But God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of those who hinder the Truth by their wickedness.

They claimed to be wise, but they have become fools;

though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

but anger and wrath to those who are wilful, who disobey the Truth and obey wickedness ??9 anguish and calamity for every human soul that perpetrates evil, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well,

but glory, honour, and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

Circumcision is certainly of use, provided you keep the Law; but if you are a breaker of the Law, then your circumcision is turned into uncircumcision.

But if our iniquity thus serves to bring out the justice of God, what are we to infer? That it is unfair of God to inflict his anger on us? (I speak in a merely human way.)

But now we have a righteousness of God disclosed apart from law altogether; it is attested by the Law and the prophets,

but it is a righteousness of God which comes by believing in Jesus Christ. And it is meant for all who have faith. No distinctions are drawn.

but they are justified for nothing by his grace through the ransom provided in Christ Jesus,

But if so, what can we say about Abraham, our forefather by natural descent?

This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God.

but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness.

In what way? When he was a circumcised man or an uncircumcised man? Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised.

as well as a father of those circumcised persons who not only share circumcision but walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had as an uncircumcised man.

The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

That is why all turns upon faith; it is to make the promise a matter of favour, to make it secure for all the offspring, not simply for those who are adherents of the Law but also for those who share the faith of Abraham ??of Abraham who is the father of us all

but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

Not only so, but we triumph even in our troubles, knowing that trouble produces endurance,

But God proves his love for us by this, that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.

Not only so, but we triumph in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we now enjoy our reconciliation.

Sin was indeed in the world before the Law, but sin is never counted in the absence of law.

but the gift is very different from the trespass. For while the rest of men died by the trespass of one man, the grace of God and the free gift which comes by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed far more richly upon the rest of men.

Law slipped in to aggravate the trespass; sin increased, but grace surpassed it far,

the death he died was for sin, once for all, but the life he lives is for God.

Well, what did you gain then by it all? Nothing but what you are now ashamed of! The end of all that is death;

but now that you are set free from sin, now that you have passed into the service of God, your gain is consecration, and the end of that is life eternal.

Sin's wage is death, but God's gift is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is alive; but if the husband dies, she is done with the law of 'the husband.'

Accordingly, she will be termed an adulteress if she becomes another man's while her husband is alive; but if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of 'the husband,' so that she is no adulteress if she becomes another man's.

but now we are done with the Law, we have died to what once held us, so that we can serve in a new way, not under the written code as of old but in the Spirit.

I lived at one time without law myself, but when the command came home to me, sin sprang to life and I died;

The Law is spiritual; we know that. But then I am a creature of the flesh, in the thraldom of sin.

That being so, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me.

For in me (that is, in my flesh) no good dwells, I know; the wish is there, but not the power of doing what is right.

Well, if I act against my wishes, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me.

So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage;

but then I find quite another law in my members which conflicts with the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin's law that resides in my members.

God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

in order to secure the fulfilment of the Law's requirements in our lives, as we live and move not by the flesh but by the Spirit.

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells within you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

Well then, my brothers, we owe a duty ??but it is not to the flesh! It is not to live by the flesh!

If you live by the flesh, you are on the road to death; but if by the Spirit you put the actions of the body to death, you will live.

For creation was not rendered futile by its own choice, but by the will of Him who thus made it subject,

and not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we sigh to ourselves as we wait for the redemption of the body that means our full sonship.

But if we hope for something that we do not see, we wait for it patiently.

So too the Spirit assists us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray aright, but the Spirit pleads for us with sighs that are beyond words,

The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

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

You see, it is not a question of human will or effort but of the divine mercy.

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

But here is what faith-righteousness says: ??Say not in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down).

But how are they to invoke One in whom they do not believe? And how are they to believe in One of whom they have never heard? And how are they ever to hear, without a preacher?

But they have not all given in to the gospel of glad news? No, Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what they heard from us?

But, I ask, "Have they never heard?" Indeed they have. Their voice carried over all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!"

Consider both the kindness and the severity of God; those who fall come under his severity, but you come under the divine kindness, provided you adhere to that kindness. Otherwise, you will be cut away too.

So far as the gospel goes, they are enemies of God ??which is to your advantage; but so far as election goes, they are beloved for their father's sake.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

the magistrate is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, you may well be alarmed; a magistrate does not wield the power of the sword for nothing, he is God's servant for the infliction of divine vengeance upon evil-doers.

You must be obedient, therefore, not only to avoid the divine vengeance but as a matter of conscience,

Welcome a man of weak faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his scruples.

You must not break down God's work for the mere sake of food! Everything may be clean, but it is wrong for a man to prove a stumbling-block by what he eats;

But if anyone has doubts about eating and then eats, that condemns him at once; it was not faith that induced him to eat, and any action that is not based on faith is a sin.

Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

but that (as it is written) They should see who never had learned about him, and they who had never heard of him should understand.

But now, as I have no further scope for work in these parts, and as for a number of years I have had a longing to visit you

who have risked their lives for me; I thank them, and not only I but all the Gentile churches as well.

Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you!