1 So there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 What the law couldn't do because it was powerless due to our sinful nature, God was able to do! By sending his own Son in human form, God dealt with the whole problem of sin and destroyed sin's power in our sinful human nature. 4 In this way we could fulfill the good requirements of the law by following the Spirit and not our sinful nature. 5 Those who follow their sinful nature are preoccupied with sinful things, but those who follow the Spirit concentrate on spiritual things. 6 The sinful human mind results in death, but having the mind led by the Spirit results in life and peace. 7 The sinful human mind is hostile to God because it refuses to obey the law of God—in fact it never can, 8 and those who follow their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you're not following your sinful nature, but the Spirit—if it's true that the Spirit of God is living in you. For those that don't have the Spirit of Christ in them don't belong to him. 10 However, if Christ is in you, even though your body is going to die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you're now right with God. 11 The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your dead bodies through his Spirit that lives in you. 12 So brothers and sisters, we don't have to follow our sinful nature that operates according to our human desires. 13 For if you live under the control of your sinful nature, you're going to die. But if you follow the way of the Spirit, putting to death the evil things you do, then you will live. 14 All those who are led by the Spirit of God are God's children. 15 You were not given a spirit to enslave and terrify you once more. No, what you received was the spirit that makes you children in God's family. Now we can shout out, “God is our Father!” 16 The Spirit himself agrees with us that we're God's children. 17 If we're his children, then we're his heirs. We are heirs of God, and heirs together with Christ. But if we want to share in his glory we must share in his sufferings. 18 Yet I'm convinced that what we suffer in the present is nothing compared to the future glory that will be revealed to us. 19 All of creation is patiently waiting, longing for God to reveal his children. 20 For God allowed the purpose of creation to be frustrated. 21 But creation itself waits in hope for the time when it will be set free from the slavery of decay and share the glorious freedom of God's children. 22 We know that all creation groans with longing, suffering birth-pains even up till now. 23 Not only creation, but we too, who have a foretaste of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait for God to “adopt” us—the redemption of our bodies. 24 For we were saved by hope. Yet hope that's already seen isn't hope at all. Who hopes for what they can already see? 25 Since we're hoping for what we haven't yet seen, we wait for it patiently. 26 Similarly the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know how to speak with God, but the Spirit himself intercedes with and through us by groans that can't be put into words. 27 The one who examines the minds of everyone knows the Spirit's motives, because the Spirit pleads God's cause on behalf of the believers. 28 We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those whom he has called to be part of his plan. 29 For God, choosing them in advance, set them apart to be like his Son, so that the Son would be the first of many brothers and sisters. 30 Those that he chose, he also called; and those that he called, he also made right; and those that he made right, he also glorified. 31 So what's our response to all this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 God, who did not hold back his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, won't he also freely give us everything? 33 Who can accuse God's special people of anything? It's God who sets us right, 34 so who can condemn us? It's Christ Jesus who died—more importantly, who was raised from the dead—who stands at God's right-hand, presenting our case. 35 Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can oppression, distress, or persecution? Or hunger, poverty, danger, or violence? 36 Just as Scripture says, “For your sake we're in danger of being killed all the time. We're treated like sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No—in all that happens to us we're more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 I'm absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor devils, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, 39 neither height nor depth, in fact nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (39)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 John 3:18–19; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 3:13; Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30
- 2 Romans 6:14; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Romans 6:18; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 8:10–11
- 3 Acts 13:39; Galatians 4:4–5; Hebrews 7:18–19; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13
- 4 Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:22–25; Colossians 1:22; Hebrews 12:23; Ephesians 5:26–27
- 5 1 Corinthians 2:14; Galatians 5:19–25; John 3:6; Colossians 3:1–3; Romans 8:6–7
- 6 Galatians 6:8; Romans 8:7; Romans 8:13; Romans 13:14; Romans 6:23
- 7 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 John 2:15–16; James 4:4; Ephesians 4:18–19; Romans 7:22
- 8 John 3:5–6; Hebrews 11:5–6; Romans 8:9; Romans 7:5; Colossians 1:10
- 9 Galatians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19; John 14:17
- 10 Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 5:1–4
- 11 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:4–5; 2 Corinthians 4:11; Ephesians 1:19–20; Romans 8:9
- 12 Romans 6:2–15; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 1 Peter 4:2–3; Psalm 116:16
- 13 Galatians 6:8; 1 Peter 2:11; Colossians 3:5–8; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Titus 2:12
- 14 Galatians 5:18; John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 5:16; Psalm 143:10
- 15 2 Timothy 1:7; Galatians 4:5–7; 1 Corinthians 2:12; Romans 8:16; Ephesians 1:5
- 16 1 John 4:13; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:26
- 17 Galatians 4:7; Galatians 3:29; Ephesians 3:6; 1 Peter 4:13; Revelation 21:7
- 18 2 Corinthians 4:17–18; 1 Peter 4:13; 1 Peter 1:5–7; Matthew 5:11–12; Acts 20:24
- 19 Malachi 3:17–18; Romans 8:23; 1 John 3:2; 2 Peter 3:11–13; Philippians 1:20
- 20 Genesis 3:17–19; Genesis 5:29; Romans 8:22; Jeremiah 12:4; Isaiah 24:5–6
- 21 Revelation 22:3–5; Acts 3:21; Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13; Romans 8:19
- 22 Jeremiah 12:4; Jeremiah 12:11; John 16:21; Romans 8:20; Colossians 1:23
- 23 Philippians 3:20–21; Hebrews 9:28; 2 Corinthians 5:2–5; Titus 2:13; Ephesians 1:14
- 24 Hebrews 11:1; 2 Corinthians 5:7; 2 Corinthians 4:18; 1 Peter 1:21; 1 Thessalonians 5:8
- 25 Romans 12:12; Hebrews 10:36; Psalm 27:14; Lamentations 3:25–26; James 5:7–11
- 26 Matthew 10:20; Ephesians 6:18; Galatians 4:6; John 14:16; Jude 20–21
- 27 Jeremiah 17:10; 1 John 5:14–15; Ephesians 2:18; Romans 8:34; Acts 1:24
- 28 1 Peter 5:10; James 1:12; Genesis 50:20; Romans 5:3–5; 1 Corinthians 2:9
- 29 Ephesians 1:4–5; Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:20
- 30 Revelation 17:14; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11; Romans 9:23–24; Ephesians 1:5
- 31 Psalm 118:6; Jeremiah 1:19; Psalm 56:11; 1 John 4:4; Isaiah 54:17
- 32 John 3:16; Romans 8:28; Psalm 84:11; 1 John 4:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21
- 33 Revelation 12:10–11; Isaiah 50:8–9; Isaiah 54:17; Romans 8:1; Luke 18:7
- 34 Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:27; Hebrews 9:24; 1 Peter 3:22; Romans 8:1
- 35 John 10:28; Psalm 103:17; John 16:33; Romans 5:3–5; 2 Corinthians 4:17
- 36 Psalm 44:22; Isaiah 53:7; 1 Corinthians 15:30; 2 Corinthians 4:10–11; 1 Corinthians 4:9
- 37 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 4:4; 2 Corinthians 2:14; 1 John 5:4–5; Revelation 21:7
- 38 John 10:28; Romans 14:8; 2 Timothy 1:12; 1 Peter 5:8–10; 1 Peter 3:22
- 39 John 10:28–30; Romans 8:35; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 3:18–19; 1 John 4:19
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
After showing how great the reward of a spiritual life is, and that it maketh Christ to dwell in us, and that it quickeneth our mortal bodies, and wingeth them to heaven, and rendereth the way of virtue easier, he next fitly introduces an exhortation to this purpose.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
… by the prophet and by Paul, of whom the apostle, calling to mind the Scripture, says in the Epistle addressed to the Romans, "As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." But here the expression "all the day long" is put for all this time during …
They would perchance have been troubled, and have vomited it forth, and Thou wouldest hear them when they cried unto Thee; for by a true death in the flesh He died for us, who now maketh intercession for us with Thee.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… when he saith, "There is therefore no condemnation now to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit: for the law of the Spirit of life hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Make ready then the vessel of thy soul, that thou mayest become a son of God, and an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ; if, indeed, thou art preparing thyself that thou mayest receive; if thou art drawing nigh in faith that thou mayest be made faithful; if of set purpose thou art putting off the old man.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)