For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."

For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright.

you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal?

You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples?

Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:

That You may be justified in Your words
and triumph when You judge.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through [the action of] one man [i.e., Adam] and [physical] death through that sin, so [physical] death has spread to all people, because all people have sinned. [Note: This difficult passage (verses 12-21) seems to be saying that the entire human race must experience physical death because of Adam's sin (I Cor. 5:22), which is somehow considered to be everyone's sin. See Murray, pp. 180-187, for a thorough discussion].

Then what shall we say? must we abide in sin, in order that grace may abound?

Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death: in order that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so must we also walk in newness of life.

For if we be graft in death like unto him: even so must we be in the resurrection.

This we must remember, that our old man is crucified with him also, that the body of sin might utterly be destroyed; that henceforth we should not be servants of sin.

In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus.

So sin must not reign over your mortal bodies, and make you obey their cravings,

you must not let sin have your members for the service of vice, you must dedicate yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, dedicating your members to God for the service of righteousness.

For sin must not be your master [i.e., it must not have power over you], for you are not governed by law, but by God's unearned favor.

and being set free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness??19 I speak in these homely figures because of the weakness of your fleshly nature??ust as you once surrendered your faculties into slavery to impurity and to all lawlessness, so now you must surrender your faculties into slavery to righteousness, unto deeds of holiness.

your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures--and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness.

What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness.

for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.

But if we hope for what we cannot see, then we [must] patiently wait for it [to be received].

(You see, faith must come from what is heard, and what is heard comes from word of Christ.)

Now if their stumbling enriches the world, and their loss enriches the Gentiles, how much more must their fulness do!

Therefore, you should not brag [about your superiority] over the [natural] branches [i.e., the rejected Jews]. But, if you must brag, it should not be over you [Gentiles] nourishing the roots [i.e., the Jews], but over the roots nourishing you.

And you people must not be conformed to [the values and standards of] this age, but you should become transformed [i.e., changed in attitude and action] by having your mind renewed [i.e., to think in a totally different way]. Then you will be able to determine [and practice] God's will, the thing that is good, and acceptable and perfect.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to every one that is among you, that he must not think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but that he be disposed to think modestly, as God has distributed to each a measure of faith.

And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.

If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;

The teacher must do the same in his teaching; and he who exhorts others, in his exhortation. He who gives should be liberal; he who is in authority should be energetic and alert; and he who succours the afflicted should do it cheerfully.

Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what [is] evil; be attached to what [is] good,

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.

Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not covet," and every other commandment are summed up in this statement: "You must love your neighbor as yourself."

The night is far advanced, and day is about to dawn. We must therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the armour of Light.

The one who eats must not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, because God has accepted him.

One person prefers [one] day over [another] day, and another person regards every day [alike]. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.

But why do you judge your brother? why do you set at nought your brother? for we must all stand at the tribunal of God.

So each one of us must give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let us no longer judge one another; but, instead of that, you should come to this judgement--that we must not put a stumbling-block in our brother's path, nor anything to trip him up.

For if your brother's feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died.

Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken against [i.e., the exercise of a liberty by the strong to eat anything must not become the occasion of criticism by the weak].

So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.

Do not, for the sake of food, tear down the work of God. All things indeed are [ceremonially] clean, but they are wrong for the person who eats and offends [another’s conscience in the process].

For your part, you must keep the faith you have to yourself, as between God and you. He is a happy man who has no fault to find with himself in following the course that he approves,

Now we who are strong ought to be patient with the weaknesses of those who are not strong and must stop pleasing ourselves.

Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.