1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 This is because the power of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the power of sin and death

3 The law of Moses could not save us because of the weakness of our flesh and sinful nature, so God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin 

4 in order that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer walk according to the flesh but instead according to the Spirit. 

5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what their flesh desires, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit

6 For to set the mind of the flesh is death, but to set the mind of the Sprit is Life and Peace

7 For a mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 

8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God

9 If indeed the Spirit of God lives within you, you are not in the flesh but are in the Spirit. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him

10 But if Christ lives within you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. 

Verse 1: I chose to word this verse directly as it is worded in the English Standard Bible. As I read through multiple different translations, this verse was very unified throughout: all of the translations included the words "therefore", "no condemnation", "Christ Jesus", etc. 

Verse 2: I started off with "this is because" just to make it a little bit more clear and contemporary, even though most translations say "for". I also used "power of the Spirit" and "power of sin" because I thought this could make it easier for people to understand the verse, even though most translations use "law of the Spirit" and "law of sin and death"

Verse 3: Instead of simply stating "law" here, I changed it to the "Law of Moses to make it more clear" (ESV Bible). I decided to keep the word "condemned" so that it would tie back to verse 1 

Verse 4: for this verse, a lot of translations saw "righteous requirement of the law". However, I chose to use the word "just", which is what the NLT version uses. This is simply because it may be easier to understand. When I hear the word righteous, I will often times attribute that to a human characteristic, which is why it may be just a bit harder to understand how the requirement of the law could be righteous. The word, "just" simply makes the statement more clear. 

Verse 5: for this verse, I combined the NIV translation and the ESV translation. For the first half, I liked how the NIV said "what the flesh desires", rather than just saying the "things of the flesh". 

Verse 6: I again chose to use the ESV version of this verse because it was the most straightforward

Verse 7: I mostly used the NIV version of this verse, but added "for a mind" just for the sake of flow

Verse 8: This verse was the same for ESV and NASB, and it was the most straight forward so I used those translations for this verse

Verse 9: for this verse I combined the ESV, NIV, and NASB translations. I changed the order in which the verse was written, and decided to structure the verse by "if this...", "then that". Rather than saying 'this is true if...'. I also decided it was okay to alternate between Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ because it shows that God and Christ have the same status (ESV bible)

Verse 10: although some translations for this verse say "the Spirit if life because of righteousness", I decided to use the NLT and NIV translation and reword the verse to say "the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God". This seemed easier to understand for the reader. 

Verse 11: I decided to conclude this translation using the NIV version of this verse. It used the word "living" instead of "dwells", which makes it more personal. In addition to this, I kept the word "mortal" because all the translations I read used that word and it did indeed seem to be most fitting. 

Overall, I decided to translate Romans 8:1-11 the way I did in hopes that this passage would be clear and straightforward. That being said, I often times chose to use the most relatable and contemporary words. I drew mostly form the ESV and NIV because these versions were very similar to the King James Version, but also easy to understand. My hope was that I could translate this text to make it direct, but also to maintain the emotional component. All this said, I also ensured I was not straying away from the King James Version or the NASB as these are most commonly referred to as two of the most accurate and reliable versions. 

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