Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news—

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.

For God, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about His Son, is my witness that I constantly mention you,

For I want very much to see you, so I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

Therefore, any one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.

But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.

eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;

affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek;

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

For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.

and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness,

For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

For circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.

What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Or is God for Jews only? Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too,

For what does the Scripture say?

Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him for righteousness.

But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

For the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.

Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone,

but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.

For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.

For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God.

And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness.

So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.

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

For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband.

So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—that we may bear fruit for God.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death.

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.

and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me.

For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power.

For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law.

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus,

because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit.

For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so.

for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope

that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

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

In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.

For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?

He did not even spare His own Son
but offered Him up for us all;
how will He not also with Him grant us everything?

Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus is the One who died,
but even more, has been raised;
He also is at the right hand of God
and intercedes for us.

For I am persuaded that not even death or life,
angels or rulers,
things present or things to come, hostile powers,

For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood.

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

For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.

For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand—

For He tells Moses:

I will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy,
and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.

For the Scripture tells Pharaoh:

I raised you up for this reason
so that I may display My power in you
and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

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

Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?

And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction?

And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory—

for the Lord will execute His sentence
completely and decisively on the earth.