This, then, is the law that I find-When I want to do right, wrong presents itself!

But throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of Sin which exists throughout my body.

Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body that is bringing me to this Death?

What Law could not do, in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action, God did, by sending his own Son, with a nature resembling our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He condemned sin in that earthly nature,

So that the requirements of the Law might be satisfied in us who live now in obedience, not to our earthly nature, but to the Spirit.

So then, Brothers, we owe nothing to our earthly nature, that we should live in obedience to it.

And if children, then heirs-heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, since we share Christ's sufferings in order that we may also share his Glory.

I do not count the sufferings of our present life worthy of mention when compared with the Glory that is to be revealed and bestowed upon us.

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

We know, indeed, that all Nature alike has been groaning in the pains of labor to this very hour.

So, also, the Spirit supports us in our weakness. We do not even know how to pray as we should; but the Spirit himself pleads for us in sighs that can find no utterance.

But we do know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him-those who have received the Call in accordance with his purpose.

For those whom God chose from the first he also destined from the first to be transformed into likeness to his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest among many Brothers.

For I am persuaded that neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Archangels, nor the Present, nor the Future, nor any Powers,

Bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me and that my heart is never free from pain.

I could wish that I were myself accursed and severed from the Christ, for the sake of my Brothers-my own countrymen.

Not that God's Word has failed. For it is not all who are descended from Israel who are true Israelites;

This means that it is not the children born in the course of nature who are God's Children, but it is the children born in fulfillment of the Promise who are to be regarded as Abraham's descendants.

Nor is that all. There is also the case of Rebecca, when she was about to bear children to our ancestor Isaac.

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,

that 'the elder would be a servant to the younger.'

In Scripture, again, it is said to Pharaoh-'It was for this very purpose that I raised thee to the throne, to show my power by my dealings with thee, and to make my name known throughout the world.'

Has not the potter absolute power over his clay, so that out of the same lump he makes one thing for better, and another for common, use?

What are we to say, then? Why, that Gentiles, who were not in search of righteousness, secured it-a righteousness which was the result of faith;

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

For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by every one who believes in him.

For Moses writes that, as for the righteousness which results from Law, 'those who practice it will find Life through it.'

For, if with your lips you acknowledge the truth of the Message that JESUS IS LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

But I ask 'Is it possible that men have never heard?' No, indeed, for--'Their voices spread through all the earth, and their Message to the very ends of the world.'

What follows from this? Why, that Israel as a nation failed to secure what it was seeking, while those whom God selected did secure it.

The rest grew callous; as Scripture says--'God has given them a deadness of mind--eyes that are not to see and ears that are not to hear--and it is so to this very day.'

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

Being myself an Apostle to the Gentiles, I exalt my office, in the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry, and so save some of them.

Yet do not exult over the other branches. But, if you do exult over them, remember that you do not support the root, but that the root supports you.

But branches, you will say, were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.

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.

See, then, both the goodness and the severity of God--his severity towards those who fell, and his goodness towards you, provided that you continue to confide in that goodness; otherwise you, also, will be cut off.

Brothers, for fear that you should think too highly of yourselves, I want you to recognize the truth, hitherto hidden, that the callousness which has come over Israel is only partial, and will continue only till the whole Gentile world has been gathered in.

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 God has given all alike over to disobedience, that to all alike he may show mercy.

Or who has first given to him, so that he may claim a recompense?'

Do not conform to the fashion of this world; but be transformed by the complete change that has come over your minds, so that you may discern what God's will is--all that is good, acceptable, and perfect.

In fulfillment of the charge with which I have been entrusted, I bid every one of you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think till he learns to think soberly--in accordance with the measure of faith that God has allotted to each.

This I say, because you know the crisis that we have reached, for the time has already come for you to rouse yourselves from sleep; our Salvation is nearer now than when we accepted the Faith.

Who are you, that you should pass judgment on the servant of another? His standing or falling concerns his own master. And stand he will, for his Master can enable him to stand.

The very purpose for which Christ died and came back to life was this--that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.

Through my union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am persuaded that nothing is 'defiling in itself.' A thing is 'defiling' only to him who holds it to be so.

Therefore our efforts should be directed towards all that makes for peace and the mutual building up of character.

The right course is to abstain from meat or wine or, indeed, anything that is a stumbling-block to your Brother.

Whatever was written in the Scriptures in days gone by was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance, and through the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, we might hold fast to our hope.

So that with one heart and one voice you may praise the God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

For I tell you that Christ, in vindication of God's truthfulness, has become a minister of the Covenant of Circumcision, so that he may fulfil the promises made to our ancestors,

And that the Gentiles also may praise God for his mercy. As Scripture says--'Therefore will I make acknowledgment to thee among the Gentiles and sing in honor of thy Name.'

I am persuaded, my Brothers--yes, I Paul, with regard to you- that you are yourselves full of kindness, furnished with all Christian learning, and well able to give advice to one another.

Because of the charge with which God has entrusted me, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to go to the Gentiles--that I should act as a priest of God's Good News, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

It is, then, through my union with Christ Jesus that I have a proud confidence in my work for God.

That is why I have so often been prevented from coming to you.

And I know that, when I come to you, it will be with a full measure of blessing from Christ.

Pray that I may be rescued from those in Judea who reject the Faith, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to Christ's People;

So that, God willing, I may be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and enjoy some rest among you.

Give my greeting, also, to the Church that meets at their house, as well as to my dear friend Epaenetus, one of the first in Roman Asia to believe in Christ;

To that proved Christian Apelles; to the household of Aristobulus;

To that eminent Christian, Rufus, and to his mother, who has been a mother to me also;

Every one has heard of your ready obedience. It is true that I am very happy about you, but I want you to be well versed in all that is good, and innocent of all that is bad.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you, as promised in the Good News entrusted to me and in the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the revelation of that hidden purpose, which in past ages was kept secret but now has been revealed

And God himself will strengthen you to the end, so that at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ you may be found blameless.

For I have been informed, my Brothers, by the members of Chloe's household, that party feeling exists among you.

I mean this, that every one of you says either 'I follow Paul,' or 'I Apollos,' or 'I Kephas,' or 'I Christ.'

I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

So that no one can say that you were baptized into my Faith.

I baptized also the household of Stephanas. I do not know that I baptized any one else.

And God chose what the world counts poor and insignificant-- things that to it are unreal-to bring its 'realities' to nothing,

So that in his presence no human being should boast.

So that-in the words of Scripture-'Let him who boasts make his boast of the Lord!'

For my own part, Brothers, when I came to you, it was with no display of eloquence or philosophy that I came to tell the hidden purpose of God;

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

So that your faith should be based, not on the philosophy of man, but on the power of God.

Yet there is a philosophy that we teach to those whose faith is matured, but it is not the philosophy of to-day, nor that of the leaders of to-day-men whose downfall is at hand.

No, it is a divine philosophy that we teach, one concerned with the hidden purpose of God-that long-hidden philosophy which God, before time began, destined for our glory.

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

While there exist among you jealousy and party feeling, is it not true that you are worldly, and are acting merely as other men do?

What, I ask, is Apollos? or what is Paul? Servants through whom you were led to accept the Faith; and that only as the Lord helped each of you.

The quality of each man's work will become known, for the Day will make it plain; because that Day is to be ushered in with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of every man's work.

If any man's work, which he has built upon that foundation, still remains, he will gain a reward.

Do not you know that you are God's Temple, and that God's Spirit has his home in you?

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you imagines that, as regards this world, he is a wise man, let him become a 'fool,' that he may become wise.

Now what we look for in stewards is that they should be trustworthy.

But it weighs very little with me that I am judged by you or by any human tribunal. No, I do not even judge myself;

For, though I am conscious of nothing against myself, that does not prove me innocent. It is the Lord who is my judge.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

For who makes any one of you superior to others? And what have you that was not given you? But if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as if you had not?

Are you all so soon satisfied? Are you so soon rich? Have you begun to reign without us? Would indeed that you had, so that we also might reign with you!

It is with no wish to shame you that I am writing like this; but to warn you as my own dear children.

Some, I hear, are puffed up with pride, thinking that I am not coming to you.

But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord; and then I shall find out, not what words these men use who are so puffed up, but what power they possess;

There is a wide-spread report respecting a case of immorality among you, and that, too, of a kind that does not occur even among the Gentiles-a man, I hear, is living with his father's wife!

Instead of grieving over it and taking steps for the expulsion of the man who has done this thing, is it possible that you are still puffed up?

To deliver such a man as this over to Satan, that what is sensual in him may be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved at the Day of the Lord.

Your boasting is unseemly. Do not you know that even a little leaven leavens all the dough?