Letter to the Romans 8

¹ The reason, therefore, why those who are in Christ Jesus are not condemned,

² is that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

³ God has done what the Law, because of our unspiritual nature,[*a] was unable to do. God dealt with sin by sending his own Son in a body as physical as any sinful body, and in that body God condemned sin.

⁴ He did this in order that the Law’s just demands might be satisfied in us, who behave not as our unspiritual nature but as the spirit dictates.

⁵ The unspiritual are interested only in what is unspiritual, but the spiritual are interested in spiritual things.

⁶ It is death to limit oneself to what is unspiritual; life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual.

⁷ That is because to limit oneself to what is unspiritual is to be at enmity with God: such a limitation never could and never does submit to God’s law.

⁸ People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God.

⁹ Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him.

¹⁰ Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified;

¹¹ and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

¹² So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives.

¹³ If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

¹⁴ Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God.

¹⁵ The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!'[*b]

¹⁶ The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God.

¹⁷ And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.

¹⁸ I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us.

¹⁹ The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons.

²⁰ It was not for any fault on the part of creation that it was made unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope

²¹ of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God.

²² From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth;

²³ and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.

²⁴ For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved – our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were –

²⁵ but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet – it is something we must wait for with patience.

²⁶ The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words,

²⁷ and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

²⁸ We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he has ,called according to his purpose.

²⁹ They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers.

³⁰ He called those he intended for this; those he called he justified, and with those he justified he shared his glory.

³¹ After saying this, what can we add? With God on our side who can be against us?

³² ‘Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give.

³³ Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits,

³⁴ could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.

³⁵ Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked.

³⁶ As scripture promised: For your sake we are being massacred daily, and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.[*c]

³⁷ These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of him who loved us.

³⁸ For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power,

³⁹ or height or depth,[*d] nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.