Life Through the Spirit
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life
has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless
to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in
the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully
met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what
the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their
minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death,
but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the
flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those
who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the
realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone
does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ
is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the
Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives
in you.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not
to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh,
you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,
you will live.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of
God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear
again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And
by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children,
then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in
his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation
for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to
frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself
will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and
glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains
of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who
have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our
adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were
saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already
have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the
will of God. And yet we know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
For those God foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he
also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also
glorified.
More Than Conquerors - Victory in Christ
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is
for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him
up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God
who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who
died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is
also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall
trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As
it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
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.
*NIV
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