Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature??is eternal power and divine character??ave been clearly perceptible through what he has made. So they have no excuse,

For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright.

Circumcision will help you only if you observe the Law; but if you are a lawbreaker, you might as well be uncircumcised.

Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God.

For no human being can be made upright in the sight of God by observing the Law. All that the Law can do is to make man conscious of sin.

but by his mercy they are made upright for nothing, by the deliverance secured through Christ Jesus.

For we hold that a man is made upright by faith; the observance of the Law has nothing to do with it.

For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God,

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

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.

So as we have been made upright by faith, let us live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God's anger!

But there is no comparison between God's gift and that offense. For if one man's offense made the mass of mankind die, God's mercy and his gift given through the favor of the one man Jesus Christ have far more powerfully affected mankind.

For if that one man's offense made death reign through that one man, all the more will those who receive God's overflowing mercy and his gift of uprightness live and reign through the one individual Jesus Christ.

For just as that one man's disobedience made the mass of mankind sinners, so this one's obedience will make the mass of them upright.

so that just as sin had reigned through death, mercy might reign through uprightness and bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

and so you have been freed from sin, and made slaves of uprightness.

So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was.

so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane.

For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

For with their minds men believe and are made upright, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment and are saved.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive's root,

For God has made all men prisoners of disobedience so as to have mercy upon them all.

The right thing to do is to eat no meat at all and to drink no wine or do anything else if it hurts your brother's conscience.

For everything that was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by being steadfast and through the encouragement the Scriptures give, we might hold our hope fast.

I hold that Christ has become an agent of circumcision to show God's truthfulness in carrying out the promises made to our forefathers,

Remember me to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who meet with them.

Remember me to Philologus and Julia, to Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas, and all God's people who meet with them.

and at the command of the eternal God made known through the writings of the prophets to all the heathen, to lead them to obedience and faith??27 to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.