Romans 7–9

1Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

5For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

6But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

7What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

8But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

10So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.

11For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.

12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

16And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

17In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

19For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.

20And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

23But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

25Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.

3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

6The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace,

7because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

8Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

13For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

17And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

18I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

19The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.

20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

23Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

24For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?

25But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

27And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

28And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

29For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

30And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

31What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

36As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, 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.

1I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.

2I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

6It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

7Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

8So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

9For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

10Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.

11Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,

12not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

13So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!

15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

18Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

19One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

21Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

24including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

25As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”

26and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

28For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.”

29It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

30What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.

32Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

33as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”