Romans 8 - Easy To Read Version

¹ So now people that are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty.

² Why? Because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit {\cf2\super [58]} that brings life made you {\cf2\super [59]} free. It made you {\cf2\super [60]} free from the law that brings sin and death.

³ The law {\cf2\super [61]} was without power because the law was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do. God sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that other people use for sin. God sent his Son to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to condemn (destroy) sin.

⁴ God did this so that we could be right like the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.

⁵ People that live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those people that live following the Spirit {\cf2\super [62]} are thinking about the things that the Spirit wants them to do.

⁶ If a person’s thinking is controlled by his sinful self, then there is spiritual death. But if a person’s thinking is controlled by the Spirit, then there is life and peace.

⁷ Why is this true? Because if a person’s thinking is controlled by his sinful self, then that person is against God. That person refuses to obey God’s law. And really that person is not able to obey God’s law.

⁸ Those people that are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, {\cf2\super [63]} if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But if any person does not have the Spirit of Christ, then that person does not belong to Christ.

¹⁰ Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God.

¹¹ God raised Jesus from death. And if God’s Spirit is living in you, then he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from death. And he will give life to your bodies through his Spirit that lives in you.

¹² So, my brothers and sisters, we must not be ruled by our sinful selves. We must not live the way our sinful selves want.

¹³ If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, then you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit’s {\cf2\super [64]} help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, then you will have \{true\} life.

¹⁴ The true children of God are those people that let God’s Spirit lead them.

¹⁵ The Spirit {\cf2\super [65]} that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again and causes us to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us God’s chosen children. And with that Spirit we say, “Abba, {\cf2\super [66]} Father.”

¹⁶ And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say we are God’s children.

¹⁷ If we are God’s children, then we will get the blessings God has for his people. We will get these things from God. God will give us all that he has given Christ. But we must suffer like Christ suffered. Then we will be able to share his glory.

¹⁸ We have sufferings now. But the sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us.

¹⁹ Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when God will show the world who his children are. The whole world wants very much for that to happen.

²⁰ Everything God made was changed to be like it was worth nothing. It did not want to change, but God decided to change it. But there was this hope:

²¹ That everything God made would be made free from ruin (decay). There was hope that everything God made would have the freedom and glory that belong to God’s children.

²² We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain like a woman ready to give birth to a child.

²³ Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit {\cf2\super [67]} as the first part of God’s promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own children. I mean we are waiting for our bodies to be made free.

²⁴ We were saved, and we have this hope. If we can see what we are waiting for, then that is not really hope. People don’t hope for something they already have.

²⁵ But we are hoping for something that we don’t have yet. We are waiting for it patiently.

²⁶ Also, the Spirit {\cf2\super [68]} helps us. We are very weak, but the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We don’t know how to pray like we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. The Spirit begs God for us. The Spirit speaks to God with deep feelings that words cannot explain.

²⁷ God can see what is in people’s hearts. And God knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way that God wants.

²⁸ We know that in everything God works for the good of those people that love him. These are the people God called (chose), because that was his plan.

²⁹ God knew those people before he made the world. And God decided that those people would be like his Son (Jesus). Then Jesus would be the firstborn {\cf2\super [69]} of many brothers and sisters.

³⁰ God planned for those people to be like his Son. And he called (chose) those people. God called those people and made them right with him. And God gave his glory to those people that he made right.

³¹ So what should we say about this? If God is for us, then no person can stand against us. And God is with us.

³² He even let his own Son suffer for us. God gave his Son for us all. So with Jesus now, God will surely give us all things.

³³ Who can accuse the people that God has chosen? No one! God is the One who makes his people right.

³⁴ Who can say that God’s people are guilty? No one! Christ Jesus died \{for us\}, but that is not all. He was also raised from death. And now he is at God’s right side and is begging God for us.

³⁵ Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? No! Can trouble separate us from Christ’s love? No! Can problems or persecution {\cf2\super [70]} separate us from Christ’s love? No! If we have no food or clothes, will that separate us from Christ’s love? No! Will danger or even death separate us from Christ’s love? No!

³⁶ Like it is written in the Scriptures {\cf2\super [71]} :

³⁷ But in all these things we have full victory through God who showed his love for us.