ROM 8
8
Life in the Spirit
1 Therefore, there is now absolutely no condemnation—no judgment, no penalty, no guilty verdict—for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.
2 For the law and principle of the Spirit who gives life in Christ Jesus has liberated you from the law and principle of sin and death that once enslaved you.
3 For what the Mosaic Law was unable to accomplish—because it was weakened and rendered ineffective through our sinful flesh—God accomplished. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful human flesh—yet without sin—and as a sacrifice and sin offering, He condemned and executed judgment upon sin in human flesh on the cross.
4 This was done so that the righteous requirement and just demands of the Law might be fulfilled and satisfied in us who do not conduct our lives according to the dictates of the sinful flesh, but rather according to the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.
5 For those who orient their lives according to the flesh set their minds on and are preoccupied with the things that concern the flesh and its desires, but those who orient their lives according to the Spirit set their minds on and pursue the things that concern the Spirit.
6 For the mindset and orientation dominated by the flesh leads to spiritual death and separation from God, but the mindset and orientation controlled by the Spirit leads to spiritual life and peace with God.
7 This is true for the very reason that the mind dominated by the flesh is hostile and in active enmity towards God, for it does not and will not submit itself to God's Law and authority; indeed it is not even capable of doing so by its very nature.
8 Moreover, those who are living in the realm and under the control of the flesh are unable to please God in any way.
9 You, however, are not living in the realm of the flesh but in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God truly dwells and makes His home in you. But if anyone does not possess the Spirit of Christ dwelling within, that person does not belong to Him and is not a genuine Christian.
10 But if Christ is in you through His Spirit, though the physical body is subject to death because of sin's entrance into the world, the Spirit brings life to your inner being because of the righteousness that has been granted to you.
11 And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the same God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give resurrection life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Walking by the Spirit
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors and have an obligation—but not to the flesh, not to live according to its sinful dictates and desires.
13 For if you conduct your life according to the flesh and its desires, you are heading towards spiritual death, but if by the power of the Holy Spirit you habitually put to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will truly live.
14 For all who are led, guided, and directed by the Spirit of God—these and these alone are the genuine sons and children of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that enslaves you and leads you back into fear and bondage, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whose power we cry out intimately, "Abba! Father!"—addressing God with the affection and confidence of beloved children.
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness together with our human spirit, testifying and confirming that we are truly God's children.
17 And if we are children of God, then we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs together with Christ, sharing in His inheritance, if indeed we share in His sufferings now, in order that we may also share in being glorified together with Him in the future.
The Present Afflictions and the Eschatological Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings and afflictions of this present time are not worthy of comparison with—they pale in insignificance before—the glory that is going to be revealed to us and in us in the age to come.
19 For the creation itself, with eager expectation and strained anticipation, anxiously awaits the revelation of the sons of God in their glorified state.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, frustration, and purposelessness, not by its own choice or willingly, but because of the One—God—who subjected it as a consequence of Adam's sin, yet He subjected it in hope and with a promise,
21 That the creation itself will also be liberated from its bondage to corruption, entering into the glorious freedom that belongs to the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans together in the pains of childbirth, continuing until this very present moment.
23 And not only does creation groan, but also we ourselves who possess the firstfruits—the initial instalment and guarantee—of the Holy Spirit, even we ourselves groan inwardly within ourselves as we eagerly await our full adoption as sons—which includes the redemption and resurrection transformation of our physical bodies.
24 For it is in this hope of future glory and bodily resurrection that we have been saved. Now hope that is already seen and realised is not true hope at all. For who continues to hope for what he already sees and possesses?
25 But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we eagerly await it with patient endurance.
The Intercession of the Spirit
26 And in the same way, the Holy Spirit also comes alongside to help our weakness and inability. For we do not know what we ought to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words.
27 And God the Father who searches and examines the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints—God's holy people—according to the will and purpose of God.
Conformity to Christ's Image
28 And we know with absolute certainty that for those who love God, all things—even trials and sufferings—work together and cooperate for good, for those who are called and chosen in accordance with His eternal purpose.
29 For those whom He knew beforehand and chose in eternity past, He also predestined and predetermined to be conformed to and shaped into the image and likeness of His Son, so that Christ might be the firstborn—the pre-eminent one—among many brothers and sisters.
30 And those whom He predestined, these same ones He also called to salvation; and those whom He called, these same ones He also justified or declared righteous; and those whom He justified, these same ones He also glorified—speaking of future glory as already accomplished because it is absolutely certain.
Decisive Victory Through Christ
31 What then shall we say and conclude in response to these magnificent truths? If God is for us and on our side, who can successfully stand against us?
32 He who indeed did not spare or hold back His own Son, but gave Him over to death for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously and freely grant us all things we need?
33 Who will bring a charge or accusation against God's elect—His chosen ones? It is God Himself who justifies or declares us righteous!
34 Who is the one who condemns us? Christ Jesus is the One who died for us—but even more significantly, who was raised from the dead—who also is seated at the right hand of God in the place of authority and honour, who continually pleads on our behalf.
35 Who or what will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the threat of violent death by the sword?
36 Just as it stands written in Scripture: "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep meant for slaughter."*
37 But in all these things—in every trial and affliction—we are more than conquerors, winning an overwhelming victory through the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
38 For I am absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demonic rulers and powers, nor things in the present age nor things in the age about to come, nor spiritual powers of any kind,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing in the entire universe, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notes
36 Quoted from Ps. 44:22
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
