Life in the Spirit
1So there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3What the law could not do, weakened as it was by the flesh, God did: he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, and he passed sentence on sin in the flesh, 4so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on what the flesh wants; those who live according to the Spirit, on what the Spirit wants. 6The mind set on the flesh is death; the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. 7The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God: it does not submit to God’s law—it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God lives in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10And if Christ is in you, then although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you. 12So then, brothers and sisters, we are in debt—but not to the flesh, not to live according to the flesh. 13If you live according to the flesh, you are on your way to death; but if by the Spirit you put to death the doings of the body, you will live. 14All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you servants, dragging you back into fear; the Spirit you received makes you sons, and by him we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness alongside our spirit that we are God’s children. 17And if children, then heirs—heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Creation groans, and so do we
18I count that the sufferings of this present time do not weigh against the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19Creation waits with its neck stretched out for the sons of God to be revealed. 20Creation was made subject to futility—not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who made it subject—in hope 21that creation itself would be set free from its servitude to decay and brought into the freedom of the glory of God’s children. 22We know that the whole of creation has been groaning together, in labor together, until now. 23And not only creation: we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait to be made sons—waiting for the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. But a hope that is already seen is no hope at all: who hopes for what he can see? 25And if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with endurance. 26In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself pleads for us with groans beyond words. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit pleads for the saints as God would have it. 28We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. 29Those he knew beforehand he also marked out beforehand to be shaped to the image of his Son, so that his Son might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he marked out beforehand he also called; those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Nothing can separate us
31What shall we say to all this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all—how will he not also give us everything else along with him? 33Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen? God is the one who justifies. 34Who is there to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at God’s right hand and pleads for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of the Christ? Trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? 36As it stands written: “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we have been counted as sheep for slaughter.” 37But in all these things we are winning overwhelmingly through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
