8Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer under God’s sentence. ²I am now controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit. That law gives me life because of what Christ Jesus has done. It has set me free from the law of sin that brings death.

³The written law was made weak by our sinful nature. But God did what the written law could not do. He made his Son to be like those who have a sinful nature. He sent him to be an offering for sin. In that way, he judged sin in his Son’s human body. ⁴Now we can do everything the law requires. Our sinful nature no longer controls the way we live. The Holy Spirit now controls the way we live.

⁵Don’t live under the control of your sinful nature. If you do, you will think about what your sinful nature wants. Live under the control of the Holy Spirit. If you do, you will think about what the Spirit wants.

⁶The way a sinful person thinks leads to death. But the mind controlled by the Spirit brings life and peace. ⁷The sinful mind is at war with God. It does not obey God’s law. It can’t. ⁸Those who are controlled by their sinful nature can’t please God.

⁹But your sinful nature does not control you. The Holy Spirit controls you. The Spirit of God lives in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.

¹⁰Christ lives in you. So your body is dead because of sin. But your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. ¹¹The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. So the God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your bodies, which are going to die. He will do this by the power of his Spirit, who lives in you.

¹²Brothers and sisters, we have a duty. Our duty is not to live under the control of our sinful nature. ¹³If you live under the control of your sinful nature, you will die. But by the power of the Holy Spirit you can put to death the sins your body commits. Then you will live.

¹⁴Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵You didn’t receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear once again. Instead you received the Holy Spirit, who makes you God’s child. By the Spirit’s power we call God “Abba.” Abba means Father. ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins with our spirits. Together they give witness that we are God’s children.

¹⁷As his children, we will receive all that he has for us. We will share what Christ receives. But we must share in his sufferings if we want to share in his glory.

The Hope of Future Glory

¹⁸What we are suffering now is nothing compared with the glory that will be shown in us. ¹⁹Everything God created looks forward to the time when his children will appear in their full and final glory. ²⁰The created world was bound to fail. But that was not the result of its own choice. It was planned that way by the One who made it. God planned ²¹to set the created world free. He didn’t want it to rot away completely. Instead, he wanted it to have the same glorious freedom that his children have.

²²We know that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even now. ²³And that’s not all. We have the Holy Spirit as the promise of future blessing. But we also groan inside ourselves as we look forward to the time when God will adopt us as full members of his family. Then he will give us everything he has for us. He will raise our bodies and give glory to them.

²⁴That’s the hope we had when we were saved. But hope that can be seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵We hope for what we don’t have yet. So we are patient as we wait for it.

²⁶In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us when we are weak. We don’t know what we should pray for. But the Spirit himself prays for us. He prays with groans too deep for words. ²⁷God, who looks into our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit. And the Spirit prays for God’s people just as God wants him to pray.

We Will Win

²⁸We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. He appointed them to be saved in keeping with his purpose.

²⁹God planned that those he had chosen would become like his Son. In that way, Christ will be the first and most honored among many brothers. ³⁰And those God has planned for, he has also appointed to be saved. Those he has appointed, he has made right with himself. To those he has made right with himself, he has given his glory.

³¹What should we say then? Since God is on our side, who can be against us? ³²God did not spare his own Son. He gave him up for us all. Then won’t he also freely give us everything else?

³³Who can bring any charge against God’s chosen ones? God makes us right with himself. ³⁴Who can sentence us to death? Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God and is also praying for us. He died. More than that, he was raised to life.

³⁵Who can separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or hard times or harm or hunger? Can nakedness or danger or war? ³⁶It is written,

“Because of you, we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be killed.”

³⁷No! In all these things we will do even more than win! We owe it all to Christ, who has loved us.

³⁸I am absolutely sure that not even death or life can separate us from God’s love. Not even angels or demons, the present or the future, or any powers can do that. ³⁹Not even the highest places or the lowest, or anything else in all creation can do that. Nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.

God’s Free Choice

9I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My mind tells me that what I say is true. It is guided by the Holy Spirit. ²My heart is full of sorrow. My sadness never ends. ³I am so concerned about my people, who are members of my own race. I am ready to be cursed, if that would help them. I am even willing to be separated from Christ.

⁴They are the people of Israel. They have been adopted as God’s children. God’s glory belongs to them. So do the covenants. They received the law. They were taught to worship in the temple. They were given the promises. ⁵The founders of our nation belong to them. Christ comes from their family line. He is God over all. May he always be praised! Amen.

⁶Their condition does not mean that God’s word has failed. Not everyone in the family line of Israel really belongs to Israel. ⁷Not everyone in Abraham’s family line is really his child. Not at all! Scripture says, “Your family line will continue through Isaac.”

⁸In other words, God’s children are not just Abraham’s natural children. Instead, they are the children God promised to him. They are the ones considered to be Abraham’s children. ⁹God promised, “I will return at the appointed time. Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰And that’s not all. Rebekah’s children had the same father. He was our father Isaac.

¹¹Here is what happened. Rebekah’s twins had not even been born. They hadn’t done anything good or bad yet. So they show that God’s purpose is based firmly on his free choice. ¹²It was not because of anything they did but because of God’s choice. So Rebekah was told, “The older son will serve the younger one.” ¹³It is written, “I chose Jacob instead of Esau.”

¹⁴What should we say then? Is God unfair? Not at all! ¹⁵He said to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.

I will show love to those I love.”

¹⁶So it doesn’t depend on what we want or do. It depends on God’s mercy.

¹⁷In Scripture, God says to Pharaoh, “I had a special reason for making you king. I decided to use you to show my power. I wanted my name to become known everywhere on earth.” ¹⁸So God does what he wants to do. He shows mercy to one person and makes another stubborn.

¹⁹One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still blame us? Who can oppose what he wants to do?” ²⁰But you are a mere man. So who are you to talk back to God? Scripture says, “Can what is made say to the one who made it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” ²¹Isn’t the potter free to make different kinds of pots out of the same lump of clay? Some are for special purposes. Others are for ordinary use.

²²What if God chose to show his great anger? What if he chose to make his power known? That is why he put up with people he was angry with. They had been made to be destroyed. ²³What if he did that to show the riches of his glory to others? Those are the people he shows his mercy to. He had prepared them to receive his glory. ²⁴We are those people. He has chosen us. We do not come only from the Jewish race. Many of us are not Jews. ²⁵God says in Hosea,

“I will call those who are not my people ‘my people.’

I will call the one who is not my loved one ‘my loved one.’ ”

²⁶He also says,

“Once it was said to them,

‘You are not my people.’

In that very place they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. He says,

“The number of people from Israel may be like the sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will be saved.

²⁸The Lord will carry out his sentence.

He will be quick to carry it out on earth, once and for all.”

²⁹Earlier Isaiah had said,

“The Lord who rules over all

left us children and grandchildren.

If he hadn’t, we would have become like Sodom.

We would have been like Gomorrah.”

Israel Does Not Believe

³⁰What should we say then? Those who aren’t Jews did not look for a way to be right with God. But they found it by having faith. ³¹Israel did look for a law that could make them right with God. But they didn’t find it.

³²Why not? Because they didn’t look for it by faith. They tried to get it by working for it. They tripped over the stone that causes people to trip and fall. ³³It is written,

“Look! In Zion I am laying a stone that causes people to trip.

It is a rock that makes them fall.

The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

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