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Romans 8

1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, weakened as it was through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the law's righteous requirement might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those according to the Spirit on the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, 7because the mind of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to God's law, for it cannot. 8And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who dwells in you.

12So then, brothers, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by God's Spirit are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery leading back to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children. 17And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

18For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed to us. 19For creation's eager expectation awaits the revealing of God's sons. 20For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that creation itself will also be freed from slavery to decay into the freedom of the glory of God's children. 22For we know that all creation groans together and suffers birth pains together until now. 23And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves as we await adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it with perseverance.

26And in the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes with wordless groans. 27And the one who searches hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God.

28And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose. 29For those he foreknew he also destined beforehand to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he destined beforehand he also called; and those he called he also declared righteous; and those he declared righteous he also glorified.

31What, then, will we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all—how will he not also freely give us all things with him? 33Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? God is the one who declares righteous. 34Who will condemn? Christ is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is also at God's right hand, who also intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from Christ's love? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? 36As it is written, “For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were counted as sheep for slaughter.” 37But in all these things we more than conquer through the one who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come nor powers, 39neither height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Translation notes 8

8:1–2 — Condemnation and freedom. Some textual traditions add after verse 1 “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” words also present in verse 4. The shorter verse 1 has strong early support and is followed here. In verse 2 the working text reads singular “you”; a significant alternative reads “me.” “Law” retains the recurring term for the operative power or principle under discussion.

8:3–4 — Son, flesh, and sin. “Likeness of sinful flesh” preserves all parts of the phrase without saying that the Son was sinful or that his humanity was only apparent. “For sin” may mean “as a sin offering,” echoing sacrificial wording, or more broadly “to deal with sin.” The translation leaves the phrase compact. God condemns sin, while the law's requirement is fulfilled “in us,” not a silently substituted “by us.”

8:5–11 — Flesh and Spirit. “Flesh” in this contrast is human life governed by sin; it is not simply the physical body, which verse 11 says God will give life to. “Mind” includes orientation and intention, not only intellectual activity. In verse 10 “the Spirit is life” can also be read “the spirit is alive,” referring to the human spirit. Verse 11 follows the base's “because of his Spirit”; another well-supported text reads “through his Spirit.”

8:14–17 — Sons, adoption, and witness. “Sons” preserves the gendered inheritance image, while “children” in verses 16–17 translates a different word; the community includes women. “Abba” is an Aramaic address meaning Father, retained with the Greek explanation. “Bears witness with our spirit” can also be understood as “bears witness to our spirit.” Suffering and shared glory remain linked in verse 17.

8:18–25 — Creation and the body. Creation is pictured as expecting, groaning, and suffering birth pains. The one who subjected it is not named in verse 20, though God is the usual interpretation. “Firstfruits” means the first portion of a harvest, here describing the Spirit in relation to what is still awaited. Adoption is both received in verse 15 and awaited in verse 23; the latter is explained by the redemption of the body. The translation retains both statements.

8:26–27 — Groaning and intercession. “Wordless groans” can also mean groans beyond expression. The Spirit is the stated agent of intercession; the wording does not explicitly describe speaking in tongues. “According to God” means in accord with God and his will, without a separate Greek word for will in this clause. “Holy ones” are the people set apart for God.

8:28–30 — Good, calling, and glory. “All things work together” follows the shorter Greek text. Another reading explicitly names God as the one working; even the shorter text can be understood as “he works all things together.” “Good” is not a promise that every experience will be pleasant. “Foreknew” and “destined beforehand” are retained without adding what God foreknew or a theory of how his purpose and human response relate. “Glorified” follows the completed-action wording even though glory is also awaited earlier in the chapter.

8:31–39 — Charges and inseparable love. Verses 33–34 can be punctuated as a sequence of rhetorical questions; the printed statements identify God as the one declaring righteous and Christ as the one interceding. Verse 36 quotes Psalm 44:22. The dangers remain real: the promise of inseparable love does not remove the account of suffering. “Height” and “depth” are left as the text's cosmic terms rather than assigned to a specific later cosmology.