Romans 8
8
1Therefore, now there is no gezar din (verdict) of ashem (guilty), no harsha'ah (condemnation as guilty) for those in Moshiach Yehoshua.#8:1 cf. Ro 5:18
2For the Torah of the Ruach HaKodesh that gives Chayyim in Moshiach Yehoshua#8:2 Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:26-27; Gn 2:16-17; 3:7,11,19; 5:12-20 has set me free from the “Gezetz” of Chet and Mavet.
3For what the Gezetz was unable to do in that it was weak through the basar,#8:3 fallen human nature under Chet Kadmon and without hitkhadshut renewal and regeneration by the Ruach Hakodesh G-d sent his own Zun fun der Oybershter#8:3 Moshiach in the very demut (likeness) of the basar of sinful humanity and as a chattat#8:3 2C 5:21 (sin offering, sin atoning sacrifice), and both pronounced and effected a sentence of death on HaChet baBasar (Sin in the Flesh, in the fallen old humanity),
4In order that the maleh chukat haTorah#8:4 see Lv 18:5 (the full statute requirement of the Torah) might be fulfilled in us whose halakhah is in the Derech [HaChayyim] (the Way [of Life]) according to the Ruach Hakodesh and not in accordance with the basar.
5For those who exist in terms of the basar take the side of the basar, whereas those who exist in terms of the Ruach#8:5 Hakodesh take the side of the Ruach Hakodesh.
6For the way of thinking of the basar is mavet (death), whereas the way of thinking of the Ruach Hakodesh is Chayyim and Shalom.
7Because the way of thinking of the basar is hostility, eyvah#8:7 Gn 3:15 (enmity) toward G-d, for it does not submit itself to the Gezetz of G-d; for it cannot.
8And those who are in the basar are not able to please Hashem.
9However, you are not in the basar#8:9 i.e., unregenerate but in the Ruach Hakodesh, assuming that the Ruach Hakodesh of Hashem does indeed dwell in you — if anyone does not have the Ruach HaMoshiach, that person does not belong to Moshiach.
10And if Moshiach is in you, the body (of the basar) is dead because of sin#8:10 Ro 5:12 but the Ruach#8:10 Hakodesh is life for you because of Tzedek (righteousness).#8:10 cf. Ro 5:18
11But if the Ruach Hakodesh of Him who gave Yehoshua Techiyah (Resurrection) from the Mesim dwells in you, He who raised Moshiach from the Mesim will give Chayyim to your mortal bodies as well, through His indwelling Ruach Hakodesh in you.
12So then, Achim b'Moshiach, we are under no obligation to the basar to live in accordance with the basar.
13For if you live in accordance with the basar#8:13 old fallen humanity under slave master Chet Kadmon you will certainly die; but if by the Ruach Hakodesh you put to death the [shameful] acts of the body, you will live.
14For as many as are led by the Ruach HaElohim, they are bnei HaElohim.
15For you did not receive a spirit of avdut, falling back into pachad (fear); but you received the Ruach of Mishpat HaBanim (Adoption), having Ma'amad HaBanim (the standing as Sons),#8:15 Ro 9:4 by which we cry, “Abba, Avinu!”
16The Ruach Hakodesh himself bears eidus (witness) with our#8:16 regenerate, Jn 3:6 ruach that we are bnei HaElohim.
17And if bnei HaElohim, then also yoreshim (heirs) of G-d and co-heirs#8:17 Ro 4:13f together with Moshiach, provided that we suffer with him in order that we might also be set in kavod (glory, eschatological glorification) with him.
18For I reckon that the yisurim (suffering) of zman hazeh (of this present time) are not to be compared with the coming kavod (glory) to be revealed in us.
19For the eager expectation of HaBri'ah (the Creation) awaits the heavenly hisgalus (revelation, unveiling) of the bnei HaElohim.
20For HaBri'ah (the Creation) was subjected to hevel (futility), not willingly, but on account of Him who subjected it, in tikvah (hope),
21Because HaBri'ah also itself will be set free from the avdut (slavery) of corruption into the deror#8:21 Isa 61:1 (freedom) of the kavod (glory) of the bnei HaElohim.
22For we have da'as that the whole Bri'ah groans and suffers the chevlei leydah (pangs of childbirth) until now.
23And not only so, but also we ourselves who have the bikkurim (first fruits) of the Ruach Hakodesh also groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting the Mishpat HaBanim Adoption, that is, the pedut geviyyateinu#8:23 ransom for Geulah redemption of our body Gn 47:18 for the Techiyah from HaMesim.#8:23 See Ro 3:24-25; 9:4
24For in tikvah (hope) we were delivered in eschatological salvation. But tikvah (hope) which is seen is not tikvah, for who hopes for what he sees?
25But if we have tikvah for what we do not see, we eagerly await it with savlanut.
26In the same way, the Ruach Hakodesh helps us in our weakness.#8:26 as creatures: see Ro 5:6 For as we daven, we do not know as we should for what to make tefillos (prayers), but the Ruach HaKodesh Himself intercedes on our behalf with labor pang groans not intelligibly uttered.
27And He who searches the levavot#8:27 Rv 2:23 knows what is the way of thinking of the Ruach Hakodesh, because He intercedes as G-d would have it on behalf of the Kedoshim.
28And we have da'as that for those who love Hashem everything co-operates toward HaTov for those who are HaKeru'im (the summoned, called ones) according to the etzah (wisdom) of the tochnit Hashem (G-dʼs purposeful and willed plan or goal).#8:28 Ro 9:11
29For those Hashem had da'as of beterem#8:29 Jer 1:5 (beforehand), Hashem also decided upon from the beginning to be conformed to the demut (likeness) of Hashemʼs Zun fun der Oybershter, that he#8:29 Moshiach should be HaBechor (Firstborn) among many Achim b'Moshiach.
30And those Hashem decided upon from the beginning Hashem also summoned; and those Hashem summoned, Hashem also acquitted and pronounced to be YITZDAK IM HASHEM; and those Hashem acquitted and pronounced to be YITZDAK IM HASHEM, Hashem also set in eternal kavod (glory).
31In view of these things, what therefore shall we say? If Hashem is for us, who is against us?
32He who indeed did not spare His own Zun fun der Oybershter, but gave him up for us all, how shall He not also with him give us all things.#8:32 see Ro 8:12-17; 4:13f
33Who will bring charges against the Bechirei HaElohim (chosen ones of Hashem)? It is Hashem who acquits and pronounces to be YITZDAK IM HASHEM (justified with G-d).
34Who is there to bring a judgment of harsha'ah#8:34 cf. Ro 8:1 (condemnation, to condemn to Onesh Gehinnom)? It is Moshiach Yehoshua who died, rather was kam litechiyah (raised to resurrection), who also is at LIMIN HASHEM#8:34 Ps 110:1 (the right hand of G-d), who also intercedes on our behalf.#8:34 see Ro 8:26-27
35Who will separate us from the Ahavas Moshiach (love of Moshiach)? Tzoros (affliction, trouble), or distress, or redifot (persecutions), or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or cherev#8:35 13:4 (sword)?
36As it is written, KI ALECHA HORAGNU KOL HAYOM NECHESHAVNU K'TZON TIVCHAH#8:36 Ps 44:22 [23] (For Your sake we are being killed all the day; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter).
37But in all these things we prevail bichlal (entirely) through Him who had ahavah for us.
38For I am convinced that neither Histalkus nor Chayyim nor Malachim nor Rulers, neither things present nor things to come nor kochot (powers),
39Neither height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the ahavas Hashem which is in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu.
Currently Selected:
Romans 8: TOJB2011
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Romans 8
8
The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms
1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!
12-14So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
* * *
18-21That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.