They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For all who have sinned apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.

For it is not merely those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. No, it is those who follow the Law, who will be justified.

For whenever gentiles, who do not possess the Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the Law.

They show that what the Law requires is written in their hearts, a fact to which their own consciences testify, and their thoughts will either accuse or excuse them

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the Law, and boast about God,

and know his will, and approve of what is best because you have been instructed in the Law;

an instructor of ignorant people, and a teacher of infants because you have the full content of knowledge and truth in the Law

As you boast about the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

For circumcision is valuable if you observe the Law, but if you break the Law, your having been circumcised has no more value than if you were uncircumcised.

So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, his uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision, won't it?

The man who is uncircumcised physically but who keeps the Law will condemn you who break the Law, even though you have the written Law and circumcision.

No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person's praise will come from God, not from people.

Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Therefore, God will not justify any human being by means of the actions prescribed by the Law, for through the Law comes the full knowledge of sin.

But now, apart from the Law, God's righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets

For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the actions prescribed by the Law.

Do we, then, abolish the Law by this faith? Of course not! Instead, we uphold the Law.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the Law, but through the righteousness produced by faith.

For if those who were given the Law are the heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

for the Law produces wrath. Now where there is no Law, neither can there be any violation of it.

Therefore, the promise is based on faith, so that it may be a matter of grace and may be guaranteed for all of Abraham's descendants not only for those who were given the Law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

Certainly sin was in the world before the Law was given, but no record of sin is kept when there is no Law.

Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more,

For sin will not have mastery over you, because you are not under Law but under grace.

What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not!

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?

For a married woman is bound by the Law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband.

So while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterer if she lives with another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from this Law, so that she is not an adulterer if she marries another man.

In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.

For while we were living according to our human nature, sinful passions were at work in our bodies by means of the Law, to bear fruit resulting in death.

But now we have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings.

What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

But sin seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is dead.

At one time I was alive without any connection to the Law. But when the rule was revealed, sin sprang to life,

So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, sold as a slave to sin.

Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good.

For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being,

but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my 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.

For the Spirit's law of life in the Messiah Jesus has set me free from the Law of sin and death.

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity, he condemned sin by being incarnate,

so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to human nature but according to the Spirit.

That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God's Law because it is powerless to do so.

who are Israelis. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.

But Israel, who pursued righteousness based on the Law, did not achieve the Law.

For the Messiah is the culmination of the Law as far as righteousness is concerned for everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law as follows: "The person who obeys these things will find life by them."

Do not owe anyone anything except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law.

Love never does anything that is harmful to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law.