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

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,

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 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.