To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgment of God.

For God set him before the world, to be, by the shedding of his blood, a means of reconciliation through faith. And this God did to prove his righteousness, and because, in his forbearance, he had passed over the sins that men had previously committed;

As Scripture says-'I have made thee the Father of many nations.') And this they do in the sight of that God in whom Abraham had faith, and who gives life to the dead, and speaks of what does not yet exist as if it did.

Set free from the control of Sin, you became servants to Righteousness.

But now that you have been set free from the control of Sin, and have become servants to God, the fruit that you reap is an ever-increasing holiness, and the end Immortal Life.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.

But now we are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.

For through your union with Christ Jesus, the Law of the life- giving Spirit has set you free from the Law of Sin and Death.

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

What are we to say, then, in the light of all this? If God is on our side, who can there be against us?

In Scripture, again, it is said to Pharaoh-'It was for this very purpose that I raised thee to the throne, to show my power by my dealings with thee, and to make my name known throughout the world.'

And in the very place where it was said to them-"Ye are not my People", they shall be called Sons of the Living God.'

For, in their ignorance of the Divine Righteousness, and in their eagerness to set up a righteousness of their own, they refused to accept with submission the Divine Righteousness.

Still, it may be said, every one did not give heed to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks--'Lord, who has believed our teaching?'

In brotherly love, be affectionate to one another; in showing respect, set an example of deference to one another;