God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers,

Never! In that case, how could he judge the world?

Never! How can we live in sin any longer, when we died to sin?

Then did what was meant for my good prove fatal to me? Never! It was sin; sin resulted in death for me by making use of this good thing. This was how sin was to be revealed in its true nature; it was to use the command to become sinful in the extreme.

So too the Spirit assists us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray aright, but the Spirit pleads for us with sighs that are beyond words,

But how are they to invoke One in whom they do not believe? And how are they to believe in One of whom they have never heard? And how are they ever to hear, without a preacher?

And how can men preach unless they are sent? ??as it is written, How pleasant is the coming of men with glad, good news!

God has not repudiated his People, his predestined People! Surely you know what scripture says in the passage called 'Elijah'? You know how he pleads with God against Israel:

For if you have been cut from an olive which is naturally wild, and grafted, contrary to nature, upon a garden olive, how much more will the natural branches be grafted into their proper olive?

What a fathomless wealth lies in the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable his judgments! How mysterious his methods!

No, put on the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, and never think how to gratify the cravings of the flesh.