for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark.

For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.

for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God

That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,

but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,

So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God's anger!

If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, it is far more certain that now that we are reconciled we shall be saved through sharing in his life!

Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father's glory, we too may live a new life.

For if we have grown into union with him by undergoing a death like his, of course we shall do so by being raised to life like him,

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,

for we know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more hold on him.

and you must not offer the parts of your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrong, but offer yourselves to God as men brought back from death to life, and offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of uprightness.

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you.

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good.

Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything?

But in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants."

For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the Scripture says, "No one who has faith in him will be disappointed."

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him.

But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them?

From the point of view of the good news they are treated as enemies of God on your account; but from the point of view of God's choice, they are dear to him because of their forefathers,

"Who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, or advised him?

"Or who has advanced anything to him, for which he will have to be repaid?"

For from him everything comes; through him everything exists; and in him everything ends! Glory to him forever! Amen.

By the favor that God has shown me, I would tell every one of you not to think too highly of himself, but to think reasonably, judging himself by the degree of faith God has allowed him.

No! If your enemy is hungry, feed him! If he is thirsty, give him something to drink! For if you do, you will heap burning coals upon his head!

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves.

One man's faith allows him to eat anything, while the overscrupulous man eats nothing but vegetables.

The man who will eat anything must not look down on the man who abstains from some things, and the man who abstains from them must not criticize the one who does not, for God has accepted him.

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so.

The man who observes the day does it in the Lord's honor. The man who eats does it in the Lord's honor, for he gives God thanks, and the man who abstains does it in the Lord's honor, and gives him thanks.

if we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and if we die, we are responsible to him; so whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Everyone of us must try to please his neighbor, to do him good, and help in his development.

Again Isaiah says, "The descendant of Jesse will come, The one who is to rise to rule the heathen; The heathen will set their hopes on him."

As the Scripture says, "They who have never been told of him will see, And they who have never heard will understand!"

To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed,