8
“He Pronounced an End to Sin’s Control in Our Weak and Mortal Nature”
1 Consequently, there is now no condemnation+ for those who are in union with Messiah Jesus,
2 because the instruction+ of the Spirit who gives+ life through union with Messiah Jesus has set ˢyou free from the instruction+ of sin and death.
3 What Torah was unable to accomplish,+ you see, because of sin’s dominance in our mortal nature,+ God was and is able to accomplish.+ Having sent his own Son+ as a man with a mortal nature just like ours but without sin,+ and as an offering to atone for sin,+ he pronounced an end to sin’s control+ in our weak and mortal nature,+
4 so that the righteous statute of Torah might be fulfilled in us,+ whose conduct is being governed+ not+ by the sinful dictates of the mortal nature,+ but by the Spirit.
5 Those who are governed, you see,+ by the sinful desires of the mortal nature,+ set their minds on these: The things that please those desires.+ Those who are governed by the Spirit,+ however, set their minds on the things that please the Spirit.++
6 A mind mastered by the sinful demands of the mortal nature,+ you see, results in death. A mind mastered by the Spirit,+ however, results in life and peace.
7 For a mind mastered by the sinful demands of the mortal nature is hostile toward God. Indeed, it does not to God’s instruction+ submit itself,+ because it is missing the power it needs to do so.
8 Those whose mortal state is indeed+ devoid of the Spirit+ are unable to conduct themselves+ in a manner that is indeed pleasing to God himself.+
9 You, however, are no longer in that category,+ if the Spirit of God is in fact dwelling within you. If someone, though, does not+ have the Spirit of the Messiah, this person doesn’t belong to him.
10 If the Messiah, however, does dwell within you, then even though your bodies are still subject to decay+ on account of sin, the Spirit is at work on the inside+ bringing about new life+ on account of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, moreover, is dwelling within you, then the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through this same Spirit+ who is dwelling within you.+
12 So, brothers and sisters, in light of these things, we have a strict+ obligation to fulfill, though not in service to sin by carrying out+ the evil demands of our mortal nature.+
13 If it is+ the sinful dictates of the mortal nature,+ you see, according to which you are living your lives, you are doomed to die.+ If, however, through the Spirit, you are putting the evil practices of the body to death,+ you will have life.+
14 All who are being led, you see, by God’s Spirit,+ these are God’s sons.+
15 Indeed, you didn’t receive a spirit that leads you back into a life of slavery and fear,+ but the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”+
16 The Spirit himself bears joint witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
17 If we are children, moreover, we are also heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah—if, in fact, we share in the Messiah’s sufferings,+ so that we may also share in his glory.
“The Whole Creation Has Been Groaning in the Throes and Anguish of Childbirth”
18 In this regard, I am certain that the sufferings of this present+ age can’t even+ be compared to the glory that will be+ revealed with respect to us.+
19 Indeed, all creation is so+ eagerly waiting for the time when God will reveal his children in resurrected glory.+
20 It was+ to futility, you see, that the creation was made subject,+ not of its own choice, but by the decision of the one who, along with his curse, also gave it reason to hope,+
21 namely, that the creation itself, too, will be set free from its slavery to decay and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning in the throes and anguish of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 It isn’t just the creation, though, that is groaning.+ We who have received the Spirit as a firstfruits of the harvest to come,+ we, too,+ are ourselves groaning on the inside as we eagerly wait for our adoption to sonship, that is, the release of our bodies from slavery.+
24 Unto this hope,+ you see, we were saved.
25 Now, a hope that is already realized is by definition not a hope.+ Who, after all, when it comes to something he already has, hopes for it?+ If it is+ something still to come,+ though, on which we are setting our hope, it is+ with patient endurance that we wait for it.
26 Similarly, the Spirit also comes to our aid in our times+ of weakness.+ Though we don’t know, you see,+ what it is that we should pray for,+ the Spirit himself appeals to God on our behalf with groans too deep for words.
27 The one who continually searches our minds+ and hearts,+ moreover, knows the mind of the Spirit, that+ it is+ in accordance with God’s will that he is making appeal on behalf of those who belong specially to him as holy.++
28 We do know, though, that for those who love God, all+ things are working together to bring about something good—for those who are summoned,+ according to his plan.+
29 For those whom God planned to choose,+ he likewise planned to set apart for the purpose+ of being conformed to the image of his Son, so that his Son+ would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.+
30 Now those whom God+ planned to set apart, these he planned, too,+ to summon;+ those whom he planned to summon, these he planned, too,+ to mercifully hold to be righteous; and those whom he planned to mercifully hold to be righteous, these he planned, too,+ to clothe and exalt in glory.+
“If God Is for Us, Who Can Be against Us?”
31 In view of these things, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who spared not even+ his own Son, but gave him over to death for us all—how in the world+ will he not also grant us, along with him, every other gracious gift?+
33 Who will bring accusation against those whom God has chosen, when+ God himself+ is the one who mercifully holds us to be in righteous standing?+
34 Who will succeed in condemning us, when the Messiah himself+ is the one who died—and even more than that, who was raised to life—for us, who also is at the right hand of God, who also continually appeals to God on our behalf?
35 Who+ will separate us from the Messiah’s love? Will trials or pressures or persecution or hunger or destitution+ or danger or sword?
36 As it is written:
“Because of our loyalty to ˢyou+ we are made to face death continually+;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”+
37 No, amidst all+ these things we are more than victorious through the one who showed his love for us.+
38 Indeed, I am convinced that not even+ death or life, or angels or spiritual rulers, or things present or things to come,
39 or powers in the heights above or powers in the depths below,+ or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is ours+ in union with Messiah Jesus our Lord.