Romans 8

So now, God absolutely does not condemn anyone whom he has united with the Messiah Jesus.

{This is true} because the principle that pertains to the life-giving Holy Spirit has caused you {believers} to no longer be controlled by the principle that causes people to sin and die {eternally}. {It did this} by uniting you with the Messiah Jesus. \*

Indeed, God {accomplished} what the laws {he gave the Jews} could not accomplish, because they could not prevent people from living sinfully. Through {the crucifying of} {his Son’s} body, God removed {how} sinning {controls people}. {He did this} by sending his own Son {Jesus} {to the world} in a human body {that was} like the bodies of sinful people. {God sent his Son} in order to {remove} that which causes man to sin.

{God did these things} so that we {believers} could do the righteous acts that the laws {he gave the Jews} required. We can live as people whom living sinfully does not control. Rather, {we can live as people} whom the {Holy} Spirit controls.

{This is true} because those {people} whom living sinfully controls think about those things that are related to living sinfully. However, those people whom the {Holy} Spirit controls think about those things that are related to the {Holy} Spirit. \*

Indeed, focusing on living sinfully will cause {a person} to die {eternally}. However, focusing on the {Holy} Spirit will cause {a person} to live {eternally and} peacefully.

{This is true} because {people} who focus on living sinfully are God’s enemies. {This is} because they do not voluntarily obey the laws God gave {the Jews}; they are incapable {of doing so}.

But those whom living sinfully controls are incapable of pleasing God. \*

By contrast, you {believers} are not those whom living sinfully controls. Rather, you are those whom the {Holy} Spirit controls because God’s Spirit really does reside within you. But if some person does not possess Jesus the Messiah’s Spirit, this person does not belong to the Messiah.

Now, since the Messiah resides within you {believers}, the {Holy} Spirit gives {you} {eternal} life because he has made you righteous. {This is true} even though your bodies will die because you sin. \*

The {Holy} Spirit does indeed reside within you. {He came} from God, who caused Jesus to become alive again after he had died. {Since this is true,} God, who caused the Messiah Jesus to become alive again after he had died, will also cause your physical bodies to become alive {again} by his Spirit. This {Spirit} resides within you. \*

Therefore, {my} fellow believers, we are obligated. {But we are not obligated} to live sinfully, {which means} to live like those whom living sinfully controls.

Indeed, if you live like those whom living sinfully controls, you will die {eternally}. However, if the {Holy} Spirit enables you to stop doing what is sinful with your bodies, you will live {eternally}. \*

{This is} because those people whom God’s Spirit guides are God’s {spiritual} children.

Indeed, God has not given you {believers} an enslaved mind to terrify you, such as you had before. Rather, God has given you the Holy Spirit to {spiritually} adopt you {as his children}. {It is} the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry out, “Abba, my Father!” \*

The {Holy} Spirit personally testifies, along with our own minds, that we are God’s {spiritual} children.

Since we are {God’s spiritual} children, we are also those who will inherit {blessings from God}. We inherit {blessings from God himself} and also together with the Messiah {Jesus}. {This is true} only if we keep suffering together with the Messiah in order for God to also glorify us together with the Messiah. \*

Indeed, I regard what we {believers in the Messiah} suffer at this time as being incomparable to what glorious things God will reveal to us {in the future}.

Indeed, what God created is very eagerly waiting for {the time} when God reveals whom his {spiritual} children are. \*

{This is} because God subjugated what he created so that it became useless. {What God created} did not want this to happen. Rather, {God subjugated what he created} because he wanted to {do so}. {He did this} to keep {the creation} confidently expecting

that God would also enable what he created to stop decaying and let it freely experience the same glorious status that belongs to his {spiritual} children.

Indeed, we are aware that, {even} at the present time, everything God has created keeps groaning and suffering together {like a mother experiencing pain before bearing a child}. \*

{It is} not only {what God created that groans}! On the contrary, even we ourselves who possess the {Holy} Spirit as the first portion {from God} feel suffering. {We feel this way} while we eagerly wait for God to {spiritually} adopt us, which will be when God redeems our bodies.

{This is so} because God rescued us while we confidently expect this. If we {already} had what we have been confidently expecting, then we would have nothing to confidently expect. {This is} because surely nobody confidently expects something that he {already} has.

Yet, if we keep on confidently expecting what we do not yet have, then we will keep on eagerly waiting for it while persevering. \*

The {Holy} Spirit similarly also assists us because we are weak. {This is} because we are not aware for what we should pray. However, the {Holy} Spirit personally pleads on our behalf by groaning without speaking words.

Now God is the one who investigates what we think and feel. He is aware of what the {Holy} Spirit intends, because the Spirit pleads for the sake of God’s people according to {what} God {wants}. \*

We are certain that God makes all things that happen to benefit those who love him. {They are} the people whom God called because he previously planned {to do so}.

{This is} because those whom God chose in advance, he also decided in advance to make resemble his Son {Jesus}. {God did these things} in order for his Son {Jesus} to have first place among many {spiritual} siblings.

Certainly, the people whom God chose in advance {to become his people}, he also summoned to become his people. And those people whom God summoned {to become his people}, he also made righteous. And those people whom God made righteous, he will also make glorious. \*

{Since these things are true,} then we should say this about them: since God supports us, surely no one {is powerful enough} to oppose us!

God did not even spare his own Son, {Jesus}. On the contrary, God handed him over {to die} for the sake of us all. So God surely will also graciously give us, along with Jesus, every {blessing}! \*

Surely no one can {rightly} accuse those whom God chose {to become his people}! {This is because} God is the one who makes people righteous.

Surely no one can condemn {God’s people}! {This is because} the Messiah Jesus is the one who died. Furthermore, he is the one whom God made alive again. He is also at the place of highest honor next to God, and he even pleads for our sake. \*

Surely no one can make Jesus stop loving us! If people trouble us or distress us or persecute us, or if we are hungry or naked or in danger, or if people kill us with swords, surely none of those things can make Jesus stop loving us!

This is what {God meant when} he said {in the Scriptures}, “They constantly kill us because of you{, God}. They consider us to be like sheep for them to slaughter.” \*

However, he who loved us enables us to completely overcome all of these things {that might happen to us}.

In fact, God has persuaded me that {none of these things}—whether being dead, or what happens while we are alive, or angels, or demons who rule, or things that are happening to us, or things that will happen to us, or powerful demons,

or what is above {us}, or what is below {us}, or anything else that God created—can stop God from loving us! {God loves us} because we are united to the Messiah Jesus, our Lord! \*