Romans 8–9

Set Free from the Law of Sin and Death

8Consequently, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. By^* sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that the requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵For those who are living according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, but those who are living according to the Spirit are intent on the things of the Spirit. ⁶For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷because the mindset of the flesh is enmity toward God, for it is not subjected to the law of God, for it is not able to do so, ⁸and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him^a. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ Jesus^b from the dead will also make alive your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.

¹²So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba!^c Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him.

The Glory that is to be Revealed

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the eagerly expecting creation awaits eagerly the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now. ²³Not only this, but we ourselves also, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves while we^* await eagerly our adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴For in hope we were saved, but hope 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 it eagerly with patient endurance.

²⁶And likewise also, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as one ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unexpressed groanings. ²⁷And the one who searches our hearts knows what the mindset of the Spirit is, because he intercedes on behalf of the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, ²⁹because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined, these he also called, and those whom he called, these he also justified, and those whom he justified, these he also glorified.

Victory in Christ

³¹What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, together with him, freely give us all things? ³³Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. ³⁴Who is the one who condemns? Christ^d is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or hunger or lack of sufficient clothing or danger or the sword? ³⁶Just as it is written,

“On account of you we are being put to death the whole day long;

we are considered as sheep for slaughter.”^e

³⁷No, but in all these things we prevail completely through the one who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Israel’s Rejection

9I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit—²that my grief is great and there is constant distress in my heart. ³For I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my fellow countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, ⁵to whom belong the patriarchs, and from whom is the Christ according to human descent, who is God over all, blessed forever^a! Amen.

⁶But it is not as if the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, ⁷nor are they all children because they are descendants of Abraham, but “In Isaac will your descendants be named.”^{b 8}That is, it is not the children by human descent^c who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. ⁹For the statement of the promise is this: “At this time I will return and Sarah will have^d a son.”^{e 10}And not only this, but also when^* Rebecca conceived children by one man,^f Isaac our father—¹¹for although they^* had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain, ¹²not by works but by the one who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”^{g 13}just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^h

God’s Sovereign Choice to Show Mercy

¹⁴What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there?^* May it never be! ¹⁵For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”^{i 16}Consequently therefore, it does not depend on the^j one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{k 18}Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.

¹⁹Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted^l his will? ²⁰On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this”?^{m 21}Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for honorable useⁿ and one that is for ordinary use^o? ²²And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? ²³And he did so^* in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he also says in Hosea,

“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’

and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’^p

²⁶And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”^q

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

“Even if the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea,

the remnant will be saved,

²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence thoroughly and decisively^r upon the earth.”^s

²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom

and would have resembled Gomorrah.”^t

³⁰What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—even the righteousness that is by faith. ³¹But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. ³²Why that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if by works. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble^u, ³³just as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble^v,

and a rock that causes them to fall^w,

and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”^x