For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law.

It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous.

When Gentiles, who have no Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they, though they have no Law, are a Law to themselves;

For they show the demands of the Law written upon their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self- defense--

But, perhaps, you bear the name of 'Jew,' and are relying upon Law, and boast of belonging to God, and understand his will,

And, having been carefully instructed from the Law, have learned to appreciate the finer moral distinctions.

And a teacher of the childish, because in the Law you possess the outline of all Knowledge and Truth.

Boasting, as you do, of your Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

Circumcision has its value, if you are obeying the Law. But, if you are a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

If, then, an uncircumcised man pays regard to the requirements of the Law, will not he, although not circumcised, be regarded by God as if he were?

Indeed, the man who, owing to his birth, remains uncircumcised, and yet scrupulously obeys the Law, will condemn you, who, for all your written Law and your circumcision, are yet a breaker of the Law.

Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgment of God.

For 'no human being will be pronounced righteous before God' as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

But now, quite apart from Law, the Divine Righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the Prophets bear witness--

What, then, becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what sort of Law? A Law requiring obedience? No, a Law requiring faith.

For we conclude that a man is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.

Do we, then, use this faith to abolish Law? Heaven forbid! No, we establish Law.

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

If those who take their stand on Law are to inherit the world, then faith is robbed of its meaning and the promise comes to nothing!

Law entails punishment; but, where no Law exists, no breach of it is possible.

That is why all is made to depend upon faith, that all may be God's gift, and in order that the fulfillment of the promise may be made certain for all Abraham's descendants-not only for those who take their stand on the Law, but also for those who take their stand on the faith of Abraham. (He is the Father of us all;

Even before the time of the Law there was sin in the world; but sin cannot be charged against a man where no Law exists.

Yet, from Adam to Moses, Death reigned even over those whose sin was not a breach of a law, as Adam's was. And Adam foreshadows the One to come.

Law was introduced in order that offences might be multiplied. But, where sins were multiplied, the loving-kindness of God was lavished the more,

For Sin shall not lord it over you. You are living under the reign, not of Law, but of Love.

What follows, then? Are we to sin because we are living under the reign of Love and not of Law? Heaven forbid!

Surely, Brothers, you know (for I am speaking to men who know what Law means) that Law has power over a man only as long as he lives.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.

If, then, during her husband's lifetime, she unites herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but, if her husband dies, the law has no further hold on her, nor, if she unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress.

And so with you, my Brothers; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives might bear fruit for God.

When we were living merely earthly lives, our sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were active in every part of our bodies, with the result that our lives bore fruit for Death.

But now we are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.

What are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learned what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say 'Thou shalt not covet,' I should not know what it is to covet.

But sin took advantage of the Commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.

There was a time when I myself, unconscious of Law, was alive; but when the Commandment was brought home to me, sin sprang into life, while I died!

And so the Law is holy, and each Commandment is also holy, and just, and good.

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly-sold into slavery to Sin.

But when I do what I want not to do, I am admitting that the Law is right.

This, then, is the law that I find-When I want to do right, wrong presents itself!

At heart I delight in the Law of God;

But throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of Sin which exists throughout my body.

Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Well then, for myself, with my reason I serve the Law of God, but with my earthly nature the Law of Sin.

For through your union with Christ Jesus, the Law of the life- giving Spirit has set you free from the Law of Sin and Death.

What Law could not do, in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action, God did, by sending his own Son, with a nature resembling our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He condemned sin in that earthly nature,

So that the requirements of the Law might be satisfied in us who live now in obedience, not to our earthly nature, but to the Spirit.

Because to be earthly-minded is to be an enemy to God, for such a mind does not submit to the Law of God, nor indeed can it do so.

I am speaking the truth as one in union with Christ; it is no lie; and my conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit,

For they are Israelites, and theirs are the adoption as Sons, the visible Presence, the Covenants, the revealed Law, the Temple worship, and the Promises.

While Israel, which was in search of a Law which would ensure righteousness, failed to discover one.

For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by every one who believes in him.

For Moses writes that, as for the righteousness which results from Law, 'those who practice it will find Life through it.'

Owe nothing to any one except brotherly love; for he who loves his fellow men has satisfied the Law.

Love never wrongs a neighbor. Therefore Love fully satisfies the Law.