Romans 7–8

Released from the Law

7Or do you not know, brothers¹—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ²For ^ea married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^{2 3}Accordingly, ^fshe will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, ^gyou also have died ^hto the law ⁱthrough the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, ^jin order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work ^kin our members ^lto bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the ^mnew way of ⁿthe Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.³

The Law and Sin

⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^oI would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^pthe law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸But sin, ^qseizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^rFor apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰The very commandment ^sthat promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, ^tseizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^udeceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So ^vthe law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, ^wsold under sin. ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions. For ^xI do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ^ythe law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now ^zit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells ^ain me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ^19bFor I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, ^cit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For ^dI delight in the law of God, ^ein my inner being, ²³but I see in my members ^fanother law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^gthis body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Life in the Spirit

8There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^{1 2}For the law of ^hthe Spirit of life ⁱhas set you² free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³For ^jGod has done what the law, ^kweakened by the flesh, ^lcould not do. ^mBy sending his own Son ⁿin the likeness of sinful flesh and ^ofor sin,³ he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that ^pthe righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, ^qwho walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵For ^rthose who live according to the flesh set their minds on ^sthe things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on ^tthe things of the Spirit. ⁶For to set ^uthe mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷For the mind that is set on the flesh is ^vhostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; ^windeed, it cannot. ⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact ^xthe Spirit of God dwells in you. ^yAnyone who does not have ^zthe Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of ^ahim who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus⁴ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies ^bthrough his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

¹²So then, brothers,⁵ we are debtors, ^cnot to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you ^dput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are ^eled by the Spirit of God are ^fsons⁶ of God. ¹⁵For ^gyou did not receive ^hthe spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of ⁱadoption as sons, by whom we cry, ^j“Abba! Father!” ^16kThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then ^lheirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, ^mprovided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ⁿare not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for ^othe revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation ^pwas subjected to futility, not willingly, but ^qbecause of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that ^rthe creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²For we know that ^sthe whole creation ^thas been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have ^uthe firstfruits of the Spirit, ^vgroan inwardly as ^wwe wait eagerly for adoption as sons, ^xthe redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For ^yin this hope we were saved. Now ^zhope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we ^await for it with patience.

²⁶Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For ^bwe do not know what to pray for as we ought, but ^cthe Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷And ^dhe who searches hearts knows what is ^ethe mind of the Spirit, because⁷ the Spirit ^fintercedes for the saints ^gaccording to the will of God. ²⁸And we know that for those who love God all things work together ^hfor good,⁸ for ⁱthose who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he ^jforeknew he also ^kpredestined ^lto be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be ^mthe firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also ⁿjustified, and those whom he justified he also ^oglorified.

God’s Everlasting Love

³¹What then shall we say to these things? ^pIf God is for us, who can be⁹ against us? ^32qHe who did not spare his own Son but ^rgave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? ^sIt is God who justifies. ^34tWho is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—^uwho is at the right hand of God, ^vwho indeed is interceding for us.^{10 35}Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶As it is written,

^w“For your sake ^xwe are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than ^yconquerors through ^zhim who loved us. ³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.