But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of the charges brought against me is true, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."

Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, "You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go."

But I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write.

Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

They have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.

But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness to the things which you have seen of me, and also to the things in which I will appear to you;

To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."

When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss.

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen exactly as I have been told.

As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.

For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."

They said to him, "We have not received letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brethren who have come here has reported or spoken anything bad about you.

For this people's heart has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and their eyes they have closed; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."'

Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have some harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

For since the creation of the world his invisible nature, even his eternal power and deity, has been clearly seen, being understood by the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge another; for in whatever point you pass judgment on him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

When Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a breaker of the law.

What if some did not have faith? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

What then? Are we Jews any better off? Certainly not; for we have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin.

All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be reckoned to them.

(as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls things that do not exist as though they did.

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

through whom we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of the glory of God.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved through him from the wrath of God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

and, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is holiness and its end, eternal life.

Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit to God.

But now, by dying to what once held us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For this is what the promise said: "About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son."

For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

Does not the potter have right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

And as Isaiah said: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us children, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah."

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not according to knowledge.

How then can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher?

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

But Isaiah is very bold and says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."

But what is God's reply to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? Certainly not! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.

Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,

so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy.

For God has bound all men over to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.

For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,

Repay no one evil for evil, but have regard for what is noble in the sight of all.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will have praise from him.

The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself for what he approves.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,

Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.

by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

And so I have made it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man's foundation,

but as it is written: "They shall see who have not been told of him, and those who have not heard shall understand."

This is the reason why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

But now, since I no longer have any place for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,

I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through, and to be helped by you on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

They were pleased to do it, and indeed they are in debt to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

When therefore I have completed this, and have delivered to them this fruit, I shall go on by way of you to Spain.

I urge you, brethren, to take note of those who cause divisions and difficulties, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; avoid them.

For I have been informed by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you, my brethren.

None of the rulers of this age understood it; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand the things freely given to us by God.

"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in favor of one against the other.

For who regards you as different? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled! You have already become rich! You have become kings without us! And indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.

For, I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, like men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to have mourned? Let the one who has done this be removed from your midst.

For though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit, and have already passed judgment on the one who has committed this, as if I were present.

not at all meaning the immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

So if you have disputes about such matters, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?