Romains 8

Set free by the Spirit of life

¹So then, those who are in Christ Jesus now face no sentence of condemnation.^{a 2}For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has freed you from the law of sin and death.^{b 3}The law was powerless, since the flesh had left it weak. So God acted. He sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin, and in the flesh he passed sentence on sin. ⁴He did this so that the law’s righteous requirement would be fully met in us, who conduct our lives by the Spirit and not by the flesh. ⁵Those who are under the rule of the flesh have their minds fixed on the concerns of the flesh, but those under the rule of the Spirit, on the concerns of the Spirit. ⁶The outlook of the flesh means death, but the outlook of the Spirit means life and peace. ⁷That is because the outlook of the flesh is at war with God. It does not bow to God’s law, and in fact it is not able to. ⁸People who are in the flesh have no power to please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, if God’s Spirit really does live in you. If anyone lacks the Spirit of Christ, that person is not his. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, the body is marked for death because of sin, but the Spirit is life for you because of righteousness.^{c 11}And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead has made a home in you, then God, who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, will bring your mortal bodies to life as well, because his Spirit lives in you.^d

God’s children by the Spirit

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are under an obligation, but not to the flesh, to live as the flesh dictates. ¹³If you live as the flesh dictates, you are headed for death. But if by the Spirit you keep putting the body’s practices to death, you will live. ¹⁴Those whom God’s Spirit is leading are God’s children. ¹⁵What you received was not a spirit of slavery that would put you back under fear. You received the Spirit of adoption as children, and in the Spirit we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins our own spirit in testifying that we are God’s children. ¹⁷If we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs, and we inherit alongside Christ, if we suffer together with him so that we will also be glorified together with him.

Creation waits to be set free

¹⁸I have weighed it up: what we suffer in this present time does not begin to balance the glory that is going to be revealed to us. ¹⁹The created world cranes its neck in longing, waiting for God’s children to be revealed. ²⁰Creation was made subject to futility. This was not its own choice; it was because of the one who subjected it. Yet there was hope: ²¹creation itself will also be released from its slavery to decay and will enter the freedom that comes with the glory of God’s children. ²²We know that all creation, to this very day, groans as one and suffers the pains of giving birth together. ²³And not creation alone. We ourselves, who have the Spirit as the first share of the harvest, also groan within ourselves while we long for our adoption as children, when our body will be redeemed.^{e 24}It was in hope that we were saved. But a hope that is already in sight is no hope at all. Who goes on hoping for what is already in front of them? ²⁵But if what we hope for is something we do not yet see, we keep waiting for it with endurance.

The Spirit pleads for us

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit also lends a hand in our weakness. What we should pray for, and how, we do not know. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf, with groans that no words carry. ²⁷And God, who looks deep into hearts, knows what the Spirit intends, because the Spirit pleads for God’s holy people in line with what God wants.^f

Called according to God’s purpose

²⁸We know that, for people who love God, all things work together and lead to good. They are the ones called in keeping with his purpose.^{gh 29}Those God knew beforehand he also marked out beforehand to be shaped into the image of his Son, so that the Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰And those he marked out beforehand, he also called. Those he called, he also declared righteous. And those he declared righteous, he also glorified.

If God is on our side

³¹So what is our response to all this? If God is on our side, who can stand against us? ³²God did not hold back even his own Son, but handed him over for us all. How could he fail, then, to give us everything along with him as a free gift? ³³Who will bring any accusation against those God has chosen? God is the one who declares them righteous.^{i 34}Who is going to condemn them? Christ is the one who died; still more, he was raised, and he is at the right hand of God, where he pleads on our behalf. ³⁵Who can tear us away from the love of Christ? Trouble, or anguish, or persecution? Hunger, or lack of clothing, or danger, or the sword? ³⁶As it is written, “On your account we are being killed the whole day through; we are looked on as sheep for the butcher.” ³⁷But in all of this we are winning, and winning by far, through the one who loved us. ³⁸For I am fully persuaded that not death and not life, not angels and not rulers, not what is here now and not what is yet to come, not any powers, ³⁹not what is high above and not what is deep below, nor any other created thing, will be able to cut us off from God’s love, which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.