But was marked out as Son of God in power by the Holy Spirit through the coming to life again of the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord,

You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you (but till now I was kept from it), so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations.

And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed and made into the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.

Because by them the true word of God was changed into that which is false, and they gave worship and honour to the thing which is made, and not to him who made it, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.

But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

Is this blessing, then, for the circumcision only, or in the same way for those who have not circumcision? for we say that the faith of Abraham was put to his account as righteousness.

How, then, was it judged? when he had circumcision, or when he had it not? Not when he had it, but when he did not have it:

And he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account;

For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

And not being feeble in faith though his body seemed to him little better than dead (he being about a hundred years old) and Sarah was no longer able to have children:

Still, he did not give up faith in the undertaking of God, but was made strong by faith, giving glory to God,

And being certain that God was able to keep his word.

For which reason it was put to his account as righteousness.

Now, it was not because of him only that this was said,

Who was put to death for our evil-doing, and came to life again so that we might have righteousness.

Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken.

But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come.

And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number.

For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.

So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men.

And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace:

Being conscious that our old man was put to death on the cross with him, so that the body of sin might be put away, and we might no longer be servants to sin.

For his death was a death to sin, but his life now is a life which he is living to God.

But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead.

And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death;

And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death:

For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law.

Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.

For what the law was not able to do because it was feeble through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the image of the evil flesh, and as an offering for sin, gave his decision against sin in the flesh:

So that what was ordered by the law might be done in us, who are living, not in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit.

For you did not get the spirit of servants again to put you in fear, but the spirit of sons was given to you, by which we say, Abba, Father.

For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope

Who will give a decision against us? It is Christ Jesus who not only was put to death, but came again from the dead, who is now at the right hand of God, taking our part.

But it is not as if the word of God was without effect. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel:

It was said to her, The older will be the servant of the younger.

As he says in Hosea, They will be named my people who were not my people, and she will be loved who was not loved.

And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be named the sons of the living God.

Why? Because they were not searching for it by faith, but by works. They came up against the stone which was in the way;

And Isaiah says without fear, Those who were not searching for me made discovery of me; and I was seen by those whose hearts were turned away from me.

What then? That which Israel was searching for he did not get, but those of the selection got it and the rest were made hard.

As it was said in the holy Writings, God gave them a spirit of sleep, eyes which might not see, and ears which have no hearing, to this day.

See then that God is good but his rules are fixed: to those who were put away he was hard, but to you he has been good, on the condition that you keep in his mercy; if not, you will be cut off as they were.

For if you were cut out of a field olive-tree, and against the natural use were united to a good olive-tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be united again with the olive-tree which was theirs?

But I have, in some measure, less fear in writing to you to put these things before you again, because of the grace which was given to me by God,

Making it my purpose not to take the good news where Christ was named, so that my work might not be resting on that of others;

For which reason I was frequently kept from coming to you:

Now, it is my desire, brothers, that you will take note of those who are causing division and trouble among you, quite against the teaching which was given to you: and keep away from them.