For everybody has sinned and everybody continues to come short of God's glory,

I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God has shown you, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, devoted and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

Yes, we know that all things go on working together for the good of those who keep on loving God, who are called in accordance with God's purpose.

Stop living in accordance with the customs of this world, but by the new ideals that mold your minds continue to transform yourselves, so as to find and follow God's will; that is, what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect.

For the wages paid by sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life through union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

For if with your lips you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord, and in your hearts 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 while we were still sinners.

So here is the comparison: As through one man sin came into the world, and death as the consequence of sin, and death spread to all men; because all men sinned.

Since we have been given right standing with God through faith, then let us continue enjoying peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

So then there is no condemnation at all 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 trusts, 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 from heaven is being uncovered against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth;

Everybody must obey the civil authorities that are over him, for no authority exists except by God's permission; the existing authorities have been established by Him,

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

as the Scriptures say: "Not a single human creature is upright,

Forever since the creation of the world, His invisible characteristics -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been made intelligible and clearly visible by His works. So they are without excuse,

Or, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

What is our conclusion then? Are we to continue to sin for His unmerited favor to multiply?

But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers;

In the same way the Spirit, too, is helping us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with unspeakable yearnings,

For I have full assurance that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor the present nor the future

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

What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

So through baptism we have been buried with Him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, so we too should live an entirely new life.

For I consider all that we suffer in this present life is nothing to be compared with the glory which by-and-by is to be uncovered for us.

This is why God has given them up to degrading passions. For their females have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural,

among whom you too as called ones belong to Jesus Christ --

For everything that was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by our patient endurance and through the encouragement the Scriptures bring we might continuously cherish our hope.

But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify.

For when we were still helpless, Christ at the proper time died for us ungodly men.

Now through the unmerited favor God has shown me I would say to every one of you not to estimate himself above his real value, but to make a sober rating of himself, in accordance with the degree of faith which God has apportioned to him.

about His Son, who on the physical side became a descendant of David, and on the holy, spiritual side

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children;

but anybody may have right standing with God as a free gift of His undeserved favor, through the ransom provided in Christ Jesus.

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

Your love must be true. You must always turn in horror from what is wrong, but keep on holding to what is right.

And you, who pose as a judge of those who practice such sins and yet continue doing the same yourself, do you for once suppose that you are going to escape the judgment of God?

For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them,

And not only that, but this too: let us continue exulting in our sufferings, for we know that suffering produces endurance,

But how can people call upon One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in One about whom they have not heard? And how can people hear without someone to preach to them?

always entreating God that somehow by His will I may some day at last succeed in getting to see you.

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 you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father."

in other words, that we may be mutually encouraged, while I am with you, by one another's faith, yours and mine.

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

Indeed, my witness is God, whom I serve in my spirit by telling the good news about His Son, that I never fail to mention you every time I pray,

But I beg you, brothers, to keep on the lookout for those who stir up divisions and put hindrances in your way, in opposition to the instruction that you had, and always avoid them.

Stop owing anybody anything, except the obligation to love one another, for whoever practices loving others has perfectly satisfied the law.

How fathomless the depths of God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge! How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods!

But if their stumbling has resulted in the enrichment of the world, and their overthrow becomes the enrichment of heathen peoples, how much richer the result will be when the full quota of Jews comes in!

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

and hope never disappoints us; for through the Holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness.

Furthermore, I want you to know, brothers, that I have often planned to come to see you (though until now I have been prevented), in order that I may gather some fruit among you too, as I have among the rest of the heathen.

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

For God once publicly offered Him in His death as a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to demonstrate His own justice (for in His forbearance God had passed over men's former sins);

Practice rejoicing with people who rejoice, and weeping with people who weep.

So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another,

As we have gifts that differ in accordance with the favor God has shown us, if it is that of preaching, let it be done in proportion to our faith;

May the hope-inspiring God so fill you with perfect joy and peace through your continuing faith, that you may bubble over with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Make it your practice to receive into full Christian fellowship people who are overscrupulous, but not to criticize their views.

because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them.

For to keep you from being self-conceited, brothers, I do not want to have a misunderstanding of this uncovered secret, that only temporary insensibility has come upon Israel until the full quota of the heathen peoples comes in,

But there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over them all, because He is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him.

Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it.

And yet in all these things we keep on gloriously conquering through Him who loved us.

So if we have already been brought into right standing with God by Christ's death, it is much more certain that by Him we shall be saved from God's wrath.

For just as we have many parts united in our physical bodies, and the parts do not all have the same function,

and if children, then also heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ if in reality we share His sufferings, so that we may share His glory too.

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, who pose as a judge of others, for when you pass judgment on another, you condemn yourself, for you who pose as a judge are practicing the very same sins yourself.

for we know that our former self was crucified with Him, to make our body that is liable to sin inactive, so that we might not a moment longer continue to be slaves to sin.

Do you think so little of the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not conscious that His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you.

Stop taking revenge on one another, beloved, but leave a place for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin.

Now we know that everything the law says is spoken to those who are under its authority, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held responsible to God.

What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin,

But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.

In brotherly love be affectionate to one another, in personal honors put one another to the fore,

For all nature is expectantly waiting for the unveiling of the sons of God.

God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made.

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

Now I introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deaconess in the church at Cenchreae,

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

Since He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not with Him graciously give us everything else?

For people who live by the standard set by their lower nature are usually thinking the things suggested by that nature, and people who live by the standard set by the Spirit are usually thinking the things suggested by the Spirit.

I am telling the truth as a Christian man. I am telling no lie, because my conscience enlightened by the Holy Spirit is bearing me witness to this fact,

For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it.

So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too.

For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation.

proved to be God's Son in power by the resurrection from the dead -- I mean, Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.

Then why should you criticize your brother? Or, why should you look down on your brother? Surely, we shall all stand before God to be judged,

For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is much more certain that since we have been reconciled we shall finally be saved through His new life.

For to be thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means death, but to be thinking the things suggested by the Spirit means life and peace.

Not at all! If that were so, how could He judge the world?

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

For the kingdom of God does not consist in what we eat and drink, but in doing right, in peace and joy through the Holy Spirit;

Do you not know that when you habitually offer yourselves to anyone for obedience to him, you are slaves to that one whom you are in the habit of obeying, whether it is the slavery to sin whose end is death or to obedience whose end is right-doing?

For sin must not any longer exert its mastery over you, for now you are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor.

for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told,

For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death.

Brothers, my heart's good will goes out for them, and my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing.

I say then, God has not disowned His people, has He? Of course not! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham?

for if you live by such a standard, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live.

And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper;

Not only that but this too, we ourselves who enjoy the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we ourselves, keep up our inner groanings while we wait to enter upon our adoption as God's sons at the redemption of our bodies.

Not at all. Let God prove true, though every man be false! As the Scripture says, "That you may prove yourself upright in words you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

For from Him everything comes, through Him everything lives, and for Him everything exists. Glory to Him forever! Amen.

ever happy in hope, always patient in suffering, ever persistent in prayer,

So you too must consider yourselves as having ended your relation to sin but living in unbroken relation to God.

It is the duty of us who are strong to bear with the weaknesses of those who are not strong, and not merely to please ourselves.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives?

Yes, we know that all nature has gone on groaning in agony together till the present moment.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with everybody.

and so in that way all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says: "From Zion the Deliverer will come; He will remove ungodliness from Jacob;

so we, though many, are united in one body through union with Christ, and we are individually parts of one another.

Stop returning evil for evil to anyone. Always see to it that your affairs are right in the sight of everybody.

So, as through one offense there resulted condemnation for all men, just so through one act of uprightness there resulted right standing involving life for all men.

One man rates one day above another, another rates them all alike. Let every man be fully convinced in his own mind.

Do this in particular because you know the present crisis, that it is high time for you to wake up out of your sleep, for our salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

Stop being conquered by evil, but keep on conquering evil with good.

So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him.

For if by one man's offense death reigned through that one, to a much greater degree will those who continue to receive the overflow of His unmerited favor and His gift of right standing with Himself, reign in real life through One, Jesus Christ.

For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right.

For the real Jew is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, and real circumcision is not outward physical circumcision.

Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate.

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves,

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

So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to our lower nature to live by the standard set by it;

Keep on blessing your persecutors; keep on blessing and stop cursing them.

Accordingly, sin must not continue to reign over your mortal bodies, so as to make you continue to obey their evil desires,

through whom we have received God's favor and a commission as an apostle in His name to urge upon all the heathen obedience inspired by faith,

to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

the patriarchs, and from them by natural descent the Christ has come, who is exalted over all, God blessed forever. Amen!

Though claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves,

For just as by that man's disobedience the whole race of men were constituted sinners, so by this One's obedience the whole race of men may be brought into right standing with God.

Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature?

For Christ has put an end to law as a way to right standing for everyone who puts his trust in Him.

Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and put a stop to gratifying the evil desires that lurk in your lower nature.

But it is not that God's word has failed. For not everybody that is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel,

So, as a Christian, I am proud of the things that I have done for God.

But the man who has misgivings about eating, if he then eats, has already condemned himself by so doing, because he did not follow his faith, and any action that does not follow one's faith is a sin.

What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or, what benefit does circumcision confer?

Then law crept in to multiply the offense. Though sin has multiplied, yet God's favor has surpassed it and overflowed,

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."

For if the rejection of them has resulted in the reconciling of the world, what will the result be of the final reception of them but life from the dead?

Then let us stop criticizing one another; instead, do this, determine to stop putting stumbling blocks or hindrances in your brother's way.

which long ago He promised through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants, that he should own the world, was not conditioned on the law, but on the right standing he had with God through faith.

May God, who gives men patient endurance and encouragement, grant you such harmony with one another, in accordance with the standard which Christ Jesus sets,

if I can make my fellow-countrymen jealous, and so save some of them.

But, as you say, if the truthfulness of God has redounded to His glory because of my falsehood, why am I still condemned as a sinner?

But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God.

and those whom He marked off as His own He also calls; and those whom He calls He brings into right standing with Himself; those whom He brings into right standing with Himself He also glorifies.

Therefore, practice receiving one another into full Christian fellowship, just as Christ has so received you to Himself.

For by the death He died He once for all ended His relation to sin, and by the life He now is living He lives in unbroken relation to God.

For the civil authorities are God's servants to do you good. But if you practice doing wrong, you should dread them, for they do not wield the sword for nothing. Indeed, they are God's servants to inflict punishment upon people who do wrong.

For when He finally judges, He will pay everyone with exactness for what he has done,

And how can men preach unless they are sent to do so? As the Scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of men who bring the glad news of His good things!"

For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not have an evil desire," and any other commandment if there is any, are summed up in this command, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

But in your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when the justice of God's judgments will be uncovered.

always supplying the needs of God's people, ever practicing hospitality.

As far as I am concerned about you, my brothers, I am convinced that you especially are abounding in the highest goodness, richly supplied with perfect knowledge and competent to counsel one another.

So let us keep on pursuing the things that make for peace and our mutual upbuilding.

Let us live becomingly for people who are in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, nor in sexual immorality and licentiousness, nor in quarreling and jealousy.

and you must stop offering to sin the parts of your bodies as instruments for wrongdoing, but you must once for all offer yourselves to God as persons raised from the dead to live on perpetually, and once for all offer the parts of your bodies to God as instruments for right-doing.

For nature did not of its own accord give up to failure; it was for the sake of Him who let it thus be given up, in the hope

But God's free gift is not at all to be compared with the offense. For if by one man's offense the whole race of men have died, to a much greater degree God's favor and His gift imparted by His favor through the one man Jesus Christ, has overflowed for the whole race of men.

Love never does a wrong to one's neighbor; so love is the perfect satisfaction of the law.

But, thank God, that though you once were slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching in which you have been instructed,

for the gracious gifts and call of God are never taken back.

Keep on thinking in harmony with one another. Stop being high-minded but keep on associating with lowly people. Stop being conceited.

Who can bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who declared them in right standing;

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

never slack in earnestness, always on fire with the Spirit, always serving the Lord,

So if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper.

For the Scripture says, "No one who puts his faith in Him will ever be put to shame."

conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity.

Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation;

Now the peace-giving God will soon crush Satan under your feet. The spiritual blessing of our Lord Jesus be with you.

If the first handful of dough is consecrated, so is the whole mass; if the tree's root is consecrated, so are the branches.

What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never!

Yes, I now am speaking to you who are a part of the heathen peoples. As I am an apostle to the heathen peoples, I am making the most of my ministry to them, to see

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." That is, the promise is in force in the sight of God in whom he put his faith, the God who can bring the dead to life and can call to Himself the things that do not exist as though they did.

by whom we have an introduction through faith into this state of God's favor, in which we safely stand; and let us continue exulting in the hope of enjoying the glorious presence of God.

For if we have grown into fellowship with Him by sharing a death like His, surely we shall share a resurrection life like His,

All who sin without having the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

But if it is by His unmerited favor, it is not at all conditioned on what they have done. If that were so, His favor would not be favor at all.

Do we then through faith make null and void the law? Not at all; instead, we confirm it.

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

she was told, "The elder will be a slave to the younger."

So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall in utter ruin, did they? Of course not! On the contrary, because of their stumbling, salvation has come to heathen peoples, to make the Israelites jealous.

and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death.

For such men are really not serving our Lord Christ but their own base appetites, and by their fair and flattering talk they are deceiving the hearts of unsuspecting people.

For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me.

Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!"

they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents,

Certainly sin was in the world before the law was given, but it is not charged to men's account where there is no law.

whoever in this way continues serving Christ is well-pleasing to God and approved by men.

Then you will say, "Branches have been broken off for us to be grafted in."

For I would venture to mention only what Christ has accomplished through me in bringing the heathen peoples to obedience, by word and by work,

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

you must not be boasting against the natural branches. And if you do, just consider, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent,

but wrath and fury, crushing suffering and awful anguish, to the self-willed who are always resisting the right and yielding to the wrong,

Their mouths are full of bitter cursing.

Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing."

by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit. So I have completed the telling of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum.

And this my covenant I make with them, when I shall take away their sins."

As measured by the good news the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes, but as measured by God's choice they are His beloved because of their forefathers,

But glory, honor, and peace will come to everyone who practices doing good, the Jew first and then the Greek;

to every human soul who practices doing evil, the Jew first and then the Greek.

For if you were cut off from an olive wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted on to a fine olive stock, how much easier will it be for the natural branches to be grafted on to their own olive stock?

Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised.

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

And the gift is not fit all to be compared with the results of that one man's sin. For that sentence resulted from the offense of one man, and it meant condemnation, but the free gift resulted from the offenses of many, and it meant right standing.

so that just as sin had reigned by death, so His favor too might reign in right standing with God which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips.

but, as the Scripture says: "They will see who were never told of Him, and they will understand who have not heard."

But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right.

They do not know the way of peace.

What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death.

Ruin and wretchedness are on their paths,

But now, as there are no more places for me to occupy in this part of the world, and as I have for many years been longing to come to see you,

Their feet are swift for shedding blood,

There is no reverence for God before their eyes."

And they too, if they do not continue to live by their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is amply able to graft them in.

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,

Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me.

when I make my trip to Spain, I certainly hope to see you on my way there and to be helped forward by you, after I have enjoyed being with you awhile.

and endurance, tested character, and tested character, hope,

Now we know that God's judgment justly falls on those who practice such sins as these.

On your part, you must exercise your faith by the standard of yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man who need not condemn himself for doing the thing that he approves.

and the forefather of those Jews who not only belong to the circumcision but also follow in the footsteps of our forefather Abraham in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

and understand His will, and by being instructed in the law can know the things that excel,

Gaius, my host, and host of the whole church here, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does our brother Quartus.

No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?

Omitted Text.

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

So, after I have finished this matter and made sure of the results of this contribution for them, I shall come by you on my way to Spain.

For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because of their disobedience,

Let their eyes be darkened, so they cannot see, and forever bend their backs beneath the load."

and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness,

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free so far as doing right was concerned.

you who teach others, do you not teach yourself too? You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal yourself?

For Macedonia and Greece were delighted to make a contribution to the poor among God's people in Jerusalem.

You who warn men to stop committing adultery, do you practice it yourself? You who shrink in horror from idols, do you rob their temples?

Stop undoing the work of God just for the sake of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything when it makes another stumble.

a tutor of the foolish, a teacher of the young, since you have a knowledge of the truth as formulated in the law --

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me.

So if the uncircumcised heathen man observes the just demands of the law, will he not be counted as though he were a Jew?

And shall not the heathen man who is physically uncircumcised, and yet observes the law, condemn you who have the letter of the law and are physically circumcised, and yet break the law?

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

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone have been left, and they are trying to kill me."

or of practical service, in the field of service; or of a teacher, in the field of teaching;

You who boast about the law, do you by breaking it dishonor God?

For if the law party is to possess the world, then faith has been nullified and the promise has been made null and void.

Because he never weakened in faith, he calmly contemplated his own vital powers as worn out (for he was about one hundred years old) and the inability of Sarah to bear a child,

so as to make known the riches of His glory for the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in ages past to share His glory --

as the Scripture Says, "God has given them over to an attitude of insensibility, so that their eyes cannot see and their ears cannot hear, down to this very day."

For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God.

even us whom He has called, not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen too?

And David said: "Let their food become a snare and a trap to them, their pitfall and retribution;

So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man.

It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him";

since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition.

But how did God reply to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have never bent their knees to Baal."

Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too,

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

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

in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised.

it was for our sakes too, for it is going to be credited to us who put our faith in God who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,

They certainly were delighted to do it, and they really are under obligation to them, for if the heathen peoples have shared in their spiritual blessings, they ought to serve them in material blessings.

that I have deep grief and constant anguish in my heart;

The peace-giving God be with you all! Amen.

Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God.

And I feel sure that when I do come to you, I shall come with Christ's abundant blessing on me.

As Isaiah again has foretold, "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us some descendants, we would have fared as Sodom did and would have been like Gomorrah."

nor are they all children of Abraham, because they are his descendants, but the promise was "In the line of Isaac your descendants will I be counted."

That is, it is not Abraham's natural descendants who are God's children, but those who are made children by the promise are counted his true descendants.

And in the place where it was said, 'You are no people of mine,' they shall be called sons of the living God."

But just now I am on my way to Jerusalem to help God's people.

But may I ask, They had no chance to hear, did they? Yes, indeed: "All over the earth their voices have gone, to the ends of the world their words."

However, they have not all given heed to the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has put faith in what we told?"

for the Lord will completely and quickly execute His sentence on the earth."

For this is the language of the promise, "About this time next year I will come back, and Sarah will have a son."

to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remember me to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow-country-men, who also served in prison with me; they are held in high esteem among the apostles, and became Christians before I did.

For I am longing to see you, to impart to you some spiritual gift, that you may be strengthened;

And yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the way Adam had, against a positive command. For Adam was a figure of Him who was to come.

And what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction,

because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will;

For we were saved in such a hope.

so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good.

for there is no partiality in God's dealings.

that even nature itself might finally be set free from its bondage to decay, so as to share the glorious freedom of God's children.

One man believes that he can eat anything; another who is overscrupulous eats nothing but vegetables.

But now, since you have been freed from sin and have become the slaves of God, the immediate result is consecration, and the final destiny is eternal life.

For merely hearing the law read does not make men upright with God, but men who practice the law will be recognized as upright.

But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way.

So it is conditioned on faith, that it might be in accordance with God's unmerited favor, so that the promise might be in force for all the descendants of Abraham, not only for those who belong to the law party but also for those who belong to the faith group of Abraham. He is the father of us all,

Then Isaiah was bold enough to say: "I have been found by a people who were not searching for me; I have made known myself to people who were not asking to know me."

or of one who encourages others, in the field of encouragement; or one who gives his money, with liberality; or one who leads others, with earnestness; or one who does deeds of charity, with cheerfulness.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond.

So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith.

But again I ask, Israel did not understand, did they? For in the first place Moses says: "I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation; I will provoke you to anger at a senseless nation."

But here is what the faith-way to right standing says, "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?'" that is, to bring Christ down;

What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith;

yes, to demonstrate His justice at the present time, to prove that He is right Himself, and that He considers right with Himself the man who has faith in Jesus.

What are we then to conclude? It is not that there is injustice in God, is it? Of course not!

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

If some of the branches have been broken off, and yet you, although you were wild olive suckers, have been grafted in among the native branches, and been made to share the rich sap of the native olive's root,

Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac.

For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing.

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself against what God has established, and those who set themselves against Him will get the penalty due them.

On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?"

Each one of us must practice pleasing his neighbor, to help in his immediate upbuilding for his eternal good.

And not only that, but this too: we shall continue exulting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our reconciliation.

For Moses says of the law-way to right standing with God that whoever can perform the law will live by it.

For they are Israelites; to them belong the privileges of sonship, God's glorious presence, the special covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, the promises,

The night has almost passed; the day is at hand. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the weapons of light.

for the Scripture says: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall make acknowledgment to God.'"

for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them,

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

Pay all of them what is due them -- tribute to the officer to receive it, taxes to the officer to receive them, respect to the man entitled to it, and honor to the man entitled to it.

For none of us can live alone by himself, and none of us can die alone by himself;

For civil authorities are not a terror to the man who does right, but they are to the man who does wrong. Do you want to have no dread of the civil authorities? Then practice doing right and you will be commended for it.

Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.

and yet he never staggered in doubt at the promise of God but grew powerful in faith, because he gave the glory to God

For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on any man that I choose to have mercy on, and take pity on any man that I choose to take pity on."

Do the opposite. If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for if you act in this way, you will heap burning coals upon his head!

Therefore, you must obey them, not only for the sake of escaping punishment, but also for conscience' sake;