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New Testament in a Year

Read the New Testament from start to finish, from Matthew to Revelation.

Duration: 365 days

Romans 8:1-21

The Spirit of God Dwells in Christians^[a]

Chapter 8

There Is No Longer Any Condemnation. ¹Hence, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³That which the Law, weakened by the flesh, was unable to do, God has done. By sending his own Son in the likeness of our sinful nature as a sin offering, he condemned sin in the flesh ⁴so that the righteous requirements of the Law^[b] might be fulfilled in us who live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Animated by the Spirit and Rendered Children of God.^[c] ⁵Those who live according to the flesh fix their attention on the things of the flesh, while those who live according to the Spirit set their thoughts on spiritual things. ⁶The desires of the flesh result in death, but the desires of the Spirit result in life and peace. ⁷Indeed, the desires of the flesh will be hostile to God, for they do not submit to the Law of God, nor could they do so. ⁸Those who live according to the flesh can never be pleasing to God.

⁹You, however, do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ cannot belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, then even though the body is dead as a result of sin, the Spirit is alive in you because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.^[d]

¹²Consequently, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh and obliged to live according to the flesh. ¹³If you do live according to the flesh, you will die. However, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴^[e]Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery leading to fear; rather, you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. ¹⁷And if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided that we share his sufferings so that we may also share his glory.

¹⁸The Future Glory That Shall Be Revealed.^[f] I consider that the sufferings we presently endure are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed in us. ¹⁹Indeed, creation itself eagerly awaits the revelation of the children of God. ²⁰For creation was subjected to frustration, not of its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope ²¹that creation itself will be freed from its slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Footnotes

Romans 8:1 In the experience of the love of God there are three dominant elements: the life of the Spirit (vv. 5-13), the sure realization of being children of God (vv. 14-17), and the certainty of future glory (vv. 18-30). This ascending description ends with a triumphant hymn to the unfailing love of the Lord (vv. 31-39).
Romans 8:4 Righteous requirements of the Law: although the Law is not a means of salvation, it still plays a role in the life of a believer as a moral guide, obeyed out of love for God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. This marks the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant (Jer 31:33ff).
Romans 8:5 What is the Christian life in its deepest reality? Paul thinks of all that the Holy Spirit inaugurates in the existence of the believer. He is the Spirit of the Father and of Christ, dwells in every Christian, and is a source of spiritual life for each. We can look upon him as the soul of the Church. He is the power of a progressive transformation, which culminates in the resurrection of the body. In a privileged moment—that of prayer—believers grasp their new state as children of God. Thus, believers escape from the flesh, i.e., an orientation to and a realization of a life without future and without accomplishment (see Gal 5:16-25).
Romans 8:11 For the connection between the Resurrection of Christ and that of believers, see 1 Cor 6:14; 15:20, 23; 2 Cor 4:14; Phil 3:21; 1 Thes 4:14.
Romans 8:14 Because of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them, Christians possess a new life as well as a new relationship with God. They have become adopted children of God and heirs through Christ, sharing both in his sufferings and in his glory.
Romans 8:18 The exalting perspective of salvation is expanded to the dimensions of the universe. Paul takes up a Biblical idea: the cosmos is linked with the fate of humankind, cursed then redeemed. All creation prepares for the new world (v. 22). Paul beautifully sketches the proofs of this movement that is nearing its fulfillment:
(1) the presentiment of the universe whose Creator and Lord is Christ (vv. 19-22); (2) the firm hope of believers transformed through Baptism and urged to seize fully that which—even here below—the Spirit inaugurates in them (vv. 23-25); (3) the very prayer by which the Spirit inspires this grand aspiration (vv. 26-27); and finally (4) the will of God, whose love embraces believers in order to associate them with the risen and glorified Christ, so that they may be in the image of his Son, who is himself the perfect image of the Father (see Col 1:15) (vv. 28-30).

New Catholic Bible (NCB)