To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

Through whom grace has been given to us, sending us out to make disciples to the faith among all nations, for his name:

among whom Jesus Christ has also called you:

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you (but till now I was kept from it), so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations.

For I have no feeling of shame about the good news, because it is the power of God giving salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek.

For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the Scripture has it, "The righteous man shall live by faith."

Because what is known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them,

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

So God has given them up, in their heart's lust, to sexual vice, to the dishonouring of their own bodies, ??25 since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

That is why God has given them up to vile passions; their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural,

And since these people refused to acknowledge God, He has allowed [or, abandoned] them to have degraded minds and to practice those things which they should not do.

For he will repay everyone according to what that person has done:

tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who has worked out evil; of the Jew first, and also of the Greek.

and knowest his will, and hast experience of good and bad, in that thou art informed by the law:

and hast confidence that thou thyself art a leader of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness,

An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

For the name of God is blasphemed by you among the Gentiles, as has been written.

For circumcision is of value if you do the law, but if you should be a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit is to be derived from circumcision?

it could not be so: but let God be true, and every man a liar; as indeed it has been written, In order that you may be justified in your words, and shall prevail, in your judgment.

For if the truth of God, in my lie, has more abounded to his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

as has been written, There is no one good, not one:

Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God;

Everyone has turned away [from God]. All of them have become worthless. No one is [always] kind; no, not even one person."

But now the righteousness of God has been clearly revealed [independently and completely] apart from the Law, though it is [actually] confirmed by the Law and the [words and writings of the] Prophets.

God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made.

for everyone has sinned and falls short of God's glory [i.e., His approval, or His perfect character].

whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of his righteousness, in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the forbearance of God;

It was to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus [and rely confidently on Him as Savior].

Where then is boasting? It has been excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by law of faith;

For we maintain that an individual is justified by faith distinctly apart from works of the Law [the observance of which has nothing to do with justification, that is, being declared free of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God].

What shall we say then that Abraham our father according to flesh has found?

For if Abraham has been justified on the principle of works, he has whereof to boast: but not before God;

Now wages are not considered a gift if the person has to work for them, but [rather] an obligation [of his employer].

But to him who without working has faith in him who gives righteousness to the evil-doer, his faith is put to his account as righteousness.

Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered!

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

Does this blessedness then rest on the circumcision, or also on the uncircumcision? For we say that faith has been reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

How then has it been reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

If those who are [followers] of the Law are [the true] heirs [of Abraham], then faith [leading to salvation] is of no effect and void, and the promise [of God] is nullified.

(as it is written [in Scripture], “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the sight of Him in whom he believed, that is, God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

and being fully persuaded that what he has promised he is able also to do;

but on ours also, to whom, believing on him who has raised from among the dead Jesus our Lord,

who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification, it will be reckoned.

who has given us access by faith to that degree of favour, we are in, by which we triumph in the hopes of divine glory.

endurance produces character, and character produces hope ??5 a hope which never disappoints us, since God's love floods our hearts through the holy Spirit which has been given to us.

and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us:

for we being still without strength, in the due time Christ has died for the ungodly.

but God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.

Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death resulted from sin, therefore everyone dies, because everyone has sinned.

But shall not the act of favour be as the offence? For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many.

And shall not as by one that has sinned be the gift? For the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the act of favour, of many offences unto justification.

For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as, by one offense, sentence came on all men to condemnation, so, also, by one act of righteousness, the gift has come on all men to justification of life.

But law came in, in order that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded grace has overabounded,

in order that, even as sin has reigned in the power of death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.

knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.

For he that has died is justified from sin.

knowing that Christ having been raised up from among the dead dies no more: death has dominion over him no more.

For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God.

Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives?

For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

Therefore while the husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress if she is married to another man; but if the husband has died, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if married to another man.

So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual.

Then has that which is good become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, working death in me by that which is good; in order that sin might become exceedingly sinful by the commandment.

So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

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.

Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh,

But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwell in you; but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him:

But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you.

It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

for the creature has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of him who has subjected the same, in hope

For we know that the whole creation has been moaning together as in the pains of childbirth until now.

It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it?

And he who is the searcher of hearts has knowledge of the mind of the Spirit, because he is making prayers for the saints in agreement with the mind of God.

Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

Because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brethren.

But whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified.

He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect (His chosen ones)? It is God who justifies us [declaring us blameless and putting us in a right relationship with Himself].

who is he that condemns? It is Christ who has died, but rather has been also raised up; who is also at the right hand of God; who also intercedes for us.

As has been written, that We are killed all day for thy sake; we are counted as sheep of the slaughter.

But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us.

nor any supernatural forces either of height or depth will be able to separate us from the love God has shown in Christ Jesus our Lord!

the patriarchs, and from them by natural descent the Christ has come, who is exalted over all, God blessed forever. Amen!

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

as has been written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

So then, He has mercy on whom He wills (chooses), and He hardens [the heart of] whom He wills.

Therefore you will say to me, "Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?

What if God, although willing to show His [terrible] wrath and to make His power known, has tolerated with great patience the objects of His wrath [which are] prepared for destruction?