To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such be His will, the way may by some means be made clear for me to come to you.

For I am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened;

in other words that while I am among you we may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine.

And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed--in order that among you also I might gather some fruit from my labours, as I have already done among the rest of the Gentile nations.

so that for my part I am willing and eager to proclaim the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

because what may be known about Him is plain to their inmost consciousness; for He Himself has made it plain to them.

And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.

But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.

in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?

your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures--and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness.

So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death.

For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death.

Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do.

and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out 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.

I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;

but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.

(Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body?

for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

I am telling you the truth as a Christian man--it is no falsehood, for my conscience enlightened, as it is, by the Holy Spirit adds its testimony to mine--

For I could pray to be accursed from Christ on behalf of my brethren, my human kinsfolk--for such the Israelites are.

"It is for this very purpose that I have lifted you so high--that I may make manifest in you My power, and that My name may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth."

Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "Why have you made me thus?"

So also in Hosea He says, "I will call that nation My People which was not My People, and I will call her beloved who was not beloved.

Brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God, on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation.

And Isaiah, with strange boldness, exclaims, "I have been found by those who were not looking for Me, I have revealed Myself to those who were not inquiring of Me."

While as to Israel he says, "All day long I have stretched out My arms to a self-willed and fault-finding people."

"Lord, they have put Thy Prophets to death, and have overthrown Thy altars; and, now that I alone remain, they are thirsting for my blood"?

Let darkness come over their eyes that they may be unable to see, and make Thou their backs continually to stoop."

But to you Gentiles I say that, since I am an Apostle specially sent to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry,

trying whether I can succeed in rousing my own countrymen to jealousy and thus save some of them.

"Branches have been lopped off," you will say, "for the sake of my being grafted in."

and this shall be My Covenant with them; when I have taken away their sins."

so now they also have been disobedient at a time when you are receiving mercy; so that to them too there may now be mercy.

For God has locked up all in the prison of unbelief, that upon all alike He may have mercy.

And do not follow the customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what God's will is--that will which is good and beautiful and perfect.

For through the authority graciously given to me I warn every individual among you not to value himself unduly, but to cultivate sobriety of judgement in accordance with the amount of faith which God has allotted to each one.

Do not be revengeful, my dear friends, but give way before anger; for it is written, "'Revenge belongs to Me: I will pay back,' says the Lord."

for it is written, "'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall make confession to God.'"

For even the Christ did not seek His own pleasure. His principle was, "The reproaches which they addressed to Thee have fallen on me."

For all that was written of old has been written for our instruction, so that we may always have hope through the power of endurance and the encouragement which the Scriptures afford.

And may God, the giver of power of endurance and of that encouragement, grant you to be in full sympathy with one another in accordance with the example of Christ Jesus,

so that with oneness both of heart and voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My meaning is that Christ has become a servant to the people of Israel in vindication of God's truthfulness-- in showing how sure are the promises made to our forefathers--

May God, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in Him--so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But as to you, brethren, I am convinced-- yes, I Paul am convinced--that, even apart from my teaching, you are already full of goodness of heart, and enriched with complete Christian knowledge, and are also competent to instruct one another.

But I write to you the more boldly--partly as reminding you of what you already know--because of the authority graciously entrusted to me by God,

that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles, doing priestly duties in connexion with God's Good News so that the sacrifice--namely the Gentiles--may be acceptable to Him, being (as it is)

with power manifested in signs and marvels, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. But--to speak simply of my own labours--beginning in Jerusalem and the outlying districts, I have proclaimed without reserve, even as far as Illyricum, the Good News of the Christ;

making it my ambition, however, not to tell the Good News where Christ's name was already known, for fear I should be building on another man's foundation.

And it is really this which has again and again prevented my coming to you.

I hope, as soon as ever I extend my travels into Spain, to see you on my way and be helped forward by you on my journey, when I have first enjoyed being with you for a time.

So after discharging this duty, and making sure that these kind gifts reach those for whom they are intended, I shall start for Spain, passing through Rome on my way there;

But I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love which His Spirit inspires, to help me by wrestling in prayer to God on my behalf,

asking that I may escape unhurt from those in Judaea who are disobedient, and that the service which I am going to Jerusalem to render may be well received by the Church there,

in order that if God be willing I may come to you with a glad heart, and may enjoy a time of rest with you.

May God, who gives peace be with you all! Amen.

that you may receive her as a fellow Christian in a manner worthy of God's people, and may assist her in any matter in which she may need help. For she has indeed been a kind friend to many, including myself.

Greetings to Prisca and Aquila my fellow labourers in the work of Christ Jesus--

Greetings, too, to the Church that meets at their house. Greetings to my dear Epaenetus, who was the earliest convert to Christ in the province of Asia;

and to Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen, who once shared my imprisonment. They are of note among the Apostles, and are Christians of longer standing than myself.

Greetings to Ampliatus, dear to me in the Lord;

to Urban, our fellow labourer in Christ, and to my dear Stachys.

Greetings to my countryman, Herodion; and to the believing members of the household of Narcissus.

Greetings to Rufus, who is one of the Lord's chosen people; and to his mother, who has also been a mother to me.

Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, and so do my countrymen Lucius, Jason and Sosipater.

Gaius, my host, who is also the host of the whole Church, greets you. So do Erastus, the treasurer of the city, and Quartus our brother.