First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you

that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another's faith, both yours and mine.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

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

For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, "The righteous by faith will live."

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

because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.

Now we know that God's judgment is in accordance with truth against those who practice such things.

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment is revealed!

For there is no partiality with God.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.

They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them,

For just as it is written, "the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh,

but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. This person's praise is not from people but from God.

Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision?

Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: "so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged."

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? (I am speaking in human terms.)

For if by my lie the truth of God enhances his glory, why am I still actually being judged as a sinner?

And why not say, "Let us do evil so that good may come of it"? -- as some who slander us allege that we say. (Their condemnation is deserved!)

just as it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one,

there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one."

"Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips."

"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed --

namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction,

But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded! By what principle? Of works? No, but by the principle of faith!

For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.

Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too!

Since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation.

But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness.

"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin."

Is this blessedness then for the circumcision or also for the uncircumcision? For we say, "faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness."

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised.

For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.

For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants -- not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

(as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed -- the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned --

for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed.

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification.

Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.

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

so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.

But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

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

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives?

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual -- but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.

But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good.

But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.

But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace,

because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.

For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.

Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

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

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.

What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?