To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

For I long to see you, in order to impart to you some spiritual gift and so give you fresh strength--

Or rather that both you and I may find encouragement in each other's faith.

I want you to know, Brothers, that I have many times intended coming to see you-but until now I have been prevented-that I might find among you some fruit of my labors, as I have already among the other nations.

And so, for my part, I am ready to tell the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth.

This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain.

For ever since the creation of the universe God's invisible attributes-his everlasting power and divinity-are to be seen and studied in his works, so that men have no excuse;

That, I say, is why God abandoned them to degrading passions. Even the women among them perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural;

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.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

And we know that God's judgment falls unerringly upon those who do them.

You who judge those that do such things and yet are yourself guilty of them-do you suppose that you of all men will escape God's judgment?

Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed;

On the day when God passes judgment on men's inmost lives, as the Good News that I tell declares that he will do through Christ Jesus.

Great in every way. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's utterances.

But what if our wrong-doing makes God's righteousness all the clearer? Will God be wrong in inflicting punishment? (I can but speak as a man.) Heaven forbid!

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!

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

What then, it may be asked, are we to say about Abraham, the ancestor of our nation?

Is this blessing, then, pronounced upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised as well? We say that-'Abraham's faith was regarded by God as righteousness.'

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;

With no ground for hope, Abraham, sustained by hope, put faith in God; in order that, in fulfillment of the words-'So many shall thy descendants be,' he might become 'the Father of many nations.'

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

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.

Seeing that, while we were still powerless, Christ, in God's good time, died on behalf of the godless.

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, much more, now that we have become reconciled, shall we be saved by virtue of Christ's Life.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and through sin came death; so, also, death spread to all mankind, because all men had sinned.

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.

But there is a contrast between Adam's Offence and God's gracious Gift. For, if by reason of the offence of the one man the whole race died, far more were the loving-kindness of God, and the gift given in the loving-kindness of the one man, Jesus Christ, lavished upon the whole race.

There is a contrast, too, between the gift and the results of the one man's sin. The judgment, which followed upon the one man's sin, resulted in condemnation, but God's gracious Gift, which followed upon many offences, resulted in a decree of righteousness.

For if, by reason of the offence of the one man, Death reigned through that one man, far more will those, upon whom God's loving- kindness and his gift of righteousness are lavished, find Life, and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Briefly then, just as a single offence resulted for all mankind in condemnation, so, too, a single decree of righteousness resulted for all mankind in that declaration of righteousness which brings Life.

For, as through the disobedience of the one man the whole race was rendered sinful, so, too, through the obedience of the one, the whole race will be rendered righteous.

In order than, just as Sin had reigned in the realm of Death, so, too, might Loving-kindness reign through righteousness, and result in Immortal Life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

What are we to say, then? Are we to continue to sin, in order that God's loving-kindness may be multiplied?

Consequently, through sharing his death in our baptism, we were buried with him; that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by a manifestation of the Father's power, so we also may live a new Life.

We recognize the truth that our old self was crucified with Christ, in order that the body, the stronghold of Sin, might be rendered powerless, so that we should no longer be slaves to Sin.

For the man who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released from Sin.

And our belief is, that, as we have shared Christ's Death, we shall also share his Life.

So let it be with you-regard yourselves as dead to sin, but as living for God, through union with Christ Jesus.

If, then, during her husband's lifetime, she unites herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but, if her husband dies, the law has no further hold on her, nor, if she unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress.

And so with you, my Brothers; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives might bear fruit for God.

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.

And so the Law is holy, and each Commandment is also holy, and just, and good.

Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve Death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved Death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my Death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.

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.

This being so, the action is no longer my own, but that of Sin which is within me.

But throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of Sin which exists throughout my body.

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.

So then, Brothers, we owe nothing to our earthly nature, that we should live in obedience to it.

The Spirit himself unites with our spirits in bearing witness to our being God's children,

And if children, then heirs-heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, since we share Christ's sufferings in order that we may also share his Glory.

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

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.

Yet he who searches all our hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because the pleadings of the Spirit for Christ's People are in accordance with his will.

For those whom God chose from the first he also destined from the first to be transformed into likeness to his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest among many Brothers.

What are we to say, then, in the light of all this? If God is on our side, who can there be against us?

Who will bring a charge against any of God's People? He who pronounces them righteous is God!

Who is there to condemn them? He who died for us is Christ Jesus!-or, rather, it was he who was raised from the dead, and who is now at God's right hand and is even pleading on our behalf!

Bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me and that my heart is never free from pain.

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

Nor, because they are Abraham's descendants, are they all his Children; but-'It is Isaac's children who will be called thy descendants.'

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.

What are we to say, then? Is God guilty of injustice? Heaven forbid!

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

So, then, where God wills, he takes pity, and where he wills, he hardens the heart.

Perhaps you will say to me-'How can any one still be blamed? For who withstands his purpose?'

I might rather ask 'Who are you who are arguing with God?' Does a thing which a man has molded say to him who has molded it 'Why did you make me like this?'

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?

So as to make known his surpassing glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared beforehand for glory,

And Isaiah cries aloud over Israel-'Though the Sons of Israel are like the sand of the sea in number, only a remnant of them shall escape!

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;

As Scripture says-'See, I place a Stumbling-block in Zion-- a Rock which shall prove a hindrance; and he who believes in him shall have no cause for shame.'

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for my People is for their Salvation.

For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by every one who believes in him.

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--'

No, but what does it say? 'The Message of Faith' which we proclaim.

For with their hearts men believe and so attain to righteousness, while with their lips they make their Profession of Faith and so find Salvation.

And so we gather, faith is a result of teaching, and the teaching comes in the Message of Christ.

And so in our own time, too, there is to be found a remnant of our nation selected by God in love.

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.'

May their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; and do thou always make their backs to bend.'

Being myself an Apostle to the Gentiles, I exalt my office, in the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry, and so save some of them.

If the first handful of dough in holy, so is the whole mass; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

But branches, you will say, were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.

See, then, both the goodness and the severity of God--his severity towards those who fell, and his goodness towards you, provided that you continue to confide in that goodness; otherwise you, also, will be cut off.

And they shall see the fulfillment of my Covenant, when I have taken away their sins.'

From the stand-point of the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies on your account; but from the stand-point of God's selection, they are dear to him on account of the Patriarchs.

So, too, they have now become disobedient in your day of mercy, in order that they also in their turn may now find mercy.

Or who has first given to him, so that he may claim a recompense?'

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.

So we, by our union in Christ, many though we are, form but one body, and individually we are related one to another as its parts.

The speaker to his exhortation. Let the man who gives in charity do so with a generous heart; let him who is in authority exercise due diligence; let him who shows kindness do so in a cheerful spirit.

Relieving the wants of Christ's People; devoted to hospitality.

Therefore he who sets himself against the authorities is resisting God's appointment, and those who resist will bring a judgment upon themselves.