Romans 8; Romans 9; Romans 10

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Romans 8

1 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.

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! 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.

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.

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 has the highest position in heaven. 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: "We are being killed all day long because of you. We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered."

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. 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.

Romans 9

1 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, 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.

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.

25 As God says in Hosea: "Those who are not my people I will call my people. Those who are not loved I will call my loved ones.

26 Wherever they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be called children of the living God."

27 Isaiah also says about Israel: "Although the descendants of Israel are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, only a few will be saved.

28 The Lord will carry out his sentence on the land, completely and decisively."

29 This is what Isaiah predicted: "If the Lord of Armies hadn't left us some descendants, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah."

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 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, "I am placing a rock in Zion that people trip over, a large rock that people find offensive. Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed."

Romans 10

1 Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God on behalf of the Jewish people is that they would be saved.

2 I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God, but they are misguided.

3 They don't understand [how to receive] God's approval. So they try to set up their own way to get it, and they have not accepted God's way for receiving his approval.

4 Christ is the fulfillment of Moses' Teachings so that everyone who has faith may receive God's approval.

5 Moses writes about receiving God's approval by following his laws. He says, "The person who obeys laws will live because of the laws he obeys."

6 However, Scripture says about God's approval which is based on faith, "Don't ask yourself who will go up to heaven," (that is, to bring Christ down).

7 "Don't ask who will go down into the depths," (that is, to bring Christ back from the dead).

8 However, what else does it say? "This message is near you. It's in your mouth and in your heart." This is the message of faith that we spread.

9 If you declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God brought him back to life, you will be saved.

10 By believing you receive God's approval, and by declaring your faith you are saved.

11 Scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed."

12 There is no difference between Jews and Greeks. They all have the same Lord, who gives his riches to everyone who calls on him.

13 So then, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

14 But how can people call on him if they have not believed in him? How can they believe in him if they have not heard his message? How can they hear if no one tells [the Good News]?

15 How can people tell the Good News if no one sends them? As Scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who announce the Good News."

16 But not everyone has believed the Good News. Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

17 So faith comes from hearing the message, and the message that is heard is what Christ spoke.

18 But I ask, "Didn't they hear that message?" Certainly they did! "The voice of the messengers has gone out into the whole world and their words to the ends of the earth."

19 Again I ask, "Didn't Israel understand [that message]?" Moses was the first to say, "I will make you jealous of people who are not a nation. I will make you angry about a nation that doesn't understand."

20 Isaiah said very boldly, "I was found by those who weren't looking for me. I was revealed to those who weren't asking for me."

21 Then Isaiah said about Israel, "All day long I have stretched out my hands to disobedient and rebellious people."