With a steady look at the Sanhedrin Paul said, "Brothers, I have lived with a perfectly good conscience before God down to the present day."

At this Paul said to him, "You whitewashed wall, God will strike you! You sit there to judge me by the Law, do you? And you break the Law by ordering me to be struck!"

The bystanders said, "What! would you rail at God's high priest?"

Thus a loud clamour broke out. Some of the scribes who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and contended, "We find nothing wrong about this man. What if some spirit or angel has spoken to him?"

Now Paul's nephew heard about their treacherous ambush; so he got admission to the barracks and told Paul.

He summoned two of the officers and said, "Get ready by nine o'clock to-night two hundred infantry to march as far as Caesarea, also seventy troopers, and two hundred spearmen."

He actually tried to desecrate the temple, but we got hold of him.

I certainly admit to you that I worship our fathers' God according to the methods of what they call a 'sect'; but I believe all that is written in the Law and in the prophets,

and I cherish the same hope in God as they accept, namely that there is to be a resurrection of the just and the unjust.

Hence I too endeavour to have a clear conscience before God and men all the time.

To-day I am standing my trial for hoping in the promise made by God to our fathers,

a promise which our twelve tribes hope to gain by serving God earnestly both night and day. And I am actually impeached by Jews for this hope, O king!

[Move to the beginning of vs 23] Why should you consider it incredible that God raises the dead,

We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? You hurt yourself by kicking at the goad.'

Now get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you in order to appoint you to my service as a witness to what you have seen and to the visions you shall have of me.

that their eyes may be opened and that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, to get remission of their sins and an inheritance among those who are consecrated by faith in me.'

I announced to those at Damascus and at Jerusalem in the first instance, then all over the land of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they were to repent and turn to God by acting up to their repentance.

To this day I have had the help of God in standing, as I now do, to testify alike to low and high, never uttering a single syllable beyond what the prophets and Moses predicted was to take place.

"Long or short," said Paul, "I would to God that not only you but all my hearers to-day could be what I am ??barring these chains!"

Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we managed with great difficulty to get the boat hauled in;

For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve, stood before me,

saying, 'Have no fear, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And God has granted you the lives of all your fellow-voyagers.'

Cheer up, men! I believe God, I believe it will turn out just as I have been told.

Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.

With these words he took a loaf and after thanking God, in presence of them all, broke it and began to eat.

So the anchors were cut away and left in the sea, while the crew unlashed the ropes that tied the rudders, hoisted the foresail to the breeze, and headed for the beach.

but as the officer wanted to save Paul, he put a stop to their plan, ordering those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land,

while the rest were to manage with planks or pieces of wreckage. In this way it turned out that the whole company got safe to land.

The natives waited for him to swell up or drop down dead in a moment, but after waiting a long while and observing that no harm had befallen him, they changed their minds and declared he was a god.

When this had happened, the rest of the sick folk in the island also came and got cured;

As the local brothers had heard about us, they came out to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae, and when Paul saw them he thanked God and took courage.

When we did reach Rome, Paul got permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

So they fixed a day and came to him at his quarters in large numbers. From morning to evening he explained the Reign of God to them from personal testimony, and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets.

Be sure of this, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen to it."

he preached the Reign of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unmolested.

PAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

and installed as Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness when he was raised from the dead ??concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

to all in Rome who are beloved by God, called to be saints, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because the report of your faith is over all the world.

God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers,

asking if I may at last be sped upon my way to you by God's will.

For I am proud of the gospel; it is God's saving power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

God's righteousness is revealed in it by faith and for faith ??as it is written, Now by faith shall the righteous live.

But God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of those who hinder the Truth by their wickedness.

For whatever is to be known of God is plain to them; God himself has made it plain ??20 for ever since the world was created, his invisible nature, his everlasting power and divine being, have been quite perceptible in what he has made. So they have no excuse.

Though they knew God, they have not glorified him as God nor given thanks to him; they have turned to futile speculations till their ignorant minds grew dark.

they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the semblance of the likeness of mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds, and of reptiles.

So God has given them up, in their heart's lust, to sexual vice, to the dishonouring of their own bodies, ??25 since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

That is why God has given them up to vile passions; their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural,

Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper,

defamers, loathed by God, outrageous, haughty, boastful, inventive in evil, disobedient to parents,

though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

'We know the doom of God falls justly upon those who practise such vices.'

Very well; and do you imagine you will escape God's doom, O man, you who judge those who practise such vices and do the same yourself?

In your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are simply storing up anger for yourself on the Day of anger, when the just doom of God is revealed.

eternal life to those who by patiently doing good aim at glory, honour, and immortality,

but glory, honour, and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

There is no partiality about God.

For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just in the eyes of God, it is those who obey the Law who will be acquitted,

on the day when God judges the secret things of men, as my gospel holds, by Jesus Christ.

If you bear the name of 'Jew,' relying on the Law, priding yourself on God,

You pride yourself on the Law; do you dishonour God by your breaches of the Law?

Why, it is owing to you that the name of God is maligned among the Gentiles, as scripture says!

And shall not those who are physically uncircumcised and who fulfil the Law, judge you who are a breaker of the Law for all your written code and circumcision?)

he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual not literal ??praised by God, not by man.

Then what is the Jew's superiority? What is the good of circumcision?

Much in every way. This to begin with ??Jews were entrusted with the scriptures of God.

Even supposing some of them have proved untrustworthy, is their faithlessness to cancel the faithfulness of God?

Never! Let God be true to his word, though every man be perfidious ??as it is written, That thou mayest be vindicated in thy pleadings, and triumph in thy trial.

But if our iniquity thus serves to bring out the justice of God, what are we to infer? That it is unfair of God to inflict his anger on us? (I speak in a merely human way.)

You say, "If my perfidy serves to make the truthfulness of God redound to his glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner?

Why should we not do evil that good may come out of it?" (which is the calumny attributed to me ??the very thing some people declare I say). Such arguments are rightly condemned.

no one understands, no one seeks for God.

All have swerved, one and all have gone wrong, no one does good, not a single one.

there is no reverence for God before their eyes.

Whatever the Law says, we know, it says to those who are inside the Law, that every mouth may be shut and all the world made answerable to God;

But now we have a righteousness of God disclosed apart from law altogether; it is attested by the Law and the prophets,

but it is a righteousness of God which comes by believing in Jesus Christ. And it is meant for all who have faith. No distinctions are drawn.

All have sinned, all come short of the glory of God,

whom God put forward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the fact that sins previously committed during the time of God's forbearance had been passed over;

it was to demonstrate his justice at the present epoch, showing that God is just himself and that he justifies man on the score of faith in Jesus.

Or is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of the Gentiles as well? Surely he is.

Well then, there is one God, a God who will justify the circumcised as they believe and the uncircumcised on the score of faith.

This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God.

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness.

Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered!

He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

(What the Law produces is the Wrath, not the promise of God; where there is no law, there is no transgression either.)

(as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist.

no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God

As we are justified by faith, then, let us enjoy the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have got access to this grace where we have our standing, and triumph in the hope of God's glory.

endurance produces character, and character produces hope ??5 a hope which never disappoints us, since God's love floods our hearts through the holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Why, a man will hardly die for the just ??though one might bring oneself to die, if need be, for a good man.

But God proves his love for us by this, that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.

If we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Not only so, but we triumph in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we now enjoy our reconciliation.

but the gift is very different from the trespass. For while the rest of men died by the trespass of one man, the grace of God and the free gift which comes by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed far more richly upon the rest of men.

the death he died was for sin, once for all, but the life he lives is for God.

So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.