Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord; who, as to his human nature, was descended from David,

But, as to the spirit of holiness within him, was miraculously designated Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the report of your faith is spreading throughout the world.

God, to whom I offer the worship of my soul as I tell the Goodness of his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you when I pray,

I want you to know, Brothers, that I have many times intended coming to see you-but until now I have been prevented-that I might find among you some fruit of my labors, as I have already among the other nations.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News; it is the power of God which brings Salvation to every one who believes in Christ, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.

For in it there is a revelation of the Divine Righteousness resulting from faith and leading on to faith; as Scripture says- -'Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.'

So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth.

This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools;

For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

That, I say, is why God abandoned them to degrading passions. Even the women among them perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural;

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

Or do you think lightly of his abundant kindness, patience, and forbearance, not realizing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed;

To those who, by perseverance in doing good, aim at glory, honor, and all that is imperishable, he will give Immortal Life;

While as to those who are factious, and disobedient to Truth but obedient to Evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair,

All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law.

It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous.

On the day when God passes judgment on men's inmost lives, as the Good News that I tell declares that he will do through Christ Jesus.

Boasting, as you do, of your Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

For, as Scripture says-'The name of God is reviled among the Gentiles because of you'!

Circumcision has its value, if you are obeying the Law. But, if you are a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

If, then, an uncircumcised man pays regard to the requirements of the Law, will not he, although not circumcised, be regarded by God as if he were?

For a man who is only a Jew outwardly is not a real Jew; nor is outward bodily circumcision real circumcision. The real Jew is the man who is a Jew in soul;

And the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a man wins praise from God, though not from men.

What is the advantage, then, of being a Jew? or what is the good of circumcision?

God must prove true, though every man prove a liar! As Scripture says of God-'That thou mayest be pronounced righteous in what thou sayest, and gain thy cause when men would judge thee.'

But what if our wrong-doing makes God's righteousness all the clearer? Will God be wrong in inflicting punishment? (I can but speak as a man.) Heaven forbid!

But, if my falsehood redounds to the glory of God, by making his truthfulness more apparent, why am I like others, still condemned as a sinner?

Why should we not say-as some people slanderously assert that we do say-'Let us do evil that good may come'? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!

As Scripture says-'There is not even one who is righteous,

Not one who understands, not one who is searching for God!

They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good-no, not one!'

'The fear of God is not before their eyes.'

Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgment of God.

For 'no human being will be pronounced righteous before God' as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

The Divine Righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, upon all, without distinction, who believe in him.

As a proof, I repeat, at the present time, of his own righteousness, that he might be righteous in our eyes, and might pronounce righteous the man who takes his stand on faith in Jesus.

What, then, becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what sort of Law? A Law requiring obedience? No, a Law requiring faith.

For we conclude that a man is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.

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

Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is only one God, and he will pronounce those who are circumcised righteous as the result of faith, and also those who are uncircumcised on their showing the same faith.

Do we, then, use this faith to abolish Law? Heaven forbid! No, we establish Law.

If he was pronounced righteous as the result of obedience, then he has something to boast of. Yes, but not before God.

For what are the words of Scripture? 'Abraham had faith in God, and his faith was regarded by God as righteousness.'

Now wages are regarded as due to the man who works, not as a favor, but as a debt;

While, as for the man who does not rely upon his obedience, but has faith in him who can pronounce the godless righteous, his faith is regarded by God as righteousness.

In precisely the same way David speaks of the blessing pronounced upon the man who is regarded by God as righteous apart from actions--

'Blessed are those whose wrong-doings have been forgiven and over whose sins a veil has been drawn!

Blessed the man whom the Lord will never regard as sinful!'

Is this blessing, then, pronounced upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised as well? We say that-'Abraham's faith was regarded by God as righteousness.'

Not after, but before. And it was as a sign of this that he received the rite of circumcision-to attest the righteousness due to the faith of an uncircumcised man-in order that he might be the father of all who have faith in God even when uncircumcised, that they also may be regarded by God as righteous;

As well as father of the circumcised-to those who are not only circumcised, but who also follow our father Abraham in that faith which he had while still uncircumcised.

If those who take their stand on Law are to inherit the world, then faith is robbed of its meaning and the promise comes to nothing!

Law entails punishment; but, where no Law exists, no breach of it is possible.

That is why all is made to depend upon faith, that all may be God's gift, and in order that the fulfillment of the promise may be made certain for all Abraham's descendants-not only for those who take their stand on the Law, but also for those who take their stand on the faith of Abraham. (He is the Father of us all;

As Scripture says-'I have made thee the Father of many nations.') And this they do in the sight of that God in whom Abraham had faith, and who gives life to the dead, and speaks of what does not yet exist as if it did.

On the contrary, his faith gave him strength; and he praised God, in the firm conviction that what God has promised he is also able to carry out.

And therefore his faith 'was regarded as righteousness.'

Now these words-'it was regarded as righteousness'-were not written with reference to Abraham only;

But also with reference to us. Our faith, too, will be regarded by God in the same light, if we have faith in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead;

Therefore, having been pronounced righteous as the result of faith, let us enjoy peace with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It is through him that, by reason of our faith, we have obtained admission to that place in God's favor in which we not stand. So let us exult in our hope of attaining God's glorious ideal.

And not only that, but let us also exult in our troubles;

And that 'hope never disappoints.' For the love of God has filled our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given us;

But God puts his love for us beyond all doubt by the fact that Christ died on our behalf while we were still sinners.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and through sin came death; so, also, death spread to all mankind, because all men had sinned.

Yet, from Adam to Moses, Death reigned even over those whose sin was not a breach of a law, as Adam's was. And Adam foreshadows the One to come.

But there is a contrast between Adam's Offence and God's gracious Gift. For, if by reason of the offence of the one man the whole race died, far more were the loving-kindness of God, and the gift given in the loving-kindness of the one man, Jesus Christ, lavished upon the whole race.

There is a contrast, too, between the gift and the results of the one man's sin. The judgment, which followed upon the one man's sin, resulted in condemnation, but God's gracious Gift, which followed upon many offences, resulted in a decree of righteousness.

Briefly then, just as a single offence resulted for all mankind in condemnation, so, too, a single decree of righteousness resulted for all mankind in that declaration of righteousness which brings Life.

For, as through the disobedience of the one man the whole race was rendered sinful, so, too, through the obedience of the one, the whole race will be rendered righteous.

In order than, just as Sin had reigned in the realm of Death, so, too, might Loving-kindness reign through righteousness, and result in Immortal Life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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?

Consequently, through sharing his death in our baptism, we were buried with him; that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by a manifestation of the Father's power, so we also may live a new Life.

And our belief is, that, as we have shared Christ's Death, we shall also share his Life.

So let it be with you-regard yourselves as dead to sin, but as living for God, through union with Christ Jesus.

Do not offer any part of your bodies to Sin, in the cause of unrighteousness, but once for all offer yourselves to God (as those who, though once dead, now have Life), and devote every part of your bodies to the cause of righteousness.

Surely you know that, when you offer yourselves as servants, to obey any one, you are the servants of the person whom you obey, whether the service be that of Sin which leads to Death, or that of Duty which leads to Righteousness.

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.

While you were still servants of Sin, you were free as regards Righteousness.

But what were the fruits that you reaped from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of such things is Death.

But now that you have been set free from the control of Sin, and have become servants to God, the fruit that you reap is an ever-increasing holiness, and the end Immortal Life.

The wages of Sin are Death, but the gift of God is Immortal Life, through union with Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Surely, Brothers, you know (for I am speaking to men who know what Law means) that Law has power over a man only as long as he lives.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.

If, then, during her husband's lifetime, she unites herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but, if her husband dies, the law has no further hold on her, nor, if she unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress.

And so with you, my Brothers; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives might bear fruit for God.

But now we are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.

What are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learned what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say 'Thou shalt not covet,' I should not know what it is to covet.

But sin took advantage of the Commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.

And so the Law is holy, and each Commandment is also holy, and just, and good.

Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve Death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved Death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my Death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly-sold into slavery to Sin.

But when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.

This being so, the action is no longer my own, but that of Sin which is within me.

I know that there is nothing good in me-I mean in my earthly nature. For, although it is easy for me to want to do right, to act rightly is not easy.