More than that, we ought to glory in our troubles, for we know that trouble produces endurance,

and hope will not disappoint 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 when we were still sinners.

So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God's anger!

If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, it is far more certain that now that we are reconciled we shall be saved through sharing in his life!

More than that, we actually glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we owe our reconciliation.

But there is no comparison between God's gift and that offense. For if one man's offense made the mass of mankind die, God's mercy and his gift given through the favor of the one man Jesus Christ have far more powerfully affected mankind.

Nor is there any comparison between the gift and the effects of that one man's sin. That sentence arose from the act of one man, and was for condemnation; but God's gift arose out of many offenses and results in acquittal.

For if that one man's offense made death reign through that one man, all the more will those who receive God's overflowing mercy and his gift of uprightness live and reign through the one individual Jesus Christ.

For just as that one man's disobedience made the mass of mankind sinners, so this one's obedience will make the mass of them upright.

so that just as sin had reigned through death, mercy might reign through uprightness and bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father's glory, we too may live a new life.

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,

for we know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more hold on him.

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

But, thank God! though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from your hearts to the standard of teaching that you received,

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you get is consecration, and the final result is eternal life.

So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress.

So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

That command gave sin an opening, and it led me to all sorts of covetous ways, for sin is lifeless without law.

and the command that should have meant life in my case proved to mean death.

Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was.

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am physical, sold into slavery to sin.

I do not understand what I am doing, for I do not do what I want to do; I do things that I hate.

But if I do what I do not want to do, I acknowledge that the Law is right.

In reality, it is not I that do these things; it is sin, which has possession of me.

For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right.

I do not do the good things that I want to do; I do the wrong things that I do not want to do.

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is not I that am acting, it is sin, which has possession of me.

I find the law to be that I who want to do right am dogged by what is wrong.

but all through my body I see another principle in conflict with the law of my reason, which makes me a prisoner to that law of sin that runs through my body.

so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you.

It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children,

For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us.

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to decay, and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that all creation has been groaning in agony together until now.

More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies.

It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good.

For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;

Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything?

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor their hierarchies nor the present nor the future

when I say that I am greatly pained and my heart is constantly distressed,

Not that God's message has failed. For not everybody who is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel,

That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity.

And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac.

What do we conclude? That God is guilty of injustice? By no means.

Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;

while Israel, straining after a law that should bring uprightness, did not come up to it.

And why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through doing certain things. They stumbled over that stone that makes people stumble,

Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

For Christ marks the termination of law, so that now anyone who has faith may attain uprightness.

Moses said that anyone who carried out the uprightness the Law prescribed would find life through it.

But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?' " that is, to bring Christ down;

or " 'Who will go down into the depths?' " that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.

No! This is what it says: "God's message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind"??hat is, the message about faith that we preach.

For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So faith comes from hearing what is told, and that hearing comes through the message about Christ.

The rest became callous; as the Scripture says, "God has thrown them into a state of spiritual insensibility, with eyes that cannot see and cars that cannot hear, that has lasted down to this day."

Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; Make their backs bend forever under their burden!"

But it is to you who are of the heathen that I am speaking. So far then as I am an apostle to the heathen, I make the most of my ministry,

you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

"But," you will say, "branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!"

That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid,

For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in,

so they are now disobedient in order that they in turn may experience the same mercy as you.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship.

You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God's will is??hat is good, pleasing, and perfect.

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.

We have gifts that differ with the favor that God has shown us, whether it is that of preaching, differing with the measure of our faith,

Do not pay anyone back with evil for evil. See that you are above reproach in the eyes of everyone.

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves.

All this especially, because you know this critical time and that it is time for you to wake from your sleep, for our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

I know and as a follower of the Lord Jesus I am convinced that nothing is unclean in itself; a thing is unclean only to the man who regards it as unclean.

Whoever serves Christ in that way pleases God and gains the approval of men.

For your part, you must keep the faith you have to yourself, as between God and you. He is a happy man who has no fault to find with himself in following the course that he approves,

but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.

For everything that was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by being steadfast and through the encouragement the Scriptures give, we might hold our hope fast.

that you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one accord and one voice.

I hold that Christ has become an agent of circumcision to show God's truthfulness in carrying out the promises made to our forefathers,

May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit.

For my part, as far as you are concerned, my brothers, I am convinced that you are already full of goodness of heart, endowed with perfect knowledge, and well qualified to instruct one another.

in making me a minister of Christ Jesus among the heathen, to act as a priest of God's good news, to see that the heathen are an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the holy Spirit.

by the force of signs and marvels, and by the power of the holy Spirit, with the result that I have completed the preaching of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum.

and I know that when I do come to see you, I will come with Christ's fullest blessing.

I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the love that the Spirit inspires, join me in most earnest prayer to God for me.

Pray that I may escape from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people,

so that, if it is God's will, I may come with a glad heart to see you and enjoy a visit with you.

who risked their necks to save my life. Not only I but also all the churches among the heathen thank them. Remember me also to the church that meets at their house.

Remember me to that veteran Christian, Apelles. Remember me to those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.