always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such be His will, the way may by some means be made clear for me to come to you.

And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed--in order that among you also I might gather some fruit from my labours, as I have already done among the rest of the Gentile nations.

For when they had come to know God, they did not give Him glory as God nor render Him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened.

They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense,

and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth.

For God pays no attention to this world's distinctions.

For when Gentiles who have no Law obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they, without having a Law, are a Law to themselves;

and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ--being a man who receives instruction from the Law--

No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

No indeed; for in that case how shall He judge all mankind?)

All have turned aside from the right path; they have every one of them become corrupt. There is no one who does what is right--no, not so much as one."

"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

But now a righteousness coming from God has been brought to light apart from any Law, both Law and Prophets bearing witness to it--

a righteousness coming from God, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ and extends to all who believe. No distinction is made;

Where then is there room for your boasting? It is for ever shut out. On what principle? On the ground of merit? No, but on the ground of faith.

Do we then by means of this faith abolish the Law? No, indeed; we give the Law a firmer footing.

whereas in the case of a man who pleads no actions of his own, but simply believes in Him who declares the ungodly free from guilt, his faith is placed to his credit as righteousness.

For the Law inflicts punishment; but where no Law exists, there can be no violation of Law.

And, without growing weak in faith, he could contemplate his own vital powers which had now decayed--for he was nearly 100 years old--and Sarah's barrenness.

If therefore we have now been pronounced free from guilt through His blood, much more shall we be delivered from God's anger through Him.

For if while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is still more certain that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation through Christ's life.

And not only so, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained that reconciliation.

For prior to the Law sin was already in the world; only it is not entered in the account against us when no Law exists.

Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed;

No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?

And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life.

This we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;

because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die.

Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God.

and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.

Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed!

Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result)

But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed.

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

For when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no sort of subjection to Righteousness.

At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death.

But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result.

Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law?

A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her.

This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress.

But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual.

What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing? No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin. For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is, if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet."

Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin.

and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus;

Why, what we now suffer I count as nothing in comparison with the glory which is soon to be manifested in us.

For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour.

It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it?

In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words,

Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

I am telling you the truth as a Christian man--it is no falsehood, for my conscience enlightened, as it is, by the Holy Spirit adds its testimony to mine--

No, indeed; the solution is found in His words to Moses, "Wherever I show mercy it shall be nothing but mercy, and wherever I show compassion it shall be simply compassion."

Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "Why have you made me thus?"

And in the place where it was said to them, 'No people of Mine are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving God."

The Scripture says, "No one who believes in Him shall have reason to feel ashamed."

But, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed the Message they have heard from us?"

But again, did Israel fail to understand? Listen to Moses first. He says, "I will fire you with jealousy against a nation which is no nation, and with fury against a nation devoid of understanding."

I ask then, Has God cast off His People? No, indeed. Why, I myself am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not cast off His People whom He knew beforehand. Or are you ignorant of what Scripture says in speaking of Elijah--how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

"Lord, they have put Thy Prophets to death, and have overthrown Thy altars; and, now that I alone remain, they are thirsting for my blood"?

But what did God say to him in reply? "I have reserved for Myself 7,000 men who have never bent the knee to Baal."

But if it is in His grace that He has selected them, then His choice is no longer determined by human actions. Otherwise grace would be grace no longer.

And so Scripture says, "God has given them a spirit of drowsiness--eyes to see nothing with and ears to hear nothing with--even until now."

I ask, however, "Have they stumbled so as to be finally ruined?" No, indeed; but by their lapse salvation has come to the Gentiles in order to arouse the jealousy of the descendants of Israel;

Now if the firstfruits of the dough are holy, so also is the whole mass; and if the root of a tree is holy, so also are the branches.

but just as you were formerly disobedient to Him, but now have received mercy at a time when they are disobedient,

so now they also have been disobedient at a time when you are receiving mercy; so that to them too there may now be mercy.

Pay back to no man evil for evil. Take thought for what is right and seemly in every one's esteem.

Let every individual be obedient to those who rule over him; for no one is a ruler except by God's permission, and our present rulers have had their rank and power assigned to them by Him.

For judges and magistrates are to be feared not by right-doers but by wrong-doers. You desire--do you not? --to have no reason to fear your ruler. Well, do the thing that is right, and then he will commend you.

For he is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid. He does not wear the sword to no purpose: he is God's servant--an administrator to inflict punishment upon evil-doers.

For the precepts, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt do no murder," "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not covet," and all other precepts, are summed up in this one command, "Thou shalt love thy fellow man as much as thou lovest thyself."

Carry out these injunctions because you know the critical period at which we are living, and that it is now high time, to rouse yourselves from sleep; for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first became believers.

On the contrary, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for gratifying your earthly cravings.

I now pass to another subject. Receive as a friend a man whose faith is weak, but not for the purpose of deciding mere matters of opinion.

for it is written, "'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall make confession to God.'"

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

As one who lives in union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am certain that in its own nature no food is 'impure'; but if people regard any food as impure, to them it is.

If your brother is pained by the food you are eating, your conduct is no longer controlled by love. Take care lest, by the food you eat, you lead to ruin a man for whom Christ died.

But I write to you the more boldly--partly as reminding you of what you already know--because of the authority graciously entrusted to me by God,

But, as Scripture says, "Those shall see, to whom no report about Him has hitherto come, and those who until now have not heard shall understand."

But now, as there is no more unoccupied ground in this part of the world, and I have for years past been eager to pay you a visit,

and I know that when I come to you it will be with a vast amount of blessing from Christ.

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but has now been brought fully to light, and by the command of the God of the Ages has been made known by the writings of the Prophets among all the Gentiles to win them to obedience to the faith--