For I long to see you so that I can provide you with some spiritual gift [See I Cor. 12:1-11], for the purpose of strengthening you [in the faith].

I owe what service I can do to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians, to the learned, and to the illiterate.

So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too.

For the Gospel reveals how a person can be made right with God. It is through faith [in Jesus], from beginning to end, just as it is written [Hab. 2:4], "The righteous person will [obtain] life by [his] faith [in God]."

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

and understand His will, and by being instructed in the law can know the things that excel,

and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark,

You therefore who teach another, can you not teach yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal?

What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness?

It can not be. But let God be true, though every man be a liar, as it is written: That thou mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God's righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.)

It can not be: for if so, how shall God judge the world?

Or can we say as some people slander us by claiming that we say "Let's do evil that good may result"? They deserve to be condemned!

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?

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, make law void through the faith? It can not be. On the other hand, we establish law.

What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found?

but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it.

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." That is, the promise is in force in the sight of God in whom he put his faith, the God who can bring the dead to life and can call to Himself the things that do not exist as though they did.

Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses.

Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Or can it be that you do not know that all of us, who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, in our baptism shared his death?

Therefore, we were buried with Him through [our] immersion [in water] into [a relationship with] His death, so that, just like Christ was raised up from the dead through the glorious power of the Father, so we also can [be raised up from the water to] live a new life.

What then? can we commit sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? it could not be so.

I can but speak as men do because of the weakness of your earthly nature. Once you offered every part of your bodies to the service of impurity, and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer them to the service of Righteousness, which leads to holiness.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives?

So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress.

But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? It can not be. Indeed, I had not known sin, except through law. For I had not known evil desire, unless the law had said: You shall not have any evil desire.

Has, then, that which is good become death to me? It can not be. But sin, that it, might appear sin, was causing death to me through that which is good, in order that sin, through the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful.

For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right.

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.

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

Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature?

Thank God [that I can be rescued] through [the power of] Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I personally [try to] serve God's law with my mind, but [all too often] I serve the law of sin with my flesh [i.e., submitting in weakness to my human desires].

Inasmuch as, what is preferred by the flesh, is hostile towards God, for, unto the law of God, it doth not submit itself, neither in fact can it. -

Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

For you did not receive the Holy Spirit, to enslave you again to fear, [Note: Some translators take "Holy Spirit" here to be "spirit," making the verse say "you did not receive the spirit of slavery"], but you received the Holy Spirit [who produces] sonship, so we can call out, "Abba", [which means] "Father."

And if we are [His] children, then we have an inheritance from God [i.e., blessings here and hereafter] and are fellow-sharers with Christ [of such blessings], providing we [are willing to] suffer with Him, so we can also be honored with Him [i.e., in the future life. See verses 18-25].

for we are saved but by hope: but hope supposes things not yet present; for how can a man hope for what he has now in possession?

The spirit likewise softens our afflictions: for being at a loss to apply for the most proper relief; the spirit it self affects us with those pious ejaculations, which we can't well express.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

and though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad, so that God’s purpose [His choice, His election] would stand, not because of works [done by either child], but because of [the plan of] Him who calls them,

What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not!

For, unto Moses, he saith - I will have mercy upon whomsoever I can have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whomsoever I can have compassion.

You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?"

Or, does not the potter have the right to make what he wants to out of the clay? Can he not make both a beautiful vase and a common pot out of the same lump [of clay]?

Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can't he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction?

Can't he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory

What can we say, then? Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have attained righteousness, a righteousness that comes through faith.

I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For Moses says of the law-way to right standing with God that whoever can perform the law will live by it.

But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!

I say, then, Has God rejected his people? It can not be. For I am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

as it is written: God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes with which they can not see, and ears with which they can not hear.

I say, then, Have they stumbled, in order that they may fall? It can not be. But rather, through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to excite them to jealousy.

if I can somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them.

For if their rejection has meant the reconciling of the world, what can the acceptance of them mean but life from the dead?

nay, even the Jews, if they don't continue still incredulous, shall be grafted in: since divine power can graft them in again.

For no change of purpose can annul God's free gift and call.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways can not be explored!

You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God's will is??hat is good, pleasing, and perfect.

do all you can to live peaceably, if it be possible, with all mankind.

But [Prov. 25:21-25 says], "Feed your enemy if he is hungry; give him something to drink if he is thirsty. For when you do this, it will be [like] heaping burning coals on his head." [i.e., it can cause him burning shame that can lead to his repentance and ultimate forgiveness].

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

One man believes that he can eat anything; another who is overscrupulous eats nothing but vegetables.

The person who can eat anything should not look down on the person who cannot eat [what was used in idolatrous worship]; and the person who cannot eat [such things] should not pass judgment on the person who can. For God accepts that person, too.

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so.

For none of us can live alone by himself, and none of us can die alone by himself;

But why do you [who eat only certain foods] condemn your brother [who feels he can eat anything]? Or, indeed, why do you [i.e., who feels he can eat anything] look down on your brother [i.e., who eats only certain foods]? For all of us will have to stand before the judgment bar of God.

I can therefore glory in Christ Jesus concerning the work for God in which I am engaged.

To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told,