1 There is therefore now no acondemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.1 2 For the blaw of the Spirit of life has set you2 cfree in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done dwhat the law, eweakened by the flesh, could not do. fBy sending his own Son gin the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,3 he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the hrighteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who iwalk jnot according to the flesh but kaccording to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh lset their minds on mthe things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on nthe things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 oFor the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God pdwells in you. Anyone who does not have the qSpirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is rin you, although the sbody is dead because of sin, the Spirit is tlife because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of uhim who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus4 from the dead will also vgive life to your mortal bodies wthrough his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers,5 we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For xif you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you yput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are zled by the Spirit of God are sons6 of God. 15 For you did anot receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of badoption as sons, by whom we cry, c“Abba! Father!” 16 dThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then eheirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, fprovided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that gthe sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with hthe glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For ithe creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that jthe creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits kof the Spirit, lgroan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this mhope we were saved. Now hope nthat is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself ointercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And phe who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because7 the Spirit intercedes for the saints qaccording to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who rlove God sall things work together for good,8 for those who are called according to his tpurpose. 29 For those whom he uforeknew he also vpredestined to be wconformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be xthe firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also ycalled, and those whom he called he also zjustified, and those whom he justified he also aglorified.
31 bWhat then shall we say to these things? cIf God is for us, who can be9 against us? 32 dHe who edid not spare his own Son but gave him up for us fall, ghow will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 hWho shall bring any charge against God’s ielect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is jto condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—kwho is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.10 35 Who shall separate us from the llove of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
m“For your sake we are being killed nall the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than oconquerors through him who ploved us. 38 For I am sure that qneither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor rheight nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 sI am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that tI have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were uaccursed and cut off from Christ vfor the sake of my brothers,11 my kinsmen waccording to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the xadoption, the yglory, zthe acovenants, bthe cgiving of the law, the dworship, and the epromises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and ffrom their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God gover all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 hBut it is not as though the word of God has failed. For inot all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but j“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the kchildren of the promise are lcounted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: m“About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also nwhen Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s opurpose of pelection might continue, qnot because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, r“The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, s“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 tWhat shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, u“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends vnot on human will or exertion,12 but on God, who has wmercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, x“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he yhardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For zwho can resist his will?” 20 But awho are you, O man, to answer back to God? bWill what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 cHas the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump done vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much epatience vessels of wrath fprepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the griches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has hprepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, inot from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
j“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 k“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: l“Though mthe number of the sons of Israel13 be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
n“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
30 oWhat shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a prighteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness14 qdid not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the rstumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
s“Behold, I am laying in Zion ta stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and uwhoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
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