and he said, "'Dismiss all fear, Paul, for you must stand before Caesar; and God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you.'

"Therefore, Sirs, take courage; for I believe God, and am convinced that things will happen exactly as I have been told.

Then the soldiers cut the ropes of the ship's boat and let her fall off.

Having said this he took some bread, and, after giving thanks to God for it before them all, he broke it in pieces and began to eat it.

So they cut away the anchors and left them in the sea, unloosing at the same time the bands which secured the paddle-rudders. Then, hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach.

But their Captain, bent on securing Paul's safety, kept them from their purpose and gave orders that those who could swim should first jump overboard and get to land;

and that the rest should follow, some on planks, and others on various things from the ship. In this way they all got safely to land.

They expected him soon to swell with inflammation or suddenly fall down dead; but, after waiting a long time and seeing no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

Meanwhile the brethren there, hearing of our movements, came as far as the Market of Appius and the Three Huts to meet us; and when Paul saw them he thanked God and felt encouraged.

So they arranged a day with him and came to him in considerable numbers at the house of the friends who were entertaining him. And then, with solemn earnestness, he explained to them the subject of the Kingdom of God, endeavouring from morning till evening to convince them about Jesus, both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

"Be fully assured, therefore, that this salvation--God's salvation--has now been sent to the Gentiles, and that they, at any rate, will give heed."

He announced the coming of the Kingdom of God, and taught concerning the Lord Jesus Christ without let or hindrance.

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart to proclaim God's Good News,

which God had already promised through His Prophets in Holy Writ, concerning His Son,

but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

I call God to witness--to whom I render priestly and spiritual service by telling the Good News about His Son-- how unceasingly I make mention of you in His presence,

so that for my part I am willing and eager to proclaim the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is God's power which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes--the Jew first, and then the Gentile.

For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the Scripture has it, "The righteous man shall live by faith."

For God's anger is being revealed from Heaven against all impiety and against the iniquity of men who through iniquity suppress the truth. God is angry:

For when they had come to know God, they did not give Him glory as God nor render Him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened.

and, instead of worshipping the imperishable God, they worshipped images resembling perishable man or resembling birds or beasts or reptiles.

For this reason, in accordance with their own depraved cravings, God gave them up to uncleanness, allowing them to dishonour their bodies among themselves with impurity.

For they had bartered the reality of God for what is unreal, and had offered divine honours and religious service to created things, rather than to the Creator--He who is for ever blessed. Amen.

This then is the reason why God gave them up to vile passions. For not only did the women among them exchange the natural use of their bodies for one which is contrary to nature, but the men also,

And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done.

They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense,

In short, though knowing full well the sentence which God pronounces against actions such as theirs, as things which deserve death, they not only practise them, but even encourage and applaud others who do them.

and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth.

And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs--do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when God judges?

Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance?

The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed.

whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right--to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

For God pays no attention to this world's distinctions.

It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law who will be pronounced righteous.

on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.

And since you claim the name of Jew, and find rest and satisfaction in the Law, and make your boast in God,

You who make your boast in the Law, do you offend against its commands and so dishonour God?

For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile nations because of you, as Holy Writ declares.

But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual; and such people receive praise not from men, but from God.

The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.

For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?

No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

But if our unrighteousness sets God's righteousness in a clearer light, what shall we say? (Is God unrighteous--I speak in our everyday language-- when He inflicts punishment?

If, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made God's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to His glory, why am I judged all the same as a sinner?

And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.

There is not one who is really wise, nor one who is a diligent seeker after God.

"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

But now a righteousness coming from God has been brought to light apart from any Law, both Law and Prophets bearing witness to it--

a righteousness coming from God, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ and extends to all who believe. No distinction is made;

for all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of God,

He it is whom God put forward as a Mercy-seat, rendered efficacious through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness-- because of the passing over, in God's forbearance, of the sins previously committed--

Is God simply the God of the Jews, and not of the Gentiles also? He is certainly the God of the Gentiles also,

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.

For if he was held to be righteous on the ground of his actions, he has something to boast of; but not in the presence of God.

For what says the Scripture? "And Abraham believed God, and this was placed to his credit as righteousness."

In this way David also tells of the blessedness of the man to whose credit God places righteousness, apart from his actions.

All depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance with God might be an act of pure grace,

so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham. Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us. As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations."

Nor did he in unbelief stagger at God's promise, but became mighty in faith, giving glory to God,

and being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound by He is able also to make good.

Standing then acquitted as the result of faith, let us enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.

and that this hope never disappoints, because God's love for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Why, it is scarcely conceivable that any one would die for a simply just man, although for a good and lovable man perhaps some one, here and there, will have the courage even to lay down his life.

But God gives proof of His love to us in Christ's dying for us while we were still sinners.

If therefore we have now been pronounced free from guilt through His blood, much more shall we be delivered from God's anger through Him.

For if while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is still more certain that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation through Christ's life.

And not only so, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained that reconciliation.

But God's free gift immeasurably outweighs the transgression. For if through the transgression of the one individual the mass of mankind have died, infinitely greater is the generosity with which God's grace, and the gift given in His grace which found expression in the one man Jesus Christ, have been bestowed on the mass of mankind.

For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ.

Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God.

In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus.

and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.

But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed.

At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death.

But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result.

For the wages paid by Sin are death; but God's free gift is the Life of the Ages bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.

Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.

For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!)

For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

Abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to God. Such a mind does not submit to God's Law, and indeed cannot do so.

And those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things cannot please God.

You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not belong to Him.

For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.

The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.

Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

and the Searcher of hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because His intercessions for God's people are in harmony with God's will.

Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

What then shall we say to this? If God is on our side, who is there to appear against us?