always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such be His will, the way may by some means be made clear for me to come to you.

For I am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened;

in other words that while I am among you we may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine.

And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed--in order that among you also I might gather some fruit from my labours, as I have already done among the rest of the Gentile nations.

so that for my part I am willing and eager to proclaim the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

For, from the very creation of the world, His invisible perfections--namely His eternal power and divine nature--have been rendered intelligible and clearly visible by His works, so that these men are without excuse.

in just the same way--neglecting that for which nature intends women--burned with passion towards one another, men practising shameful vice with men, and receiving in their own selves the reward which necessarily followed their misconduct.

And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done.

and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth.

And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs--do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when God judges?

Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance?

The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed.

It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law who will be pronounced righteous.

since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the Law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence--

and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ--being a man who receives instruction from the Law--

and have persuaded yourself that, as for you, you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law; but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been circumcised counts for nothing.

For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly, and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily.

No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

No indeed; for in that case how shall He judge all mankind?)

And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.

But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.

For we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to Law.

unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith.

What then shall we say that Abraham, our earthly forefather, has gained?

Before, not after. And he received circumcision as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of the faith-righteousness which was his while still uncircumcised, that he might be the forefather of all those who believe even though they are uncircumcised--in order that this righteousness might be placed to their credit;

Again, the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his posterity conditioned by Law, but by faith-righteousness.

All depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance with God might be an act of pure grace,

so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham. Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us. As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations."

Under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed, so that he might become the forefather of many nations, in agreement with the words "Equally numerous shall your posterity be."

and being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound by He is able also to make good.

through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.

And not only so: we also exult in our sufferings, knowing as we do, that suffering produces fortitude;

and that this hope never disappoints, because God's love for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Why, it is scarcely conceivable that any one would die for a simply just man, although for a good and lovable man perhaps some one, here and there, will have the courage even to lay down his life.

For if while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is still more certain that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation through Christ's life.

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

What follows? This comparison. Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned.

It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race.

Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed;

in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?

And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life.

This we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;

But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him;

because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die.

Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result)

But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed.

At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death.

But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result.

Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law?

A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her.

This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress.

So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual.

So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.

Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin.

But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law,

and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.

But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

(Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body?

for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.

For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule.

The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour.

And more than that, we ourselves, though we possess the Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies.

It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it?

In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words,

Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

For those whom He has known beforehand He has also pre-destined to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Eldest in a vast family of brothers;

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present nor things future, nor the forces of nature,

when I declare that I have deep grief and unceasing anguish of heart.

Not however that God's word has failed; for all who have sprung from Israel do not count as Israel,

Nor is that all: later on there was Rebecca too. She was soon to bear two children to her husband, our forefather Isaac--

and even then, though they were not then born and had not done anything either good or evil, yet in order that God's electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was, not on their actions but on the will of Him who called them, she was told,

What then are we to infer? That there is injustice in God?

And from this we learn that everything is dependent not on man's will or endeavour, but upon God who has mercy. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,

"It is for this very purpose that I have lifted you so high--that I may make manifest in you My power, and that My name may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth."

This is a proof that wherever He chooses He shows mercy, and wherever he chooses He hardens the heart.

Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "Why have you made me thus?"

So also in Hosea He says, "I will call that nation My People which was not My People, and I will call her beloved who was not beloved.

Even as Isaiah says in an earlier place, "Were it not that the Lord, the God of Hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and have come to resemble Gomorrah."

To what conclusion does this bring us? Why, that the Gentiles, who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it--a righteousness, however, which arises from faith;

while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one.

For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm.

Moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness required by the Law shall live by that righteousness.

But the righteousness which is based on faith speaks in a different tone. "Say not in your heart," it declares, "'Who shall ascend to Heaven?'" --that is, to bring Christ down;

"nor 'Who shall go down into the abyss?'" --that is, to bring Christ up again from the grave.

But what does it say? "The Message is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart;" that is, the Message which we are publishing about the faith--