Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart to proclaim God's Good News,

but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I call God to witness--to whom I render priestly and spiritual service by telling the Good News about His Son-- how unceasingly I make mention of you in His presence,

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.

For I am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened;

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

For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the Scripture has it, "The righteous man shall live by faith."

because what may be known about Him is plain to their inmost consciousness; for He Himself has made it plain to them.

For, from the very creation of the world, His invisible perfections--namely His eternal power and divine nature--have been rendered intelligible and clearly visible by His works, so that these men are without excuse.

And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done.

to those on the one hand who, by lives of persistent right-doing, are striving for glory, honour and immortality, the Life of the Ages;

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 apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who have sinned whilst living under the Law, will be judged by the Law.

It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law who will be pronounced righteous.

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;

on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.

In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision be overlooked, and,

although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law, shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do, a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker?

What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit is to be derived from circumcision?

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."

But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

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.

gaining acquittal from guilt by His free unpurchased grace through the deliverance which is found in Christ Jesus.

with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.

For we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to Law.

unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith.

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

For if he was held to be righteous on the ground of his actions, he has something to boast of; but not in the presence of God.

But in the case of a man who works, pay is not reckoned a favour but a debt;

Before, not after. And he received circumcision as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of the faith-righteousness which was his while still uncircumcised, that he might be the forefather of all those who believe even though they are uncircumcised--in order that this righteousness might be placed to their credit;

Again, the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his posterity conditioned by Law, but by faith-righteousness.

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

All depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance with God might be an act of pure grace,

so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham. Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us. As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations."

Under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed, so that he might become the forefather of many nations, in agreement with the words "Equally numerous shall your posterity be."

and being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound by He is able also to make good.

it was for our sakes too. Faith, before long, will be placed to the credit of us also who are believers in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

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 as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous.

To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?

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.

For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.

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;

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.

Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;

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.

For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of Law, but of grace.

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.

For the wages paid by Sin are death; but God's free gift is the Life of the Ages bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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.

So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

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."

Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death.

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.

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.

I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!)

in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things.

Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means Life and peace.

Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule.

For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

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

For the Creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality (not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who so subjected it)

Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

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?

For those whom He has known beforehand He has also pre-destined to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Eldest in a vast family of brothers;

nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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--

For I could pray to be accursed from Christ on behalf of my brethren, my human kinsfolk--for such the Israelites are.

nor because they are Abraham's true children. But the promise was "Through Isaac shall your posterity be reckoned."

In other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as God's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.

and even then, though they were not then born and had not done anything either good or evil, yet in order that God's electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was, not on their actions but on the will of Him who called them, she was told,

"The elder of them will be bondservant to the younger."

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."

"It is for this very purpose that I have lifted you so high--that I may make manifest in you My power, and that My name may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth."

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."

And Isaiah cries aloud concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved;

Moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness required by the Law shall live by that righteousness.

that if with your mouth you confess Jesus as Lord and in your heart believe that God brought Him back to life, you shall be saved.

For "every one, without exception, who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard, and that the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ.

And Isaiah, with strange boldness, exclaims, "I have been found by those who were not looking for Me, I have revealed Myself to those who were not inquiring of Me."

In the same way also at the present time there has come to be a remnant whom God in His grace has selected.

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.

Let darkness come over their eyes that they may be unable to see, and make Thou their backs continually to stoop."

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;

For if their having been cast aside has carried with it the reconciliation of the world, what will their being accepted again be but Life out of death?

Do not be puffed up with pride. Tremble rather--for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.

Notice therefore God's kindness and God's severity. On those who have fallen His severity has descended, but upon you His kindness has come, provided that you do not cease to respond to that kindness. Otherwise you will be cut off also.

Moreover, if they turn from their unbelief, they too will be grafted in. For God is powerful enough to graft them in again;

and if you were cut from that which by nature is a wild olive and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more certainly will these natural branches be grafted on their own olive tree?

and so all Israel will be saved. As is declared in Scripture, "From Mount Zion a Deliverer will come: He will remove all ungodliness from Jacob;

and this shall be My Covenant with them; when I have taken away their sins."

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.