To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

declared to be the Son of God in power as to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead,??esus Christ our Lord,??5 through whom we have received grace and an apostleship for the obedience of the faith in all nations in behalf of his name,

By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ,??7 to all who are at Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how continuously I mention you

Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

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

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

But I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, that frequently I purposed to come to you, and was hindered hitherto, in order that I may have some fruit among you, as well as also among other Gentiles.

To Greeks and to all the other nations, to cultured and to uncultured people alike, I owe a duty.

So, to the best of my ability, I am eager to preach the Gospel to all of you in Rome also.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well.

For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, just as it is written, "But the one who is righteous by faith will live."

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

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

While boasting of their wisdom they became utter fools,

While the men, disregarding that for which women were intended by nature, were consumed with passion for one another. Men indulged in vile practices with men, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty for their perverseness.

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents,

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

But do you think this, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things, and yet do the same yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His verdict?

Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?

But because of your callous stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are [deliberately] storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

But for those who are selfishly ambitious and self-seeking and disobedient to the truth but responsive to wickedness, [there will be] wrath and indignation.

There will be tribulation and anguish [torturing confinement] for every human soul who does [or permits] evil, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right--to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law.

For it is not those who merely hear the Law [as it is read aloud] who are just or righteous before God, but it is those who [actually] obey the Law who will be justified [pronounced free of the guilt of sin and declared acceptable to Him].

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

on that day when, as my gospel proclaims, God will judge the secrets [all the hidden thoughts and concealed sins] of men through Christ Jesus.

But, perhaps, you bear the name of 'Jew,' and are relying upon Law, and boast of belonging to God, and understand his will,

And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;

And a teacher of the childish, because in the Law you possess the outline of all Knowledge and Truth.

well then, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal [in ways that are discrete, but just as sinful]?

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

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

Now the practice of circumcision [i.e., the Jewish rite of identity, signifying the responsibility to observe the law of Moses] is worthwhile, providing you obey [the rest of] the law of Moses. But if you disobey the law, you might as well have never been circumcised.

So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded [by God] as circumcision?

Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps [the spirit of] the Law will judge you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, break the Law.

No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person's praise will come from God, not from people.

Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.

{What is the result} if some refused to believe? Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, [will it]?

Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: "so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged."

But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?

If, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made God's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to His glory, why am I judged all the same as a sinner?

Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

No one understands [everything]. No one looks to God [all the time].

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

For no person will be justified [freed of guilt and declared righteous] in His sight by [trying to do] the works of the Law. For through the Law we become conscious of sin [and the recognition of sin directs us toward repentance, but provides no remedy for sin].

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

and are being justified [declared free of the guilt of sin, made acceptable to God, and granted eternal life] as a gift by His [precious, undeserved] grace, through the redemption [the payment for our sin] which is [provided] in Christ Jesus,

whom God displayed publicly [before the eyes of the world] as a [life-giving] sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation (propitiation) by His blood [to be received] through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness [which demands punishment for sin], because in His forbearance [His deliberate restraint] He passed over the sins previously committed [before Jesus’ crucifixion].

in order to manifest his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just, while he justifies him who believes in Jesus.

Where then is the [basis for] boasting [i.e., over being right with God]? There is not any. Is it by [obedience to] a law? Is it by doing certain deeds? Not at all, but by a law of faith.

Or is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of the Gentiles as well? Surely he is.

since indeed it is one [and the same] God who will justify the circumcised by faith [which began with Abraham] and the uncircumcised through [their newly acquired] faith.

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

What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

While, as for the man who does not rely upon his obedience, but has faith in him who can pronounce the godless righteous, his faith is regarded by God as righteousness.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

This declaration of blessedness, then, does it come simply to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? For Abraham's faith--so we affirm--was placed to his credit as righteousness.

How then was it credited? [While he] was {circumcised} or {uncircumcised}? Not {while circumcised} but {while uncircumcised}!

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

and [that he would be] the [spiritual] father of those circumcised who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had before he was circumcised.

If those who are [followers] of the Law are [the true] heirs [of Abraham], then faith [leading to salvation] is of no effect and void, and the promise [of God] is nullified.

For the outcome of the law is wrath; but where there is no law it will not be broken.

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

who is father of us all (according as it hath been written -- 'A father of many nations I have set thee,') before Him whom he did believe -- God, who is quickening the dead, and is calling the things that be not as being.

who against hope believed in hope, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was said, "so will your descendants be."

Nor did he with regard to the promise of God waver in unbelief, but he waxed strong in faith, while he gave God glory,

Now these words were not written simply for his sake, but for us as well.

but for our sake also—to whom righteousness will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead—

who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification, it will be reckoned.

through whom also we have had admission into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory which God will confer.

and hope will not disappoint us; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which hath been given to us.

For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Therefore, by much more, [because we] have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life;

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

(for all the time before the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not set to ones account when there is no law.

But the free gift [of God] is not like the trespass [because the gift of grace overwhelms the fall of man]. For if many died by one man’s trespass [Adam’s sin], much more [abundantly] did God’s grace and the gift [that comes] by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to [benefit] the many.

Nor is the gift [of grace] like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand the judgment [following the sin] resulted from one trespass and brought condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift resulted from many trespasses and brought justification [the release from sin’s penalty for those who believe].

For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one (Adam), much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in [eternal] life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous.

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say [to all this]? Should we continue in sin and practice sin as a habit so that [God’s gift of] grace may increase and overflow?

Not at all! Since we have ended our relation to sin, how can we live in it any longer?