For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."

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.

you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal?

You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples?

Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:

That You may be justified in Your words
and triumph when You judge.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through [the action of] one man [i.e., Adam] and [physical] death through that sin, so [physical] death has spread to all people, because all people have sinned. [Note: This difficult passage (verses 12-21) seems to be saying that the entire human race must experience physical death because of Adam's sin (I Cor. 5:22), which is somehow considered to be everyone's sin. See Murray, pp. 180-187, for a thorough discussion].

Then what shall we say? must we abide in sin, in order that grace may abound?

Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death: in order that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so must we also walk in newness of life.

For if we be graft in death like unto him: even so must we be in the resurrection.

This we must remember, that our old man is crucified with him also, that the body of sin might utterly be destroyed; that henceforth we should not be servants of sin.

So you too must consider yourselves as having ended your relation to sin but living in unbroken relation to God.

Accordingly, sin must not continue to reign over your mortal bodies, so as to make you continue to obey their evil desires,

and you must stop offering to sin the parts of your bodies as instruments for wrongdoing, but you must once for all offer yourselves to God as persons raised from the dead to live on perpetually, and once for all offer the parts of your bodies to God as instruments for right-doing.

For sin must not any longer exert its mastery over you, for now you are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor.

and being set free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness??19 I speak in these homely figures because of the weakness of your fleshly nature??ust as you once surrendered your faculties into slavery to impurity and to all lawlessness, so now you must surrender your faculties into slavery to righteousness, unto deeds of holiness.

I am speaking in familiar human terms because of the frailty of your nature. For just as you formerly offered the parts of your bodies in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing lawlessness, so now you must once for all offer them in slavery to right-doing, which leads to consecration.

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God.

for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; but to share his glory, we must now be sharing his sufferings.

But if we hope for what we cannot see, then we [must] patiently wait for it [to be received].

(You see, faith must come from what is heard, and what is heard comes from word of Christ.)

Now if their stumbling enriches the world, and their loss enriches the Gentiles, how much more must their fulness do!

you must not be boasting against the natural branches. And if you do, just consider, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

And you people must not be conformed to [the values and standards of] this age, but you should become transformed [i.e., changed in attitude and action] by having your mind renewed [i.e., to think in a totally different way]. Then you will be able to determine [and practice] God's will, the thing that is good, and acceptable and perfect.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to every one that is among you, that he must not think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but that he be disposed to think modestly, as God has distributed to each a measure of faith.

And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.

If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;

Let the teacher give himself to his teaching; and he who exhorts others to his exhortation. He who gives, let him do it in singleness of mind. He who rules, let him rule with diligence; and he who shows mercy must be cheerful.

Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good.

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.

Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience.

For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not have an evil desire," and any other commandment if there is any, are summed up in this command, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light.

One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not criticize one who does, because God has accepted him.

One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.

But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? And thou, why dost thou disparage thy brother? for we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

So each of us must give an account of himself to God.

Therefore let us not criticize one another any more. You must resolve instead never to put any hindrance or obstacle in your brother's way.

For if your brother's feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died.

Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken against [i.e., the exercise of a liberty by the strong to eat anything must not become the occasion of criticism by the weak].

So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.

You must not, just for the sake of food, undo the work of God. It is true, everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to hurt the consciences of others by what he eats.

On your part, you must exercise your faith by the standard of yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man who need not condemn himself for doing the thing that he approves.

Now we who are strong ought to be patient with the weaknesses of those who are not strong and must stop pleasing ourselves.

Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.