That's why I asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain."

They disagreed with one another as they were leaving, so Paul added this statement: "The Holy Spirit was so right when he spoke to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah!

Through him we received grace and a commission as an apostle to bring about faithful obedience among all the gentiles for the sake of his name.

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus the Messiah for all of you, because the news about your faith is being reported throughout the world.

For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel about his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you

that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now), so that I might reap a harvest among you, just as I have among the rest of the gentiles.

Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor.

That is why I am so eager to proclaim the gospel to you who live in Rome, too.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well.

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

For God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Though claiming to be wise, they became fools

For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another.

They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural.

Now we know that God's judgment against those who act like this is based on truth.

Or are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God's kindness that is leading you to repent?

There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well.

But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well,

For it is not merely those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. No, it is those who follow the Law, who will be justified.

They show that what the Law requires is written in their hearts, a fact to which their own consciences testify, and their thoughts will either accuse or excuse them

and know his will, and approve of what is best because you have been instructed in the Law;

as you teach others, do you fail to teach yourself? As you preach against stealing, do you steal?

As you forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? As you abhor idols, do you rob temples?

As you boast about the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

As it is written, "God's name is being blasphemed among the gentiles because of you."

For circumcision is valuable if you observe the Law, but if you break the Law, your having been circumcised has no more value than if you were uncircumcised.

So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, his uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision, won't it?

The man who is uncircumcised physically but who keeps the Law will condemn you who break the Law, even though you have the written Law and circumcision.

For a person is not a Jew because of his appearance, nor is circumcision something just external and physical.

No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person's praise will come from God, not from people.

What advantage, then, does the Jew have, or what value is there in circumcision?

Of course not! God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written, "You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court."

But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God's righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.)

For if through my falsehood God's truthfulness glorifies him even more, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

Or can we say as some people slander us by claiming that we say "Let's do evil that good may result"? They deserve to be condemned!

As it is written, "Not even one person is righteous.

Their throats are open graves. With their tongues they deceive. The venom of poisonous snakes is under their lips.

But now, apart from the Law, God's righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets

God's righteousness through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah for all who believe. For there is no distinction among people,

By his grace they are justified freely through the redemption that is in the Messiah Jesus,

whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah's blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past.

He wanted to demonstrate at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies anyone who has the faithfulness of Jesus.

What, then, is there to boast about? That has been eliminated. On what principle? On that of actions? No, but on the principle of faith.

For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the actions prescribed by the Law.

Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the gentiles, too? Yes, of the gentiles, too,

since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised by that same faith.

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

However, to someone who does not work, but simply believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Likewise, David also speaks of the blessedness of the person whom God regards as righteous apart from actions:

"How blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered!

How blessed is the person whose sins the Lord will never charge against him!"

Now does this blessedness come to the circumcised alone, or also to the uncircumcised? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness."

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Therefore, he is the ancestor of all who believe while uncircumcised, in order that righteousness may be credited to them.

He is also the ancestor of the circumcised those who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

For if those who were given the Law are the heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

for the Law produces wrath. Now where there is no Law, neither can there be any violation of it.

Therefore, the promise is based on faith, so that it may be a matter of grace and may be guaranteed for all of Abraham's descendants not only for those who were given the Law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations." Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that don't yet exist.

Hoping in spite of hopeless circumstances, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," just as he had been told: "This is how many descendants you will have."

His faith did not weaken when he thought about his own body (which was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old) or about Sarah's inability to have children,

This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

but also for us. Our faith will be regarded in the same way, if we believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was sentenced to death because of our sins and raised to life to justify us.

Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

For it is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person.

But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners.

Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death resulted from sin, therefore everyone dies, because everyone has sinned.

Certainly sin was in the world before the Law was given, but no record of sin is kept when there is no Law.

Nevertheless, death ruled from the time of Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the same way Adam did when he disobeyed. He is a foreshadowing of the one who would come.

But God's free gift is not like Adam's offense. For if many people died as the result of one man's offense, how much more have God's grace and the free gift given through the kindness of one man, Jesus the Messiah, been showered on many people!

Consequently, just as one offense resulted in condemnation for everyone, so one act of righteousness results in justification and life for everyone.

For just as through one man's disobedience many people were made sinners, so also through one man's obedience many people will be made righteous.

so that, just as sin ruled by bringing death, so also grace might rule by bringing justification that results in eternal life through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

Of course not! How can we who died as far as sin is concerned go on living in it?

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into union with the Messiah Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too may live an entirely new life.

For when he died, he died once and for all as far as sin is concerned. But now that he is alive, he lives for God.

In the same way, you too must continuously consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but living for God through the Messiah Jesus.

Stop offering the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life and the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness to God.

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

I am speaking in simple terms because of the frailty of your human nature. Just as you once offered the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater disobedience, so now, in the same way, you must offer the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness that leads to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were "free" as far as righteousness was concerned.

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God's slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.

Don't you realize, brothers for I am speaking to people who know the Law that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive?

For a married woman is bound by the Law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband.

So while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterer if she lives with another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from this Law, so that she is not an adulterer if she marries another man.

In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.

But now we have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings.

What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

But sin seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is dead.

So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good.

Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, sold as a slave to sin.

Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good.

As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me.