Epistle to the Romans - The New Testament

¹ Thus, condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus,

² because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

³ What the Law could not do because of the weakness of human nature, God did, sending his own Son in the same human nature as any sinner to be a sacrifice for sin, and condemning sin in that human nature.

⁴ This was so that the Law's requirements might be fully satisfied in us as we direct our lives not by our natural inclinations but by the Spirit.

⁵ Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things.

⁶ And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace,

⁷ because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot,

⁸ and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God.

⁹ You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

¹⁰ But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified;

¹¹ and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

¹² So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it.

¹³ If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.

¹⁴ All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God;

¹⁵ for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'

¹⁶ The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God.

¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.

¹⁸ In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us,

¹⁹ for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed.

²⁰ It was not for its own purposes that creation had frustration imposed on it, but for the purposes of him who imposed it-

²¹ with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God.

²² We are well aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been groaning in labour pains.

²³ And not only that: we too, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we are groaning inside ourselves, waiting with eagerness for our bodies to be set free.

²⁴ In hope, we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly present, or we should not be hoping -- nobody goes on hoping for something which is already visible.

²⁵ But having this hope for what we cannot yet see, we are able to wait for it with persevering confidence.

²⁶ And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words;

²⁷ and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.

²⁸ We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.

²⁹ He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

³⁰ it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory.

³¹ After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³² Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts?

³³ Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice

³⁴ who can condemn? Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died -- yes and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God's right hand -- and who is adding his plea for us?

³⁵ Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence;

³⁶ as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered?

³⁷ No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us.

³⁸ For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power,

³⁹ nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.