Romans 7-9

GOD’S WORD Translation

7 Don’t you realize, brothers and sisters, that laws have power over people only as long as they are alive? (I’m speaking to people who are familiar with Moses’ Teachings.) ² For example, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, that marriage law is no longer in effect for her. ³ So if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she will be called an adulterer. But if her husband dies, she is free from this law, so she is not committing adultery if she marries another man.

⁴ In the same way, brothers and sisters, you have died to the laws in Moses’ Teachings through Christ’s body. You belong to someone else, the one who was brought back to life.

As a result, we can do what God wants. ⁵ While we were living under the influence of our corrupt nature, sinful passions were at work throughout our bodies. Stirred up by the laws in Moses’ Teachings, our sinful passions did things that result in death. ⁶ But now we have died to those laws that bound us. God has broken their effect on us so that we are serving in a new spiritual way, not in an old way dictated by written words.

Moses’ Laws Show What Sin Is

⁷ What should we say, then? Are the laws in Moses’ Teachings sinful? That’s unthinkable! In fact, I wouldn’t have recognized sin if those laws hadn’t shown it to me. For example, I wouldn’t have known that some desires are sinful if Moses’ Teachings hadn’t said, “Never have wrong desires.” ⁸ But sin took the opportunity provided by this commandment and made me have all kinds of wrong desires. Clearly, without laws sin is dead. ⁹ At one time I was alive without any laws. But when this commandment came, sin became alive ¹⁰ and I died. I found that the commandment which was intended to bring me life actually brought me death. ¹¹ Sin, taking the opportunity provided by this commandment, deceived me and then killed me.

¹² So the laws in Moses’ Teachings are holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. ¹³ Now, did something good cause my death? That’s unthinkable! Rather, my death was caused by sin so that sin would be recognized for what it is. Through a commandment sin became more sinful than ever.

God’s Standards Are at War with Sin’s Standards

¹⁴ I know that God’s standards in Moses’ Teachings are spiritual, but I have a corrupt nature, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I don’t realize what I’m doing. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶ I don’t do what I want to do, but I agree that God’s standards are good. ¹⁷ So I am no longer the one who is doing the things I hate, but sin that lives in me is doing them.

¹⁸ I know that nothing good lives in me; that is, nothing good lives in my corrupt nature. Although I have the desire to do what is right, I don’t do it. ¹⁹ I don’t do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I don’t want to do. ²⁰ Now, when I do what I don’t want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it. Sin that lives in me is doing it.

²¹ So I’ve discovered this truth: Evil is present with me even when I want to do what God’s standards say is good. ²² I take pleasure in God’s standards in my inner being. ²³ However, I see a different standard ⌞at work⌟ throughout my body. It is at war with the standards my mind sets and tries to take me captive to sin’s standards which still exist throughout my body. ²⁴ What a miserable person I am! Who will rescue me from my dying body? ²⁵ I thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ rescues me! So I am obedient to God’s standards with my mind, but I am obedient to sin’s standards with my corrupt nature.

God’s Spirit Makes Us His Children

8 So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned. ² The standards of the Spirit, who gives life through Christ Jesus, have set you free from the standards of sin and death. ³ It is impossible to do what God’s standards demand because of the weakness our human nature has. But God sent his Son to have a human nature as sinners have and to pay for sin. That way God condemned sin in our corrupt nature. ⁴ Therefore, we, who do not live by our corrupt nature but by our spiritual nature, are able to meet God’s standards in Moses’ Teachings.

⁵ Those who live by the corrupt nature have the corrupt nature’s attitude. But those who live by the spiritual nature have the spiritual nature’s attitude. ⁶ The corrupt nature’s attitude leads to death. But the spiritual nature’s attitude leads to life and peace. ⁷ This is so because the corrupt nature has a hostile attitude toward God. It refuses to place itself under the authority of God’s standards because it can’t. ⁸ Those who are under the control of the corrupt nature can’t please God. ⁹ But if God’s Spirit lives in you, you are under the control of your spiritual nature, not your corrupt nature.

Whoever doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to him. ¹⁰ However, if Christ lives in you, your bodies are dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because you have God’s approval. ¹¹ Does the Spirit of the one who brought Jesus back to life live in you? Then the one who brought Christ back to life will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² So, brothers and sisters, we have no obligation to live the way our corrupt nature wants us to live. ¹³ If you live by your corrupt nature, you are going to die. But if you use your spiritual nature to put to death the evil activities of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ Certainly, all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s children. ¹⁵ You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba! ^[a] Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ If we are his children, we are also God’s heirs. If we share in Christ’s suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him.

God’s Spirit Helps Us

¹⁸ I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us. ¹⁹ All creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal who his children are. ²⁰ Creation was subjected to frustration but not by its own choice. The one who subjected it to frustration did so in the hope ²¹ that it would also be set free from slavery to decay in order to share the glorious freedom that the children of God will have. ²² We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.

²³ However, not only creation groans. We, who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts, also groan inwardly. We groan as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the freeing of our bodies ⌞from sin⌟. ²⁴ We were saved with this hope in mind. If we hope for something we already see, it’s not really hope. Who hopes for what can be seen? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we don’t see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

²⁶ At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God’s people the way God wants him to.

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

²⁸ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God—those whom he has called according to his plan. ²⁹ This is true because he already knew his people and had already appointed them to have the same form as the image of his Son. Therefore, his Son is the firstborn among many children. ³⁰ He also called those whom he had already appointed. He approved of those whom he had called, and he gave glory to those whom he had approved of.

³¹ What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over ⌞to death⌟ for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him. ³³ Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. ³⁴ Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. ³⁵ What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love? ³⁶ As Scripture says:

³⁷ The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. ³⁸ I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us.^[b] We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces ³⁹ or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

Paul’s Concern for the Jewish People

9 As a Christian, I’m telling you the truth. I’m not lying. The Holy Spirit, along with my own thoughts, supports me in this. ² I have deep sorrow and endless heartache. ³ I wish I could be condemned and cut off from Christ for the sake of others who, like me, are Jewish by birth. ⁴ They are Israelites, God’s adopted children. They have the Lord’s glory, the pledges,^[c] Moses’ Teachings, the true worship, and the promises. ⁵ The Messiah is descended from their ancestors according to his human nature. The Messiah is God over everything, forever blessed. Amen.

⁶ Now it is not as though God’s word has failed. Clearly, not everyone descended from Israel is part of Israel ⁷ or a descendant of Abraham. However, ⌞as Scripture says,⌟ “Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.” ⁸ This means that children born by natural descent ⌞from Abraham⌟ are not necessarily God’s children. Instead, children born by the promise are considered Abraham’s descendants.

⁹ For example, this is what the promise said, “I will come back at the right time, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰ The same thing happened to Rebekah. Rebekah became pregnant by our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹ Before the children had been born or had done anything good or bad, Rebekah was told that the older child would serve the younger one. This was said to Rebekah so that God’s plan would remain a matter of his choice, ¹² a choice based on God’s call and not on anything people do.^{[d] 13} The Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

¹⁴ What can we say—that God is unfair? That’s unthinkable! ¹⁵ For example, God said to Moses, “I will be kind to anyone I want to. I will be merciful to anyone I want to.” ¹⁶ Therefore, God’s choice does not depend on a person’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

¹⁷ For example, Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I put you here for this reason: to demonstrate my power through you and to spread my name throughout the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore, if God wants to be kind to anyone, he will be. If he wants to make someone stubborn, he will.

¹⁹ You may ask me, “Why does God still find fault with anyone? Who can resist whatever God wants to do?”

²⁰ Who do you think you are to talk back to God like that? Can an object that was made say to its maker, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹ A potter has the right to do whatever he wants with his clay. He can make something for a special occasion or something for everyday use from the same lump of clay.

²² If God wants to demonstrate his anger and reveal his power, he can do it. But can’t he be extremely patient with people who are objects of his anger because they are headed for destruction? ²³ Can’t God also reveal the riches of his glory to people who are objects of his mercy and who he had already prepared for glory? ²⁴ This is what God did for us whom he called—whether we are Jews or not.

God Chose People Who Are Not Jewish

²⁵ As God says in Hosea:

²⁷ Isaiah also says about Israel:

²⁹ This is what Isaiah predicted:

³⁰ So what can we say? We can say that non-Jewish people who were not trying to gain God’s approval won his approval, an approval based on faith. ³¹ The people of Israel tried to gain God’s approval by obeying the laws in Moses’ Teachings, but they did not reach their goal. ³² Why? They didn’t rely on faith to gain God’s approval, but they relied on their own efforts. They stumbled over the rock that trips people. ³³ As Scripture says,