God had promised this good news a long time ago through His prophets [and had it written] in the holy Scriptures [i.e., the Old Testament].

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to immorality, [that] their bodies would be dishonored among themselves,

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

And dost thou suppose, O man, who art judging those who do such things, and art thyself doing the same, that thou wilt escape the judgment of God?

but unto those who are contentious, and do not yield to the truth, but give way to injustice, indignation and wrath,

Thou therefore who teachest another, dost thou not teach thyself? thou that proclaimest aloud that a man should not steal, dost thou steal?

God must prove true, though every man prove a liar! As Scripture says of God-'That thou mayest be pronounced righteous in what thou sayest, and gain thy cause when men would judge thee.'

But if my "lie" [i.e., as you Jews call it] would result in God's truthfulness [about you Jews] increasing the honor He receives, why am I also still judged to be a sinner [by you]?

And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.

Now we [all] know that everything the law says applies to those who are under [obligation to obey] that law, [Note: Here "the law" appears to refer to the Old Testament Scriptures generally, since Psalms and Isaiah are quoted. See verses 10-18]. This is so that the mouth of every objector may be stopped [i.e., from making excuses for his sin], and thereby bring the entire world under God's judgment [i.e., both Jews and Gentiles].

whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah's blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.

God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.

For if Abraham was justified by actions, he would have had something to boast about though not before God.

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 the promise to Abraham or to his descendants, [that] he would be heir of the world, [was] not through the law, but through the righteousness by faith.

Hoping in spite of hopeless circumstances, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," just as he had been told: "This is how many descendants you will have."

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

Yet he looked for the promise of God [to be fulfilled] and did not waver, doubting [that it would happen], but his faith strengthened him. He honored God

being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Nevertheless, death ruled from the time of Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the same way Adam did when he disobeyed. He is a foreshadowing of the one who would come.

So then, just as [God's] judgment came, condemning all people [to physical death] because of one sin [i.e., Adam's]; even so the free gift of being made right with God and [resulting in] life may be received by all people because of one man's [i.e., Christ's] act of righteousness. [Note: This "life" may refer to spiritual life now, or to being made alive in the resurrection, which would reverse the curse of physical death caused by Adam's sin].

Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more,

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

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.

For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

But now we have been released from the Law and its penalty, having died [through Christ] to that by which we were held captive, so that we serve [God] in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter [of the Law].

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, “You shall not covet.”

Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

in order that the requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For the interests of the flesh are hostile to God; they do not yield to the law of God (indeed they cannot).

For if you so live, death is near; but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live.

You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!"

mankind impatiently desire that the divine being would display himself to his creatures,

Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

And likewise also the Spirit takes hold together, and assists our weaknesses: for what we would pray for as we ought, we know not, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.

For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

He who didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who [i.e., what] can separate us from Christ's love [for us]? [i.e., what unfortunate circumstance of life might suggest that Christ does not love us?] Would [it be] trouble? Or distress? Or persecution? Or inadequate food? Or inadequate clothing? Or danger? Or [even] death?

For I would pray, that I myself might be an offering from Christ; in behalf of my brethren, my kindred according to the flesh:

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) --

that 'the elder would be a servant to the younger.'

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?"

And Isaiah calls out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is only the remnant [a small believing minority] that will be saved [from God’s judgment];

It is as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us seed [future generations from which a believing remnant of Israelites came],
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah [totally rejected and destroyed]!”

While Israel, which was in search of a Law which would ensure righteousness, failed to discover one.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God about the Jews is that they would be saved.

They would not surrender to the righteousness of God, because they were ignorant of his righteousness and therefore essayed to set up a righteousness of their own.

For Moses wrote [Lev. 18:5] about a person being made right with God by obeying the requirements of the law of Moses, that he would gain [never ending] life for doing this.

But if it is by grace [God’s unmerited favor], it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace [it would not be a gift but a reward for works].

as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day."

I say then, did they stumble so that they would fall? May it not happen! But in their transgression, salvation is to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy.

For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

For if God spared not the natural branches, neither would He spare thee.

Behold then the goodness and severity of God: upon them who have fallen, severity; upon thee goodness of God, if thou shalt abide in goodness, since otherwise thou also wilt be cut away.

For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

For, just as, ye, at one time had not yielded unto God, and yet now have received mercy by their refusal to yield,

So, these also, have now refused to yield, by your own mercy, in order that, themselves also, should now become objects of mercy;

For God hath shut up all together, in a refusal to yield, in order that, upon all, he may bestow mercy.

[Note: The following are rhetorical questions raised from their reading of the Old Testament]. For who has known [what goes on in] the Lord's mind? Or, who has been His advisor?

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.

As for brotherly love, be affectionate to one another; in matters of worldly honour, yield to one another.

Therefore, "if thy enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou wilt heap coals of fire on his head."

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

the magistrate is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, you may well be alarmed; a magistrate does not wield the power of the sword for nothing, he is God's servant for the infliction of divine vengeance upon evil-doers.

Let's behave decently, as people who live in the light of day. No wild parties, drunkenness, sexual immorality, promiscuity, quarreling, or jealousy!

I would ask the one man 'Why do you judge your Brother?' And I would ask the other 'Why do you despise your Brother?' For we shall all stand before the Bar of God.

Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

For all that was written of old has been written for our instruction, so that we may always have hope through the power of endurance and the encouragement which the Scriptures afford.

Yet I have written to you more boldly in part, my brethren, as if I would put you in remembrance, on account of the grace which is given to me by God,

For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed,

And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation;

but [instead I would act on this goal] as it is written [in Scripture],

“They who had no news of Him shall see,
And they who have not heard [of Him] shall understand.”

In order that I may be delivered from them who do not yield in Judaea, and, my ministry which is unto Jerusalem, may prove to be acceptable unto the saints;

For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.