Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news—

and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.

To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.

For God, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about His Son, is my witness that I constantly mention you,

always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish.

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

For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.

Therefore, any one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.

We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.

Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.

There is no favoritism with God.

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts will either accuse or excuse them

For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will his uncircumcision not be counted as circumcision?

A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who fulfills the law, will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision.

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.

On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That man’s praise is not from men but from God.

So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:

That You may be justified in Your words
and triumph when You judge.

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?

But if by my lie God’s truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one.

There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away;
all alike have become useless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.

Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

—that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.

For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Or is God for Jews only? Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too,

since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Now to the one who works, pay is not considered as a gift, but as something owed.

But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven
and whose sins are covered!

Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.

If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise is canceled.

For the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all

in God’s sight. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned.

In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a prototype of the Coming One.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.

So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.

For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

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

Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.

since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims.

And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.

But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life!

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives?

For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband.

So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power.

And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me.

What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering,

in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit.

For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.