This is Wright’s translation of these verses: 18 This is how I work it out. The sufferings we go through in the present time are not worth putting in the scale alongside the glory that is going to be unveiled for us. 19 Yes: creation itself is on tiptoe with expectation, eagerly awaiting the moment when God’s children will be revealed. 20 Creation, you see, was subjected to pointless futility, not of its own volition, but because of the one who placed it in this subjection, i

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility [enslaved to malignant powers], not willingly, but because of him [not Adam or Satan but God] who subjected it, in hope [see Genesis 3:15] 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obta

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God [sons get the inheritance]. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” [When we address God by the same name Jesus used, it shows evidence that the Spirit who animated Jesus has taken up residence in us.] 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, [this is the NT do

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors [to God], not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [consider dead] the deeds of the body, you will live. [We are to consider dead our former sinful deeds, having no influence over us. In mortification, we actively put to death things that the body would otherwise want to do.] This is Wright’s translation of these verses: 12 So then, my d

According to Tom Wright: There is a strand of post-Reformation spirituality that is so anxious to avoid any appearance of works-righteousness that it shies away from any suggestion that anything we can do might actually please God. But if God’s spirit is at work within us, then of course we ought to please God. For Paul, the moral choices implied in verses 5 and 8 (flesh-minded vs. spirit-minded) are themselves part of the promise of resurrection itself. They are about the ne

As we read these verses (9-11), we see that Christian living doesn’t just happen. It takes what we call “mental effort,” a concentrated exercise of the mind to focus on God’s way of being human. That is all right here in summary in verse 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. What we learn, by regular and disciplined practice, to think ab

Thus, Paul writes verses 9-11: 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [Since it is the Spirit alone who brings one into relationship with Christ, there can be no relationship with him without the Spirit. This is where the “free will” argument disintegrates.] 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life

Tom Wright, Senior Research Fellow, Wycliffe Hall University of Oxford According to Tom Wright, "the first four verses of Romans 8 launch Paul’s exposition of the work of the Spirit. They form a platform for the rest of the chapter, and in particular for the rest of verses 5-11. Verses 1-4 have as their main theme the claim that “there is no condemnation for the Messiah’s people” because “the law’s proper verdict, giving life, is now fulfilled in them.” This life is the activ

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, Those who are Jews by birth come to realize that belonging to the one whom the resurrection has identified as Israel’s Messiah means both the fulfillment of their aspirations as loyal Jews and the radical redrawing of their identity as the people of God. When someone comes to be “in the Messiah,” by baptism

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Why is that the case? How has that been accomplished? God has done what the law couldn’t do. He has done two things, the first being the basis for the second: 1) the death of his Son and 2) the work of the Spirit. The problem with the law or Torah was the people to whom it was given were hard-hearted. See Ezekiel 36:26-27: 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spiri