Chapter 8

  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus;

  for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.

  For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

  in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

  For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things.

  Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means Life and peace.

  Abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to God. Such a mind does not submit to God's Law, and indeed cannot do so.

  And those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things cannot please God.

  You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not belong to Him.

  But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness.

  And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give Life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who dwells in you.

  Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule.

  For if you so live, death is near; but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live.

  For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.

  You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, 'Abba! our Father!'

  The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;

  and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

  Why, what we now suffer I count as nothing in comparison with the glory which is soon to be manifested in us.

  For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.

  For the Creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality (not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who so subjected it).

  Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

  For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour.

  And more than that, we ourselves, though we possess the Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies.

  It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it?

  But if we hope for something which we do not see, then we eagerly and patiently wait for it.

  In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words,

  and the Searcher of hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because His intercessions for God's people are in harmony with God's will.

  Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

  For those whom He has known beforehand He has also pre-destined to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Eldest in a vast family of brothers;

  and those whom He has pre-destined He also has called; and those whom He has called He has also declared free from guilt; and those whom He has declared free from guilt He has also crowned with glory.

  What then shall we say to this? If God is on our side, who is there to appear against us?

  He who did not withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

  Who shall impeach those whom God has chosen? God declares them free from guilt.

  Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.

  Who shall separate us from Christ's love? Shall affliction or distress, persecution or hunger, nakedness or danger or the sword?

  As it stands written in the Scripture, 'For Thy sake they are, all day long, trying to kill us. We have been looked upon as sheep destined for slaughter.'

  Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.

  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present nor things future, nor the forces of nature,

  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.