1 But now there is nothing to condemn those who belong to Christ Jesus, 2 because the Spirit’s law of life from Christ Jesus freed you from the law of Sin and Death. 3 For what the law found to be impossible, since it was weak on account of the flesh, God accomplished by sending his own Son in the resemblance of sinful flesh. Thus he was a sin offering that condemned sin in the flesh. 4 That satisfied the law for us who keep living according to the spirit instead of the flesh. 5 For those that are in accord with flesh are inclined to do what it wants, but those who are in accord with spirit do what is spiritual. 6 For the perspective of the flesh is death, but the perspective of the spirit is life and peace. 7 That’s because the perspective of the flesh is hostile to God since it is not under God’s law, and in fact is incapable of being under it.
Flesh and the Spirit
8 Now those who are of the flesh are not able to please God. 9 You, on the other hand, are not of the flesh but of spirit— if the Spirit of God has taken up residence in you. Anyone who does not have Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if you have Christ, the body is a rotting corpse because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 Now if the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead has taken up residence in you, this same One will also raise up your mortal bodies by means of his Spirit residing in you.
Obedience to God
12 Consequently then, sisters and brothers, we are obligated— but not to live in accord with the flesh, 13 for when you do that you are in the process of dying. Yet if you live in accord with the spirit, you put the practices of the body to death, and so you will live.
14 All those who are led by the Spirit of God are his children. 15 You did not get the spirit of slavery to fear again, but instead you got the spirit of adoption, in which we cry out “Daddy, Father!” 16 And the Spirit confirms the testimony of our own spirit that we are the children of God. 17 And being children, that makes us heirs— heirs of an inheritance from God, and joint heirs with Christ, since if we suffer together with him, we will also be exalted together with him.
18 In my estimation, what we experience at this time is unworthy of comparison to the honor to be revealed in us. 19 For the created world waits in intense anticipation for the children of God to be revealed, 20 because it was unwillingly subjected to futility, in the hope 21 that it will be liberated from slavery to mortality into the honorable freedom of the children of God. 22 For we have observed that all of creation has been groaning in labor pains up to the present time. 23 And not only that, but all of us who are the first to be produced by the Spirit, groan in eager expectation of our legal adoption, which means the release of our body. 24 For it is Hope we were saved for, yet hope realized is no longer hope if what we hoped for is right in front of us. 25 But if we don’t yet see what we’re expecting, we eagerly wait for it.
26 In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. We don’t know how to pray to meet needs we aren’t aware of, but the Spirit pleads on our behalf with unspeakable emotion. 27 The One who searches hearts knows the perspective of the Spirit, since the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of the holy ones. 28 And we know that for those who love God, everything works together for their good, to those called according to his purposes. 29 He prearranged it that those he knew about in advance would be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many siblings. 30 Now those he prearranged he also called; those he called he also justified; those he justified he also exalted.
31 So then, what can we say about all these things? If God is on our side, who is against us? 32 Surely he who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for all our sakes— will he not graciously give us everything else as well? 33 Who can bring a charge against the chosen ones of God? God is the one who acquits us, 34 so who is the one who condemns? The One who died and yet rose again, Jesus Christ, stands at God’s right as our advocate!
35 What can ever separate us from the love of Christ— oppression, or constriction, or persecution, or famine, or deprivation, or danger, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “On account of you we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No! We are absolute conquerors through the One who loves us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither what is nor what approaches, neither powers 39 nor height nor depth nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God and of Christ Jesus our Master.