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Romans 8

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No condemnation for those in Christ. The Spirit gives life, makes us God's children and helps us pray when we have no words. All creation is waiting to be set free. God works all things together for good for those who love Him. Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

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In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeSpeaking in Tongues · after verse 39

Walking by the Spirit// Ezekiel 36:16–38; Galatians 5:16–26

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.] ²For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. ³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

ROM 8:1[TEXT]The words in brackets are not in the oldest manuscripts. A copyist likely borrowed them from verse 4. Later copies and the KJV have them.

⁵Those 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. ⁶The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

Heirs with Christ

¹²Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Future Glory// 2 Corinthians 5:1–10

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

ROM 8:19[PROPHECY]The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God... the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now → STILL TO COME

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. ²³Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. ²⁷And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

ROM 8:26[MIRACLE]The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words
ROM 8:26[THE BIG DEBATE]Is this praying in tongues? See the two Speaking in Tongues pages.
ROM 8:27[HEART]God searches our hearts and knows what the Spirit is praying for us.

God Works in All Things// Ephesians 1:3–14

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

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.

ROM 8:34[FULFILLS]He would intercede for the transgressors ← IS 53:12e

More than Conquerors// Psalm 44:1–26

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:

“For Your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

ROM 8:36[QUOTES]Direct ← PS 44:22

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither 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.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Speaking in Tongues

Romans 8:26 · 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 · Acts 2:1 to 13

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS: Jesus said believers would speak in new tongues, Mark 16:17. At Pentecost the believers suddenly spoke real languages they had never learned, and visitors from all over heard God praised in their own languages, Acts 2:4 to 11. Tongues come again in Acts 10:46 and 19:6. Paul calls tongues a gift of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:10. He says the one who speaks in a tongue speaks to God, and no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit, 14:2. He also says, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you, 14:18, and, Do not forbid speaking in tongues, 14:39.
ROMANS 8:26: When we do not know what to pray, the Spirit Himself prays for us with groans too deep for words. Many Pentecostals, and scholars like Gordon Fee, connect this to praying in tongues. Others point out that the Greek word means wordless, so Paul may mean the Spirit's own silent groaning, not sounds we make. Either way, 8:27 says the Spirit prays for us according to the will of God.
TWO KINDS OF TONGUES: The tongues in Acts 2 were real human languages the crowd understood. In 1 Corinthians 14 no one understands without an interpreter, and Paul mentions the tongues of angels, 13:1. Many Pentecostals say they are doing the same thing that happened at Pentecost. But the Bible describes Acts 2 as real languages people understood, while most tongues today fit better with what Paul calls praying in the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 14:14 to 15, Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20.
PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT: Those who do it call it a personal prayer language. When you do not know what to pray for, the Spirit prays through you for God's perfect will for your life, Romans 8:27. Paul says it builds up the one who prays, 1 Corinthians 14:4. Many also believe the enemy cannot understand these prayers, so he cannot work against them behind the scenes in the spirit realm. No verse says that outright. It comes from 14:2, no one understands him.
NOT ALL AT ONCE IN CHURCH: Paul set rules for church meetings. If the whole church speaks in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 14:23. Only two or three should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret, or the speaker should stay quiet and speak to himself and God, 14:27 to 28. Many Pentecostal and charismatic services have the whole room praying out loud in tongues at the same time, which seems to break this rule. Defenders say Paul meant messages spoken to the church, not a room praying together.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GIFTS?: Irenaeus, about AD 180, wrote that he heard many believers speaking in all kinds of tongues. By about AD 390 John Chrysostom said these things used to happen but no longer did, and Augustine called tongues a sign for that time that had passed away. From about AD 500 to 1500, most believers in the West could not read the Bible for themselves. It was in Latin, most people could not read, and every copy was written by hand and cost a fortune. Some church councils banned Bibles in the common language: Toulouse in 1229 forbade lay people to own Bible books, and after 1564 reading one needed a bishop's permission. The Orthodox churches kept Scripture in Greek and Slavonic, closer to the people's own speech. When the printing press and the Reformation put the Bible back in people's hands, the church had to relearn much of what it teaches.

Tongues: The Two Sides

1 Corinthians 13:8 to 12 · 1 Corinthians 14:39 to 40

CESSATIONISM: The view that gifts like tongues, prophecy and healing stopped after the apostles. John Calvin did not invent it, since Chrysostom and Augustine said something like it first, but Calvin taught that miracles like healing had vanished away, and his teaching made the idea standard in many Protestant churches. Benjamin Warfield of Princeton built it into a full system in his 1918 book Counterfeit Miracles. Cessationists point to 1 Corinthians 13:8, tongues will cease, and say the gifts proved the apostles' message until the New Testament was finished.
THE PENTECOSTAL REVIVAL: On January 1, 1901, Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues at Charles Parham's Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. In April 1906 a revival broke out at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, led by William J. Seymour, a Black preacher whose parents had been enslaved. Black and white believers worshiped side by side, which shocked people in those days. The Los Angeles Times headline said Weird Babel of Tongues. Meetings went on for about three years, and the Pentecostal movement spread around the world.
REAL LANGUAGES?: The first Pentecostals believed they were speaking real foreign languages like Acts 2. Some sailed overseas as missionaries expecting to preach without learning the language. It did not work, and most came to see tongues as a prayer language instead. Linguists who studied modern tongues, like William Samarin in 1972, found it does not have the structure of a human language. Many believers say that is the point: it is not Acts 2, it is praying in the Spirit, which no one understands, 14:2.
THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT: In 1960 Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California, told his church he spoke in tongues. The experience spread into Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic churches, with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal starting in 1967. In the 1980s John Wimber's Vineyard churches brought what was called the Third Wave. Today about one in four Christians in the world is Pentecostal or charismatic.
FOR EVERYONE OR FOR SOME?: Classical Pentecostals, like the Assemblies of God, teach that tongues is the first sign of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and is for every believer, Acts 2:4, 10:46 and 19:6. Many charismatics read 1 Corinthians 12:30, Do all speak in tongues?, and say it is one gift among many that the Spirit gives as He chooses, 12:11. Many hold both: a private prayer language any believer may ask for, and a public gift of tongues for some, which needs an interpreter.
CONTINUISM: The view that all the gifts continue today. Continuists say tongues will cease when the perfect comes, when we see face to face, 13:10 to 12, which means when Jesus returns, not when the Bible was finished. Paul never told the church to stop. He told them to keep order. Nearly every well known deliverance ministry today prays in tongues, which makes many believers think there may be something to it.
IS IT DEMONIC?: Some churches teach that tongues today are fake, or even demonic. If that were true, it would be strange that so many who pray in tongues also cast out demons, since Jesus said Satan does not drive out Satan, Mark 3:23 to 26. Both views come from people who love Jesus and the Bible. Read 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 and decide for yourself. Paul's last word on it: Be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything must be done in a proper and orderly manner, 14:39 to 40.

Romans 8

Walking by the Spirit// Ezekiel 36:16–38; Galatians 5:16–26

Heirs with Christ

Future Glory// 2 Corinthians 5:1–10

God Works in All Things// Ephesians 1:3–14

More than Conquerors// Psalm 44:1–26

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