Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

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

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

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

Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,

As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,

You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience,

Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.