of Himself. Although Jesus knew all that He would soon accomplish, He entered, as none other could, into the awful results of sin for man in this world, and it was this that caused Him to groan in the spirit and be troubled.
Having said regarding Lazarus, “Where have ye laid him?” “Jesus wept.” There is not only the groan that His Father alone could rightly understand, but there are the tears that Martha, Mary and those around can in some little measure understand. They are indeed tears of sympathy with the bereaved sisters in their great sorrow, and there is truth in the words of the Jews, “Behold how He loved him”. What deep comfort the tears of Jesus have brought to His own in times of bereavement, and how blessed for us the knowledge that, although He knows that He is about to raise Lazarus from death, that He can enter more deeply into the ravages of death than any other can, as expressed in His groan and trouble.
There were some present at that time who said, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” (verse 37). The answer to these words is, “Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself comes to the grave.” These Jews knew that the Lord had the power to do wondrous works, but they knew not the wisdom and the love that had caused Him to wait until Lazarus was dead before coming to the bereaved sisters. Not only the ravages of death, but the unbelief and ignorance of men, brings a groan from the blessed Son of God.
It is blessed to contemplate the mighty power that Jesus displayed in raising Lazarus from the dead, and to know that soon that same mighty power will be used to raise from among the dead those “that sleep in Jesus,” but how blessed to know that Jesus, who no longer groans, is still able to enter into all that death means when it invades the circle of His loved ones, and is able to sympathize as He once did with the sisters of Bethany.
The Groans of the Saints of God
In 2nd Corinthians 5 the Apostle Paul reveals that the Christian is waiting for “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Instead of this body of earth we shall have a new body, a spiritual body, which comes from heaven and in which we will dwell eternally in heaven. This is a groan of earnest longing as contemplating the blessed prospect of entering the presence of God as conformed to the image of His Son, and as being “like Him.” So that there is not only the joy that the blessed hope gives, but the groan as we realise that what is in prospect is not yet ours.
The Apostle shows that the believer at the coming of the Lord is “clothed upon” with his heavenly house. Our present bodies that are made of earth are suited for the earth, but not for heaven, and are spoken of as tabernacles for our temporary journey through this world. Should a believer die he goes to be with Christ, and is “unclothed,” for he leaves his body behind to be changed, as 1 Corinthians 15 shows, at the coming of the Lord. If an unbeliever dies, he is spoken of as “naked,” exposed in all his shame and unrighteousness, waiting for the day of judgment.
Another reason for the Christian groaning is given in 2 Cor. 5:4, “For we that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened.” If we groan as longing earnestly for our glorified body, we also groan as feeling the burden in the earthly tabernacle. The body in which we dwell in passing through this word hinders our full enjoyment of all that God have given to us along with Christ, His own dear Son, for we are joint-heirs with Him to share the glory of His kingdom, and to be with Him for ever in the Father’s house. The body of earth acts as a weight upon us, a burden, holding us down to earth when we would fain be in heaven to have the portion that God has marked for us. There are also the things that we have down here in common with the groaning creation, that weigh heavily upon the Christian, but for which we have the constant supply of the grace of God in Jesus.
The Groans of the Creation
As joint-heirs with Christ we are called to suffer “with Him” (Rom. 8:17), while waiting to be glorified with Him. Christ is past His sufferings, all that He bore while upon earth, and especially on the cross. We cannot have any part in the sufferings He bore upon the cross for our sins, but, like Him, we can suffer for righteousness’ sake, and we can also suffer for His sake. Not yet having the portion that belongs to us as joint-heirs in glory with Christ, we are viewed as suffering with Christ, for the Lord Jesus down here, though the Heir of all things, had not where to lay His head. All to which He was rightly heir He refused from the hand of Satan and from man, and instead He chose to suffer while waiting to possess all that was rightly His in the world to come.
What we have to suffer now as waiting our true portion, given by God, is “not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). We are not alone in our waiting for the coming day, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.” When Adam fell, the whole creation under him fell with him, and was “made subject to vanity,” sharing the sorrow and ruin of man. Yet there is hope for the lower creation, when the curse shall be removed, and Christ shall reign in righteousness. Then shall the creation “be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Until “the manifestation of the sons of God” in glory with Christ, “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together” (Rom. 8:22). God is not insensible to the groaning of the lower creation that has come through the sin and fall of man, and has no intention to allow the groaning to continue. If God has been dishonoured by man, and by the sin and ruin that marks His fair creation, He has intervened in His own Son to take away sin and all its dreadful effects in His creation. How great must be the sound of the groan that reaches the ear of God through the sorrows and sufferings of man and beast. What pain is suffered by man and beast through disease and death and over ravages of sin! but God has planned for the removal of the groan, and the deliverance of the creature that has suffered through the fall of man.
The Groans of the Holy Spirit
As forming part of the lower creation, although we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). Sonship in its full sense is here connected with the redemption of the body, and the Christian groans as part of the groaning creation, but as knowing that the groan will cease for the creation, and therefore for the saints of God, with entry into the glory that our new bodies will give. Already our souls know what redemption is in the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, but soon our bodies will be claimed by God, whether in the grave or still in life in this world, at the coming of the Saviour.
Often in our trials and sorrows we “know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). When the Lord was upon earth He knew what it was to groan, but now He is beyond the sorrows of this life though able to enter into the sorrows and sufferings of His own. Now the Holy Spirit is with us, and in us, and He intercedes for us, helping God’s people in their deep distresses when they do not know how to express themselves to God in an intelligent way. As the saints groan before God, the Spirit of God groans with them.
The groanings of the Holy Spirit are not heard by men, but they are heard by God, for “He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He intercedes for saints according to God” (Rom. 8:27). How perfectly intelligible are the groans of the Spirit in the ear and heart of God, and God is ever ready to answer to the interceding of One who knows exactly what to bring before God for our help and blessing, and what God desires for His loved ones in relation to His will for them.
Whatever then our circumstances in this groaning creation, we can rest quietly and confidently in the provision of God for the whole wilderness way. We can pray at all times, and when in our greatest difficulties, and can only groan before God, know that we have the help of His Spirit interceding for us, having too Christ interceding for us above (Rom. 8:34), and God for us (Rom. 8:31). Surely then we can say with the Apostle, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
R. 9.3.71