Romans 8:14-17

8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are ¹  the sons of God. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ²  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ³  by whom ⁴  we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ⁵  our spirit that we are God’s children. 8:17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ⁶  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:28

8:28 And we know that all things work together ⁷  for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

Matthew 22:36-37

22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ⁸  22:37 Jesus ⁹  said to him, “‘Love ¹⁰  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ¹¹ 

Matthew 22:1

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

22:1 Jesus spoke ¹²  to them again in parables, saying:

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ¹³  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Hebrews 8:10-12

8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put ¹⁴  my laws in their minds ¹⁵  and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹⁶ 

8:11 “And there will be no need at all ¹⁷  for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. ¹⁸ 

8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” ¹⁹ 

Hebrews 8:1

The High Priest of a Better Covenant

8:1 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: ²⁰  We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ²¹ 

Hebrews 4:1

God’s Promised Rest

4:1 Therefore we must be wary ²²  that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.

[8:14]  ¹ tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”

[8:15]  ² tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ⁴ tn Or “in that.”

[8:16]  ⁵ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[8:17]  ⁶ tn Grk “on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other hand, fellow heirs with Christ.” Some prefer to render v. 17 as follows: “And if children, then heirs – that is, heirs of God. Also fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.” Such a translation suggests two distinct inheritances, one coming to all of God’s children, the other coming only to those who suffer with Christ. The difficulty of this view, however, is that it ignores the correlative conjunctions μέν…δέ (men…de, “on the one hand…on the other hand”): The construction strongly suggests that the inheritances cannot be separated since both explain “then heirs.” For this reason, the preferred translation puts this explanation in parentheses.

[8:28]  ⁷ tc ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) is found after the verb συνεργεῖ (sunergei, “work”) in v. 28 by Ì⁴⁶ A B 81 sa; the shorter reading is found in א C D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï latt sy bo. Although the inclusion is supported by a significant early papyrus, the alliance of significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses favors the shorter reading. As well, the longer reading is evidently motivated by a need for clarification. Since ὁ θεός is textually suspect, it is better to read the text without it. This leaves two good translational options: either “he works all things together for good” or “all things work together for good.” In the first instance the subject is embedded in the verb and “God” is clearly implied (as in v. 29). In the second instance, πάντα (panta) becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. In either case, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God” (C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:427).

[22:36]  ⁸ tn Or possibly “What sort of commandment in the law is great?”

[22:37]  ⁹ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[22:37]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[22:37]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The threefold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[22:1]  ¹² tn Grk “And answering again, Jesus spoke.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[1:3]  ¹³ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[8:10]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

[8:10]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “mind.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.

[8:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”

[8:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “from the small to the great.”

[8:12]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.

[8:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the main point of the things being said.”

[8:1]  ²¹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1; see Heb 1:3, 13.

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “let us fear.”