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For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
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The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
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Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
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You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
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For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
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The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
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Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
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For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
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that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
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And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
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For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
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More Than Conquerors
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
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Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
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neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
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God’s Sovereign Choice
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
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In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
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Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:
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What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
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It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
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Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
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One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”
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But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”
