Holy Groaning: A Brand Mark of Christ
“The Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.”
(Romans 8)
In today’s sermon, our pastor spoke about spiritual groaning.
From Day One in our Christian life, the Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit, so that we cannot be and do the things we want (Galatians 5). So that we groan.
To illustrate this groaning, Pastor Josh recalled a visit to a cattle ranch. He was on site when the men were branding the calves. He saw them wrestling the animals down, recoiled at the hiss of burning hide and flesh, and (worst of all) endured the short but pain-filled groaning of the terrified calves.
Josh’s point: Branding would be abuse or torture if it were not well-intended and mercifully brief. The same is true with God. He means our groaning for good, and against the backdrop of eternity it is infinitesimally brief.
But while appreciating Josh’s point, a different thought sprang to my mind.
At the end of his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul—who had often gone toe-to-toe with heretical Christian Jews seeking to place the Gentile saints under the Mosaic Law—issued this stern warning: “From now on, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the brand marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6). In his defense and confirmation of the gospel, Paul had been beaten many times. The state of his body proved it.
Here, then, is my thought.
The Christian life—though filled with many delightful seasons of spiritual refreshing, advance, fruitfulness, and joy—is nevertheless also a life of deep groaning. We groan to be free from residual sin. We groan to be holy as He is holy. We groan to see our friends and loved ones come to Christ. We groan to see justice done in our land, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob honored in her citadels. And the frailer we get, the more we groan to be clothed with “our tent from heaven” — our resurrection body, vouchsafed to us by the resurrected Christ (2 Corinthians 5).
Yes, all such groaning is painful, but it’s also profoundly encouraging. Why? Because it is a brand mark of Jesus. It is the good fruit of a benevolent, holy, and God-given wound, piercing to the depths of our being, making and marking us as his property, demonstrating that “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95).
In short, spiritual groaning is a steppingstone to spiritual assurance. Now I have never met a Christian who, at least at times, did not wrestle with God, prayerfully seeking a deep and abiding assurance that he really does belong to Him. Such wrestling comes with the territory. It is part of the battle to which believers are born. The world, the flesh, and the devil stand opposed to the new life within us, and the inevitable result is onslaughts of spiritual doubt, fear, and insecurity.
Therefore, beloved fellow-wrestlers, let me ask you a question: In your walk with Christ do you find yourself groaning? In the face of all your groaning, do you find yourself doubting? And in the face of all your doubting do you find yourself pressing into God, continually seeking from Him overruling grace, deliverance, wholeness, justice, assurance, and eternal happiness of the heavenly kind?
If so, then by all means take heart: Yours is a holy groaning, and therefore a brand mark of Jesus Christ. It means you are indeed your beloved’s, and He is yours: now and forever.
And it means one thing more: In midst of all your groaning, rejoice!
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Thank you, Dean, This is very thoughtful and passionate, and true. A good reminder since the older we get…the more I groan.
. . . and rejoice. Together!
Pastor Dean, this message really hit home for me on a personal level—it reframed my own spiritual weariness not as a sign of rejection, but as a brand mark of Christ.
The way you connected Paul’s ‘scars’ in Galatians 6:17 with the groaning in Romans 8 is brilliant—not just theologically profound, but also practically powerful for comforting discouraged believers.
Thank you for this deep insight, brother. Onward together in this high calling!
Your words of encouragement mean a great deal to me, brother. Our labors in the Lord are not in vain! d
Dean, this is a solid and edifying word. I certainly am learning to regard my sufferings as a sign that God is at work to renew and restore me and the whole Creation.
May He enable us to bear with courage every trial.
Thanks for this helpful call to courage and hope in our Lord’s promises.
My favorite part: the season of suffering is “infinitesimally brief” compared to the joys of good world to come!
Thank you for the thank you!
d