and hope never disappoints us; for through the Holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

But God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

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.

For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is much more certain that since we have been reconciled we shall finally be saved through His new life.

And not only that, but this too: we shall continue exulting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our reconciliation.

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 just as by that man's disobedience the whole race of men were constituted sinners, so by this One's obedience the whole race of men may be brought into right standing with God.

Then law crept in to multiply the offense. Though sin has multiplied, yet God's favor has surpassed it and overflowed,

so that just as sin had reigned by death, so His favor too might reign in right standing with God which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For by the death He died He once for all ended His relation to sin, and by the life He now is living He lives in unbroken relation to God.

So you too must consider yourselves as having ended your relation to sin but living in unbroken relation to God.

and you must stop offering to sin the parts of your bodies as instruments for wrongdoing, but you must once for all offer yourselves to God as persons raised from the dead to live on perpetually, and once for all offer the parts of your bodies to God as instruments for right-doing.

For sin must not any longer exert its mastery over you, for now you are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor.

What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never!

But, thank God, that though you once were slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching in which you have been instructed,

But now, since you have been freed from sin and have become the slaves of God, the immediate result is consecration, and the final destiny is eternal life.

For the wages paid by sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life through union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good.

Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful.

For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right.

Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do.

For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law,

Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

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.

The people who live on the plane of the lower nature cannot please God.

But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God.

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

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children;

and if children, then also heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ if in reality we share His sufferings, so that we may share His glory too.

For all nature is expectantly waiting for the unveiling of the sons of God.

that even nature itself might finally be set free from its bondage to decay, so as to share the glorious freedom of God's children.

Not only that but this too, we ourselves who enjoy the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we ourselves, keep up our inner groanings while we wait to enter upon our adoption as God's sons at the redemption of our bodies.

and He who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit thinks, for He pleads for His people in accordance with God's will.

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.

What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Who can bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who declared them in right standing;

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

nor evil forces above or beneath, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God as shown in Christ Jesus our Lord.

for I could wish myself accursed, even cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen.

For they are Israelites; to them belong the privileges of sonship, God's glorious presence, the special covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, the promises,

the patriarchs, and from them by natural descent the Christ has come, who is exalted over all, God blessed forever. Amen!

But it is not that God's word has failed. For not everybody that is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel,

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.

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,

What are we then to conclude? It is not that there is injustice in God, is it? Of course not!

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

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 what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction,

And in the place where it was said, 'You are no people of mine,' they shall be called sons of the living God."

What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith;

Brothers, my heart's good will goes out for them, and my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but they are not intelligently so.

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.

For Moses says of the law-way to right standing with God that whoever can perform the law will live by it.

But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.

For if with your lips you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord, and in your hearts you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

And how can men preach unless they are sent to do so? As the Scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of men who bring the glad news of His good things!"

However, they have not all given heed to the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has put faith in what we told?"

I say then, God has not disowned His people, has He? Of course not! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?

But how did God reply to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have never bent their knees to Baal."

So it is at the present time; a remnant remains, in accordance with God's unmerited favor.

as the Scripture Says, "God has given them over to an attitude of insensibility, so that their eyes cannot see and their ears cannot hear, down to this very day."

But if their stumbling has resulted in the enrichment of the world, and their overthrow becomes the enrichment of heathen peoples, how much richer the result will be when the full quota of Jews comes in!

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

So take a look at the goodness and the severity of God; severity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, on condition that you continue to live by His goodness; otherwise, you too will be pruned away.

And they too, if they do not continue to live by their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is amply able to graft them in.

For if you were cut off from an olive wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted on to a fine olive stock, how much easier will it be for the natural branches to be grafted on to their own olive stock?

For to keep you from being self-conceited, brothers, I do not want to have a misunderstanding of this uncovered secret, that only temporary insensibility has come upon Israel until the full quota of the heathen peoples comes in,

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 gracious gifts and call of God are never taken back.

For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because of their disobedience,

For God has locked up all mankind in the prison of disobedience so as to have mercy on them all.

How fathomless the depths of God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge! How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods!

Or who has ever advanced God anything to have Him pay him back?

I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God has shown you, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, devoted and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

Stop living in accordance with the customs of this world, but by the new ideals that mold your minds continue to transform yourselves, so as to find and follow God's will; that is, what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect.

Now through the unmerited favor God has shown me I would say to every one of you not to estimate himself above his real value, but to make a sober rating of himself, in accordance with the degree of faith which God has apportioned to him.

As we have gifts that differ in accordance with the favor God has shown us, if it is that of preaching, let it be done in proportion to our faith;

always supplying the needs of God's people, ever practicing hospitality.

Stop taking revenge on one another, beloved, but leave a place for God's anger, for the Scripture says, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord."

Stop being conquered by evil, but keep on conquering evil with good.

Everybody must obey the civil authorities that are over him, for no authority exists except by God's permission; the existing authorities have been established by Him,

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself against what God has established, and those who set themselves against Him will get the penalty due them.

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.

for this is the reason why you pay your taxes, for the civil authorities are God's official servants faithfully devoting themselves to this very end.

The man who eats anything must not look down on the man who does not do so, nor must the man who does not do so condemn the man who does, for God has fully accepted him.

The man who keeps a certain day keeps it for the Lord. The man who eats anything does it for the Lord too, for he gives God thanks. The man who refuses to eat anything does it for the Lord too, and gives God thanks.

Then why should you criticize your brother? Or, why should you look down on your brother? Surely, we shall all stand before God to be judged,

for the Scripture says: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall make acknowledgment to God.'"

So each of us must give an account of himself to God.

For the kingdom of God does not consist in what we eat and drink, but in doing right, in peace and joy through the Holy Spirit;

whoever in this way continues serving Christ is well-pleasing to God and approved by men.

Stop undoing the work of God just for the sake of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything when it makes another stumble.

On your part, you must exercise your faith by the standard of yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man who need not condemn himself for doing the thing that he approves.

Each one of us must practice pleasing his neighbor, to help in his immediate upbuilding for his eternal good.

May God, who gives men patient endurance and encouragement, grant you such harmony with one another, in accordance with the standard which Christ Jesus sets,