And just as they refused to continue to retain God in their knowledge, so did God cast them out to an outcast mind, to do those things which were indecent.

Not at all. Let God prove true, though every man be false! As the Scripture says, "That you may prove yourself upright in words you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

Be it far from us; for in that case how could God judge the world?

But in the case of a man who works, pay is not reckoned a favour but a debt;

whereas in the case of a man who pleads no actions of his own, but simply believes in Him who declares the ungodly free from guilt, his faith is placed to his credit as righteousness.

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.

and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death.

Did, then, a thing, which in itself was good, involve Death in my case? Heaven forbid! It was sin that involved Death; so that, by its use of what I regarded as good to bring about my Death, its true nature might appear; and in this way the Commandment showed how intensely sinful sin is.

so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane.

For I could wish to be myself accursed and cast out from Christ in behalf of my brethren, my kinsmen as to the flesh;

this appears too from the case of Rebecca, who conceived twins by our father Isaac.

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?

and if by grace, it is not at all by works: since in that case grace is no more grace.

For, if their being cast aside has meant the reconciliation of the world, what will their reception mean, but Life from the dead?

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

for the sake of victuals cast not down the work of God; all things, indeed, are pure, but evil is to the man who is eating through stumbling.