Since the harbor was not a good place to spend the winter, most of the men favored putting out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix and spend the winter there. It is a Cretian harbor that faces southwest and northwest.

As we drifted to the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the ship's lifeboat.

For just last night an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood by me

and said, "Stop being afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor. Indeed, God has given to you the lives of everyone who is sailing with you.'

So take courage, men, because I trust God that it will turn out just as he told me.

Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and set it adrift.

After he said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat.

So they cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars, raised the foresail to the wind, and headed for the beach.

but the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

The rest were to follow, some on planks and others on various pieces of the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.

They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

The brothers there heard about us and came as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and felt encouraged.

From morning until evening, he continued to explain the kingdom of God to them, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others wouldn't believe.

You must understand that this message about God's salvation has been sent to the gentiles, and they will listen."

He continued to preach about the kingdom of God and to teach boldly and freely about the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

From: Paul, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, called to be an apostle and set apart for God's gospel,

and was declared by the resurrection from the dead to be the powerful Son of God according to the spirit of holiness Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

To: Everyone in Rome, loved by God and called to be holy. May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, be yours!

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus the Messiah for all of you, because the news about your faith is being reported throughout the world.

For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel about his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you

in my prayers at all times, asking that somehow by God's will I may at last succeed in coming to you.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well.

For in the gospel God's righteousness is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The righteous will live by faith."

For God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another.

They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural.

Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done.

slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents,

Although they know God's just requirement that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.

Now we know that God's judgment against those who act like this is based on truth.

So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on those who practice these things and then do them yourself, do you think you will escape God's judgment?

Or are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God's kindness that is leading you to repent?

But because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart you are reserving wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

eternal life to those who strive for glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing good;

But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well,

because God does not show partiality.

For it is not merely those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. No, it is those who follow the Law, who will be justified.

on that day when God, through Jesus the Messiah, will judge people's secrets according to my gospel.

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the Law, and boast about God,

As you boast about the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

As it is written, "God's name is being blasphemed among the gentiles because of you."

No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person's praise will come from God, not from people.

There are all kinds of advantages! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the utterances of God.

What if some of the Jews were unfaithful? Their unfaithfulness cannot cancel God's faithfulness, can it?

Of course not! God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written, "You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

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.)

Of course not! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

For if through my falsehood God's truthfulness glorifies him even more, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

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!

No one understands. No one searches for God.

They don't fear God.

Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Therefore, God will not justify any human being by means of the actions prescribed by the Law, for through the Law comes the full knowledge of sin.

But now, apart from the Law, God's righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets

God's righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah for all who believe. For there is no distinction among people,

since all have sinned and continue to fall short of God's glory.

whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah's blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.

Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the gentiles, too? Yes, of the gentiles, too,

since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised by that same faith.

For if Abraham was justified by actions, he would have had something to boast about though not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Likewise, David also speaks of the blessedness of the person whom God regards as righteous apart from actions:

As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations." Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that don't yet exist.

His faith did not weaken when he thought about his own body (which was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old) or about Sarah's inability to have children,

nor did he doubt God's promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, his faith became stronger and he gave glory to God,

being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace by which we have been established, and we boast because of our hope in God's glory.

Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

For it is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person.

But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life!

Not only that, but we also continue to boast about God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now been reconciled.

But God's free gift is not like Adam's offense. For if many people died as the result of one man's offense, how much more have God's grace and the free gift given through the kindness of one man, Jesus the Messiah, been showered on many people!

For when he died, he died once and for all as far as sin is concerned. But now that he is alive, he lives for God.

In the same way, you too must continuously consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but living for God through the Messiah Jesus.

Stop offering the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life and the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness to God.

But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted!

What benefit did you get from doing those things you are now ashamed of? For those things resulted in death.

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God's slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.

In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.

So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good.

Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before.

Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out.

For I don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do.

So I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me.

For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being,

Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature I serve the law of sin.

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity, he condemned sin by being incarnate,

That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God's Law because it is powerless to do so.

Indeed, those who are under the control of human nature cannot please God.

You, however, are not under the control of the human nature but under the control of the Spirit, since God's Spirit lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, he does not belong to him.

For all who are led by God's Spirit are God's children.