20. For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope
21. that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22. For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.
23. But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free.
24. For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For which of us hopes for something we see?
25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26. In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.
27. And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.
28. We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.
29. Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the eldest brother in a large family.
30. And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.
31. In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32. Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son — will he not also freely give us all things?
33. Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!
34. Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right-hand side of God, pleading with him for us!