Living by the Power of God's Spirit
1 If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won't be punished. 2 The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death. 3 The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ's body to condemn sin. 4 He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires.
5 People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. 6 If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. 7 Our desires fight against God, because they do not and cannot obey God's laws. 8 If we follow our desires, we cannot please God.
9 You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God's Spirit, who lives in you. People who don't have the Spirit of Christ in them don't belong to him. 10 But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. 11 Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.
12 My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. 13 If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God's Spirit you say “No” to your desires. 14 Only those people who are led by God's Spirit are his children. 15 God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father. 16 God's Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. 17 His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him.
A Wonderful Future for God's People
18 I am sure what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us. 19 In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. 20 Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope 21 that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. 22 We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.
23 The Spirit makes us sure about what we will be in the future. But now we groan silently, while we wait for God to show that we are his children. This means that our bodies will also be set free. 24 And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping. 25 However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.
26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don't know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words. 27 All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. 28 We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, 29 and he has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son, so his Son would be the first of many children. 30 God then accepted the people he had already decided to choose, and he has shared his glory with them.
God's Love
31 What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? 32 God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won't he freely give us everything else? 33 If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? 34 Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side, speaking to him for us. 35 Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? 36 It is exactly as the Scriptures say,
“For you we face death
all day long.
We are like sheep
on their way
to be butchered.”
37 In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. 38 I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, 39 and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!
1 Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus, which walke not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the Lawe of the Spirite of life, which is in Christ Iesus, hath freed mee from the lawe of sinne and of death. 3 For (that that was impossible to ye Lawe, in as much as it was weake, because of ye flesh) God sending his owne Sonne, in ye similitude of sinful flesh, and for sinne, condened sinne in the flesh, 4 That that righteousnes of the Law might be fulfilled in vs, which walke not after ye flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh, sauour the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the wisedome of the flesh is death: but the wisedome of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 Because the wisedome of the flesh is enimitie against God: for it is not subiect to the Lawe of God, neither in deede can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh, can not please God. 9 Now ye are not in the flesh, but in ye Spirit, because ye spirit of God dwelleth in you: but if any man hath not ye Spirit of Christ, ye same is not his. 10 And if Christ bee in you, the body is dead, because of sinne: but the Spirite is life for righteousnesse sake. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised vp Iesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised vp Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortall bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore brethren, wee are detters not to the flesh, to liue after the flesh: 13 For if ye liue after the flesh, ye shall die: but if yee mortifie the deedes of the body by the Spirit, ye shall liue. 14 For as many as are ledde by the Spirit of God, they are the sonnes of God. 15 For ye haue not receiued the Spirit of bodage, to feare againe: but ye haue receiued the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. 16 The same Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirit, that we are the children of God. 17 If we be children, we are also heires, euen the heires of God, and heires annexed with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I count that the afflictions of this present time are not worthy of the glory, which shalbe shewed vnto vs. 19 For the feruent desire of the creature waiteth when the sonnes of God shalbe reueiled, 20 Because the creature is subiect to vanitie, not of it owne will, but by reason of him, which hath subdued it vnder hope, 21 Because the creature also shall be deliuered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God. 22 For we knowe that euery creature groneth with vs also, and trauaileth in paine together vnto this present. 23 And not onely the creature, but we also which haue the first fruites of the Spirit, euen we doe sigh in our selues, waiting for the adoption, euen the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saued by hope: but hope that is seene, is not hope: for how can a man hope for that which he seeth? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, we doe with patience abide for it. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we knowe not what to pray as wee ought: but the Spirit it selfe maketh request for vs with sighs, which cannot be expressed. 27 But he that searcheth the heartes, knoweth what is the meaning of the Spirit: for he maketh request for ye Saints, according to the wil of God. 28 Also we knowe that all thinges worke together for the best vnto them that loue God, euen to them that are called of his purpose. 29 For those which hee knewe before, he also predestinate to bee made like to the image of his Sonne, that hee might be the first borne among many brethren. 30 Moreouer whom he predestinate, them also he called, and whom he called, them also he iustified, and whom he iustified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these thinges? If God be on our side, who can be against vs? 32 Who spared not his owne Sonne, but gaue him for vs all to death, how shall he not with him giue vs all things also? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen? it is God that iustifieth, 34 Who shall condemne? it is Christ which is dead, yea, or rather, which is risen againe, who is also at the right hand of God, and maketh request also for vs. 35 Who shall separate vs from the loue of Christ? shall tribulation or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakednesse, or perill, or sworde? 36 As it is written, For thy sake are we killed all day long: we are counted as sheepe for the slaughter. 37 Neuerthelesse, in all these thinges we are more then coquerours through him that loued vs. 38 For I am perswaded that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shalbe able to separate vs from the loue of God, which is in Christ Iesus our Lord.