I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them.

He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, "The Holy Spirit says this: 'This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"

Because he could not be persuaded, we said no more except, "The Lord's will be done."

What then should we do? They will no doubt hear that you have come.

take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law.

So I asked, 'What should I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.'

Then he said, 'The God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from his mouth,

because you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.

and saw the Lord saying to me, 'Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

Then he said to me, 'Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'"

he said, "I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive too." Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace.

When you examine him yourself, you will be able to learn from him about all these things we are accusing him of doing."

Then Felix, who understood the facts concerning the Way more accurately, adjourned their hearing, saying, "When Lysias the commanding officer comes down, I will decide your case."

While Paul was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, I will send for you."

Then, after conferring with his council, Festus replied, "You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go!"

Agrippa said to Festus, "I would also like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he replied, "you will hear him."

But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance as a servant and witness to the things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you.

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you

And now I advise you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship will be lost.

Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be just as I have been told.

Therefore I urge you to take some food, for this is important for your survival. For not one of you will lose a hair from his head."

when he said, 'Go to this people and say, "You will keep on hearing, but will never understand, and you will keep on looking, but will never perceive.

"Therefore be advised that this salvation from God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen!"

and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God.

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

And do you think, whoever you are, when you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God's judgment?

He will reward each one according to his works:

There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek,

For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.

on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law,

Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And will not the physically uncircumcised man who keeps the law judge you who, despite the written code and circumcision, transgress the law?

Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: "so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged."

Since God is one, he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin."

Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, "so will your descendants be."

but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

(For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.)

Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God's wrath.

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

For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.

so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.

Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

(for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.

that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God's children.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God's will.

Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

nor are all the children Abraham's true descendants; rather "through Isaac will your descendants be counted."

For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son."

it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger,"

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

You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?"

As he also says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'My people,' and I will call her who was unloved, 'My beloved.'"

"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,

for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly."

just as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: "The one who does these things will live by them."

But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down)

or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But again I ask, didn't Israel understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger."

Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root,

Then you will say, "The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."

For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God -- harshness toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

And even they -- if they do not continue in their unbelief -- will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God -- what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God's wrath, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.

So the person who resists such authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment

(for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation,

Who are you to pass judgment on another's servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

But you who eat vegetables only -- why do you judge your brother or sister? And you who eat everything -- why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God."

Therefore, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name."

And again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope."

For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

but as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."