so he can speak words to you that will bring salvation to you and your household.'

After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any message of encouragement for the people, you can speak.”

[Hab. 1:5 says], "Look, you people who despise [God], and be amazed [at what He can do] and be destroyed [for rejecting Him]; for I [i.e., God] will accomplish such a work during your days that you will not believe [it could happen, even] if someone told you about it."

Reassuring the minds of the disciples, urging them to remain true to the Faith, and showing that it is only through many troubles that we can enter the Kingdom of God.

Then some men came down from Judea and started to teach the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses, you can't be saved."

We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who also, themselves, by word of mouth, can tell you the same things.

And he brought them outside [and] said, "Sirs, what must I do so that I can be saved?"

Paul and Silas said, "You and your family can be saved if you [all] believe in the Lord Jesus."

The jailer reported this message to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent orders that you are to be released. So you can take your leave and go unmolested."

And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers disputed with him; and some said: What can this babbler possibly wish to say? Others said: He seems to be a proclaimer of strange demons: for he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection.

And having taken him, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, Can we understand what this new doctrine is, being spoken by thee?

But as these are merely questions of words and persons and your own Law, you can attend to them for yourselves. I decline to adjudicate upon matters like that."

Since no one can [really] say anything against these things, just calm down and do not do anything foolish.

if Demetrius and the other artists, that are with him, can lay their action against any man, the law is open, and the proconsul is near; let them begin their process.

But if you want to address other matters, they can be settled in the regular, scheduled assembly.

In fact, we run a risk of being charged with rioting for what happened today, since there is no justification that we can give as a reason for this disorderly gathering.”

But now I count as nothing the sacrifice of my life, if only I can finish my race and render the service entrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of faithfully telling the good news of God's favor.

"Now I commit you [elders] to God and to the message of His unearned favor which can build you up [spiritually] and provide you with the inheritance [of never ending life], along with others who are [specially] set apart [for God].

you yourselves can witness, that what was necessary for myself and those who were with me, these very hands have supply'd.

His reply was, "What can you mean by thus breaking my heart with your grief? Why, as for me, I am ready not only to go to Jerusalem and be put in chains, but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."

And when they heard [all] this, they gave honor to God, then said to Paul, "Brother, you can see how many thousands of Jewish believers [in Christ] there are [everywhere] and all of them are eager to observe the [requirements of the] law of Moses.

what then is to be done? they will necessarily be all assembled, for they can't but hear, you are come.

Take these [men] [and] purify yourself along with them and {pay their expenses} so that they can shave [their] heads, and everyone will know that [the things] which they had been informed about you are nothing, but you yourself also agree with observing the law.

just as he was entring into the castle, Paul said to the officer, may I be favour'd with a word? you can speak Greek then, said he?

as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to bring those who were prisoners there to be punished in Jerusalem.

At this Paul told him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! How can you sit there and judge me according to the Law, and yet in violation of the Law order me to be struck?"

A loud commotion developed [in the Council meeting]. Some of the teachers of the law of Moses who belonged to the Pharisee party stood up and argued, saying, "We can find nothing wrong with this man. What if an angel or spirit did speak to him?"

Also provide mounts so they can put Paul on them and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”

and now, by examining him for yourself, you can find out exactly what charges we bring against him."

You can ascertain that {it has not been more than} twelve days {since} I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

neither can they make good the things concerning which they are, now, accusing me.

but when he argued about morality, self-mastery, and the future judgment, Felix grew uneasy. "You may go for the present," he said; "when I can find a moment, I will send for you"

Festus replied that Paul would be kept in custody at Caesarea, but that he himself meant to leave for Caesarea before long ??5 "when," he added, "your competent authorities can come down with me and charge the man with whatever crime he has committed."

"Therefore let those of you," he said, "who can come, go down with me, and impeach the man, if there is anything amiss in him."

But Paul said: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you can see very well.

If then I am doing wrong, or have done anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die, but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

But Paul appealed to have his case reserved for his Majesty's decision, and I have ordered him kept in custody until I can send him to the emperor."

I have nothing very definite, however, to tell our Sovereign about him. So I have brought the man before you all--and especially before you, King Agrippa--that after he has been examined I may find something which I can put into writing.

"I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa," said he, "that it is before you that I can defend myself today against all the charges which the Jews have preferred against me,

they can testify, if they will, that I early profess'd myself a Pharisee, a member of the most rigorous sect of our religion:

to open their eyes [to the truth] so they will turn from darkness to light and from the power [i.e., the influence] of Satan to God. [Then] they can receive the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance [of never ending life], along with [all] those who are set apart [for God] by trusting in Me.'

The king, indeed, knows about this and I can speak to him with freedom. I do not believe that any of this escaped his notice, for it did not occur in a corner!

Agrippa asked Paul, "Can you so quickly persuade me to become a Christian?"

and told them, “Men, I can see that this voyage is headed toward damage and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.”

upon this Paul said to the centurion and his men, "except the crew stay aboard, you can't be safe:"

For this people's minds have become stupid, and their ears can barely hear, and they have shut their eyes so that they may never see with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn and let me heal them."'

For I long to see you so that I can provide you with some spiritual gift [See I Cor. 12:1-11], for the purpose of strengthening you [in the faith].

I owe what service I can do to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians, to the learned, and to the illiterate.

So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too.

For the Gospel reveals how a person can be made right with God. It is through faith [in Jesus], from beginning to end, just as it is written [Hab. 2:4], "The righteous person will [obtain] life by [his] faith [in God]."

since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

and understand His will, and by being instructed in the law can know the things that excel,

and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark,

You therefore who teach another, can you not teach yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal?

What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness?

It can not be. But let God be true, though every man be a liar, as it is written: That thou mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God's righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.)

It can not be: for if so, how shall God judge the world?

Or can we say as some people slander us by claiming that we say "Let's do evil that good may result"? They deserve to be condemned!

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?

unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith.

Do we, then, make law void through the faith? It can not be. On the other hand, we establish law.

What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found?

but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it.

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." That is, the promise is in force in the sight of God in whom he put his faith, the God who can bring the dead to life and can call to Himself the things that do not exist as though they did.

Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses.

Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin 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 were buried with Him through [our] immersion [in water] into [a relationship with] His death, so that, just like Christ was raised up from the dead through the glorious power of the Father, so we also can [be raised up from the water to] live a new life.

What then? can we commit sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? it could not be so.

I can but speak as men do because of the weakness of your earthly nature. Once you offered every part of your bodies to the service of impurity, and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer them to the service of Righteousness, which leads to holiness.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives?

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.

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.

What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? It can not be. Indeed, I had not known sin, except through law. For I had not known evil desire, unless the law had said: You shall not have any evil desire.

Has, then, that which is good become death to me? It can not be. But sin, that it, might appear sin, was causing death to me through that which is good, in order that sin, through the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful.

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.

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

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

Thank God [that I can be rescued] through [the power of] Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I personally [try to] serve God's law with my mind, but [all too often] I serve the law of sin with my flesh [i.e., submitting in weakness to my human desires].

Inasmuch as, what is preferred by the flesh, is hostile towards God, for, unto the law of God, it doth not submit itself, neither in fact can it. -

Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

For you did not receive the Holy Spirit, to enslave you again to fear, [Note: Some translators take "Holy Spirit" here to be "spirit," making the verse say "you did not receive the spirit of slavery"], but you received the Holy Spirit [who produces] sonship, so we can call out, "Abba", [which means] "Father."

And if we are [His] children, then we have an inheritance from God [i.e., blessings here and hereafter] and are fellow-sharers with Christ [of such blessings], providing we [are willing to] suffer with Him, so we can also be honored with Him [i.e., in the future life. See verses 18-25].

for we are saved but by hope: but hope supposes things not yet present; for how can a man hope for what he has now in possession?

The spirit likewise softens our afflictions: for being at a loss to apply for the most proper relief; the spirit it self affects us with those pious ejaculations, which we can't well express.

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

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

and though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad, so that God’s purpose [His choice, His election] would stand, not because of works [done by either child], but because of [the plan of] Him who calls them,

What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not!

For, unto Moses, he saith - I will have mercy upon whomsoever I can have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whomsoever I can have compassion.

You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

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?"

Or, does not the potter have the right to make what he wants to out of the clay? Can he not make both a beautiful vase and a common pot out of the same lump [of clay]?