Three days after our arrival, Paul invited the leading Jews to meet him; and, when they came, he spoke to them as follows: "Brothers, although I had done nothing hostile to the interests of our nation or to our ancestral customs, yet I was sent from Jerusalem as a prisoner, and handed over to the Romans.

"We," was their reply, "have not had any letter about you from Judea, nor have any of our fellow-Jews come and reported or said anything bad about you.

But we shall be glad to hear from you what your views are, for, with regard to this sect, we are well aware that it is spoken against on all sides."

They then fixed a day with him, and came to the place where he was staying, in even larger numbers, when Paul proceeded to lay the subject before them. He bore his testimony to the Kingdom of God, and tried to convince them about Jesus, by arguments drawn from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets--speaking from morning till evening.

To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord; who, as to his human nature, was descended from David,

But, as to the spirit of holiness within him, was miraculously designated Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.

For in it there is a revelation of the Divine Righteousness resulting from faith and leading on to faith; as Scripture says- -'Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.'

So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth.

And, having been carefully instructed from the Law, have learned to appreciate the finer moral distinctions.

And the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a man wins praise from God, though not from men.

But now, quite apart from Law, the Divine Righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the Prophets bear witness--

For we conclude that a man is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.

In precisely the same way David speaks of the blessing pronounced upon the man who is regarded by God as righteous apart from actions--

But also with reference to us. Our faith, too, will be regarded by God in the same light, if we have faith in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead;

Much more, then, now that we have been pronounced righteous by virtue of the shedding of his blood, shall we be saved through him from the Wrath of God.

Yet, from Adam to Moses, Death reigned even over those whose sin was not a breach of a law, as Adam's was. And Adam foreshadows the One to come.

Consequently, through sharing his death in our baptism, we were buried with him; that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by a manifestation of the Father's power, so we also may live a new Life.

For the man who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released from Sin.

We know, indeed, that Christ, having once risen from the dead, will not die again. Death has power over him no longer.

Set free from the control of Sin, you became servants to Righteousness.

But what were the fruits that you reaped from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of such things is Death.

But now that you have been set free from the control of Sin, and have become servants to God, the fruit that you reap is an ever-increasing holiness, and the end Immortal Life.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but, if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.

And so with you, my Brothers; as far as the Law was concerned, you underwent death in the crucified body of the Christ, so that you might be united to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that our lives might bear fruit for God.

But now we are set free from the Law, because we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint; and so we serve under new, spiritual conditions, and not under old, written regulations.

I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the very thing that I hate.

Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body that is bringing me to this Death?

For through your union with Christ Jesus, the Law of the life- giving Spirit has set you free from the Law of Sin and Death.

And, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give Life even to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit living within you.

Yet not without the hope that some day Nature, also, will be set free from enslavement to decay, and will attain to the freedom which will mark the Glory of the Children of God.

For those whom God chose from the first he also destined from the first to be transformed into likeness to his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest among many Brothers.

Who is there to condemn them? He who died for us is Christ Jesus!-or, rather, it was he who was raised from the dead, and who is now at God's right hand and is even pleading on our behalf!

Who is there to separate us from the love of the Christ? Will trouble, or difficulty, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?

Nor Height, nor Depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord!

Bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me and that my heart is never free from pain.

I could wish that I were myself accursed and severed from the Christ, for the sake of my Brothers-my own countrymen.

They are descended from the Patriarchs; and, as far as his human nature was concerned, from them came the Christ-he who is supreme over all things, God for ever blessed. Amen.

Not that God's Word has failed. For it is not all who are descended from Israel who are true Israelites;

And whom he called-even us-Not only from among the Jews but from among the Gentiles also!

For Moses writes that, as for the righteousness which results from Law, 'those who practice it will find Life through it.'

But the righteousness which results from faith finds expression in these words--'Do not say to yourself "Who will go up into heaven?"'--which means to bring Christ down--'

Or "Who will go down into the depths below?"'--which means to bring Christ up from the dead.

For, if with your lips you acknowledge the truth of the Message that JESUS IS LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

God has not rejected his People, whom he chose from the first. Have you forgotten the words of Scripture in the story of Elijah- how he appeals to God against Israel?

What follows from this? Why, that Israel as a nation failed to secure what it was seeking, while those whom God selected did secure it.

And, if their falling away has enriched the world, and their failure has enriched the Gentiles, how much more will result from their full restoration!

For, if their being cast aside has meant the reconciliation of the world, what will their reception mean, but Life from the dead?

If you were cut off from your natural stock--a wild olive-- and were grafted, contrary to the course of nature, upon a good olive, much more will they--the natural branches--be grafted back into their parent tree.

And then all Israel shall be saved. As Scripture says--'From Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.

From the stand-point of the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies on your account; but from the stand-point of God's selection, they are dear to him on account of the Patriarchs.

For all things are from him, through him, and for him. And to him be all glory for ever and ever! Amen.

A good action has nothing to fear from Rulers; a bad action has. Do you want to have no reason to fear the Authorities? Then do what is good, and you will win their praise.

In all cases pay what is due from you--tribute where tribute is due, taxes where taxes are due, respect where respect is due, and honor where honor is due.

This I say, because you know the crisis that we have reached, for the time has already come for you to rouse yourselves from sleep; our Salvation is nearer now than when we accepted the Faith.

The man who eats meat must not despise the man who abstains from it; nor must the man who abstains from eating meat pass judgment on the one who eats it, for God himself has received him.

He who observes a day, observes it to the Master's honor. He, again, who eats meat eats it to the Master's honor, for he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains from it abstains from it to the Master's honor, and also gives thanks to God.

The right course is to abstain from meat or wine or, indeed, anything that is a stumbling-block to your Brother.

Whatever was written in the Scriptures in days gone by was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance, and through the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, we might hold fast to our hope.

By my words and actions, through the power displayed in signs and marvels, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, starting from Jerusalem and its neighborhood, and going as far as Illyria, I have told in full the Good News of the Christ;

That is why I have so often been prevented from coming to you.

And I know that, when I come to you, it will be with a full measure of blessing from Christ.

Pray that I may be rescued from those in Judea who reject the Faith, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to Christ's People;

I urge you, Brothers, to be on your guard against people who, by disregarding the teaching which you received, cause divisions and create difficulties; dissociate yourselves from them.

From Paul, who has been called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, And from Sosthenes, our Brother.

My mission from Christ was not to baptize, but to tell the Good News; not, however, in the language of philosophy, lest the cross of the Christ should be robbed of its meaning.

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

Therefore do not pass judgment before the time, but wait till the Lord comes. He will throw light upon what is now dark and obscure, and will reveal the motives in men's minds; and then every one will receive due praise from God.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

Get rid entirely of the old leaven, so that you may be like new dough-free from leaven, as in truth you are. For our Passover Lamb is already sacrificed-Christ himself;

While God judges those who are outside? 'Put away the wicked man from among you.'

Again, do not you know that your body is a shrine of the Holy Spirit that is within you-the Spirit which you have from God?

I should wish every one to be just what I am myself. But every one has his own gift from God-one in one way, and one in another.

With regard to unmarried women, I have no command from the Master to give you, but I tell you my opinion, and it is that of a man whom the Master in his mercy has made worthy to be trusted.

Are you married to a wife? Then do not seek to be separated. Are you separated from a wife? Then do not seek for a wife.

I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the Master's Cause, desiring to please him;

I say this for your own benefit, not with any intention of putting a halter round your necks, but in order to secure for the Master seemly and constant devotion, free from all distraction.

Yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom all things come (and for him we live), and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come (and through him we live).

Am I, in all this, speaking only from the human standpoint? Does not the Law also say the same?

Since we, then, sowed spiritual seed for you, is it too much that we should reap from you an earthly harvest?

Do not you know that those who do the work of the Temple live on what comes from the Temple, and that those who serve at the altar share the offerings with the altar?

So, too, the Master has appointed that those who tell the Good News should get their living from the Good News.

To those who have no Law I became like a man who has no Law- -not that I am free from God's Law; no, for I am under Christ's Law-to win those who have no law.

and all drank the same supernatural water, for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which followed them, and that rock was the Christ.

A man ought not to have his head covered, for he has been from the beginning 'the likeness of God' and the reflection of his glory, but woman is the reflection of man's glory.

For it was not man who was taken from woman, but woman who was taken from man.

For just as woman came from man, so man comes by means of woman; and all things come from God.

For I myself received from the Lord the account which I have in turn given to you-how the Lord Jesus, on the very night of his betrayal, took some bread,

Let each man look into his own heart, and only then eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

All these result from one and the same Spirit, who distributes his gifts to each individually as he wills.

If any one thinks that he has the gift of preaching or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I am now saying to you is a command from the Lord.

Now, if it is proclaimed of Christ that he has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

But, in truth, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who are at rest.

There is a beauty of the sun, and a beauty of the moon, and a beauty of the stars; for even star differs from star in beauty.

The first man was from the dust of the earth; the second man from Heaven.

Those who are of the dust are like him who came from the dust; and those who are of Heaven are like him who came from Heaven.

And as we have borne the likeness of him who came from the dust, so let us bear the likeness of him who came from Heaven.

I have another request to make of you, Brothers. You remember Stephanas and his household, and that they were the first-fruits gathered in from Greece, and set themselves to serve Christ's People.

To the Church of God in Corinth, and to all Christ's People throughout Greece, from Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and from Timothy, a Brother.

Who consoles us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to console those who are in any trouble with the consolation that we ourselves receive from him.