First of all, I give praise to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because news of your faith has gone into all the world.

For I long to see you so that I can provide you with some spiritual gift [See I Cor. 12:1-11], for the purpose of strengthening you [in the faith].

I owe what service I can do to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians, to the learned, and to the illiterate.

So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too.

For the Gospel reveals how a person can be made right with God. It is through faith [in Jesus], from beginning to end, just as it is written [Hab. 2:4], "The righteous person will [obtain] life by [his] faith [in God]."

because what can be known about God is evident among them, for God made [it] clear to them.

and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ--being a man who receives instruction from the Law--

if you are confident that you can give [spiritual] guidance to blind people and enlightenment to those who are in [spiritual] darkness;

You therefore who teach another, can you not teach yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal?

What if some of the Jews were unfaithful? Their unfaithfulness cannot cancel God's faithfulness, can it?

No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God's righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.)

It can not be: for if so, how shall God judge the world?

Or can we say as some people slander us by claiming that we say "Let's do evil that good may result"? They deserve to be condemned!

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

This is because no human being can be considered right with God by [obeying] the requirements of a law. [Note: It is difficult to determine the exact sense in which "law" is used in these verses. It may be law generally, or the law of Moses specifically. See Bruce, pages 52-58]. For the knowledge of what sin is comes from the law of Moses.

So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith.

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?

unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith.

Do we, then, make law void through the faith? It can not be. On the other hand, we establish law.

What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found?

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 Law inflicts punishment; but where no Law exists, there can be no violation of Law.

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist.

In hope against hope Abraham believed that he would become a father of many nations, as he had been promised [by God]: “So [numberless] shall your descendants be.”

Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses.

Certainly not! How can we, the very ones who died to sin, continue to live in it any longer?

Or can it be that you do not know that all of us, who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, in our baptism shared his death?

Therefore, we were buried with Him through [our] immersion [in water] into [a relationship with] His death, so that, just like Christ was raised up from the dead through the glorious power of the Father, so we also can [be raised up from the water to] live a new life.

What then? can we commit sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? it could not be so.

I can but speak as men do because of the weakness of your earthly nature. Once you offered every part of your bodies to the service of impurity, and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer them to the service of Righteousness, which leads to holiness.

Well, what did you gain then by it all? Nothing but what you are now ashamed of! The end of all that is death;

but now that you are set free from sin, now that you have passed into the service of God, your gain is consecration, and the end of that is life eternal.

Don't you realize, brothers for I am speaking to people who know the Law that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive?

So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress.

but now we are done with the Law, we have died to what once held us, so that we can serve in a new way, not under the written code as of old but in the Spirit.

What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? It can not be. Indeed, I had not known sin, except through law. For I had not known evil desire, unless the law had said: You shall not have any evil desire.

Has, then, that which is good become death to me? It can not be. But sin, that it, might appear sin, was causing death to me through that which is good, in order that sin, through the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good 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.

So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage;

What a wretched man I am! Who can save me from this doomed body?

Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature I serve the law of sin.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

For you did not receive the Holy Spirit, to enslave you again to fear, [Note: Some translators take "Holy Spirit" here to be "spirit," making the verse say "you did not receive the spirit of slavery"], but you received the Holy Spirit [who produces] sonship, so we can call out, "Abba", [which means] "Father."

And if we are [His] children, then we have an inheritance from God [i.e., blessings here and hereafter] and are fellow-sharers with Christ [of such blessings], providing we [are willing to] suffer with Him, so we can also be honored with Him [i.e., in the future life. See verses 18-25].

that the creation itself will also be freed from its bondage to decay [and gain entrance] into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Yes, we know that all nature has gone on groaning in agony together till the present moment.

For in this hope we were saved [by faith]. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees?

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don't know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be uttered.

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

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather who was raised from the dead, is at God's right hand, and actually pleads for us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].

nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

and though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad, so that God’s purpose [His choice, His election] would stand, not because of works [done by either child], but because of [the plan of] Him who calls them,

What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not!

For, unto Moses, he saith - I will have mercy upon whomsoever I can have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whomsoever I can have compassion.

You will say to me then, “Why does He still blame me [for sinning]? For who [including myself] has [ever] resisted His will and purpose?”

On the contrary, who are you mere man that you are to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn't he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.

Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can't he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction?

Can't he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory

What can we say, then? Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have attained righteousness, a righteousness that comes through faith.

And why? Because they sought it not by faith, but thought to gain it by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;

I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law [with all its intricate demands] shall live by it.

But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

And how will they preach unless they are commissioned and sent [for that purpose]? Just as it is written and forever remains written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

But I say, Have they not heard? Yea, surely, Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the extremities of the habitable world.

But in respect to Israel He saith, "All the day long did I spread out My hand to a disobedient and gain-saying people."

I say, then, Has God rejected his people? It can not be. For I am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

as it is written: God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes with which they can not see, and ears with which they can not hear.

And David says, Let their table be for a snare, and for a gin, and for a fall-trap, and for a recompense to them:

I say, then, Have they stumbled, in order that they may fall? It can not be. But rather, through their fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to excite them to jealousy.

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?

if I can somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them.

For if their rejection has meant the reconciling of the world, what can the acceptance of them mean but life from the dead?

And even the others will be grafted in, if they do not adhere to their unbelief; God can graft them in again.

For no change of purpose can annul God's free gift and call.

So in the same way these have gone against the orders of God, so that by the mercy given to you they may now get mercy.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways can not be explored!

You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God's will is??hat is good, pleasing, and perfect.

If you can, so far as it depends on you, live at peace with all the world.

But [Prov. 25:21-25 says], "Feed your enemy if he is hungry; give him something to drink if he is thirsty. For when you do this, it will be [like] heaping burning coals on his head." [i.e., it can cause him burning shame that can lead to his repentance and ultimate forgiveness].

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

The night [this present evil age] is almost gone and the day [of Christ’s return] is almost here. So let us fling away the works of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.

One person has enough faith that allows him to eat anything [i.e., without it bothering his conscience that the food, such as animal meat, was used in an idolatrous worship ceremony]. But the weak person can eat only vegetables [conscientiously].

The person who can eat anything should not look down on the person who cannot eat [what was used in idolatrous worship]; and the person who cannot eat [such things] should not pass judgment on the person who can. For God accepts that person, too.

Who are you that you should find fault with the servant of another? Whether he stands or falls is a matter which concerns his own master. But stand he will; for the Master can give him power to stand.

For none of us can live alone by himself, and none of us can die alone by himself;

But why do you [who eat only certain foods] condemn your brother [who feels he can eat anything]? Or, indeed, why do you [i.e., who feels he can eat anything] look down on your brother [i.e., who eats only certain foods]? For all of us will have to stand before the judgment bar of God.

Whatever was written in the Scriptures in days gone by was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance, and through the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, we might hold fast to our hope.

Now, I say, that Jesus Christ, as a minister, was of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, in order to con firm the promises made to the fathers,

I can therefore glory in Christ Jesus concerning the work for God in which I am engaged.

For I shall not go about to speak of any thing, but what Christ hath wrought by me, (to gain the obedience of the Gentiles,) both in word and deed:

For your obedience has gone abroad to all men: I rejoice, therefore, on your account. But I desire you to be wise in respect to that which is good, and guileless in respect to that which is evil.

[Now to Him who can strengthen you by my gospel, by the preaching of Jesus Christ, by revealing the secret purpose which after the silence of long ages