Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

To all those loved by God in Rome, called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God.

For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, "The righteous by faith will live."

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness,

slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents,

And do you think, whoever you are, when you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God's judgment?

He will reward each one according to his works:

There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek,

For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.

on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law,

Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And will not the physically uncircumcised man who keeps the law judge you who, despite the written code and circumcision, transgress the law?

Actually, there are many advantages. First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: "so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged."

What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one."

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin."

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants -- not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, "so will your descendants be."

but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

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

(For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.)

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God's wrath.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned --

For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

(for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.

that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God's children.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God's will.

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written, "For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen.

It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,

nor are all the children Abraham's true descendants; rather "through Isaac will your descendants be counted."

For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son."

it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger,"

For he says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?"

As he also says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'My people,' and I will call her who was unloved, 'My beloved.'"

"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,

for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly."

just as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: "The one who does these things will live by them."

But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)

or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

But I ask, have they not heard? Yes, they have: Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

But again I ask, didn't Israel understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger."

And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me."

But about Israel he says, "All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!"

Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.

Then you will say, "The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."

For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God -- harshness toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

And even they -- if they do not continue in their unbelief -- will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

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

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.

Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God -- what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function,