The brothers there had had news of our coming, and came as far as Appius' Forum and Three Taverns to meet us, and when Paul saw them he thanked God and was greatly encouraged.

When we reached Rome, Paul was given permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

Three days later, he invited the leading Jews to come to see him, and when they came he said to them, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people, or the customs of our forefathers, yet I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner at Jerusalem.

They examined me and were ready to let me go, as I was innocent of any crime that deserved death.

But the Jews objected, and I was obliged to appeal to the emperor??ot that I had any charge to make against my own nation.

So they fixed a day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying, and from morning till night he explained to them the Kingdom of God and gave his testimony, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.

about his Son, who was physically descended from David,

For they had exchanged the truth of God for what was false, and worshiped and served what he had created, instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen!

For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.

For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God,

for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before;

and he was afterward given the mark of circumcision as the stamp of God's acknowledgment of the uprightness based on faith that was his before he was circumcised, so that he should be the forefather of all who, without being circumcised, have faith and so are credited with uprightness,

and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children.

in the full assurance that God was able to do what he had promised.

That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,

who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.

It is true sin was in the world before the Law was given, and men are not charged with sin where there is no law.

Still death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam had, in the face of an express command. So Adam foreshadowed the one who was to come.

Nor is there any comparison between the gift and the effects of that one man's sin. That sentence arose from the act of one man, and was for condemnation; but God's gift arose out of many offenses and results in acquittal.

Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father's glory, we too may live a new life.

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

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

So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

I was once alive and without law, but when the command came, sin awoke and then I died;

Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was.

For though it was impossible for the Law to do it, hampered as it was by our physical limitations, God, by sending his own Son in our sinful physical form, as a sin-offering, put his condemnation upon sin through his physical nature,

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather who was raised from the dead, is at God's right hand, and actually pleads for us.

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants."

And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac.

she was told, "The elder will be the younger's slave."

Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;

Then Isaiah broke out boldly and said, "I have been found by men who were not looking for me, I have shown myself to men who were not asking what my will was."

That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid,

For everything that was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by being steadfast and through the encouragement the Scriptures give, we might hold our hope fast.

In all this it has been my ambition to preach the good news only where Christ's name was unknown, so as not to build on foundations other men had laid.

Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first man in Asia to turn to Christ.

God can be depended on, and it was he who called you to this fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ has been divided up! But was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

but we proclaim a Christ who was crucified??n idea that is revolting to Jews and absurd to the heathen,

But it was what the world calls foolish that God chose to put the wise to shame with, and it was what the world calls weak that God chose to shame its strength with,

and it was what the world calls low and insignificant and unreal that God chose to nullify its realities,

for I resolved, while I was with you, to forget everything but Jesus Christ and his crucifixion.

I did the planting, Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the plants grow.

What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who is supposed to be a Christian brother, and yet is immoral or greedy or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or grasping??ith such a person you must not even eat.

Only, everyone must continue in the station which the Lord has appointed for him, and in which he was when God's call came to him. This is the rule I make in all the churches.

If a man was circumcised when he was called, he must not try to alter it. If a man was uncircumcised when he was called, he must not have himself circumcised.

Everyone ought to remain in the station in which he was called.

Brothers, everyone must remain in fellowship with God in the station in which he was called.

For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth??nd indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords??6 yet for us there is just one God, the Father, who is the source of all things, and for whom we live, and just one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

Is he not clearly speaking in our interests? Of course this law was written in our interests, because the plowman ought to plow, and the thresher to thresh, in the expectation of sharing in the crop.

If it was we who sowed the spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

and drank the same supernatural drink??for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which attended them, and the rock was really Christ??5 still most of them disappointed God, for they were struck down in the desert.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man,

and man was not created for woman, but woman was for man.

For just as woman was made from man, man is born of woman, and both like everything else really come from God.

For I myself received from the Lord the account that I passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus the night he was betrayed took some bread

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside my childish ways.

that he was buried, that on the third day he was raised from the dead, as the Scriptures foretold,

and that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the Twelve.

After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have fallen asleep.

Then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles,

and finally he was seen by me also, as though I were born at the wrong time.

But by God's favor I have become what I am, and the favor he showed me has not gone for nothing, but I have worked harder than any of them, although it was not really I but the favor God showed me.

But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Now if what we preach about Christ is that he was raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not raised,

and if Christ was not raised, there is nothing in our message; there is nothing in our faith either,

For if the dead are never raised, Christ was not raised;

and if Christ was not raised, your faith is a delusion; you are still under the control of your sins.

But the truth is, Christ was raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep.

For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead.

Those who are of the earth are like him who was of the earth, and those who are of heaven are like him who is from heaven,

Now I urge you, brothers??ou know that the family of Stephanas was the first to be converted in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people??16 I want you to enlist under such leaders, and under anyone who joins with you and works hard.

For I do not want you, brothers, to misunderstand the distress that I experienced in Asia, for I was so utterly and unendurably crushed, that I actually despaired of life itself.

Why, I felt in my heart that the end must be death. That was to keep me from relying on myself instead of on God, who can even raise the dead.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

It was because I was sure of this that I wanted to come to see you before going anywhere else, to give you a double pleasure;

I was going to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia and have you see me off for Judea.

Was it vacillating of me to want to do that? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say "Yes" and "No" in the same breath?

For I was in great trouble and distress of mind when I wrote you, and I shed many tears as I did it, yet it was not to hurt your feelings, but to make you realize the extraordinary affection I have for you.

But if the religion of death, carved in letters of stone, was ushered in with such splendor, so that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face on account of the brightness that was fading from it,

If there was splendor in the religion of condemnation, the religion of uprightness must far surpass it in splendor.

For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all.

For if I was out of my senses, as they say, it was between God and me; and if I am in my right mind, it is for your good.

For even when I reached Macedonia, my poor human nature could get no relief??here was trouble at every turn; fighting without, and fear within.

So although I did write to you, it was not on account of the offender, nor of the injured man, but in the sight of God to reveal to you your devotion to me.

That is why I am so comforted. With all my own comfort, I was still more overjoyed at the gladness of Titus, for his mind has been set at rest by you all.

If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true.

You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.

But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year.

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

And when I was with you and wanted money, I did not burden any of you, for when the brothers came from Macedonia they supplied what I needed. So I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.