concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh,

who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.

What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin."

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned --

for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed.

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

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

What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?

Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

(For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

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,

and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to,

and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive

For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual -- but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.

But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son."

just as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.