Romans 7–8

Chapter 7

Believers United to Christ

¹Or do you not know, ^abrethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

²For ^athe married woman is bound by law to her ¹husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ²concerning the husband.

³So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴Therefore, my brethren, you also were ^amade to die ^bto the Law ^cthrough the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

⁵For while we were ^ain the flesh, the sinful passions, which were ^baroused by the Law, were at work ^cin ¹the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we have been ^areleased from the Law, having ^bdied to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in ^cnewness of ^dthe ¹Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

^7aWhat shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^bMay it never be! On the contrary, ^cI would not have come to know sin except ¹through the Law; for I would not have known about ²coveting if the Law had not said, “^dYou shall not covet.”

⁸But sin, ^ataking opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, produced in me ¹coveting of every kind; for ^capart ²from the Law sin is dead.

⁹I was once alive apart ¹from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;

¹⁰and this commandment, which was ^1ato result in life, proved ²to result in death for me;

¹¹for sin, ^ataking an opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, ^cdeceived me and through it killed me.

^12aSo then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? ^aMay it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹⁴For we know that the Law is ^aspiritual, but I am of flesh, ^bsold ^1cinto bondage to sin.

¹⁵For what I am doing, ^aI do not understand; for I am not practicing ^bwhat I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

¹⁶But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with ^athe Law, confessing that the Law is good.

¹⁷So now, ^ano longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my ^aflesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

¹⁹For ^athe good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, ^aI am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹I find then ^athe ¹principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

²²For I joyfully concur with the law of God ¹in ^athe inner man,

²³but I see ^aa different law in ¹the members of my body, waging war against the ^blaw of my mind and making me a prisoner ²of ^cthe law of sin which is in my members.

²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from ^1athe body of this ^bdeath?

^25aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh ^bthe law of sin.

Chapter 8

Deliverance from Bondage

¹Therefore there is now no ^acondemnation for those who are ^bin ^cChrist Jesus.

²For ^athe law of the Spirit of life ¹in ^bChrist Jesus ^chas set you free from the law of sin and of death.

³For ^awhat the Law could not do, ^1bweak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in ^cthe likeness of ²sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴so that the ^arequirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who ^bdo not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on ^athe things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, ^bthe things of the Spirit.

^6aFor the mind set on the flesh is ^bdeath, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

⁷because the mind set on the flesh is ^ahostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

⁸and those who are ^ain the flesh cannot please God.

⁹However, you are not ^ain the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God ^bdwells in you. But ^cif anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

^10aIf Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is ¹alive because of righteousness.

¹¹But if the Spirit of Him who ^araised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, ^bHe who raised ^cChrist Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies ¹through His Spirit who dwells in you.

¹²So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—

¹³for ^aif you are living according to the flesh, you ¹must die; but if by the Spirit you are ^bputting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For all who are ^abeing led by the Spirit of God, these are ^bsons of God.

¹⁵For you ^ahave not received a spirit of slavery ¹leading to fear again, but you ^bhave received ²a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “^cAbba! Father!”

¹⁶The Spirit Himself ^atestifies with our spirit that we are ^bchildren of God,

¹⁷and if children, ^aheirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, ^bif indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ^aare not worthy to be compared with the ^bglory that is to be revealed to us.

¹⁹For the ^aanxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for ^bthe revealing of the ^csons of God.

²⁰For the creation ^awas subjected to ^bfutility, not willingly, but ^cbecause of Him who subjected it, ¹in hope

²¹that ^athe creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation ^agroans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

^23aAnd not only this, but also we ourselves, having ^bthe first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves ^cgroan within ourselves, ^dwaiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, ^ethe redemption of our body.

²⁴For ^ain hope we have been saved, but ^bhope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

²⁵But ^aif we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Our Victory in Christ

²⁶In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for ^awe do not know how to pray as we should, but ^bthe Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

²⁷and ^aHe who searches the hearts knows what ^bthe mind of the Spirit is, because He ^cintercedes for the ¹saints according to the will of God.

²⁸And we know that ¹God causes ^aall things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are ^bcalled according to His purpose.

²⁹For those whom He ^aforeknew, He also ^bpredestined to become ^cconformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the ^dfirstborn among many brethren;

³⁰and these whom He ^apredestined, He also ^bcalled; and these whom He called, He also ^cjustified; and these whom He justified, He also ^dglorified.

^31aWhat then shall we say to these things? ^bIf God is for us, who is against us?

³²He who ^adid not spare His own Son, but ^bdelivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

³³Who will bring a charge against ^aGod’s elect? ^bGod is the one who justifies;

³⁴who is the one who ^acondemns? Christ Jesus is He who ^bdied, yes, rather who was ^1craised, who is ^dat the right hand of God, who also ^eintercedes for us.

³⁵Who will separate us from ^athe love of ¹Christ? Will ^btribulation, or distress, or ^cpersecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶Just as it is written,

“^aFor Your sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷But in all these things we overwhelmingly ^aconquer through ^bHim who loved us.

³⁸For I am convinced that neither ^adeath, nor life, nor ^bangels, nor principalities, 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 ^athe love of God, which is ^bin Christ Jesus our Lord.