Romans 8–9

Life in the Spirit

⁸Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^{* 2}For the law of the Spiritⁱ of life in Christ Jesus has set you^j free from the law of sin and of death.^{* 3}For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,^k he condemned sin in the flesh,^{* 4}so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^{l* 5}For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit^m set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^{n* 6}To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit^o is life and peace.^{* 7}For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot,^{* 8}and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,^p since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.^{* 10}But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit^q is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus^r from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^s his Spirit that dwells in you.^*

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not 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 put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.^{* 14}For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.^{* 15}For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!^t Father!”^{* 16}it is that very Spirit bearing witness^u with our spirit that we are children of God,^{* 17}and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.^*

Future Glory

¹⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.^{* 24}For in^v hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes^w with groanings too deep for words.^{* 27}And God,^x who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit^y intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.^*

²⁸We know that all things work together^z for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.^{* 29}For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.^{a* 30}And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.^*

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?^{* 32}He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.^{* 34}Who is to condemn? It is Christ^b who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.^{* 35}Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”^*

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.^{* 38}For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,^{* 39}nor 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.

God’s Election of Israel

⁹I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit^*—²I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.^{* 4}They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;^{* 5}to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.^c Amen.^*

⁶It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,^{* 7}and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”^{* 8}This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. ⁹For the word of the promise is this: “About this time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”^{* 10}Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac:^{* 11}even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, ¹²not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”^{* 13}As it is written,

“I have loved Jacob,

but I have hated Esau.”^*

¹⁴What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!^{* 15}For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^*

¹⁶So it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{* 18}So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

God’s Wrath and Mercy

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”^{* 20}But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”^{* 21}Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?^{* 22}What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,^{* 23}and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? ²⁵As he also says in Hosea,

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

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”^*

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

there they shall be called children of the living God.”^*

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,^{* 28}for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”^{d 29}And as Isaiah predicted,

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

we would have fared like Sodom

and been made like Gomorrah.”^*

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith,^{* 31}but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{* 32}Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^{* 33}as it is written,

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,

and whoever trusts in him^e will not be put to shame.”^*