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.

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.

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

conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity.

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.

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.

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

for there is no partiality in God's dealings.

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,

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

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

Now circumcision benefits you only if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

No one understands, no one is searching for God;

They all have turned aside, all have become corrupt; No one does good, not even one!

They do not know the way of peace.

There is no reverence for God before their eyes."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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."

For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it.

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

Now a man will scarcely ever give his life for an upright person, though once in a while a man is brave enough to die for a generous friend.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him.

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 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.

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?

I am speaking in familiar human terms because of the frailty of your nature. For just as you formerly offered the parts of your bodies in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing lawlessness, so now you must once for all offer them in slavery to right-doing, which leads to consecration.

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

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.

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?

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.

I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died;

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

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

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.

So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.

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.

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

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,

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.

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.

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,

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

as the Scripture says: "See, I put on Zion a stone for causing people to stumble, a rock to trip them on, but no one who puts his faith in it will ever be put to shame."

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

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.

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."

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."

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."

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?

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

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,

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

so they too are now disobedient because of the mercy shown you, that they too may now have mercy shown them.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.'"

I know, and through my union with the Lord Jesus I have a clear conviction, that nothing is unclean in itself; that a thing is unclean only to the person who thinks it unclean.

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,

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

Now I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, to wrestle with me in prayers to God on my behalf,

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

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

but now has been fully brought to light by means of the prophetic Scriptures, and in accordance with the command of the eternal God has been made known to all the heathen, to win them to obedience inspired by faith --