- Commendation, Greetings and Doxology (ch. 16)
Romans 6
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so
that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
2 Of course not! Since we have died to
sin, how can we continue to live in it?
3 Or have you forgotten that when we were
joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?
4 For we died and were buried with Christ
by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power
of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in
his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
6 We know that our old sinful selves were
crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no
longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set
free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know
we will also live with him.
9 We are sure of this because Christ was
raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any
power over him.
10 When he died, he died once to break the
power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
11 So you also should consider yourselves
to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live;
do not give in to sinful desires.
13 Do not let any part of your body become
an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God,
for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an
instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no
longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the
freedom of God’s grace.
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us
free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
16 Don’t you realize that you become the
slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to
death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin,
but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
18 Now you are free from your slavery to
sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19Because of the weakness of your human nature,
I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this.
Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led
ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous
living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were
free from the obligation to do right.
21 And what was the result? You are now
ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
22 But now you are free from the power of
sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to
holiness and result in eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 7
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters —you who
are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a
person is living?
2 For example, when a woman marries, the
law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws
of marriage no longer apply to her.
3 So while her husband is alive, she would
be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she
is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.
4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this
is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And
now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we
can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.
5 When we were controlled by our old
nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil
desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.
6 But now we have been released from the
law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve
God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of
living in the Spirit.
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law
of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.
I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You
must not covet.”
8 But sin used this command to arouse all
kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have
that power.
9 At one time I lived without
understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for
instance, the power of sin came to life,
10 and I died. So I discovered that the
law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death
instead.
11 Sin took advantage of those commands and
deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.
12 But still, the law itself is holy, and
its commands are holy and right and good.
13 But how can that be? Did the law, which
is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about
my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses
God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for
it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a
slave to sin.
15 I don’t really understand myself, for I
want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
16 But if I know that what I am doing is
wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is
sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in
me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I
can’t.
19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t.
I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I
am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of
life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22 I love God’s law with all my
heart.
23 But there is another power within me
that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is
still within me.
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who
will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ
our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but
because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
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.
