Now the words "considered righteous [by God]" were not written for his sake only,

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification, it will be reckoned.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance;

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Now it is hard for anyone to give his life even for an upright man, though it might be that for a good man someone would give his life.

But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Sin was [committed] in the world before the Law [was given], but sin is not charged [against anyone] when there is no law [against it].

nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned by violating a positive law, as did Adam, who is

But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Now the law of Moses was introduced [into the world] in order to cause sin to increase [i.e., it defined many things to be wrong that were previously not regarded as sin]. But with the increase of sin, God's unearned favor increased all the more.

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?

Far be the thought. We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?

Or can it be that you do not know that all of us, who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, in our baptism shared his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

for by its being dead, we are set free from sin.

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

For the death that He died, He died to sin [ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt] once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to [glorify] God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions.

and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.

For sin will not be master over you, because you are not under law, but under grace.

What then? should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Far be the thought.

Do you not know that when you continually offer yourselves to someone to do his will, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either [slaves] of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness (right standing with God)?

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

and being made free from sin, you have be come the servants of righteousness.

I will speak grossly because of the infirmity of your flesh. As ye have given your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, from iniquity unto iniquity: even so now give your members servants unto righteousness, that ye may be sanctified.

For when you were [once] slaves to [the practice of] sin, you were free from [being controlled by] righteousness.

Well, what did you gain then by it all? Nothing but what you are now ashamed of! The end of all that is death;

But now are ye delivered from sin, and made the servants of God, and have your fruit that ye should be sanctified; and the end: everlasting life.

For the wages paid by Sin are death; but God's free gift is the Life of the Ages bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to Jews acquainted with the law) that the law hath authority over a man, till it be abrogated?

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

But now we have been released from the law, [because we] have died [to that] by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter [of the law].

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

I was once alive without [knowledge of] the Law; but when the commandment came [and I understood its meaning], sin became alive and I died [since the Law sentenced me to death].

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

for we have known that the law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by the sin;

For I do not [really] understand what I am doing; I practice what I do not want to and I hate what I do. [Note: This highly controversial section (verses 14b-25) is here viewed as the struggles of the apostle Paul after his conversion, and by extension, of all Christians. See Bruce, pages 150ff; Murray, pages 255ff; Lard, pages 236ff].

I cannot be good as I want to be, and I do wrong against my wishes.

But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

So I find it to be the law [of my inner self], that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

But throughout my body I see a different law, one which is in conflict with the law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make me a prisoner to that law of Sin which exists throughout my body.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death?

Thanks [be] to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh [I am enslaved] to the law of sin.

For this cause those who are in Christ Jesus will not be judged as sinners.

For what the Law could not do [that is, overcome sin and remove its penalty, its power] being weakened by the flesh [man’s nature without the Holy Spirit], God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man as an offering for sin. And He condemned sin in the flesh [subdued it and overcame it in the person of His own Son],

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For those who are living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh [which gratify the body], but those who are living according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit [His will and purpose].

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but not to our flesh [our human nature, our worldliness, our sinful capacity], to live according to the [impulses of the] flesh [our nature without the Holy Spirit]—

for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery [leading] to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For [even the whole] creation [all nature] waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

And not just the world, but even we [Christians] ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit [i.e., the first installment of our inheritance from God] also groan within us, eagerly waiting to be adopted as [God's] children, and receive back our bodies [i.e., in the resurrection].

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait eagerly for it with patience and composure.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

And, he that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is preferred by the Spirit - that, according to God, he maketh intercession in behalf of saints;

And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And those who were marked out by him were named; and those who were named were given righteousness; and to those to whom he gave righteousness, in the same way he gave glory.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Who [i.e., what] can separate us from Christ's love [for us]? [i.e., what unfortunate circumstance of life might suggest that Christ does not love us?] Would [it be] trouble? Or distress? Or persecution? Or inadequate food? Or inadequate clothing? Or danger? Or [even] death?

As it is written:
Because of You
we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, [suffering any one of these things is not proof that Christ does not love us], for in spite of all these things we have a decisive victory [over life's difficulties] through [the care shown us by] Christ who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor beginnings, nor powers, nor things having stood, nor things about to be,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me [enlightened and prompted] by the Holy Spirit,

for I have wished, I myself, to be a curse from the Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to flesh;

Who are Israelites: who have the place of sons, and the glory, and the agreements with God, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the hope offered by God: