Romans 8:1-11

New Testament for Everyone

God’s action in Messiah and spirit

8 So, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in the Messiah, Jesus! ² Why not? Because the law of the spirit of life in the Messiah, Jesus, released you from the law of sin and death.

³ For God has done what the law (being weak because of human flesh) was incapable of doing. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sin-offering; and, right there in the flesh, he condemned sin. ⁴ This was in order that the right and proper verdict of the law could be fulfilled in us, as we live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

The work of the spirit

⁵ Look at it like this. People whose lives are determined by human flesh focus their minds on matters to do with the flesh, but people whose lives are determined by the spirit focus their minds on matters to do with the spirit. ⁶ Focus the mind on the flesh, and you’ll die; but focus it on the spirit, and you’ll have life, and peace. ⁷ The mind focused on the flesh, you see, is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law; in fact, it can’t. ⁸ Those who are determined by the flesh can’t please God.

⁹ But you’re not people of flesh; you’re people of the spirit (if indeed God’s spirit lives within you; note that anyone who doesn’t have the spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him). ¹⁰ But if the Messiah is in you, the body is indeed dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of covenant justice. ¹¹ So, then, if the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you, the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies, too, through his spirit who lives within you.