I want you to know, brothers, that many a time I have planned to come to you??hough until now I have been hindered??o as to have some harvest-fruit among you also, even as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

To Greeks and to barbarians, to the cultured and to the uncultured, I have a debt to discharge.

For ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, even his everlasting power and divinity, has been clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made. So they have no excuse.

For all who have sinned without law will also perish without law; and all who have sinned under law will be judged by law.

For when Gentiles, who have no law, obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they even though they have no law, are a law to themselves.

an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of the young, because you have in the Law the form of knowledge and of the truth??ell then, you who are teaching others, do you ever teach yourself?

And shall not those who are physically uncircumcised, but who keep the Law, condemn you who are a breaker of the Law, although you have a written law and circumcision?

Supposing some of them have proved faithless?

What then? Are we Jews in a better position? Not at all, for I have already charged all, both Jews and Gentiles, with being under sin.

All have swerved from the right path; Every one of them has become corrupt. There is none that practices good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open grave; With their tongues they have used deceit. The venom of asps is under their lips.

And the path of peace they have not known.

since all have sinned and lack the glory which comes from God;

Blessed he says are they whose iniquities have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered.

as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.

Since we stand justified as the result of faith, let us continue to enjoy the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him also we have had our access into this grace in which we have taken our stand, and are exulting in hope of the glory of God.

And not only that, but we exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained our reconciliation.

No indeed; how shall we who have died to sin still go on living in it any longer?

For do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death?

We have been buried together with him, then, through baptism into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we should live in a newness of life.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, so we shall also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;

But God be thanked that you who were once the slaves of sin have obeyed from your hearts that type of teaching to which you were appointed;

But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the harvest-fruit which you are reaping tends to produce holiness, and it ends is life eternal.

But now we have been released from the Law, because we are dead to that in which we were held; so that we are now in thralldom in new and spiritual conditions, and not under the old written code.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary I should not have become acquainted with sin had it not been for the Law; for except the Law had repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not lust," I should never have known the sin of lust.

and the very commandment which should have meant life, this I found to mean death.

But you are not earthly, but spiritual, if indeed the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you. If any one does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery in order that you should once more be afraid; but you have received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry out, "My Father, my dear Father!"

Now we know that all things continually work together for good to those who love God, to those who have been the called according to his purpose.

I am speaking the truth in Christ, it is no lie. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have deep sorrow

It is not, however, as though God's word had failed! For they are not all Israel who have sprung from Israel;

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

His words to Moses are. I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy; I will have compassion on whom I choose to have compassion.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, It is for this very purpose that I have raised you up, To show in you my power, And to proclaim my name far and wide, in all the earth.

Even as in an earlier passage, Isaiah says, Except the Lord of Sabbath had us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and should have fared like Gomorrah.

What then shall we say? That Gentiles who never pursed righteousness have overtaken it, even the righteousness of faith?

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, only it is a zeal without knowledge.

How then shall thy call upon Him in whom they do not believe? And how are they to believe in One of whom they have never heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

But to Israel he says, All day long I have been spreading out my hands unto a disobedient and contrary people.

Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have overthrown thine altars; And now I alone am left, and they seek my life.

But what was the answer of God to him? I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

What then? that which Israel has been seeking for, that he has not obtained; but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest have been hardened.

I ask then, "Have they stumbled so as to fall?" No indeed; but by their lapse salvation has come unto Gentiles, "to provoke Israel to jealousy."

Supposing that some of the branches have been broken off, and you, although you were but a wild olive, have been grafted in among the branches and have become a partaker with them of the fatness of the olive tree, do not glory over the branches;

"Branches have been broken off," you say, "that I might be grafted in."

For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a mere wild olive tree, and have been grafted, contrary to nature, into a fruitful olive tree, how much more shall these, the natural branches, be regrafted into their own olive tree?

For I would not, my brothers, have you ignorant of this hidden truth, for fear that you become wise in your own conceits. that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles is come in.

And as in times past you were yourselves disobedient to God, but now, thanks to their disobedience, have obtained mercy;

even so they also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy.

For God has locked up all in the prison of disobedience, that upon all he may have mercy.

For even as we have many members in one body, and not all members have the same function;

But we have gifts differing according to the grace which was given to us. He that has the gift of prophecy, let him prophesy according to the proportion of his faith.

Have full sympathy with one another. Set not your minds on high affairs, but associate with lowly folk. Do not be wise in your own conceits.

Every one should be in the higher authorities; for there is no authority apart from God. The authorities that now exist have been appointed by God.

For rulers are no terror to good deeds, but to evil. Would you be fearless of the ruler's authority? Do what is good, and you will have his praise.

Have you faith? Keep it to yourself as in the presence of God. He is a happy man who does not condemn himself in that which he approves.

For everything that was written of old has been written for our instruction, that through patience, and through the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

Still I have written unto you the more boldly, in part, by way of reminding you, because of that gift of grace which God bestowed upon me, in making me a priest of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles.

I have then my boast in Christ Jesus concerning the things of God.

through the might of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that beginning at Jerusalem and its environs, I have proclaimed without reserve the gospel of Christ, even as far as Illyricum.

But, as Scripture says, He shall be seen by those to whom no news about him ever came, And those who have never heard of him shall understand.

This is why I have been so hindered from coming to you.

But now, since I have no more any "opening" in these parts, and since I have longed for many years to come to you

whenever I go to Spain, I am hoping to see you on my way there, and to be set forward by you on my way there, and to be set forward by you on my journey thither, after I have enjoyed your company for a little while.

Yes, it has been made their good pleasure, and their debt, too. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual riches, they owe it to them also to minister to them the Jews in worldly goods.

When, therefore, I have settled this, and have secured to them the poor at Jerusalem the fruit of this collection, I shall come on by you into Spain.

I beg you to give her a Christian welcome, as the saints should; and to assist her in any matter in which she may have need of you. For she herself has been made an overseer to many people, including myself.

I exhort you, brothers, to keep watch of those who are causing the divisions among you, and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the teaching which you have learned.

I say this, for the tidings of your obedience have been told throughout the world. On your own behalf, then, I rejoice; but I want you to be wise unto the good, but innocents in evil.