Romans · chapter 8 of 16
Updated on
Romans 8 declares that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and describes life by the Spirit: believers are children and heirs of God, groan with creation awaiting redemption, and have the Spirit's intercession and the promise that God works for their good. The chapter ends with the certainty that nothing can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8 is often considered the summit of the letter and one of the best-loved chapters of the Bible. After the struggle described in chapter 7, Paul shows God's answer: the Holy Spirit, who gives believers life, freedom, adoption, hope and eternal security.
Paul begins with a declaration: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life has set them free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do, weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit.
The mind of the flesh is death; the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. If the Spirit of God dwells in believers, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to their mortal bodies also. Those led by the Spirit are children of God; they have received a spirit of adoption, by whom they cry Abba, Father, and they are heirs with Christ, provided they suffer with him in order to be glorified with him.
The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to come. Creation, subjected to futility but in hope of being set free, groans as in the pains of childbirth, and believers also groan, waiting for the redemption of the body; they were saved in hope. The Spirit helps in weakness and intercedes with groanings too deep for words. For those who love God all things work together for good, and Paul traces the chain of God's work: he foreknew, predestined, called, justified and glorified.
He concludes with rhetorical questions: if God is for us, who can be against us? Who is to condemn, since Christ died, was raised and intercedes at the right hand of God? Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is the conclusion of what has been explained since chapter 3: the judgment for sin has already fallen on Christ, and whoever is united with him faces no condemnation.
Believers did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but the Spirit of adoption, by whom they cry Abba, Father. They can come to God with a child's confidence, knowing they are loved.
For those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. The promise does not say everything that happens is good but that God directs everything toward the final good of his children.
Paul is convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor any other creature can separate believers from God's love in Christ. It is the certainty that closes the argument of the whole section.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That there is now no condemnation for them. — Romans 8:1
Answer: He sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh. — Romans 8:3
Answer: That God will give life to their mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in them. — Romans 8:11
Answer: Abba, Father. — Romans 8:15
Answer: He intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, according to the will of God. — Romans 8:26-27
Answer: Nothing: neither death, nor life, nor anything else in creation. — Romans 8:38-39
Romans 8 is a text for when guilt or fear dominates. In a small group you can share which accusations assail us most often and answer them with verse 1 and the questions of verses 31 to 34: God is for us, and Christ intercedes.
It also teaches us to wait. Present suffering is real, but it is not the last word: all creation groans in labor pains and we await redemption. Living by the Spirit means praying, obeying and trusting with that hope, and remembering that no circumstance can change God's love.
Romans 8 crowns the first half of the letter with the certainty of God's love in Christ. But Paul pauses over a painful question: if God is faithful, what about Israel, most of whom have not believed? Romans 9 to 11 addresses that mystery in depth.
In Paul, flesh does not refer to the physical body as something evil but to human life dominated by sin and relying on its own strength, without the Spirit of God. To live according to the flesh is to live under the power of sin; to live according to the Spirit is to be led and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
It means that God governs even difficult things for the ultimate good of his children, which verse 29 defines as being conformed to the image of Christ. It does not promise that everything will be pleasant or that there will be no pain, but that nothing escapes his purpose.
Christians understand these terms in different ways: some see in foreknowledge God's advance knowledge of who will believe; others, a loving knowledge that chooses beforehand. In both cases the passage is not meant to produce fear but assurance: what God begins in his children he carries through to glorification.