For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek.

for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark.

They know God's decree that those who act in this way deserve to die, yet they not only do it, but applaud any who do.

For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright.

So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised?

For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external.

The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.

And why not say, as people abuse us for saying and charge us with saying, "Let us do evil that good may come out of it"? Such people will be condemned as they deserve!

What does this mean? Are we Jews at a disadvantage? Not at all. We have already charged Jews and Greeks all alike with being under the control of sin.

As the Scripture says, "There is not a single man who is upright,

All have turned away, they are one and all worthless, No one does right, not a single one!

They do not know the way of peace.

Does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the heathen too? Of course he belongs to the heathen too;

For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God,

Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation,

In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before;

and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;

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.

His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children.

He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,

and hope will not disappoint us. For, through the holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

It is true sin was in the world before the Law was given, and men are not charged with sin where there is no law.

Still death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam had, in the face of an express command. So Adam foreshadowed the one who was to come.

Certainly not! When we have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

So sin must not reign over your mortal bodies, and make you obey their cravings,

and you must not offer the parts of your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrong, but offer yourselves to God as men brought back from death to life, and offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of uprightness.

For sin must no longer control you, for you live not under law but under mercy.

What follows, then? Are we to sin, because we live not under law but under mercy? Certainly not!

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

Do you not know, brothers??or I am speaking to men who know what law is??hat law governs a man only as long as he lives?

But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was.

I do not understand what I am doing, for I do not do what I want to do; I do things that I hate.

But if I do what I do not want to do, I acknowledge that the Law is right.

In reality, it is not I that do these things; it is sin, which has possession of me.

I do not do the good things that I want to do; I do the wrong things that I do not want to do.

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is not I that am acting, it is sin, which has possession of me.

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.

But you are not physical but spiritual, if God's Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ's spirit, he does not belong to Christ.

So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control,

It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us.

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit itself pleads for us with inexpressible yearnings,

Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything?

Not that God's message has failed. For not everybody who is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel,

That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity.

And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac.

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,

So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God.

Has not the potter with his clay the right to make from the same lump one thing for exalted uses and another for menial ones?

including us whom he has called not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen?

Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

As Isaiah foretold, "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us children, We would have been like Sodom, and have resembled Gomorrah!"

Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;

while Israel, straining after a law that should bring uprightness, did not come up to it.

And why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through doing certain things. They stumbled over that stone that makes people stumble,

I can testify to their sincere devotion to God, but it is not an intelligent devotion.

But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?' " that is, to bring Christ down;

But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them?

It is true, they have not all accepted the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what we have told?"

Then Isaiah broke out boldly and said, "I have been found by men who were not looking for me, I have shown myself to men who were not asking what my will was."

God has not repudiated his people, which he had marked out from the first. Do you not know what the Scripture says in speaking of Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel?

But if it is by his mercy, it is not for anything they have done. Otherwise, his mercy would not be mercy at all.

you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid,

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

Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in,

for God does not change his mind about those to whom he gives his blessings or sends his call.

You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God's will is??hat is good, pleasing, and perfect.

By the favor that God has shown me, I would tell every one of you not to think too highly of himself, but to think reasonably, judging himself by the degree of faith God has allowed him.

For just as there are many parts united in our human bodies, and the parts do not all have the same function,

not wanting in devotion, but on fire with the Spirit. Serve the Lord.

Bless your persecutors; bless them; do not curse them.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be too ambitious, but accept humble tasks. Do not be conceited.

Do not pay anyone back with evil for evil. See that you are above reproach in the eyes of everyone.

Do not take your revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."

Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

for they are God's agents to do you good. But if you do wrong you may well be afraid, for they do not carry swords for nothing. They are God's servants, to execute his wrath upon wrongdoers.

You must obey them, therefore, not only to escape God's wrath, but as a matter of principle,

For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery, You must not murder, You must not steal, You must not covet," and any other commandments there are, are all summed up in one saying, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

The night is nearly over; the day is at hand. So let us throw aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light.

Let us live honorably, as in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, or in immorality and indecency, or in quarreling and jealousy.

But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.

Treat people who are overscrupulous in their faith like brothers; do not criticize their views.

The man who will eat anything must not look down on the man who abstains from some things, and the man who abstains from them must not criticize the one who does not, for God has accepted him.

Therefore let us not criticize one another any more. You must resolve instead never to put any hindrance or obstacle in your brother's way.

For if your brother's feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died.

The thing you have a right to do must not become a cause of reproach.

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of uprightness, peace, and happiness through the possession of the holy Spirit.

You must not, just for the sake of food, undo the work of God. It is true, everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to hurt the consciences of others by what he eats.