Jesus, however, had been speaking of his death; but as they imagined he meant natural sleep,

concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring by natural descent

That is why God has given them up to vile passions; their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural,

and in the same way the males have abandoned the natural use of women and flamed out in lust for one another, men perpetrating shameless acts with their own sex and getting in their own persons the due recompense of their perversity.

But if so, what can we say about Abraham, our forefather by natural descent?

I could have wished myself accursed and banished from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen;

the patriarchs are theirs, and theirs too (so far as natural descent goes) is the Christ. (Blessed for evermore be the God who is over all! Amen.)

they are not all children of Abraham because they are descended from Abraham. No, it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??8 meaning that instead of God's children being the children born to him by natural descent, it is the children of the Promise who are reckoned as his true offspring.

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

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?

It is only natural for me to be thinking of you all in this way, for alike in my prison and as I defend and vindicate the gospel, I bear in mind how you all share with me in the grace divine.

For whoever listens and does nothing, is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror;