Living in the Spirit
Romans 8Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law couldn’t do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending ʜɪꜱ own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, ʜᴇ condemned sin in the flesh, so that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who exist according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Y’all, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you*. But if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him. If Christ is in y’all, though the body is dead through sin, the Spirit brings life through righteousness. Moreover if the Spirit of ʜɪᴍ who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in y’all, ʜᴇ who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your* mortal bodies through ʜɪꜱ Spirit who dwells in y’all.
So then, siblings, we are not under obligation to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, because if y’all live according the flesh, y’all will die. But if by the Spirit y’all put to death the deeds of the body, y’all will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Y’all didn’t receive a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Instead y’all received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the children of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not voluntarily, but because of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself also will be liberated from its slavery to decay into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth together until the present time. Not only this, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we inwardly groan as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the redemption of our body. For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it patiently.
The Spirit’s Work
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to ʜɪꜱ purpose. For those whom ʜᴇ foreknew, ʜᴇ also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he would be the firstborn among many siblings. Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What then should we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare ʜɪꜱ own Son, but gave him up for us all, how would he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? It is Christ who died, and more than that, who was raised from the dead, is at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
“For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered sheep for the slaughter.”+Psa 44:22No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.