Outline
- Commendation, Greetings and Doxology (ch. 16)
Romans 8
1 So now there is no condemnation for
those who belong to Christ Jesus.
2And because you belong to him, the power of
the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to
death.
3 The law of Moses was unable to save us
because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not
do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that
body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a
sacrifice for our sins.
4 He did this so that the just requirement
of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful
nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful
nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy
Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
6 So letting your sinful nature control
your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to
life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile
to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
8 That’s why those who are still under the
control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your
sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God
living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ
living in them do not belong to him at all.)
10 And Christ lives within you, so even
though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you
have been made right with God.
11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from
the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he
will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within
you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,
you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
13 For if you live by its dictates, you
will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of
your sinful nature, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God
are children of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that
makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted
you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to
affirm that we are God’s children.
17 And since we are his children, we are
his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we
are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing
compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for
that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
20 Against its will, all creation was
subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope,
21 the creation looks forward to the day when
it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
22 For we know that all creation has been
groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 And we believers also groan, even though
we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long
for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager
hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,
including the new bodies he has promised us.
24 We were given this hope when we were
saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.
25 But if we look forward to something we
don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our
weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the
Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
27 And the Father who knows all hearts
knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in
harmony with God’s own will.
28 And we know that God causes everything
to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to
his purpose for them.
29 For God knew his people in advance, and
he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
30 And having chosen them, he called them
to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with
himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
31 What shall we say about such wonderful
things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
32 Since he did not spare even his own Son
but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen
for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with
himself.
34Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ
Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place
of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from
Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or
calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or
threatened with death?
36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we
are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” )
37 No, despite all these things,
overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever
separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers
of hell can separate us from God’s love.
39No power in the sky above or in the earth
below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the
love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
