The Holy Bible: The New Word - Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8-12

8[1-11] So now God doesn’t accuse those who are in Christ Yeshua, who don’t act on what the body wants, but act on what the Spirit wants. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Yeshua has freed me from the law of sin and death. What the law couldn’t do, because it was weak in our bodies, God did by sending Yeshua, God’s own Child, in the likeness of a sinful human being. And because of sin, God accused all sin in the body of Christ: That the goodness that the law calls for could happen in us, who don’t act on what the body wants, but act on what the Spirit wants. Those who live by the body act on the things the body wants; but those who live by the Spirit act on the things the Spirit wants. To be bodily-minded brings death; but to be spiritually-minded brings life and peace. The bodily mind is against God because it doesn’t answer to the law of God, nor can it. So then those who live by the body can’t please God. But you don’t live by the body, but by the Spirit, if in fact, the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they’re not of God. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is alive because of goodness. But if the Spirit of the God who brought back Yeshua from the dead lives in you, the God who brought back Christ from the dead will also bring your human body back to life by the Spirit that lives in you.

    [12-17] So, Christians, we owe our lives, not to the body, to live by the wants of the body, because if you live for the body, you’ll die: but if you put an end to the actions of the body through the Spirit, you’ll live. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. You haven’t been given the spirit to be controlled again by fear; but you’ve been given the Spirit of adoption, by this we cry out to God, who cares for us like a parent. The Spirit itself tells the truth to our own spirit, that we’re the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; that is, if we suffer with Christ, so that we can all be praised together.

    [18-30] I think that whatever we suffer now in this time isn’t worthy to be compared with the victory which we’ll have. The hope and expectation of all creation waits for the children of God to be made known. All creation was made useless, not willingly, but by the will of the One who has subjected it in hope, because even the creation itself will also be freed from the control of evil and given the amazing freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation groans and labors as in the pain of childbirth together until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves also, which have the promise of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, and for our bodies to be saved. We’re saved by hope: but hope that is seen isn’t hope because what someone sees, they don’t still hope for. But if we hope for what we don’t yet see, then we wait for it with patience. In the sameway, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses because we don’t even know what we should pray for as we ought to: but the Spirit itself speaks up for us with groanings which can’t be spoken. And the One who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit speaks up for Christians by the will of God. And we know that God will make everything work out and come together for the good of those who love God and are the called for God’s purpose. Those whom God knew before time, God also chose before time to be like God’s own Child, who is the firstborn among many Christians. Besides this, those whom God chose before time, God also called: and those whom God called, God has also made right: and those whom God has made right, God has also made known. So then, what can we say about this? If God is for us, who can stand against us? And won’t God, who didn’t spare God’s own Child, but gave the Christ up for us all, along with Christ, also freely give us everything? Who will blame God's chosen with anything? It’s God that forgives. Who is the One who accuses? It’s Christ that died, yes, but instead, that is here back to life again, who is even at the right side of God, who also speaks up for us. What can separate us from the love of Christ? Will troubles, or suffering, or discrimination, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or force of weapons? As the Word says, For Your sake we’re killed all day long; we’re like animals going to be slaughtered. No, but we can overcome all this and more through Christ who loved us. And I am convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor things in spiritual realms, nor powers, nor what’s here now, nor the things that are yet to come, nor the heights of the heavens, nor the depths of Hell, nor any other creature, can separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Yeshua our Savior.

    9[1-5] I tell the truth in Christ, I’m not lying, my conscience also being my witness in the Holy Spirit, that I’ve great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. I could almost wish that I myself could be damned from Christ for my people, my own race in the physical sense. They’re the Israelites; to whom the adoption was promised, and the victory, and the promised agreements were given, along with the Word of God, and the service of God, and all the promises. They’re the human ancestors of the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. So be it!

    [6-13] But it isn’t as though the Word of God has no effect. Because not all who are descended from Israel, are Israelites. Neither, because they’re descended from Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac will your promised descendents be called. That is, those which are the natural children of the body, these aren’t the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the promised descendents. And this is the Word of promise, At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a child. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived the twins by our ancestor Isaac (the children not being born yet, nor having done any good or evil) one was chosen, so that the purpose of God for the chosen ones would come to pass, not because of anything that’s done, but because of the God who calls. It was said to her, The elder will serve the younger. As the Word says, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

    [14-21] What will we say then? Is there ungodliness with God? Never! God said to Moses, I’ll have mercy on whomever I’ll have mercy, and I’ll have compassion on whom I’ll have compassion. So then, it isn’t earned by those who choose, nor of those who try to work for it, but is given by the God that shows mercy. The Word said about Pharaoh, I have raised you up even for this very purpose, that I might show my power in you, and that My Name might be made known throughout all the earth. So God has mercy on whomever God has mercy, and whomever God wants to harden will be hardened. So then you might say to me, So why does God still find fault? Who can fight against God’s will? No, but you who are just a human being, who are you to question God? Will the thing made say to the One who made it, “Why have you made me this way?”  Doesn’t the potter have power over the clay, to make the same lump a dish for a special purpose, and another for everyday use?

     [22-33]What if God, wanting to show God’s rage, and make known God’s power, waits with much patience for those who God rages against, who are made to be destroyed; And to make known the riches of God’s victory on those who have God’s mercy, which God had prepared before time for victory? Yes, even us, whom God has called, not out of the Jews only, but also of the other peoples. As God said also in Hosea, I’ll call them My people, which weren’t My people; and her a dear loved one, which wasn’t a dear loved one. And it’ll happen in the very place where it was said, You aren’t my people; there they’ll be called “the children of the living God.” Isaiah also cries out about Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a few will be saved: because in goodness God will make a quick end to the work, making a quick end with the final judgement on the earth. And as Isaiah said before, Unless God Almighty had left us a descendent, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. What can we say then? That the other peoples, which didn’t follow the ways of goodness, have gotten goodness, even the goodness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed the law of goodness, hasn’t reached the law of goodness. Why? because they didn’t follow it by faith, but by what they’d done of the law. They stumbled over that stone; As the Word says, I lay in Zion a stone that many will stumble over and a rock that many will be offended by: but  whoever believes on the Christ won’t ever be ashamed.

    10[1-13] Everyone, what my heart wants and my prayer to God for Israel is, that they’ll be saved. I know that they have a passion for God, but not for knowledge. And they, being without knowledge of God's goodness, and going about to prove their own goodness, haven’t accepted the goodness of God. Christ is the goodness of the law of God for everyone that believes. Moses tells about the goodness which is of the law of God, The person who does those things will live by them. But the goodness which is of faith says it this way, Don’t say in your heart, Who will go up into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who will go down into the debths of hell? (that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead.) But what did it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the Word of faith, which we preach; If you claim with your mouth Christ Yeshua as your savior, and believe in your heart that God has raised the Christ from the dead, you’ll be saved. With the heart a person believes for goodness; and with the mouth confession is made in order to be saved. The Word said, Whoever believes on the Christ won’t be ashamed. There’s no difference between the Jew and the other peoples because the same Christ over all blesses all that call on Yeshua, the Christ. Whoever calls on the Name of Yahweh God will be saved.

     [14-21] How then can they call on the One in whom they haven’t believed? and how can they believe in the One, in whom they haven’t heard? and how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach, unless they’re sent? As the Word says, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the New Word of peace, and bring happy news of good things! But they haven’t all obeyed the New Word. Isaiah said, Yahweh God, who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But I ask, Haven’t they heard? Yes, the truth is, Their sound went into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. But I ask, Didn’t Israel know? First Moses said, I’ll make you jealous by those who are not a nation, and I’ll anger you by a nation that doesn’t understand. But Isaiah has no fear, saying, I was found of those who weren’t looking for me; I was made known to those who didn’t ask about me. And said to Israel, All day long I’ve stretched out my hands to a disobedient and arguing people.

    11[1-7] I say then, have the people of God been abandoned? Never! I also am an Israelite, from the line of Abraham, of the family of Benjamin. The people which God foreknew haven’t been left by God at all. Don’t you know what the Word said about Elijah? How he spoke to God against Israel, saying, God, they’ve killed your great preachers, and torn down your altars; and I am left alone, and they want to take my life. But what did God answer? I’ve kept for myself seven thousand others, who haven’t bowed the knee to that false god Baal. In the same way then, at this present time also, there’s still a few left who are chosen by grace. And if we’re chosen by grace, then it’s not by what you’ve done. Otherwise, grace isn’t grace at all. But if it’s by what you’ve done, then it’s not grace. Otherwise the work that you do isn’t work at all.

    [7-12] So what then? Israel hasn’t found what they are looking for; but the chosen ones have found it, and the rest cannot understand. (As the Word says, God has given them the spirit of slumber, their eyes don’t see, and their ears don’t hear;) to this day. And David said, Let their wealth have control over them, and become a trap, and a problem, and a punishment to them: Let their eyes be blinded, so that they can’t see, and may their backs be bent down always. I say then, have they only stumbled to fall? Never! But through their fall the other peoples are saved, to make them jealous. Now if their fall brings the riches of being saved to the rest of the world, and their loss allows the other peoples to be saved; how much more will their addition bring greater riches to God’s realm?

    [13-24] I speak to you other peoples, because I am a minister to you, but I brag about my ministry so that maybe in some way  I can make my own people jealous, and might save some of them. If their being tossed aside brings together the rest of the world, their acceptance will be as the dead coming back to life? If the first fruit is holy, the rest is also holy: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches are broken off, and you, being like a wild olive tree that’s grafted in among them, are nourished by the root with them and are strengthen by the olive tree; don’t think you’re better than the branches. But if you brag, know that you don’t strengthen the root, but the root strengthens you. You might say then, “The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.” That’s true; it was because of unbelief that they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Don’t think yourselves better than them, but fear: because if God didn’t spare the natural branches, be careful, in case God doesn’t spare you either. So think about both God’s goodness and strict judgment: Strict judgment came on those who fell; but God’s goodness came to you, that is, if you stay in God’s goodness: otherwise you will also be cut off. And they also, if they quit living in unbelief, will be grafted in because God is able to graft them in again. And if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted in contrary to your own nature into a good olive tree: how much better will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

    [25-32] Christians, I don’t want you to be without knowledge of this secret, in case you think yourselves better than you are; that Israel, in part, has been blinded until all the the other peoples have come in. And so all Israel will be saved: as the Word says, The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and will turn ungodliness away from Jacob: This is my promise to them, when I take away their sins. But as to the New Word, they’re enemies of it for your sakes: but as touching the chosen ones, they’re loved for their ancestors' sakes. The gifts and calling of God cannot be taken back. As in the past you didn’t believe God, now you have found mercy through their unbelief: In the same way, they also don’t believe now, so that through your mercy, they also can have mercy. God has judged them all in unbelief, in order to  have mercy on all of them.

    [33-36] How deep are the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! God’s judgments can never be fully understood, and God’s ways cannot be fully known! Who understands the mind of God? Or who has counseled God? Or who has first given to God, so that it’ll be paid back to them again? Everything is of God, and through God, and to God: to whom be victory forever. So be it!

    12[1-2] So I beg you, Christians, by the mercies of God, that you give your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is only reasonable for you to do. And don’t accept the ways of the world: but be changed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can know what is the good, acceptable, and complete will of God.

    [3-8] And I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to think of yourselves more highly than you should think; but to think with clear judment, according to how much faith God has given to each of you. Just as we have many parts in one body, and they don’t all have the same purpose: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and we are all part of one another. So then having differing gifts for the grace that is given to us, whether preaching, let’s preach according to our faith; Or ministry, let’s serve in our calling: or whoever teaches, let them use the teaching they’ve been given; Or whoever encourages, let them use the encouragement they have to give: whoever gives, let them do it in sincerity; whoever leads, let them lead with careful thought; whoever shows mercy, let them show it with cheerfulness.

    [9-21] Love in truth, without faking it. Hate what is evil; Hold on to what is good. Be loving and kind to one another with the love of friendship; wanting to honor others before yourselves; Not having a lack of concern; but being passionate about your work; serving God; Celebrating in your hope; being patient in your troubles; praying right away in everything; supplying the needs of Christians; and welcoming others. Bless those who mistreat you: bless, and don’t curse. Celebrate with those who celebrate, and cry with those who cry. Get along with one another. Don’t be too proud of yourself, but think of others who are in a lower place. Don’t be wise in your own thinking. Don’t repay anyone evil for evil. Be honest in the sight of everyone. If it’s possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with everyone. Dear loved one, don’t try to get revenge, but instead leave room for God’s rage because the Word says, Revenge is mine; I’ll repay, God said. So if your enemy is hungry, feed them; if they’re thirsty, give them a drink. If you do this you’ll make them burn with shame. Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.