For all men sin and come short of the glory of God,

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship.

We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good.

You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God's will is??hat is good, pleasing, and perfect.

For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is eternal life through union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

But God proves his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.

It is just like the way in which through one man sin came into the world, and death followed sin, and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned.

So as we have been made upright by faith, let us live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

So there is no condemnation any more for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.

For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek.

For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

For God's anger is breaking forth from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth.

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

So faith comes from hearing what is told, and that hearing comes through the message about Christ.

As the Scripture says, "There is not a single man who is upright,

Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature??is eternal power and divine character??ave been clearly perceptible through what he has made. So they have no excuse,

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

Then what shall we conclude? Are we to continue to sin to increase the spread of mercy?

But you are not physical but spiritual, if God's Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ's spirit, he does not belong to Christ.

For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit itself pleads for us with inexpressible yearnings,

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor their hierarchies nor the present nor the future

For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

Then what shall we conclude from this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father's glory, we too may live a new life.

For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us.

That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions. Their women have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural,

including you who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ??7 to all those in Rome whom God loves, who are called to be his people; God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

For everything that was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by being steadfast and through the encouragement the Scriptures give, we might hold our hope fast.

But now God's way of uprightness has been disclosed without any reference to law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.

For when we were still helpless, at the decisive moment Christ died for us godless men.

By the favor that God has shown me, I would tell every one of you not to think too highly of himself, but to think reasonably, judging himself by the degree of faith God has allowed him.

about his Son, who was physically descended from David,

The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children,

but by his mercy they are made upright for nothing, by the deliverance secured through Christ Jesus.

Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to declare God's good news,

Your love must be genuine. You must hate what is wrong, and hold to what is right.

And do you suppose, when you sit in judgment upon those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

For before the children were born or had done anything either good or bad, in order to carry out God's purpose of selection, which depends not on what men do but on his calling them,

More than that, we ought to glory in our troubles, for we know that trouble produces endurance,

But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them?

and to ask that somehow by God's will I may some day at last succeed in reaching you.

In it God's way of uprightness is disclosed through faith and for faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright will have life because of his faith."

It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

in other words, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith.

Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can trouble or misfortune or persecution or hunger or destitution or danger or the sword?

As God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in spreading the good news of his Son, I never fail to mention you when I pray,

I beg you, brothers, to be on the watch for those who introduce divisions and difficulties, in opposition to the instruction that you were given, and to avoid them.

Owe nobody anything??xcept the duty of mutual love, for whoever loves his fellow-men has fully satisfied the Law.

How inexhaustible God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge are! How unfathomable his decisions are, and how untraceable his ways!

But if their false step has so enriched the world, and their defeat has so enriched the heathen, how much more good the addition of their full number will do!

For no human being can be made upright in the sight of God by observing the Law. All that the Law can do is to make man conscious of sin.

and hope will not disappoint us. For, through the holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark.

I want you to understand, brothers, that I have often intended to come to see you (though thus far I have been prevented) in order to produce some results among you, as well as among the rest of the heathen.

First I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world.

For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

So God abandoned them, with their heart's cravings, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies.

We have gifts that differ with the favor that God has shown us, whether it is that of preaching, differing with the measure of our faith,

May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit.

Treat people who are overscrupulous in their faith like brothers; do not criticize their views.

For all that can be known of God is clearly before them; God has shown it to them.

For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in,

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him.

For to be physically minded means hostility to God, for it refuses to obey God's law, indeed it cannot obey it.

But in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God's anger!

For just as there are many parts united in our human bodies, and the parts do not all have the same function,

and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too.

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you pose as a judge, for when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, for you, who sit in judgment, do the very same things yourself.

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

Do you think so lightly of his wealth of kindness, forbearance, and patience, and fail to see that God's kindness ought to induce you to repent?

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you.

Do not take your revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am physical, sold into slavery to sin.

Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God.

What does this mean? Are we Jews at a disadvantage? Not at all. We have already charged Jews and Greeks all alike with being under the control of sin.

No! This is what it says: "God's message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind"??hat is, the message about faith that we preach.

Be affectionate in your love for the brotherhood, eager to show one another honor,

For creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be disclosed.

It is God's way of uprightness and comes through having faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who have faith, without distinction.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather who was raised from the dead, is at God's right hand, and actually pleads for us.

I want to introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a helper in the church at Cenchreae.

For though it was impossible for the Law to do it, hampered as it was by our physical limitations, God, by sending his own Son in our sinful physical form, as a sin-offering, put his condemnation upon sin through his physical nature,

Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything?

People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical, and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual.

I am telling the truth as a Christian, it is no falsehood, for my conscience under the holy Spirit's influence bears me witness in it,

For we hold that a man is made upright by faith; the observance of the Law has nothing to do with it.

So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also.

For with their minds men believe and are made upright, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment and are saved.

and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord,

who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.

What business have you to criticize your brother? What business have you to look down upon your brother? We shall all have to stand before God for judgment.

If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, it is far more certain that now that we are reconciled we shall be saved through sharing in his life!

For to be physically minded means death, but to be spiritually minded means life and peace.

By no means, for then how could he judge the world?

Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of uprightness, peace, and happiness through the possession of the holy Spirit.

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

For sin must no longer control you, for you live not under law but under mercy.

For they had exchanged the truth of God for what was false, and worshiped and served what he had created, instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen!

To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed,

For the life-giving law of the Spirit through Christ Jesus has freed you from the Law of sin and death.

Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

I ask then, has God repudiated his people? By no means. Why, I am an Israelite myself, I am descended from Abraham, and I belong to the tribe of Benjamin.

Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham?

for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body's doings to death, you will live.

And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct.

More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies.

By no means! God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says, "That you may be shown to be upright in what you say, And win your case when you go into court."

For from him everything comes; through him everything exists; and in him everything ends! Glory to him forever! Amen.

Be happy in your hope, steadfast in time of trouble, persistent in prayer.

So you also must think of yourselves as dead to sin but alive to God, through union with Christ Jesus.

It is the duty of us who are strong to put up with the weaknesses of those who are immature, and not just suit ourselves.

Do you not know, brothers??or I am speaking to men who know what law is??hat law governs a man only as long as he lives?

We know that all creation has been groaning in agony together until now.

If possible, for your part, live peaceably with everybody.

and then all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says, "The deliverer will come from Zion, He will drive all ungodliness away from Jacob,

so, many as we are, we form one body through union with Christ, and we are individually parts of one another.

Do not pay anyone back with evil for evil. See that you are above reproach in the eyes of everyone.

So as one offense meant condemnation for all men, just so one righteous act means acquittal and life for all men.

One man thinks one day better than another, while another thinks them all alike. Everybody must be fully convinced in his own mind.

All this especially, because you know this critical time and that it is time for you to wake from your sleep, for our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God.

For if that one man's offense made death reign through that one man, all the more will those who receive God's overflowing mercy and his gift of uprightness live and reign through the one individual Jesus Christ.

For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right.

For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external.

I do not understand what I am doing, for I do not do what I want to do; I do things that I hate.

When heathen who have no Law instinctively obey what the Law demands, even though they have no law they are a law to themselves,

Greet one another with a sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ wish to be remembered to you.

So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control,

Bless your persecutors; bless them; do not curse them.

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

through whom we have received God's favor and been commissioned in his name to urge obedience and faith upon all the heathen,

and the patriarchs, and from them physically Christ came??od who is over all be blessed forever! Amen.

They called themselves wise, but they have turned into fools,

For just as that one man's disobedience made the mass of mankind sinners, so this one's obedience will make the mass of them upright.

What a wretched man I am! Who can save me from this doomed body?

For Christ marks the termination of law, so that now anyone who has faith may attain uprightness.

But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.

Not that God's message has failed. For not everybody who is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel,

So as a follower of Christ Jesus I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.

What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision?

Then law slipped in, and multiplied the offense. But greatly as sin multiplied, God's mercy has far surpassed it,

for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

For if their rejection has meant the reconciling of the world, what can the acceptance of them mean but life from the dead?

Therefore let us not criticize one another any more. You must resolve instead never to put any hindrance or obstacle in your brother's way.

which he promised long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

May God, from whom steadfastness and encouragement come, give you such harmony with one another, in following the example of Christ Jesus,

in the hope of making my countrymen jealous, and thus saving some of them.

But, you say, if a falsehood of mine has brought great honor to God by bringing out his truthfulness, why am I tried for being a sinner?

But if Christ is in your hearts, though your bodies are dead in consequence of sin, your spirits have life in consequence of uprightness.

and those whom he has predestined he calls, and those whom he calls he makes upright, and those whom he makes upright he glorifies.

Therefore, treat one another like brothers, in God's honor, just as Christ has treated you.

For when he died, he became once for all dead to sin; the life he now lives is a life in relation to God.

for they are God's agents to do you good. But if you do wrong you may well be afraid, for they do not carry swords for nothing. They are God's servants, to execute his wrath upon wrongdoers.

For he will pay every man for what he has done.

And how are men to preach unless they are sent to do it? As the Scripture says, "How welcome is the coming of those who bring good news!"

For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery, You must not murder, You must not steal, You must not covet," and any other commandments there are, are all summed up in one saying, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

But in your obstinacy and impenitence you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath, when the justice of God will burst forth.

Supply the needs of God's people, be unfailing in hospitality.

For my part, as far as you are concerned, my brothers, I am convinced that you are already full of goodness of heart, endowed with perfect knowledge, and well qualified to instruct one another.

Let us, therefore, keep before us whatever will contribute to peace and the development of one another.

Let us live honorably, as in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, or in immorality and indecency, or in quarreling and jealousy.

and you must not offer the parts of your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrong, but offer yourselves to God as men brought back from death to life, and offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of uprightness.

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

But there is no comparison between God's gift and that offense. For if one man's offense made the mass of mankind die, God's mercy and his gift given through the favor of the one man Jesus Christ have far more powerfully affected mankind.

Love never wrongs a neighbor, and so love fully satisfies the Law.

But, thank God! though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from your hearts to the standard of teaching that you received,

for God does not change his mind about those to whom he gives his blessings or sends his call.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be too ambitious, but accept humble tasks. Do not be conceited.

Who can bring any accusation against those whom God has chosen? God pronounces them upright;

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

not wanting in devotion, but on fire with the Spirit. Serve the Lord.

If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,

and men too in the same way have disregarded the natural function of women and been consumed with passion for one another, men for men, acting indecently, and experiencing in their own persons the inevitable penalty of what they have done.

For the Scripture says, "No one who has faith in him will be disappointed."

conscienceless, treacherous, unloving, and unpitying.

Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation,

And God, who is the source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet. The blessing of our Lord Jesus be with you.

If the first handful of dough is consecrated, the whole mass is, and if the root of a tree is consecrated, so are its branches.

What follows, then? Are we to sin, because we live not under law but under mercy? Certainly not!

But it is to you who are of the heathen that I am speaking. So far then as I am an apostle to the heathen, I make the most of my ministry,

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist.

by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

For if we have grown into union with him by undergoing a death like his, of course we shall do so by being raised to life like him,

All who sin without having the Law will perish without regard to the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be judged by the Law.

But if it is by his mercy, it is not for anything they have done. Otherwise, his mercy would not be mercy at all.

Is this using faith to overthrow law? Far from it. This confirms the Law.

Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God,

she was told, "The elder will be the younger's slave."

So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

I ask then, has their stumbling led to their absolute ruin? By no means. Through their false step salvation has gone to the heathen, so as to make the Israelites jealous.

and the command that should have meant life in my case proved to mean death.

Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people.

The command gave sin an opening and sin deceived me and killed me with it.

Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!"

They are gossips, slanderers, abhorrent to God, insolent, overbearing, boastful, ingenious in evil, undutiful,

It is true sin was in the world before the Law was given, and men are not charged with sin where there is no law.

Whoever serves Christ in that way pleases God and gains the approval of men.

"But," you will say, "branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!"

For I will venture to speak only of what Christ has accomplished through me in winning the heathen to obedience, by word and action,

for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you.

you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid,

but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury,

And their mouths are full of bitter curses.

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

by the force of signs and marvels, and by the power of the holy Spirit, with the result that I have completed the preaching of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum.

And this will be my agreement with them, When I take away their sins."

From the point of view of the good news they are treated as enemies of God on your account; but from the point of view of God's choice, they are dear to him because of their forefathers,

but there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does right, the Jew first, and the Greek also,

crushing distress and anguish, every human soul of them that actually does what is wrong??he Jew first, and the Greek also;

For if you were cut from a wild olive and unnaturally grafted upon a cultivated one, how much easier it will be to graft them upon the olive to which they properly belong!

In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before;

My fellow-worker, Timothy, wishes to be remembered to you, and so do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow-countrymen.

Nor is there any comparison between the gift and the effects of that one man's sin. That sentence arose from the act of one man, and was for condemnation; but God's gift arose out of many offenses and results in acquittal.

so that just as sin had reigned through death, mercy might reign through uprightness and bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Their throats are like open graves, They use their tongues to deceive; The venom of asps is behind their lips,

As the Scripture says, "They who have never been told of him will see, And they who have never heard will understand!"

But if I do what I do not want to do, I acknowledge that the Law is right.

They do not know the way of peace.

What good did you get from doing the things you are now ashamed of? Why, they result in death!

Ruin and wretchedness mark their paths,

But now there is no more work for me in this part of the world, and as I have had a great desire for many years to come to see you,

Their feet are swift when it comes to shedding blood,

There is no reverence for God before their eyes!"

Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

In reality, it is not I that do these things; it is sin, which has possession of me.

when I go to Spain I hope to see you on my way there, and to have you see me off on my journey, after I have enjoyed being with you for a while.

and endurance, character, and character, hope,

We know that God's judgment rightfully falls upon those who do such things as these.

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,

and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right,

My host, Gaius, the host of the whole church, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the city-treasurer, and our brother Quartus wish to be remembered to you.

God has not repudiated his people, which he had marked out from the first. Do you not know what the Scripture says in speaking of Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel?

OMITTED TEXT

I, Tertius, who write this letter, wish to be remembered to you as a fellow-Christian.

So when I have finished this matter, and seen this contribution safely into their possession, I will start for Spain, and come to you on the way,

For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because they disobeyed,

Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; Make their backs bend forever under their burden!"

and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark,

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free as far as uprightness was concerned.

For Macedonia and Greece have determined to make a contribution for the poor among God's people in Jerusalem.

Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples?

You must not, just for the sake of food, undo the work of God. It is true, everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to hurt the consciences of others by what he eats.

train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law??21 why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself?

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is not I that am acting, it is sin, which has possession of me.

So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised?

And if, although they are physically uncircumcised, they obey the Law, they will condemn you, who break the Law, although you have it in writing, and are circumcised.

For, as the Scripture says, the very name of God is abused among the heathen, because of you!

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, I am the only one left and they are trying to take my life."

or of practical service, differing in the field of service, or the teacher who exercises his gift in teaching,

Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it?

For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to possess it, faith is nullified and the promise amounts to nothing!

His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children.

so as to show all the wealth of his glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he has prepared from the beginning to share his glory,

The rest became callous; as the Scripture says, "God has thrown them into a state of spiritual insensibility, with eyes that cannot see and cars that cannot hear, that has lasted down to this day."

For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God,

including us whom he has called not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen?

And David said, "Let their feasting prove a snare and a trap to them, Their ruin and their retribution.

So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress.

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,

there is but one God, and he will make the circumcised upright on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised upright because of theirs."

But what is God's reply? "I have left myself seven thousand men who have never knelt to Baal!"

Does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the heathen too? Of course he belongs to the heathen too;

And Isaiah cries out about Israel, "Although the sons of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,

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

in the full assurance that God was able to do what he had promised.

but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,

They determined to do it, and they really are indebted to them, for if the heathen have shared their spiritual blessings, they ought to do them a service in material ways.

when I say that I am greatly pained and my heart is constantly distressed,

God who gives peace be with you all! Amen.

That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.

and I know that when I do come to see you, I will come with Christ's fullest blessing.

As Isaiah foretold, "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us children, We would have been like Sodom, and have resembled Gomorrah!"

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants."

That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity.

And in the very place where they were told, 'You are no people of mine,' They shall be called sons of the living God."

Just now I am starting for Jerusalem, to take help to God's people.

But I ask, had they no opportunity to hear it? On the contrary, "Their voices have gone all over the earth, And their words to the ends of the world."

It is true, they have not all accepted the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what we have told?"

for the Lord will execute his sentence rigorously and swiftly on the earth."

For this is what the promise said: "When I come back at this time next year, Sarah will have a son."

Remember me to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow-countrymen, who went to prison with me. They are noted men among the missionaries, and they became Christians before I did.

For I long to see you, to convey to you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you;

Still death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam had, in the face of an express command. So Adam foreshadowed the one who was to come.

Then what if God, though he wanted to display his anger and show his power, has shown great patience toward the objects of his anger, already ripe for destruction,

They revel in every kind of wrongdoing, wickedness, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and ill-nature.

It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane.

So the Law itself is holy, and each command is holy, just, and good.

for God shows no partiality.

that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to decay, and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.

One man's faith allows him to eat anything, while the overscrupulous man eats nothing but vegetables.

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you get is consecration, and the final result is eternal life.

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.

But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;

Then Isaiah broke out boldly and said, "I have been found by men who were not looking for me, I have shown myself to men who were not asking what my will was."

the speaker, in his exhortation, the giver of charity, with generosity, the office-holder, with devotion, the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, the marriage law no longer applies to her.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is shut out. On what principle? What a man does? No, but whether a man has faith.

But I ask again, did Israel fail to understand? Why, to begin with, Moses said, "I will make you jealous of what is no nation at all, I will exasperate you at a senseless nation."

But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?' " that is, to bring Christ down;

Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;

What do we conclude? That God is guilty of injustice? By no means.

Remember me to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in the cause of Christ Jesus,

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive's root,

And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac.

For in their ignorance of God's way of uprightness and in the attempt to set up one of their own, they refused to conform to God's way of uprightness.

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves.

On the contrary, who are you, my friend, to answer back to God? Can something a man shapes say to the man who shaped it, "Why did you make me like this?"

Everyone of us must try to please his neighbor, to do him good, and help in his development.

More than that, we actually glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we owe our reconciliation.

Moses said that anyone who carried out the uprightness the Law prescribed would find life through it.

For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God's glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises,

The night is nearly over; the day is at hand. So let us throw aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light.

For the Scripture says, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend before me, And every tongue will make its confession to God."

for they show that what the Law demands is written on their hearts, and their consciences will testify for them, and with their thoughts they will either accuse or perhaps defend themselves,

for I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kindred.

Pay them all what is due them??ribute to the man entitled to receive it, taxes to the man entitled to receive them, respect to the man entitled to it, and honor to the man entitled to it.

None of us lives only to himself, and none of us dies only to himself;

The man who does right has nothing to fear from the magistrates, as the wrongdoer has. If you want to have no fear of the authorities, do right, and they will commend you for it,

They know God's decree that those who act in this way deserve to die, yet they not only do it, but applaud any who do.

He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God

He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on the man on whom I choose to have mercy, and take pity on the man on whom I choose to take pity."

No! If your enemy is hungry, feed him! If he is thirsty, give him something to drink! For if you do, you will heap burning coals upon his head!

You must obey them, therefore, not only to escape God's wrath, but as a matter of principle,

No one understands, no one searches for God.

As the Scripture says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau."

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so.

The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.