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,

and He who searches the human heart knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, since the Spirit pleads before God for the saints.

Now what follows from all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

Who is to accuse the elect of God? When God acquits,

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?

(Because, as it is written, For thy sake we are being killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.)

No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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.

I am telling the truth in Christ ??it is no lie, my conscience bears me out in the holy Spirit

for they are Israelites, theirs is the Sonship, the Glory, the covenants, the divine legislation, the Worship, and the promises;

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.

As it is written, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.

Then are we to infer that there is injustice in God? Never!

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

Thus God has mercy on anyone just as he pleases, and he makes anyone stubborn just as he pleases.

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory ??24 that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

As indeed he says in Hosea, Those who were no people of mine, I will call 'my People,' and her 'beloved' who was not beloved;

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;

Indeed, as Isaiah foretold, Had not the Lord of hosts left us with some descendants, we would have fared like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorra.

What are we to conclude, then? That Gentiles who never aimed at righteousness have attained righteousness, that is, righteousness by faith;

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

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

I can vouch for their zeal for God; only, it is not zeal with knowledge.

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).

Or, 'who will go down to the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ from the dead).

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).

Confess with your mouth that 'Jesus is Lord,' believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved;

for with his heart man believes and is justified, with his mouth he confesses and is saved.

No one who believes in him, the scripture says, will ever be disappointed. No one ??12 for there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of them all, with ample for all who invoke him.

And how can men preach unless they are sent? ??as it is written, How pleasant is the coming of men with glad, good news!

But they have not all given in to the gospel of glad news? No, Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what they heard from us?

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

Then, I ask, "Did Israel not understand?" Why, first of all Moses declares, I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation, I will provoke you to anger over a nation devoid of understanding.

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.

Yet what is the divine answer? I have left myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal.

Well, at the present day there is also a remnant, selected by grace.

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.

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.

Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in?

I tell you this, you Gentiles, that as an apostle to the Gentiles I lay great stress on my office,

For if their exclusion means that the world is reconciled to God, what will their admission mean? Why, it will be life from the dead!

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

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?

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

This done, all Israel will be saved ??as it is written, The deliverer will come from Sion, he will banish all godlessness from Jacob:

this is my covenant with them, when I take their sins away.

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.

Well then, my brothers, I appeal to you by all the mercy of God to dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to God; that is your cult, a spiritual rite.

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.

In virtue of my office, I tell everyone of your number who is self-important, that he is not to think more of himself than he ought to think; he must take a sane view of himself, corresponding to the degree of faith which God has assigned to each.

Our talents differ with the grace that is given us; if the talent is that of prophecy, let us employ it in proportion to our faith;

if it is practical service, let us mind our service; the teacher must mind his teaching,

Let your love be a real thing, with a loathing for evil and a bent for what is good.

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

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

Hence anyone who resists authority is opposing the divine order, and the opposition will bring judgment on themselves.

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.

You must be obedient, therefore, not only to avoid the divine vengeance but as a matter of conscience,

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

You must not commit adultery, you must not kill, you must not steal, you must not covet ??these and any other command are summed up in a single word, You must love your neighbour as yourself.

Love never wrongs a neighbour; that is why love is the fulfilment of the law.

And then you know what this Crisis means, you know it is high time to waken up; for Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

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;

let us live decorously as in the open light of day ??no revelry or bouts of drinking, no debauchery or sensuality, no quarrelling or jealousy.

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.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself;

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.

Each of us then will have to answer for himself 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.

I know, I am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is in itself unclean; only, anything is unclean for a man who considers it unclean.

If your brother is being injured because you eat a certain food, then you are no longer living by the rule of love. Do not let that food of yours ruin the man for whom Christ died.

The Reign of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, it means righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;

he who serves Christ on these lines, is acceptable to God and esteemed by men.

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;

the right course is to abstain from flesh or wine or indeed anything that your brother feels to be a stumbling-block.

Certainly keep your own conviction on the matter, as between yourself and God; he is a fortunate man who has no misgivings about what he allows himself to eat.

But if anyone has doubts about eating and then eats, that condemns him at once; it was not faith that induced him to eat, and any action that is not based on faith is a sin.

We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves.

Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith.

Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

Welcome one another, then, as Christ has welcomed yourselves, for the glory of God.

and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy ??as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

or again, as Isaiah says, Then shall the Scion of Jessai live, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles set their hope.

Personally I am quite certain, my brothers, that even as it is you have ample goodness of heart, you are filled with knowledge of every kind, and you are well able to give advice to one another.

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.

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.

But now, as I have no further scope for work in these parts, and as for a number of years I have had a longing to visit you

Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings.

receive her in the Lord as saints should receive one another, and give her any help she may require. She has been a help herself to many people, including myself.

who have risked their lives for me; I thank them, and not only I but all the Gentile churches as well.

Also, salute the church that meets in their house. Salute my beloved Epaenetus, the first in Asia to be reaped for Christ.