Shalom with God through Messiah

5 Therefore, having been made righteous by trusting, we have shalom with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ^{[a] 2} Through Him we also have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of God’s glory. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in suffering—knowing that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Ruach ha-Kodesh who was given to us.

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly. ⁷ For rarely will anyone die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. ⁹ How much more then, having now been set right by His blood, shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if, while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Yet Sin Reigns through Death

¹² So then, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, in the same way death spread to all men because all sinned. ¹³ For up until the Torah, sin was in the world; but sin does not count as sin when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in a manner similar to the violation of Adam, who is a pattern of the One to come.

¹⁵ But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if many died because of the transgression of one man, how much more did the grace of God overflow to many through the gift of one Man—Yeshua the Messiah. ¹⁶ Moreover, the gift is not like what happened through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment from one violation resulted in condemnation; but on the other hand, the gracious gift following many transgressions resulted in justification. ^{[b] 17} For if by the one man’s transgression, death reigned through the one,^[c] how much more shall those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Messiah Yeshua.

¹⁸ So then, through the transgression of one, condemnation came to all men; likewise, through the righteousness of one came righteousness of life to all men. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man, many will be set right forever.^[d]

²⁰ Now the Torah came in so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace overflowed even more— ²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness, to eternal life through Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Who Is Your Master?

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? ² May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were immersed into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried together with Him through immersion into death—in order that just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have become joined together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also will be joined together in His resurrection— ⁶ knowing our old man was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be done away with, so we no longer serve sin. ⁷ For he who has died is set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him. ⁹ We know that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies; death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ So also continually count yourselves both dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

¹² Therefore do not let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ And do not keep yielding your body parts to sin as tools of wickedness; but yield yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your body parts as tools of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey—whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; ¹⁸ and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you yielded your body parts as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now yield your body parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. ²¹ So then, what outcome did you have that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and having become enslaved to God, you have your fruit resulting in holiness. And the outcome is eternal life. ²³ For sin’s payment^[e] is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Two Laws at War

7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I speak to those who know law), that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? ² For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. ³ So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law—so she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

⁴ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were made dead to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another—the One who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that came through the Torah were working in our body parts to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the law, having died to what confined us, so that we serve in the new way of the Ruach and not in the old way of the letter.

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Torah sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the Torah. For I would not have known about coveting if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.” ^{[f] 8} But sin, taking an opportunity, worked in me through the commandment all kinds of coveting. For apart from the Torah, sin is dead.

⁹ Once I was alive apart from the Torah; but when the commandment came, sin came to life ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment meant for life was found to cause death. ^{[g] 11} Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ^{[h] 12} So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Therefore did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin working death in me—through that which is good—so that sin might be shown to be sin, and that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. ¹⁶ But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.

¹⁷ So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. ²⁰ But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. ²⁴ Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord!^[i] So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Life in the Spirit

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what was impossible for the Torah—since it was weakened on account of the flesh—God has done. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned sin in the flesh— ⁴ so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.

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 Ruach set their minds on the things of the Ruach. ⁶ For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Ruach is life and shalom. ⁷ For the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God—for it cannot. ⁸ So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ However, you are not in the flesh but in the Ruach—if indeed the Ruach Elohim dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Ruach of Messiah, he does not belong to Him. ¹⁰ But if Messiah is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Ruach of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Ruach who dwells in you.

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we do not owe anything to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Ruach you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Ruach Elohim, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall again into fear; rather, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Ruach Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. ^{[j] 17} And if children, also heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Messiah—if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

The Coming Glory

¹⁸ For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility^[k]—not willingly but because of the One who subjected it^[l]—in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers birth pains until now— ²³ and not only creation, but even ourselves. We ourselves, who have the firstfruits^[m] of the Ruach, groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for adoption—the redemption of our body.

²⁴ For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. ²⁶ In the same way, the Ruach helps in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Ruach Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. ²⁷ And He who searches the hearts^[n] knows the mind of the Ruach, because He intercedes for the kedoshim according to the will of God.

²⁸ Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.

³¹ What then shall we say in view of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ^{[o] 32} He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ^{[p] 34} Who is the one who condemns? It is Messiah,^[q] who died, and moreover was raised,^[r] and is now at the right hand of God and who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

Be Dead to Self

12 I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy, acceptable to God—which is your spiritual service. ² Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

³ For through the grace given me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think—but to use sound judgment, as God has assigned to each person a measure of faith. ⁴ For just as we have many parts in one body—and all the parts do not have the same function— ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Messiah and everyone parts of one another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace that was given to us—if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; or the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ or the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who gives, in generosity; the one who leads, with diligence; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy—detesting what is evil, holding fast to the good. ¹⁰ Be tenderly devoted to one another in brotherly love; outdo one another in giving honor. ¹¹ Do not be lagging in zeal; be fervent in spirit. Keep serving the Lord, ¹² rejoicing in hope, enduring in distress, persisting in prayer, ¹³ contributing to the needs of the kedoshim, extending hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you—bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. ^{[a] 16} Live in harmony with one another; do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own eyes. ^{[b] 17} Repay no one evil for evil;^[c] give thought to what is good in the eyes of all people. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in shalom with all people. ¹⁹ Never take your own revenge, loved ones, but give room for God’s wrath—for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,”^[d] says Adonai. ²⁰ Rather, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For by doing so you will heap coals of fire upon his head.” ^{[e] 21} Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.