Romans 8–9

8TH CHAPTER

God’s Spirit Makes Us His Children

¹So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned. ²The standards of the Spirit, who gives life through Christ Jesus, have set you free from the standards of sin and death. ³It is impossible to do what God’s standards demand because of the weakness our human nature has. But God sent his Son to have a human nature as sinners have and to pay for sin. That way God condemned sin in our corrupt nature. ⁴Therefore, we, who do not live by our corrupt nature but by our spiritual nature, are able to meet God’s standards in Moses’ Teachings. 

⁵Those who live by the corrupt nature have the corrupt nature’s attitude. But those who live by the spiritual nature have the spiritual nature’s attitude. ⁶The corrupt nature’s attitude leads to death. But the spiritual nature’s attitude leads to life and peace. ⁷This is so because the corrupt nature has a hostile attitude toward God. It refuses to place itself under the authority of God’s standards because it can’t. ⁸Those who are under the control of the corrupt nature can’t please God. ⁹But if God’s Spirit lives in you, you are under the control of your spiritual nature, not your corrupt nature. 

Whoever doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to him. ¹⁰However, if Christ lives in you, your bodies are dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because you have God’s approval. ¹¹Does the Spirit of the one who brought Jesus back to life live in you? Then the one who brought Christ back to life will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you. 

¹²So, brothers and sisters, we have no obligation to live the way our corrupt nature wants us to live. ¹³If you live by your corrupt nature, you are going to die. But if you use your spiritual nature to put to death the evil activities of the body, you will live. ¹⁴Certainly, all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s children. ¹⁵You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba!^aFather!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷If we are his children, we are also God’s heirs. If we share in Christ’s suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him. 

God’s Spirit Helps Us

¹⁸I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us. ¹⁹All creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal who his children are. ²⁰Creation was subjected to frustration but not by its own choice. The one who subjected it to frustration did so in the hope ²¹that it would also be set free from slavery to decay in order to share the glorious freedom that the children of God will have. ²²We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. 

²³However, not only creation groans. We, who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts, also groan inwardly. We groan as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the freeing of our bodies ⸤from sin⸥. ²⁴We were saved with this hope in mind. If we hope for something we already see, it’s not really hope. Who hopes for what can be seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we don’t see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. 

²⁶At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God’s people the way God wants him to. 

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

²⁸We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God—those whom he has called according to his plan. ²⁹This is true because he already knew his people and had already appointed them to have the same form as the image of his Son. Therefore, his Son is the firstborn among many children. ³⁰He also called those whom he had already appointed. He approved of those whom he had called, and he gave glory to those whom he had approved of. 

³¹What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over ⸤to death⸥ for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him. ³³Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. ³⁴Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. ³⁵What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love? ³⁶As Scripture says: 

“We are being killed all day long because of you. 

We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

³⁷The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. ³⁸I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us.^bWe can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces ³⁹or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation. 

9TH CHAPTER

Paul’s Concern for the Jewish People

¹As a Christian, I’m telling you the truth. I’m not lying. The Holy Spirit, along with my own thoughts, supports me in this. ²I have deep sorrow and endless heartache. ³I wish I could be condemned and cut off from Christ for the sake of others who, like me, are Jewish by birth. ⁴They are Israelites, God’s adopted children. They have the Lord’s glory, the pledges,^aMoses’ Teachings, the true worship, and the promises. ⁵The Messiah is descended from their ancestors according to his human nature. The Messiah is God over everything, forever blessed. Amen. 

⁶Now it is not as though God’s word has failed. Clearly, not everyone descended from Israel is part of Israel ⁷or a descendant of Abraham. However, ⸤as Scripture says,⸥ “Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.” ⁸This means that children born by natural descent ⸤from Abraham⸥ are not necessarily God’s children. Instead, children born by the promise are considered Abraham’s descendants. 

⁹For example, this is what the promise said, “I will come back at the right time, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰The same thing happened to Rebekah. Rebekah became pregnant by our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹Before the children had been born or had done anything good or bad, Rebekah was told that the older child would serve the younger one. This was said to Rebekah so that God’s plan would remain a matter of his choice, ¹²a choice based on God’s call and not on anything people do.^b13The Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.” 

¹⁴What can we say—that God is unfair? That’s unthinkable! ¹⁵For example, God said to Moses, “I will be kind to anyone I want to. I will be merciful to anyone I want to.” ¹⁶Therefore, God’s choice does not depend on a person’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 

¹⁷For example, Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I put you here for this reason: to demonstrate my power through you and to spread my name throughout the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore, if God wants to be kind to anyone, he will be. If he wants to make someone stubborn, he will. 

¹⁹You may ask me, “Why does God still find fault with anyone? Who can resist whatever God wants to do?” 

²⁰Who do you think you are to talk back to God like that? Can an object that was made say to its maker, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹A potter has the right to do whatever he wants with his clay. He can make something for a special occasion or something for everyday use from the same lump of clay. 

²²If God wants to demonstrate his anger and reveal his power, he can do it. But can’t he be extremely patient with people who are objects of his anger because they are headed for destruction? ²³Can’t God also reveal the riches of his glory to people who are objects of his mercy and whom he had already prepared for glory? ²⁴This is what God did for us whom he called—whether we are Jews or not. 

God Chose People Who Are Not Jewish

²⁵As God says in Hosea: 

“Those who are not my people 

I will call my people. 

Those who are not loved 

I will call my loved ones. 

²⁶Wherever they were told, 

‘You are not my people,’ 

they will be called children of the living God.” 

²⁷Isaiah also says about Israel: 

“Although the descendants of Israel are 

as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, 

only a few will be saved. 

²⁸The Lord will carry out his sentence on the land, 

completely and decisively.” 

²⁹This is what Isaiah predicted: 

“If the Lord of Armies hadn’t left us some descendants, 

we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.” 

³⁰So what can we say? We can say that non-Jewish people who were not trying to gain God’s approval won his approval, an approval based on faith. ³¹The people of Israel tried to gain God’s approval by obeying the laws in Moses’ Teachings, but they did not reach their goal. ³²Why? They didn’t rely on faith to gain God’s approval, but they relied on their own efforts. They stumbled over the rock that trips people. ³³As Scripture says, 

“I am placing a rock in Zion that people trip over, 

a large rock that people find offensive. 

Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed.”