asking if I may at last be sped upon my way to you by God's will.

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?

For he will render to everyone according to what he has done,

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,

understanding his will, and with a sense of what is vital in religion; if you are instructed by the Law

for no person will be acquitted in his sight on the score of obedience to law. What the Law imparts is the consciousness of sin.

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

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count to him.

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,

Why, a man will hardly die for the just ??though one might bring oneself to die, if need be, for a good man.

Just as one man's disobedience made all the rest sinners, so one man's obedience will make all the rest righteous.

Accordingly, she will be termed an adulteress if she becomes another man's while her husband is alive; but if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of 'the husband,' so that she is no adulteress if she becomes another man's.

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

God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

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.

If you live by the flesh, you are on the road to death; but if by the Spirit you put the actions of the body to death, you will live.

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

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

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 powers of the Height or of the Depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to part us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For when God said, I will come about this time and Sara shall have a son, that was a word of promise.

she was told that the elder will serve the younger.

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.

You see, it is not a question of human will or effort but of the divine mercy.

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

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;

for the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with rigour and despatch.

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.

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).

Confess with your mouth that 'Jesus is Lord,' believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved;

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.

Then, I ask, "Did Israel not understand?" Why, first of all Moses declares, I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation, I will provoke you to anger over a nation devoid of understanding.

Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in?

For if their exclusion means that the world is reconciled to God, what will their admission mean? Why, it will be life from the dead!

Supposing some of the branches have been broken off, while you have been grafted in like a shoot of wild olive to share the rich growth of the olive-stem,

You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!"

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

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.

And even the others will be grafted in, if they do not adhere to their unbelief; God can graft them in again.

For if you have been cut from an olive which is naturally wild, and grafted, contrary to nature, upon a garden olive, how much more will the natural branches be grafted into their proper olive?

This done, all Israel will be saved ??as it is written, The deliverer will come from Sion, he will banish all godlessness from Jacob:

Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely, what is good and acceptable to him and perfect.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

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

Magistrates are no terror to an honest man, though they are to a bad man. If you want to avoid being alarmed at the government-authorities, lead an honest life and you will be commended for it;

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.

Each of us then will have to answer for himself to God.

and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy ??as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way.

When I do come to you, I know I will bring a full blessing from Christ.

Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.