For I am proud of the gospel; it is God's saving power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

For whatever is to be known of God is plain to them; God himself has made it plain ??20 for ever since the world was created, his invisible nature, his everlasting power and divine being, have been quite perceptible in what he has made. So they have no 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,

Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper,

For he will render to everyone according to what he has done,

This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God.

Now a worker has his wage counted to him as a due, not as a favour;

but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted 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!

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.

knowing as we do that our old self has been crucified with him in order to crush the sinful body and free us from any further slavery to sin

for we know that Christ never dies after his resurrection from the dead ??death has no more hold over him;

Surely you know, my brothers ??for I am speaking to men who know what law means ??that the law has hold over a person only during his lifetime!

the law of the Spirit brings the life which is in Christ Jesus, and that law has set me free from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the Law, weakened here by the flesh, could not do; by sending his own Son in the guise of sinful flesh, to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Then he calls those whom he has thus decreed; then he justifies those whom he has called; then he glorifies those whom he has justified.

Thus God has mercy on anyone just as he pleases, and he makes anyone stubborn just as he pleases.

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

What! has the potter no right over the clay? Has he no right to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for a menial?

What if God, though desirous to display his anger and show his might, has tolerated most patiently the objects of his anger, ripe and ready to be destroyed?

What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory ??24 that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

But they have not all given in to the gospel of glad news? No, Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what they heard from us?

Then, I ask, has God repudiated his People? Never! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin!

God has not repudiated his People, his predestined People! Surely you know what scripture says in the passage called 'Elijah'? You know how he pleads with God against Israel:

Now what are we to infer from this? That Israel has failed to secure the object of its quest; the elect have secured it, and the rest have been rendered insensible to it ??8 as it is written, God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that see not, ears that hear not ??down to this very day.

Now I ask, have they stumbled to their ruin? Never! The truth is, that by their lapse salvation has passed to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.

Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in?

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.

Who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord? Who has ever been his counsellor?

Who has first given to him and has to be repaid?

In virtue of my office, I tell everyone of your number who is self-important, that he is not to think more of himself than he ought to think; he must take a sane view of himself, corresponding to the degree of faith which God has assigned to each.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

Be in debt to no man ??apart from the debt of love one to another. He who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law.

While one man has enough confidence to eat any food, the man of weak faith only eats vegetables.

The eater must not look down upon the non-eater, and the non-eater must not criticize the eater, for God has welcomed him.

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.

Certainly keep your own conviction on the matter, as between yourself and God; he is a fortunate man who has no misgivings about what he allows himself to eat.

But if anyone has doubts about eating and then eats, that condemns him at once; it was not faith that induced him to eat, and any action that is not based on faith is a sin.

Welcome one another, then, as Christ has welcomed yourselves, for the glory of God.

I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

receive her in the Lord as saints should receive one another, and give her any help she may require. She has been a help herself to many people, including myself.

Salute Mary, who has worked hard for you.

Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who work hard in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis; she has worked very hard in the Lord.

Salute that choice Christian, Rufus; also his mother, who has been a mother to me.

Everyone has heard of your loyalty to the gospel; it makes me rejoice over you. Still, I want you to be experts in good and innocents in evil.

has now been disclosed and made known on the basis of the prophetic scriptures (by command of the eternal God) to all the Gentiles for their obedience to the faith ??27 to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever: Amen.]