Romans 8:5-25

⁵Those who follow their sinful nature are preoccupied with sinful things, but those who follow the Spirit concentrate on spiritual things.

⁶The sinful human mind results in death, but having the mind led by the Spirit results in life and peace.

⁷The sinful human mind is hostile to God because it refuses to obey the law of God—in fact it never can,

⁸and those who follow their sinful nature can never please God.

⁹But 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.

¹⁰However, 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.

¹¹The 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.

¹²So brothers and sisters, we don't have to follow our sinful nature that operates according to our human desires.

¹³For 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.

¹⁴All those who are led by the Spirit of God are God's children.

¹⁵You 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!”

¹⁶The Spirit himself agrees with us that we're God's children.

¹⁷If 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.

¹⁸Yet I'm convinced that what we suffer in the present is nothing compared to the future glory that will be revealed to us.

¹⁹All of creation is patiently waiting, longing for God to reveal his children.

²⁰For God allowed the purpose of creation to be frustrated.

²¹But 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.

²²We know that all creation groans with longing, suffering birth-pains even up till now.

²³Not 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.

²⁴For we were saved by hope. Yet hope that's already seen isn't hope at all. Who hopes for what they can already see?

²⁵Since we're hoping for what we haven't yet seen, we wait for it patiently.