concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring by natural descent

through whom I have received the favour of my commission to promote obedience to the faith for his sake among all the Gentiles,

including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ:

to all in Rome who are beloved by God, called to be saints, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers,

For I am proud of the gospel; it is God's saving power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

But God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of those who hinder the Truth by their wickedness.

So God has given them up, in their heart's lust, to sexual vice, to the dishonouring of their own bodies, ??25 since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

'We know the doom of God falls justly upon those who practise such vices.'

Very well; and do you imagine you will escape God's doom, O man, you who judge those who practise such vices and do the same yourself?

eternal life to those who by patiently doing good aim at glory, honour, and immortality,

but anger and wrath to those who are wilful, who disobey the Truth and obey wickedness ??9 anguish and calamity for every human soul that perpetrates evil, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well,

but glory, honour, and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

All who sin outside the Law will perish outside the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be condemned by the Law.

For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just in the eyes of God, it is those who obey the Law who will be acquitted,

[Move vss 14,15 to follow vs 16] (When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law;

And shall not those who are physically uncircumcised and who fulfil the Law, judge you who are a breaker of the Law for all your written code and circumcision?)

He is no Jew who is merely a Jew outwardly, nor is circumcision something outward in the flesh;

he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual not literal ??praised by God, not by man.

Whatever the Law says, we know, it says to those who are inside the Law, that every mouth may be shut and all the world made answerable to God;

but it is a righteousness of God which comes by believing in Jesus Christ. And it is meant for all who have faith. No distinctions are drawn.

whom God put forward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the fact that sins previously committed during the time of God's forbearance had been passed over;

Well then, there is one God, a God who will justify the circumcised as they believe and the uncircumcised on the score of faith.

but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness.

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!

He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

as well as a father of those circumcised persons who not only share circumcision but walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had as an uncircumcised man.

For if it is adherents of the Law who are heirs, then faith is empty of all meaning and the promise is void.

That is why all turns upon faith; it is to make the promise a matter of favour, to make it secure for all the offspring, not simply for those who are adherents of the Law but also for those who share the faith of Abraham ??of Abraham who is the father of us all

(as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist.

but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

Not only so, but we triumph in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we now enjoy our reconciliation.

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come,

For if the trespass of one man allowed death to reign through that one man, much more shall those who receive the overflowing grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life through One, through Jesus Christ.

Surely you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death!

you must not let sin have your members for the service of vice, you must dedicate yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, dedicating your members to God for the service of righteousness.

Do you not know you are the servants of the master you obey, of the master to whom you yield yourselves obedient, whether it is Sin, whose service ends in death, or Obedience, whose service ends in righteousness?

Surely you know, my brothers ??for I am speaking to men who know what law means ??that the law has hold over a person only during his lifetime!

It is the same in your case, my brothers. The crucified body of Christ made you dead to the Law, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might be fruitful to God.

That being so, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me.

Well, if I act against my wishes, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me.

Miserable wretch that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thus there is no doom now for those who are in Christ Jesus;

For those who follow the flesh have their interests in the flesh, and those who follow the Spirit have their interests in the Spirit.

Those who are in the flesh cannot satisfy God.

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells within you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies live by his indwelling Spirit in your lives.

For the sons of God are those who are guided by the Spirit of God.

For creation was not rendered futile by its own choice, but by the will of Him who thus made it subject,

and not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we sigh to ourselves as we wait for the redemption of the body that means our full sonship.

We were saved with this hope in view. Now when an object of hope is seen, there is no further need to hope. Who ever hopes for what he sees already?

and He who searches the human heart knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, since the Spirit pleads before God for the saints.

We know also that those who love God, those who have been called in terms of his purpose, have his aid and interest in everything.

For he decreed of old that those whom he predestined should share the likeness of his Son ??that he might be the firstborn of a great brotherhood.

Then he calls those whom he has thus decreed; then he justifies those whom he has called; then he glorifies those whom he has justified.

Now what follows from all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

Who is to accuse the elect of God? When God acquits,

who shall condemn? Will Christ? ??the Christ who died, yes and rose from the dead! the Christ who is at God's right hand, who actually pleads for us!

No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

the patriarchs are theirs, and theirs too (so far as natural descent goes) is the Christ. (Blessed for evermore be the God who is over all! Amen.)

It is not, of course, as if God's word had failed! Far from it! 'Israel' does not mean everyone who belongs to Israel;

they are not all children of Abraham because they are descended from Abraham. No, it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??8 meaning that instead of God's children being the children born to him by natural descent, it is the children of the Promise who are reckoned as his true offspring.

God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I choose to have compassion.

"Then," you will retort, "why does he go on finding fault? Who can oppose his will?"

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory ??24 that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

As indeed he says in Hosea, Those who were no people of mine, I will call 'my People,' and her 'beloved' who was not beloved;

What are we to conclude, then? That Gentiles who never aimed at righteousness have attained righteousness, that is, righteousness by faith;

whereas Israel who did aim at the law of righteousness have failed to reach that law.

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

Moses writes of law-righteousness, Anyone who can perform it, shall live by it.

But here is what faith-righteousness says: ??Say not in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down).

Or, 'who will go down to the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ from the dead).

No one who believes in him, the scripture says, will ever be disappointed. No one ??12 for there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of them all, with ample for all who invoke him.

Everyone who invokes the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But how are they to invoke One in whom they do not believe? And how are they to believe in One of whom they have never heard? And how are they ever to hear, without a preacher?

But they have not all given in to the gospel of glad news? No, Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what they heard from us?

And then Isaiah dares to say, I have been found by those who never sought me, I have shown myself to those who never inquired of me.

Yet what is the divine answer? I have left myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal.

Consider both the kindness and the severity of God; those who fall come under his severity, but you come under the divine kindness, provided you adhere to that kindness. Otherwise, you will be cut away too.

Who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord? Who has ever been his counsellor?

Who has first given to him and has to be repaid?

In virtue of my office, I tell everyone of your number who is self-important, that he is not to think more of himself than he ought to think; he must take a sane view of himself, corresponding to the degree of faith which God has assigned to each.

Bless those who make a practice of persecuting you; bless them instead of cursing them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Hence anyone who resists authority is opposing the divine order, and the opposition will bring judgment on themselves.

Be in debt to no man ??apart from the debt of love one to another. He who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law.

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.

the man who values a particular day does so to the Lord. The eater eats to the Lord, since he thanks God for his food; the non-eater abstains to the Lord, and he too thanks God.

I know, I am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is in itself unclean; only, anything is unclean for a man who considers it unclean.

If your brother is being injured because you eat a certain food, then you are no longer living by the rule of love. Do not let that food of yours ruin the man for whom Christ died.

he who serves Christ on these lines, is acceptable to God and esteemed by men.

Certainly keep your own conviction on the matter, as between yourself and God; he is a fortunate man who has no misgivings about what he allows himself to eat.

We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves.

Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

May the God who inspires stedfastness and encouragement grant you such harmony with one another, after Christ Jesus,

or again, as Isaiah says, Then shall the Scion of Jessai live, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles set their hope.