Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news—

including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling:

always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

For I want very much to see you, so I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

So I am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.

Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.

Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?

Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.

So, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, instinctively do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.

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

Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will his uncircumcision not be counted as circumcision?

So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

What then? If some did not believe, will their unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness?

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?

But if by my lie God’s truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.

But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the Prophets

—that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.

What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found?

For what does the Scripture say?

Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him for righteousness.

Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.

This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all

in God’s sight. As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.

He considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about 100 years old) and also considered the deadness of Sarah’s womb, without weakening in the faith.

He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a prototype of the Coming One.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.

Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.

For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?

Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims.

So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—that we may bear fruit for God.

But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power.

So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me.

For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law.

But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering,

in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so.

So then, brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh,

All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.

that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.

Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand—

What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!

So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.

For the Scripture tells Pharaoh:

I raised you up for this reason
so that I may display My power in you
and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.

You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

Though the number of Israel’s sons
is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;

What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation!

Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.

But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down

On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim:

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

But what was God’s reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for Myself who have not bowed down to Baal.

as it is written:

God gave them a spirit of insensitivity,
eyes that cannot see
and ears that cannot hear,
to this day.

Let their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent continually.

I ask, then, have they stumbled in order to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.

Now if the firstfruits offered up are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.