I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have some harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

But by your hardness and your impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God

Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, and not by the written code. His praise is not from men but from God.

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,

Where then is our boasting? It is excluded. On what law? On the law of works? No, but on the law of faith.

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Now to him who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.

And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

How then was it reckoned to him? Was it after he had been circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be reckoned to them.

And he is also the father of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that he would be heir of the world, was not through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all his descendantsnot only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, for he is the father of us all

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

But the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone,

but for us also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,

And not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.

(For sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted when there is no law.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man's trespass many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification.

Law came in, that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also, consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is holiness and its end, eternal life.

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

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of her husband.

So then, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and though she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

But now, by dying to what once held us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

But sin, finding opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetous desire. For apart from the law sin lies dead.

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But it was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.

I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

So then, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will to do what is good, but I cannot do it.

For I do not do the good I want to do; but the evil I do not want to do is what I do.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

but I see in my members another law, at war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

Thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although your body is dead because of sin, your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope;

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things with him?

But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but, "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named."

In other words, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.

And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our father Isaac,

though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might stand, not because of works but because of his call,

As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

but Israel, who pursued the law of righteousness, has not attained that law.

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not according to knowledge.

But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)

But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach);

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

But Isaiah is very bold and says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

But what is God's reply to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

What then? Israel did not obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,

So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? Certainly not! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only by faith. So do not be proud, but stand in awe.

Therefore consider the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.

Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.

Repay no one evil for evil, but have regard for what is noble in the sight of all.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.