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.

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me.

Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature?

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,

so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

For people who live by the standard set by their lower nature are usually thinking the things suggested by that nature, and people who live by the standard set by the Spirit are usually thinking the things suggested by the Spirit.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you.

For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father."

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 I consider all that we suffer in this present life is nothing to be compared with the glory which by-and-by is to be uncovered for us.

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.

Yes, we know that all nature has gone on groaning in agony together till the present moment.

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.

But a hope that is seen is not real hope, for who hopes for what he actually sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we keep on patiently waiting for it.

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.

For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers;

For I have full assurance that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor the present nor the future

that I have deep grief and constant anguish in my heart;

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.

Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac.

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!

For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on any man that I choose to have mercy on, and take pity on any man that I choose to take pity on."

So He has mercy on any man that He chooses to, and He hardens any man that He chooses to harden.

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?"

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,

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;

while Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law that would bring right standing, did not attain to it.

Why? Because they did not try through faith but through what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble,

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

But here is what the faith-way to right standing 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.

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.

For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation.

But again I ask, Israel did not understand, did they? For in the first place Moses says: "I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation; I will provoke you to anger at a senseless nation."

But of Israel he said: "All day long I have held out my hands to a people that is disobedient and obstinate."

But if it is by His unmerited favor, it is not at all conditioned on what they have done. If that were so, His favor would not be favor at all.

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."

Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent,

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.

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,

and so in that way all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says: "From Zion the Deliverer will come; He will remove ungodliness from Jacob;

so they too are now disobedient because of the mercy shown you, that they too may now have mercy shown them.

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.

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;

Stop returning evil for evil to anyone. Always see to it that your affairs are right in the sight of everybody.

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.

Do this in particular because you know the present crisis, that it is high time for you to wake up out of your sleep, for our salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and put a stop to gratifying the evil desires that lurk in your lower nature.

One man believes that he can eat anything; another who is overscrupulous eats nothing but vegetables.

I know, and through my union with the Lord Jesus I have a clear conviction, that nothing is unclean in itself; that a thing is unclean only to the person who thinks it unclean.

So let us keep on pursuing the things that make for peace and our mutual upbuilding.

The right thing to do is not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything else, that makes your brother 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.

But the man who has misgivings about eating, if he then eats, has already condemned himself by so doing, because he did not follow his faith, and any action that does not follow one's faith is a sin.

For everything that was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by our patient endurance and through the encouragement the Scriptures bring we might continuously cherish our hope.

that with united hearts and lips you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, I mean that Christ has become a servant to Israel to prove God's truthfulness, to make valid His promises to our forefathers,

May the hope-inspiring God so fill you with perfect joy and peace through your continuing faith, that you may bubble over with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As far as I am concerned about you, my brothers, I am convinced that you especially are abounding in the highest goodness, richly supplied with perfect knowledge and competent to counsel one another.

in making me a minister of Christ Jesus to the heathen peoples, to have me act as a sacrificing minister of the good news, in order that my offering of the heathen peoples to God may be acceptable, consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

So, as a Christian, I am proud of the things that I have done for God.

And I feel sure that when I do come to you, I shall come with Christ's abundant blessing on me.

Now I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, to wrestle with me in prayers to God on my behalf,

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

so that, if it is God's will, I may come with a happy heart to see you and have a refreshing rest while with you.

that you may give her a Christian welcome in a manner becoming God's people, and give her whatever help she needs from you, for she herself has given protection to many, including myself.

Remember me to the church too, that meets at their house. Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

Remember me to Apelles, that most venerated Christian. Remember me to the members of Aristobulus' family.

Remember me to Rufus, that choicest Christian, and to his mother, who has been a mother to me too.

But I beg you, brothers, to keep on the lookout for those who stir up divisions and put hindrances in your way, in opposition to the instruction that you had, and always avoid them.

so that there is no spiritual gift in which you consciously come short, while you are waiting for the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and to the very end He will guarantee that you are vindicated at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For I have been informed about you, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are wranglings among you.

I mean this, that one of you says, "I belong to Paul's party," another, "And I belong to Apollos' party," another, "And I belong to Cephas' party," another, "And I belong to Christ's party."

I am thankful that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,

so as to keep anyone from saying that you were baptized in my name.

Yes, I did baptize the family of Stephanas, too; I do not now recall that I baptized anyone else.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news -- but not by means of wisdom and rhetoric, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.

we are preaching the Christ who was crucified -- a message that is a trap-stick to the Jews and nonsense to the Greeks,

For consider, brothers, the way God called you; that not many of you, in accordance with human standards, were wise, not many influential, not many of high birth.

so that no mortal man might ever boast in the presence of God.

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

Yes, as for myself, it was in weakness and fear and great trembling that I came to you,

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

Yet, when among mature believers we do set forth a wisdom, but a wisdom that does not belong to this world or to the leaders of this world who are passing away;

rather, we are setting forth a wisdom that came from God, once a covered secret but now uncovered, which God marked off as His plan for bringing us to glory.

Now we have not received the spirit that belongs to the world but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may get an insight into the blessings God has graciously given us.

These truths we are setting forth, not in words that man's wisdom teaches but in words that the Spirit teaches, in this way fitting spiritual words to spiritual truths.

An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct Him? But we now possess Christ's thoughts.

for no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is laid, that is, Jesus Christ Himself.

the character of each one's work will come to light, for the judgment day will show it up. This is so, because that day will show itself in fire, and the fire will test the character of each one's work.

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