To The Word – Day 175

₁There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. ₂For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death. ₃What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like sinful human nature, to do away with sin. ₄God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature. ₅Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants. ₆To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace. ₇And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it. ₈Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.

₉But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ₁₀But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for you because you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin. ₁₁If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

₁₂So then, my brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to. ₁₃For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live. ₁₄Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. ₁₅For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” ₁₆God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. ₁₇Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.

₁₈I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. ₁₉All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children. ₂₀For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope ₂₁that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God. ₂₂For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. ₂₃But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free. ₂₄For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For which of us hopes for something we see? ₂₅But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

₂₆In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. ₂₇And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

₂₈We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose. ₂₉Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the eldest brother in a large family. ₃₀And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

₃₁In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? ₃₂Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son — will he not also freely give us all things? ₃₃Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! ₃₄Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right-hand side of God, pleading with him for us! ₃₅Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? ₃₆As the scripture says,

₁In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. ₂At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. ₃Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

₄But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, ₅that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved. ₆In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. ₇He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. _8-9For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. ₁₀God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

₁₁You Gentiles by birth — called “the uncircumcised” by the Jews, who call themselves “the circumcised” (which refers to what men do to their bodies) — remember what you were in the past. ₁₂At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God. ₁₃But now, in union with Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ₁₄For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. ₁₅He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace. ₁₆By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God. ₁₇So Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to all — to you Gentiles, who were far away from God, and to the Jews, who were near to him. ₁₈It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.

₁₉So then, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now fellow-citizens with God's people and members of the family of God. ₂₀You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. ₂₁He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. ₂₂In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.