Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools;

And they transformed the Glory of the immortal God into the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, and beasts, and reptiles.

Therefore God abandoned them to impurity, letting them follow the cravings of their hearts, till they dishonored their own bodies;

For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

They reveled in every form of wickedness, evil, greed, vice. Their lives were full of envy, murder, quarreling, treachery, malice.

They became back-biters, slanderers, impious, insolent, boastful. They devised new sins. They disobeyed their parents.

They were undiscerning, untrustworthy, without natural affection or pity.

Well aware of God's decree, that those who do such things deserve to die, not only are they guilty of them themselves, but they even applaud those who do them.

All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law.

When Gentiles, who have no Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they, though they have no Law, are a Law to themselves;

For they show the demands of the Law written upon their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self- defense--

They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good-no, not one!'

'Their throats are like opened graves; they deceive with their tongues.' 'The venom of serpents lies behind their lips,'

And the path of peace they do not know.'

Not after, but before. And it was as a sign of this that he received the rite of circumcision-to attest the righteousness due to the faith of an uncircumcised man-in order that he might be the father of all who have faith in God even when uncircumcised, that they also may be regarded by God as righteous;

As Scripture says-'I have made thee the Father of many nations.') And this they do in the sight of that God in whom Abraham had faith, and who gives life to the dead, and speaks of what does not yet exist as if it did.

They who follow their earthly nature are earthly-minded, while they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded.

They who are earthly cannot please God.

For they are Israelites, and theirs are the adoption as Sons, the visible Presence, the Covenants, the revealed Law, the Temple worship, and the Promises.

They are descended from the Patriarchs; and, as far as his human nature was concerned, from them came the Christ-he who is supreme over all things, God for ever blessed. Amen.

Nor, because they are Abraham's descendants, are they all his Children; but-'It is Isaac's children who will be called thy descendants.'

For in order that the purpose of God, working through selection, might not fail-a selection depending, not on obedience, but on his Call-Rebecca was told, before her children were born and before they had done anything either right or wrong,

And what if God, intending to reveal his displeasure and make his power known, bore most patiently with the objects of his displeasure, though they were fit only to be destroyed,

And in the very place where it was said to them-"Ye are not my People", they shall be called Sons of the Living God.'

And why? Because they looked to obedience, and not to faith, to secure it. They stumbled over 'the Stumbling-block.'

I can testify that they are zealous for the honor of God; but they are not guided by true insight,

For, in their ignorance of the Divine Righteousness, and in their eagerness to set up a righteousness of their own, they refused to accept with submission the Divine Righteousness.

For with their hearts men believe and so attain to righteousness, while with their lips they make their Profession of Faith and so find Salvation.

But how, it may be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they have not learned to believe? And how are they to believe in one whose words they have not heard? And how are they to hear his words unless some one proclaims him?

And how are men to proclaim him unless they are sent as his messengers? As Scripture says--'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'

'Lord, they have killed thy Prophets, they have pulled down thy altars, and I only am left; and now they are eager to take my life.'

May their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; and do thou always make their backs to bend.'

True; it was because of their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is because of your faith that you are standing. Do not think too highly of yourself, but beware.

And they, too, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God has it in his power to graft them in again.

If you were cut off from your natural stock--a wild olive-- and were grafted, contrary to the course of nature, upon a good olive, much more will they--the natural branches--be grafted back into their parent tree.

And they shall see the fulfillment of my Covenant, when I have taken away their sins.'

From the stand-point of the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies on your account; but from the stand-point of God's selection, they are dear to him on account of the Patriarchs.

So, too, they have now become disobedient in your day of mercy, in order that they also in their turn may now find mercy.

For they are God's servants appointed for your good. But, if you do what is wrong, you may well be afraid; for the sword they carry is not without meaning! They are God's servants to inflict his punishments on those who do wrong.

But as Scripture says--'They to whom he had never been proclaimed shall see; and they who have never heard shall understand!'

Yes, they were glad to do so; and indeed it is a duty which they owe to them. For the Gentile converts who have shared their spiritual blessings are in duty bound to minister to them in the things of this world.

For such persons are not serving Christ, our Master, but are slaves to their own appetites; and, by their smooth words and flattery, they deceive simple-minded people.