It is through him, even Jesus Christ our Lord, that I received grace and apostleship to promote obedience to the faith among all the Gentiles, for his name's sake;

To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. May God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, bless you, and give you peace.

always entreating him that now at length, if such be his will, the way may be made clear for me to come to you.

For I am longing so to see you, in order to impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established;

that is, that I with you may be encouraged by you, each of us by the other's faith, yours and mine.

I want you to know, brothers, that many a time I have planned to come to you??hough until now I have been hindered??o as to have some harvest-fruit among you also, even as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

This is so because that which may be known of God is manifest among them; for God has made it manifest to them.

For ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, even his everlasting power and divinity, has been clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made. So they have no excuse.

That is why God has given them up to passions of dishonor; for on the one hand their women actually changed the natural function of sex into that which is against nature;

and on the other hand their men likewise abandoned the natural use of women, and were ablaze with passion for one another; men with men practising shameless acts and receiving in their own person that recompense of their wrong-doing which necessarily followed.

Though they knew well the ordinance of God, that those who practise such vices are worthy of death, they not only continue to do the same, but were even applauding those who practise vice.

You are therefore inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, that sits in judgment; for in judging another you are condemning yourself. You, the judge, are habitually practising the very same things.

"We know that God's judgment against those who practise such vices is in accord with the truth," you say?

Very well; and do you suppose, you who judge those that practise such vices, and are doing the very same, that you will elude the judgment of God?

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long patience? Do you not know that the kindness of God is leading you to repentance?

For they show that the work of the Law is written in their hearts, while their conscience bears them witness, as their reasonings accuse, or it may be defend, them,

and know his will, and can test the things that differ; if you are instructed out of the Law,

and are confident that you yourself are a darkness,

You who are preaching that a man should not steal, do you practise theft?

You who keep saying that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who hold idols in abhorrence, are you plundering their temples?

By no means! Be sure that God is ever true, though all mankind prove false. As it is written, That thou mayest be found just in thine argument, And gain thy cause when thou contendest.

Be it far from us; for in that case how could God judge the world?

And why not say (as I myself am slanderously reported to say), "Let us do evil that good may come out of it"? Such arguments are rightly condemned.

There is none that understands, none that seeks for God!

All have swerved from the right path; Every one of them has become corrupt. There is none that practices good, no, not one.

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law; so that every mouth may be shut, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

but they are now being justified by his free grace through the deliverance that is in Christ Jesus.

I say, at this present time; that he himself might be just, and yet the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

For I conclude that a man is justified by faith, altogether apart from the deeds of the Law.

and he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the faith-righteousness which he had while he was in uncircumcision; in order that he might be the father of all who believe, even though they are uncircumcised; so that righteousness might be imputed to them.

He is the father of circumcision to those who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he held while he was as yet uncircumcised.

For the promise that he should be heir of the world did not come to Abraham or to his posterity through law, but through faith-righteousness.

This is why righteousness is of faith, that it may be a free gift; so that the promise stands firm to all Abraham's posterity; not to his children of his faith. For in the sight of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead, and calls into being that which is not, Abraham is the father of us all both Jews and Gentiles,

For Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So numberless shall your descendants be.

and was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform.

For it will be "reckoned for righteousness." to us also, who believe on him that raised from the dead our Lord Jesus;

And not only so, but we are actually exulting also even in our troubles; for we know that trouble works fortitude,

But God gives proof of his love to us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved in his life.

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

But the free gift is not like the transgression; for if through the transgression of that one man the rest on men died, much more did the grace of God and the gift given in his grace in the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow unto the rest of men.

And it is not with the free gift as it was through the one that sinned; for the judgment came from one transgression unto condemnation; but the free gift came from many transgressions unto acquittal.

Now law was brought in so that transgression might abound; but where sin abounded, grace super-abounded;

in order that as sin has ruled as king in death, so also grace might rule as king in righteousness which issues in eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord,??urs!

What then shall we say? Shall we continue to abound in sin, in order that grace may come to abound?

For do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death?

We have been buried together with him, then, through baptism into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we should live in a newness of life.

For this we know, that our old self was crucified with Christ, in order that the slave of sin might be destroyed; so that we should no longer be in slavery to sin??7 for he who is dead is set free from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;

knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more dominion over him.

For the death that he died, he died unto sin once for all; but the life that he lives he is living unto God.

Do you not know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to any one to obey him, you are his slaves whom you obey; whether it be sin, whose end is death, or obedience, whose end is righteousness?

But God be thanked that you who were once the slaves of sin have obeyed from your hearts that type of teaching to which you were appointed;

What harvest-fruit then had you at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the harvest-fruit which you are reaping tends to produce holiness, and it ends is life eternal.

Surely, brothers, you know (for I am speaking to those who know what law means) that law governs a person only during his lifetime?

So then, if during her husband lifetime, she unites herself with another man, she will be counted an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the Law, so that she is no adulteress, even if she unites herself with another man.

So also, my brother, you were made dead to the Law through the body of Christ; that you should be joined to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for God.

But now we have been released from the Law, because we are dead to that in which we were held; so that we are now in thralldom in new and spiritual conditions, and not under the old written code.

Did then that which was good become for me death? Never! but sin did; that it might be manifest as sin, by that the unutterable malignity of sin might become plain through the commandment.

For we know that the Law is spiritual; but as for me, I am a creature of flesh, bought and sold under the dominion of sin.

For what I perform I know not; what I practise is not what I intend to do, but what I detest, that I habitually do.

If then I habitually do what I do not intend to do, I am consenting to the Law, that it is right.

For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, no good thing has its home; for while to will is present with me, to carry out that which is right is not.

For the good that I intend to do, I do not; but the evil which I do not; but the evil which I do not intend to do, that I am ever practising.

I find, then, this law, that when I intend to do good, evil is ever present with me.

but I find a different law in my bodily faculties, waging war with the law of my will, and taking me prisoner to that law of sin which is in my bodily faculties.

Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this slave of death?

in order that the Law might be fulfilled in us who order our lives not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery in order that you should once more be afraid; but you have received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry out, "My Father, my dear Father!"

For his Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God;

For nature was subjected to imperfection, not by its own will, but by the will of Him who thus made it subject??21 yet not without the hope that some day nature itself also will be freed from the thralldom of decay, into the freedom which belongs to the glory of the children of God.

For we know that all nature has been groaning and travailing together until this hour.

And not only that, we ourselves, although we are grasping the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves are inwardly groaning, while we are waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

Who hopes for what he clearly sees? But if we hope for something that we do not see, we then patiently wait for it.

Now we know that all things continually work together for good to those who love God, to those who have been the called according to his purpose.

For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, so that he might be the eldest of a great brotherhood;

He that spared not his own Son, But freely delivered him up for us all, How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

For I am fully persuaded that neither death nor life, Neither angels nor principalities, nor powers, Neither the present world nor the world to come, Nor the powers of Nature,

I am speaking the truth in Christ, it is no lie. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have deep sorrow

That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as his posterity.

and even though they were still unborn, and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that the purpose of God might stand according to election, not of works, but of Him who called,

What shall we say then? that there is injustice with God? No indeed.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, It is for this very purpose that I have raised you up, To show in you my power, And to proclaim my name far and wide, in all the earth.

"Nay, but who are you, O man, that replies to God? Shall the thing formed say unto him who formed it, "Why did you do me like this?"

And in that very spot where it was told them, "You are not my people," There they shall be called "Sons of the living God."

What then shall we say? That Gentiles who never pursed righteousness have overtaken it, even the righteousness of faith?

But that the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law?

even as it is written. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; but he that believes on Him shall not be put to shame.

Brothers, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for my countrymen, that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, only it is a zeal without knowledge.

For Moses writes concerning the righteousness of the Law, saying, The man that doeth it shall live by it.

But what does it say? The word is near thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the very word of faith which we preach;

Confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God actually raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.

But I say, Did Israel not know? First Moses says. I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation; Against a Gentile nation, void of understanding, will I anger you.

What then? that which Israel has been seeking for, that he has not obtained; but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest have been hardened.

According as it is written, God has given them a spirit of slumber, Eyes that they should not see, Ears that they should not hear, unto this day.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their backs forever.

For to you who are Gentiles I say that since I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry,

Supposing that some of the branches have been broken off, and you, although you were but a wild olive, have been grafted in among the branches and have become a partaker with them of the fatness of the olive tree, do not glory over the branches;