Brothers, I would like you to understand that I have often purposed to come to you (though up till now I have been prevented) so as to have some results among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

For I am proud of the gospel; it is God's saving power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

God's righteousness is revealed in it by faith and for faith ??as it is written, Now by faith shall the righteous live.

But God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of those who hinder the Truth by their wickedness.

For whatever is to be known of God is plain to them; God himself has made it plain ??20 for ever since the world was created, his invisible nature, his everlasting power and divine being, have been quite perceptible in what he has made. So they have no excuse.

So God has given them up, in their heart's lust, to sexual vice, to the dishonouring of their own bodies, ??25 since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

Very well; and do you imagine you will escape God's doom, O man, you who judge those who practise such vices and do the same yourself?

[Move vss 14,15 to follow vs 16] (When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law;

Then what is the Jew's superiority? What is the good of circumcision?

You say, "If my perfidy serves to make the truthfulness of God redound to his glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner?

Why should we not do evil that good may come out of it?" (which is the calumny attributed to me ??the very thing some people declare I say). Such arguments are rightly condemned.

whom God put forward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the fact that sins previously committed during the time of God's forbearance had been passed over;

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

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness.

Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness.

For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations ??even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be.

His faith never quailed, even when he noted the utter impotence of his own body (for he was about a hundred years old) or the impotence of Sara's womb;

no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God

Through him we have got access to this grace where we have our standing, and triumph in the hope of God's glory.

Not only so, but we triumph even in our troubles, knowing that trouble produces endurance,

endurance produces character, and character produces hope ??5 a hope which never disappoints us, since God's love floods our hearts through the holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Not only so, but we triumph in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we now enjoy our reconciliation.

Thus, then, sin came into the world by one man, and death came in by sin; and so death spread to all men, inasmuch as all men sinned.

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come,

Nor is the free gift like the effect of the one man's sin; for while the sentence ensuing on a single sin resulted in doom, the free gift ensuing on many trespasses issues in acquittal.

Well then, as one man's trespass issued in doom for all, so one man's act of redress issues in acquittal and life for all.

Just as one man's disobedience made all the rest sinners, so one man's obedience will make all the rest righteous.

so that, while sin had reigned the reign of death, grace might also reign with a righteousness that ends in life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now what are we to infer from this? That we are to 'remain on in sin, so that there may be all the more grace'?

Our baptism in his death made us share his burial, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live and move in the new sphere of Life.

So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(I use this human analogy to bring the truth home to your weak nature.) As you once dedicated your members to the service of vice and lawlessness, so now dedicate them to the service of righteousness that means consecration.

Sin's wage is death, but God's gift is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Accordingly, she will be termed an adulteress if she becomes another man's while her husband is alive; but if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of 'the husband,' so that she is no adulteress if she becomes another man's.

It is the same in your case, my brothers. The crucified body of Christ made you dead to the Law, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might be fruitful to God.

but now we are done with the Law, we have died to what once held us, so that we can serve in a new way, not under the written code as of old but in the Spirit.

So the Law at any rate is holy, the command is holy, just, and for our good.

That being so, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me.

So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage;

I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my inner self is concerned,

but then I find quite another law in my members which conflicts with the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin's law that resides in my members.

in order to secure the fulfilment of the Law's requirements in our lives, as we live and move not by the flesh but by the Spirit.

On the other hand, if Christ is within you, though the body is a dead thing owing to Adam's sin, the spirit is living as the result of righteousness.

and not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we sigh to ourselves as we wait for the redemption of the body that means our full sonship.

But if we hope for something that we do not see, we wait for it patiently.

So too the Spirit assists us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray aright, but the Spirit pleads for us with sighs that are beyond words,

who shall condemn? Will Christ? ??the Christ who died, yes and rose from the dead! the Christ who is at God's right hand, who actually pleads for us!

What can ever part us from Christ's love? Can anguish or calamity or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword?

no powers of the Height or of the Depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to part us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

when I say that I am in sore pain. I suffer endless anguish of heart.

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.)

It is not, of course, as if God's word had failed! Far from it! 'Israel' does not mean everyone who belongs to Israel;

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.

You see, it is not a question of human will or effort but of the divine mercy.

And Isaiah exclaims, with regard to Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved;

Oh for their salvation, brothers! That is my heart's desire and prayer to God!

Now Christ is an end to law, so as to let every believer have righteousness.

But here is what faith-righteousness says: ??Say not in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down).

No, what it does say is this: ??The word is close to you, in your very mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach).

(You see, faith must come from what is heard, and what is heard comes from word of Christ.)

And then Isaiah dares to say, I have been found by those who never sought me, I have shown myself to those who never inquired of me.

Now what are we to infer from this? That Israel has failed to secure the object of its quest; the elect have secured it, and the rest have been rendered insensible to it ??8 as it is written, God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that see not, ears that hear not ??down to this very day.

let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot see, bow down their backs for ever.

Now I ask, have they stumbled to their ruin? Never! The truth is, that by their lapse salvation has passed to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.

If the first handful of dough is consecrated, so is the rest of the lump; if the root is consecrated, so are the branches.

You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!"

So far as the gospel goes, they are enemies of God ??which is to your advantage; but so far as election goes, they are beloved for their father's sake.

so that they in turn may enjoy the same mercy as yourselves.

Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely, what is good and acceptable to him and perfect.

so too, for all our numbers, we form one Body in Christ and we are severally members one of another.

be at peace with all men, if possible, so far as that depends on you.

the magistrate is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, you may well be alarmed; a magistrate does not wield the power of the sword for nothing, he is God's servant for the infliction of divine vengeance upon evil-doers.

for the same reason as you pay taxes ??since magistrates are God's officers, bent upon the maintenance of order and authority.

It is far on in the night, the day is almost here; so let us drop the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of the light;

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.

the man who values a particular day does so to the Lord. The eater eats to the Lord, since he thanks God for his food; the non-eater abstains to the Lord, and he too thanks God.

if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Thus we are the Lord's whether we live or die;

So why do you criticize your brother? And you, why do you look down upon your brother? All of us have to stand before the tribunal of God ??11 for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, every tongue shall offer praise to God.

So let us stop criticizing one another; rather make up your mind never to put any stumbling-block or hindrance in your brother's way.

You must not break down God's work for the mere sake of food! Everything may be clean, but it is wrong for a man to prove a stumbling-block by what he eats;

Christ, I mean, became a servant to the circumcised in order to prove God's honesty by fulfilling His promises to the fathers,

May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in your faith, that you may be overflowing with hope by the power of the holy Spirit!

as a priest of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the service of God's gospel. My aim is to make the Gentiles an acceptable offering, consecrated by the holy Spirit.

by the force of miracles and marvels, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus from Jerusalem right round to Illyricum, I have been able to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ ??20 my ambition always being to preach it only in places where there had been no mention of Christ's name, that I might not build on foundations laid by others,

but that (as it is written) They should see who never had learned about him, and they who had never heard of him should understand.

This is why I have been so often prevented from visiting you.

whenever I went to Spain, I am hoping to see you on my way there, and to be sped forward by you after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you.

Timotheus my fellow-worker salutes you; so do my fellow countrymen Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater.

Gaius, my host and the host of the church at large salutes you. Erastus the city-treasurer salutes you; so does brother Quartus.

For Chloe's people inform me that you are quarrelling.

Has Christ been parcelled out? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in Paul's name that you were baptized?

so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

so that, as it is written, let him who boasts boast of the Lord.

Thus when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come to proclaim to you God's secret purpose with any elaborate words or wisdom.

so that your faith might not rest on any human 'wisdom' but on the power of God.

What human being can understand the thoughts of a man, except the man's own inner spirit? So too no one understands the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.

For who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, so as to give him instruction? No one. Well, our thoughts are Christ's thoughts.

So neither planter nor waterer counts, but God alone who makes the seed grow.