First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

What I mean is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

I owe what service I can do to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians, to the learned, and to the illiterate.

For there is a revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all the wrongdoing and evil thoughts of men who keep down what is true by wrongdoing;

because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse.

for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper.

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.

Therefore, O man, thou are without excuse, every man who judges, for in what thou judge the other man, thou condemn thyself, for the man who judges is doing the same things.

But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you?

For when He finally judges, He will pay everyone with exactness for what he has done,

To the ones who continue doing what is good and who look for glory, honor and immortal life [God will give] never ending life.

But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath,

tribulation and anguish - against every soul of man who worketh out what is base, both of Jew first and of Greek, -

But glory and honour and peace - unto every one who worketh what is good, both unto Jew first and unto Greek:

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves,

They show that what the Law requires is written in their hearts, a fact to which their own consciences testify, and their thoughts will either accuse or excuse them

on that Day when, as the good news I preach teaches, God through Christ Jesus judges what men have kept secret,

But [what] if you are called a Jew and rest on the law, and boast of God,

and know his will, and approve of what is best because you have been instructed in the Law;

A teacher of the foolish, having in the law the form of knowledge and of what is true;

You who give teaching to others, do you give it to yourself? you who say that a man may not take what is not his, do you take what is not yours?

You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob [pagan] temples [of valuable idols and offerings]?

For he is not a Jew in what is visible, nor is circumcision in what is visible, in flesh,

but he is a Jew in what is hidden, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit not a document, whose praise is not from men but from God.

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness?

By no means! God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says, "That you may be shown to be upright in what you say, And win your case when you go into court."

But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

And why should we not say, "Let us do what is wrong so something good will come from it," as some people slanderously claim that we are saying? These people deserve to be condemned.

What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin,

as it is written [Psa. 14:1ff; 53:1ff], "No one [always] does what is right; not even one person.

Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God;

All have turned aside from the right path; they have every one of them become corrupt. There is no one who does what is right--no, not so much as one."

Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips:

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

For 'no human being will be pronounced righteous before God' as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered!

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised.

(What the Law produces is the Wrath, not the promise of God; where there is no law, there is no transgression either.)

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist.

Who contrary to hope, in hope believed, that he should be the father of many nations, according to what was said, "So shall thy seed be."

And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

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.

Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses.

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

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Know ye not, that to what ye present yourselves as bondmen for obedience, ye are bondmen to what ye obey, whether of sin for death, or of obedience for righteousness?

Thank God, though you did serve sin, you have rendered whole-hearted obedience to what you were taught under the rule of faith;

And when you were freed from [the practice of] sin, you became slaves to doing what is right.

I am using words in the way of men, because your flesh is feeble: as you gave your bodies as servants to what is unclean, and to evil to do evil, so now give them as servants to righteousness to do what is holy.

What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death.

For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

When we were living in the flesh [trapped by sin], the sinful passions, which were awakened by [that which] the Law [identifies as sin], were at work in our body to bear fruit for death [since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God].

But now we have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

So, through that commandment, sin found an opportunity to produce in my heart all kinds of improper desires for what belonged to others. For until there was the law, sin was dead [i.e., it did not stimulate excitement and activity as much].

Therefore, [did that which is] good become death to me? May it never be! Rather [it was] sin, in order that it might be recognized [as] sin, producing death through [what is] good for me, in order that sin might become sinful to an extraordinary degree through the commandment.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right.

For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right.

For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me.

So I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death?

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

So that what was ordered by the law might be done in us, who are living, not in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit.

People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical, and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual.

For, what is preferred by the flesh, is death, whereas, what is preferred by the spirit, is life and peace; -

Inasmuch as, what is preferred by the flesh, is hostile towards God, for, unto the law of God, it doth not submit itself, neither in fact can it. -

For I count as nothing what we now suffer, in comparison with the glory which will soon be unveiled to us.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But a hope that is seen is not real hope, for who hopes for what he actually sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we keep on patiently waiting for it.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

and He who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit thinks, for He pleads for His people in accordance with God's will.

We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good.

What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Who condemns [us]? Certainly not Jesus, for He is the One who died [i.e., to save us], and what is more, He was raised from the dead and is [now] at the right side of God. He also goes [to God] on our behalf [i.e., as we pray].

What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall anguish, or calamity, or persecution, or famine? Shall nakedness, or peril, or sword?

nor [things] above, nor [things] below, nor any [other] created thing will be able to separate us from God's love [for us], revealed through Christ Jesus our Lord [Note: The idea of this passage is "Regardless of what happens to us, God still loves us"].

I say what is true in Christ, and not what is false, my mind giving witness with me in the Holy Spirit,

For this is what the promise said: "When I come back at this time next year, Sarah will have a son."

For before the children were born or had done anything either good or bad, in order to carry out God's purpose of selection, which depends not on what men do but on his calling them,

For even before the twins were born, and therefore had not done anything good or bad, Rebecca was told [Gen. 25:23], "The older one [i.e., Esau] will serve the younger one [i.e., Jacob]." This was so that God's purpose of choosing and calling [whomever He wanted to] might prevail, instead of [it depending on] what a person did.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

So then, it does not depend on what a person wants or does, but on God, who shows pity [i.e., to whomever He wants].

But you [i.e., probably an objecting Jew] will say to me, "Why does God still find fault [with people]? For who can [successfully] resist what God wants to do?"

On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded [it], "Why did you make me like this"?

A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn't he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.

What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

And what if he thus purposed to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory?