but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks alike, the Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

It is so, because God's nonsense is wiser than men's wisdom, and God's weakness is mightier than men's might.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred to Him, and you are that temple.

But God's free gift is not at all to be compared with the offense. For if by one man's offense the whole race of men have died, to a much greater degree God's favor and His gift imparted by His favor through the one man Jesus Christ, has overflowed for the whole race of men.

For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them,

He is the reflection of God's glory and the perfect representation of His being, and continues to uphold the universe by His mighty word. After He had procured man's purification from sins, He took His seat at the right hand of God's majesty,

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.

So if we have already been brought into right standing with God by Christ's death, it is much more certain that by Him we shall be saved from God's wrath.

Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it.

For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing.

As measured by the good news the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes, but as measured by God's choice they are His beloved because of their forefathers,

For the civil authorities are God's servants to do you good. But if you practice doing wrong, you should dread them, for they do not wield the sword for nothing. Indeed, they are God's servants to inflict punishment upon people who do wrong.

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

On the other hand, I have renounced all underhanded, disgraceful methods; I neither practice cunning nor do I tamper with God's message, but by clear and candid statements of truth I try to commend myself to every human conscience in God's sight.

As God's fellow-worker I beg you too not to accept God's favor and throw it away.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus;

Then the doors of God's temple in heaven were thrown open, and inside the temple was seen the chest containing God's covenant, and there followed flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail.

In this way is shown the patient endurance of God's people, who always cling to God's commands and their faith in Jesus.

for God is not a God of disorder but of order, as it is in all the churches of God's people.

Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all God's people all over Greece:

But since he was full of the Holy Spirit, he looked right into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God;

by whom we have an introduction through faith into this state of God's favor, in which we safely stand; and let us continue exulting in the hope of enjoying the glorious presence of God.

Yes, we know that all things go on working together for the good of those who keep on loving God, who are called in accordance with God's purpose.

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called to be God's people, in fellowship with those who anywhere call upon the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Are you not conscious that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God has His permanent home in you?

because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

Because the service rendered by this sacred offering is not only fully supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also running over with many thanks to God for it.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

But, although we had just suffered and been insulted, as you remember, at Philippi, we again summoned courage by the help of God, in spite of the terrific strain, to tell you God's good news.

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to stimulate faith in God's chosen people and to lead them on to a full knowledge of religious truth,

For whoever is admitted into God's rest himself has rested from his works, just as God did.

How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor?

to the festal gathering and assembly of God's firstborn sons enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a Judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men who have attained perfection,

and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend."

Because the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will the end be of those who are rejecting God's good news?

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

Dearly beloved, do not follow bad examples but good ones. Whoever practices doing right is God's child; whoever practices doing wrong has never seen God.

For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by giving up their authority to the wild beast until God's words are carried out.

and screamed aloud, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name, I beg you, do not torture me."

If anyone is willing to keep on doing God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God, or merely expresses my own ideas.

and the people shouted, "It is a god's voice, not a man's!"

Since then we are God's offspring, we ought not to suppose that His nature is like gold or silver or stone or anything carved by man's art and thought.

For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."

That is, it is not Abraham's natural descendants who are God's children, but those who are made children by the promise are counted his true descendants.

So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him.

so that your faith might not be in men's wisdom, but in God's power.

to men who have no written law, like one without any law, though I am not without God's law but specially under Christ's law, to win the men who have no written law.

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

You must put on God's full armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems.

All God's people wish to be remembered to you, but more especially the members of the Emperor's household.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,

May the Lord guide you into a realization of God's love for you and into a patient endurance like Christ's.

So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth's vine, and flung them into the wine press of God's wrath,

If men to whom God's message came are called gods -- and the Scriptures cannot be made null and void --

Whoever trusts in Him is never to come up for judgment, but whoever does not trust in Him has already received his sentence, because he has not trusted in the name of God's only Son.

But whoever is in the habit of living the truth will come out in the daylight, that his actions may be shown to be performed with God's help."

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued courageously to speak God's message.

So with great power the apostles continued to give their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's favor rested richly on them all.

So God's message continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly; a large number, even of priests, continued to surrender to the faith.

So he said, "Look! I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand."

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.

Now, as Peter was going here and there among them all, he finally went down to God's people who lived at Lydda.

So at once I sent for you, and you have been kind enough to come. So now we are all here in God's presence to listen to anything that the Lord has commanded you to say."

Now the apostles and the brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen too had accepted God's message.

When they reached Salamis, they began to preach God's message in the Jewish synagogues. They had John with them as their assistant.

He was an intimate friend of the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul and in this way tried to hear God's message.

For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay,

The next sabbath almost the whole town turned out to hear God's message.

Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.

The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed,

and from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been committed to God's favor for the work which they had finished.

Then they told God's message to him and to all the members of his household.

But when the Jews at Thessalonica learned that God's message had been proclaimed at Berea by Paul, they came there too to excite the masses and stir up a riot.

So for a year and a half he settled down among them and went on teaching God's message.

But as he bade them goodbye, he promised, "I will come back to you again, if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus.

Because he wished to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to welcome him. On his arrival he rendered great service to those who through God's favor had believed,

But now I count as nothing the sacrifice of my life, if only I can finish my race and render the service entrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of faithfully telling the good news of God's favor.

for I never shrank from telling you God's whole plan.

And now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of His favor, which is able to build you up and to give you your proper possession among all God's consecrated people.

The people standing near him said, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?"

That was what I did at Jerusalem; yes, I received authority from the high priests and shut behind the prison bars many of God's people. Yes, when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and often in all the synagogues

"So you must understand that this message of God's salvation has been sent to the heathen; and they will listen to it!"

Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to preach God's good news,

proved to be God's Son in power by the resurrection from the dead -- I mean, Jesus Christ, our Lord,

through whom we have received God's favor and a commission as an apostle in His name to urge upon all the heathen obedience inspired by faith,

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

For God's anger from heaven is being uncovered against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth;

Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.

Now we know that God's judgment justly falls on those who practice such sins as these.

Do you think so little of the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not conscious that His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

But in your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when the justice of God's judgments will be uncovered.

for there is no partiality in God's dealings.

What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness?