Through him we received the gift of the Apostolic office, to win submission to the Faith among all nations for the glory of his Name.

For I long to see you, in order to impart to you some spiritual gift and so give you fresh strength--

And so, for my part, I am ready to tell the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

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.'

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

For ever since the creation of the universe God's invisible attributes-his everlasting power and divinity-are to be seen and studied in his works, so that men have no excuse;

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.

While the men, disregarding that for which women were intended by nature, were consumed with passion for one another. Men indulged in vile practices with men, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty for their perverseness.

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.

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;

For 'he will give to every man what his actions deserve.'

But there will be glory, honor, and peace for every one who does right-for the Jew first, but also for the Greek,

For they show the demands of the Law written upon their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self- defense--

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

Indeed, the man who, owing to his birth, remains uncircumcised, and yet scrupulously obeys the Law, will condemn you, who, for all your written Law and your circumcision, are yet a breaker of the Law.

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;

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

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

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.

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

For God set him before the world, to be, by the shedding of his blood, a means of reconciliation through faith. And this God did to prove his righteousness, and because, in his forbearance, he had passed over the sins that men had previously committed;

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

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

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.

For the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his descendants through Law, but through the righteousness due to faith.

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;

With no ground for hope, Abraham, sustained by hope, put faith in God; in order that, in fulfillment of the words-'So many shall thy descendants be,' he might become 'the Father of many nations.'

For Jesus 'was given up to death to atone for our offences,' and was raised to life that we might be pronounced righteous.

For we know that trouble develops endurance, and endurance strength of character, and strength of character hope,

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

Even for an upright man scarcely any one will die. For a really good man perhaps some one might even dare to die.

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

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, much more, now that we have become reconciled, shall we be saved by virtue of Christ's Life.

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.

For if, by reason of the offence of the one man, Death reigned through that one man, far more will those, upon whom God's loving- kindness and his gift of righteousness are lavished, find Life, and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.

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.

For the man who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released from Sin.

For the death that he died was a death to sin, once and for all. But the Life that he now lives, he lives for God.

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.

For Sin shall not lord it over you. You are living under the reign, not of Law, but of Love.

Set free from the control of Sin, you became servants to Righteousness.

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.

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.

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.

When we were living merely earthly lives, our sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were active in every part of our bodies, with the result that our lives bore fruit for Death.

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.

I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the very thing that I hate.

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.

Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Well then, for myself, with my reason I serve the Law of God, but with my earthly nature the Law of Sin.

There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus;

For through your union with Christ Jesus, the Law of the life- giving Spirit has set you free from the Law of Sin and Death.

What Law could not do, in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action, God did, by sending his own Son, with a nature resembling our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He condemned sin in that earthly nature,

Because to be earthly-minded is to be an enemy to God, for such a mind does not submit to the Law of God, nor indeed can it do so.

For you did not receive the spirit of a slave, to fill you once more with fear, but the spirit of a son which leads us to cry 'Abba, Our Father.'

For Nature was made subject to imperfection-not by its own choice, but owing to him who made it so--

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

By our hope we were saved. But the thing hoped for is no longer an object of hope when it is before our eyes; for who hopes for what is before his eyes?

But when we hope for what is not before our eyes, then we wait for it with patience.

So, also, the Spirit supports us in our weakness. We do not even know how to pray as we should; but the Spirit himself pleads for us in sighs that can find no utterance.

Yet he who searches all our hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because the pleadings of the Spirit for Christ's People are in accordance with his will.

But we do know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him-those who have received the Call in accordance with his purpose.

For those whom God chose from the first he also destined from the first to be transformed into likeness to his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest among many Brothers.

And those whom God destined for this he also called; and those whom he called he also pronounced righteous; and those whom he pronounced righteous he also brought to Glory.

Who is there to condemn them? He who died for us is Christ Jesus!-or, rather, it was he who was raised from the dead, and who is now at God's right hand and is even pleading on our behalf!

Scripture says-'For thy sake we are being killed all the day long, We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'

For I am persuaded that neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Archangels, nor the Present, nor the Future, nor any Powers,

Bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me and that my heart is never free from pain.

I could wish that I were myself accursed and severed from the Christ, for the sake of my Brothers-my own countrymen.

For they are Israelites, and theirs are the adoption as Sons, the visible Presence, the Covenants, the revealed Law, the Temple worship, and the Promises.

They are descended from the Patriarchs; and, as far as his human nature was concerned, from them came the Christ-he who is supreme over all things, God for ever blessed. Amen.

Not that God's Word has failed. For it is not all who are descended from Israel who are true Israelites;

For these words are the words of a promise-'About this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.'

For in order that the purpose of God, working through selection, might not fail-a selection depending, not on obedience, but on his Call-Rebecca was told, before her children were born and before they had done anything either right or wrong,

For his words to Moses are-'I will take pity on whom I take pity, and be merciful to whom I am merciful.'

In Scripture, again, it is said to Pharaoh-'It was for this very purpose that I raised thee to the throne, to show my power by my dealings with thee, and to make my name known throughout the world.'

Perhaps you will say to me-'How can any one still be blamed? For who withstands his purpose?'

Has not the potter absolute power over his clay, so that out of the same lump he makes one thing for better, and another for common, use?

So as to make known his surpassing glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared beforehand for glory,

For the Lord will execute his sentence upon the world, fully and without delay.'

As Scripture says-'See, I place a Stumbling-block in Zion-- a Rock which shall prove a hindrance; and he who believes in him shall have no cause for shame.'

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for my People is for their Salvation.

I can testify that they are zealous for the honor of God; but they are not guided by true insight,

For, in their ignorance of the Divine Righteousness, and in their eagerness to set up a righteousness of their own, they refused to accept with submission the Divine Righteousness.

For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by every one who believes in him.

For Moses writes that, as for the righteousness which results from Law, 'those who practice it will find Life through it.'

For, if with your lips you acknowledge the truth of the Message that JESUS IS LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with their hearts men believe and so attain to righteousness, while with their lips they make their Profession of Faith and so find Salvation.

As the passage of Scripture says--'No one who believes in him shall have any cause for shame.'

For no distinction is made between the Jew and the Greek, for all have the same Lord, and he is bountiful to all who invoke him.

For 'every one who invokes the Name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Still, it may be said, every one did not give heed to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks--'Lord, who has believed our teaching?'

But I ask 'Is it possible that men have never heard?' No, indeed, for--'Their voices spread through all the earth, and their Message to the very ends of the world.'