For I am not ashamed of the Good News; it is the power of God which brings Salvation to every one who believes in Christ, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

Well aware of God's decree, that those who do such things deserve to die, not only are they guilty of them themselves, but they even applaud those who do them.

Or do you think lightly of his abundant kindness, patience, and forbearance, not realizing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

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.

Why, then, you teacher of others, do not you teach yourself? Do you preach against stealing, and yet steal?

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?

For a man who is only a Jew outwardly is not a real Jew; nor is outward bodily circumcision real circumcision. The real Jew is the man who is a Jew in soul;

And the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a man wins praise from God, though not from men.

Why should we not say-as some people slanderously assert that we do say-'Let us do evil that good may come'? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!

What follows, then? Are we Jews in any way superior to others? Not at all. Our indictment against both Jews and Greeks was that all alike were in subjection to sin.

As Scripture says-'There is not even one who is righteous,

Not one who understands, not one who is searching for God!

They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good-no, not one!'

And the path of peace they do not know.'

'The fear of God is not before their eyes.'

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?

If he was pronounced righteous as the result of obedience, then he has something to boast of. Yes, but not before God.

Now wages are regarded as due to the man who works, not as a favor, but as a debt;

While, as for the man who does not rely upon his obedience, but has faith in him who can pronounce the godless righteous, his faith is regarded by God as righteousness.

Not after, but before. And it was as a sign of this that he received the rite of circumcision-to attest the righteousness due to the faith of an uncircumcised man-in order that he might be the father of all who have faith in God even when uncircumcised, that they also may be regarded by God as righteous;

As well as father of the circumcised-to those who are not only circumcised, but who also follow our father Abraham in that faith which he had while still uncircumcised.

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.

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;

As Scripture says-'I have made thee the Father of many nations.') And this they do in the sight of that God in whom Abraham had faith, and who gives life to the dead, and speaks of what does not yet exist as if it did.

Though he was nearly a hundred years old, yet his faith did not fail him, even when he thought of his own body, then utterly worn out, and remembered that Sarah was past bearing children.

He was not led by want of faith to doubt God's promise.

Now these words-'it was regarded as righteousness'-were not written with reference to Abraham only;

It is through him that, by reason of our faith, we have obtained admission to that place in God's favor in which we not stand. So let us exult in our hope of attaining God's glorious ideal.

And not only that, but let us also exult in our troubles;

And not only that, but we exult in God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have now obtained this reconciliation.

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.

Or can it be that you do not know that all of us, who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, in our baptism shared his death?

We know, indeed, that Christ, having once risen from the dead, will not die again. Death has power over him no longer.

Therefore do not let Sin reign in your mortal bodies and compel you to obey its cravings.

Do not offer any part of your bodies to Sin, in the cause of unrighteousness, but once for all offer yourselves to God (as those who, though once dead, now have Life), and devote every part of your bodies to the cause of righteousness.

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!

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.

I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the very thing that I hate.

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

I know that there is nothing good in me-I mean in my earthly nature. For, although it is easy for me to want to do right, to act rightly is not easy.

I fail to do the good thing that I want to do, but the bad thing that I want not to do-that I habitually do.

But, when I do the very thing that I want not to do, the action is no longer my own, but that of Sin which is within me.

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.

You, however, are not earthly but spiritual, since the Spirit of God lives within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ;

For you did not receive the spirit of a slave, to fill you once more with fear, but the spirit of a son which leads us to cry 'Abba, Our Father.'

I do not count the sufferings of our present life worthy of mention when compared with the Glory that is to be revealed and bestowed upon us.

For Nature was made subject to imperfection-not by its own choice, but owing to him who made it so--

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

And not Nature only; but we ourselves also, though we have already a first gift of the Spirit-we ourselves are inwardly groaning, while we eagerly await our full adoption as Sons-the redemption of our bodies.

But when we hope for what is not before our eyes, then we wait for it with patience.

So, also, the Spirit supports us in our weakness. We do not even know how to pray as we should; but the Spirit himself pleads for us in sighs that can find no utterance.

God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all; will he not, then, with him, freely give us all things?

Not that God's Word has failed. For it is not all who are descended from Israel who are true Israelites;

This means that it is not the children born in the course of nature who are God's Children, but it is the children born in fulfillment of the Promise who are to be regarded as Abraham's descendants.

For in order that the purpose of God, working through selection, might not fail-a selection depending, not on obedience, but on his Call-Rebecca was told, before her children were born and before they had done anything either right or wrong,

So, then, all depends, not on human wishes or human efforts, but on God's mercy.

Has not the potter absolute power over his clay, so that out of the same lump he makes one thing for better, and another for common, use?

And whom he called-even us-Not only from among the Jews but from among the Gentiles also!

This, indeed, is what he says in the Book of Hosea-'I will call those my People who were not my People, and her my beloved who was not beloved.

And in the very place where it was said to them-"Ye are not my People", they shall be called Sons of the Living God.'

It is as Isaiah foretold-'Had not the Lord of Hosts spared some few of our race to us, we should have become like Sodom and been made to resemble Gomorrah.'

What are we to say, then? Why, that Gentiles, who were not in search of righteousness, secured it-a righteousness which was the result of faith;

And why? Because they looked to obedience, and not to faith, to secure it. They stumbled over 'the Stumbling-block.'

I can testify that they are zealous for the honor of God; but they are not guided by true insight,

But the righteousness which results from faith finds expression in these words--'Do not say to yourself "Who will go up into heaven?"'--which means to bring Christ down--'

But how, it may be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they have not learned to believe? And how are they to believe in one whose words they have not heard? And how are they to hear his words unless some one proclaims him?

Still, it may be said, every one did not give heed to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks--'Lord, who has believed our teaching?'

But again I ask 'Did not the people of Israel understand? First there is Moses, who says--'I, the Lord, will stir you to rivalry with a nation which is no nation; Against an undiscerning nation I will arouse your anger.'

And Isaiah says boldly--'I was found by those who were not seeking me; I made myself known to those who were not inquiring of me.

God has not rejected his People, whom he chose from the first. Have you forgotten the words of Scripture in the story of Elijah- how he appeals to God against Israel?

The rest grew callous; as Scripture says--'God has given them a deadness of mind--eyes that are not to see and ears that are not to hear--and it is so to this very day.'

Yet do not exult over the other branches. But, if you do exult over them, remember that you do not support the root, but that the root supports you.

True; it was because of their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is because of your faith that you are standing. Do not think too highly of yourself, but beware.

For, if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

And they, too, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God has it in his power to graft them in again.

Do not conform to the fashion of this world; but be transformed by the complete change that has come over your minds, so that you may discern what God's will is--all that is good, acceptable, and perfect.

In fulfillment of the charge with which I have been entrusted, I bid every one of you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think till he learns to think soberly--in accordance with the measure of faith that God has allotted to each.

Let the same spirit of sympathy animate you all, not a spirit of pride; be glad to associate with the lowly. Do not think too highly of yourselves.

For they are God's servants appointed for your good. But, if you do what is wrong, you may well be afraid; for the sword they carry is not without meaning! They are God's servants to inflict his punishments on those who do wrong.

You are bound, therefore, to obey, not only through fear of God's punishments, but also as a matter of conscience.

The commandments, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet,' and whatever other commandment there is, are all summed up in the words--'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself.'

The night is almost gone; the day is near. Therefore let us have done with the deeds of Darkness, and arm ourselves with the weapons of Light.

Being in the light of Day, let us live becomingly, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lust and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

As for those whose faith is weak, always receive them as friends, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on their scruples.

The man who eats meat must not despise the man who abstains from it; nor must the man who abstains from eating meat pass judgment on the one who eats it, for God himself has received him.

There is not one of us whose life concerns himself alone, and not one of us whose death concerns himself alone;

If, for the sake of what you eat, you wound your Brother's feelings, your life has ceased to be ruled by love. Do not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died!

Do not let what is right for you become a matter of reproach.

For the Kingdom of God does not consist of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and gladness through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Do not undo God's work for the sake of what you eat. Though everything is 'clean,' yet, if a man eats so as to put a stumbling- block in the way of others, he does wrong.

He, however, who has misgivings stands condemned if he still eats, because his doing so is not the result of faith. And anything not done as the result of faith is a sin.

We, the strong, ought to take on our own shoulders the weaknesses of those who are not strong, and not merely to please ourselves.

Even the Christ did not please himself! On the contrary, as Scripture says of him--'The reproaches of those who were reproaching thee fell upon me.'

For I will not dare to speak of anything but what Christ has done through me to win the obedience of the Gentiles--