Some days later, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him talk about faith in Christ Jesus.

At the same time he was hoping to get money from Paul, and so he kept on sending for him and talking with him.

But at the close of two whole years Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and as he wanted to gratify the Jews, Felix left Paul still in prison.

Festus answered that Paul was being kept in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself was going there soon.

and as they stayed for several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. He said, "There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix,

and when I was in Jerusalem, the Jewish high priests and elders presented their case against him, and continued to ask for a judgment against him.

I answered them that it was not the Roman custom to give up anyone for punishment until the accused met his accusers face to face and had an opportunity to defend himself against their accusations.

They merely had a quarrel with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died, but who Paul kept saying was still alive.

I was at a loss how to investigate such matters and so asked Paul if he would go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these matters.

So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with splendid pomp and went into the audience-room, attended by the colonels and the leading citizens of the town, and at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

That was what I did at Jerusalem; yes, I received authority from the high priests and shut behind the prison bars many of God's people. Yes, when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and often in all the synagogues

While in this business I once was on my way to Damascus with authority based on a commission from the high priests,

if the Christ should suffer, and by being the first to rise from the dead was to proclaim the light to the Jewish people and to the heathen."

When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they turned over Paul and some other prisoners to a colonel of the imperial regiment, named Julius.

After going on board an Adramyttian ship bound for the ports of Asia, we set sail. On board with us was Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica.

After setting sail from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the wind was against us,

After considerable time had gone by, and navigation had become dangerous, and the fast was now over, Paul began to warn them

But the colonel was influenced by the pilot and the captain of the ship rather than by what Paul said.

And as the harbor was not fit to winter in, the majority favored the plan to set sail from there and see if they could reach Phoenix and winter there, this being a harbor in Crete facing west-southwest and west-north-west.

When a light breeze from the south began to blow, thinking their purpose was about to be realized, they weighed anchor and coasted along by Crete, hugging the shore,

But it was not long before a violent wind, which is called a Northeaster, swept down from it.

The ship was snatched along by it and since she could not face the wind, we gave up and let her drive.

For a number of days neither the sun nor the stars were to be seen, and the storm continued to rage, until at last all hope of being saved was now vanishing,

So keep up your courage, men, for I have confidence in my God that it will all come out just as I was told.

It was now the fourteenth night and we were drifting on the Adriatic sea, when at midnight the sailors suspected that land was near.

On taking soundings they found a depth of twenty fathoms; and a little later again taking soundings, they found it was fifteen.

Until day was about to break Paul kept begging them all to take something to eat. He said, "For fourteen days today you have been constantly waiting and going without food, not even taking a bite.

After we had been rescued, we learned that the island was called Malta.

The natives kept on looking for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual take place on him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

The governor of the island, whose name was Publius, owned estates in that part of the island, and he welcomed us and entertained us with hearty hospitality for three days.

Because this cure was performed, the rest of the sick people on the island kept coming to him and by degrees were cured.

When we did arrive at Rome, Paul was granted permission to live by himself -- excepting a soldier to guard him.

Three days later, he invited the leading men of the 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 at Jerusalem I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner.

After examining me the Romans wanted to set me free, because I was innocent of any crime that deserved the death penalty.

But the Jews objected, so I was forced to appeal to the Emperor; yet it was not because I had any charge to make against my own nation.

So they set a day for him, and came in large numbers to see him at the place where he was lodging, and from morning till night he continued to explain to them the kingdom of God, at the same time giving them his own testimony and trying from the law of Moses and the prophets to convince them about Jesus.

for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith.

For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."

Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing."

Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised.

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God;

and the forefather of those Jews who not only belong to the circumcision but also follow in the footsteps of our forefather Abraham in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants, that he should own the world, was not conditioned on the law, but on the right standing he had with God through faith.

Because he never weakened in faith, he calmly contemplated his own vital powers as worn out (for he was about one hundred years old) and the inability of Sarah to bear a child,

in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised.

Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God.

It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him";

it was for our sakes too, for it is going to be credited to us who put our faith in God who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,

who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.

Certainly sin was in the world before the law was given, but it is not charged to men's account where there is no law.

And yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the way Adam had, against a positive command. For Adam was a figure of Him who was to come.

So through baptism we have been buried with Him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, so we too should live an entirely new life.

for we know that our former self was crucified with Him, to make our body that is liable to sin inactive, so that we might not a moment longer continue to be slaves to sin.

for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free so far as doing right was concerned.

So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died;

Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful.

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

For nature did not of its own accord give up to failure; it was for the sake of Him who let it thus be given up, in the hope

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

nor are they all children of Abraham, because they are his descendants, but the promise was "In the line of Isaac your descendants will I be counted."

Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac.

she was told, "The elder will be a slave to the younger."

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,

And in the place where it was said, 'You are no people of mine,' they shall be called sons of the living God."

Then Isaiah was bold enough to say: "I have been found by a people who were not searching for me; I have made known myself to people who were not asking to know me."

Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent,

For everything that was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by our patient endurance and through the encouragement the Scriptures bring we might continuously cherish our hope.

Remember me to the church too, that meets at their house. Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

Christ has been parceled out by you! It was not Paul who was crucified for you, was it? You were not baptized in Paul's name, were you?

we are preaching the Christ who was crucified -- a message that is a trap-stick to the Jews and nonsense to the Greeks,

Yes, as for myself, it was in weakness and fear and great trembling that I came to you,

I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who kept the plants growing.

For though you have ten thousand teachers in the Christian life, you certainly could not have many fathers. For it was I myself who became your father through your union with Christ Jesus, which resulted from my telling you the good news.

Now what I really meant was for you to stop associating with any so-called brother, if he is sexually immoral, a greedy grasper, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler -- with such a person you must even stop eating.

Has a man been called after he was circumcised? He must not try to change it. Has a man been called without being circumcised? He must not be circumcised.

Everybody must remain in the station in which he was called.

Brothers, each one must continue close to God in the very station in which he was called.

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and the goal of our living, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated.

Is He not really speaking on our behalf? Yes, indeed, this law was written on our behalf, because the plowman ought to plow and the thresher ought to thresh, in the hope of sharing in the crop.

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

still with the most of them God was not at all satisfied, for He allowed them to be laid low in the desert.

and man was not created for woman's sake, but woman was for man's sake.

For the account that I passed on to you I myself received from the Lord Himself, that the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took a loaf of 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 laid aside my childish ways.

and through which you are to be saved, unless your faith at first was spurious.

that He was buried, that on the third day He was raised from the dead, in accordance with the Scriptures,

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

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

Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles, and finally

He was seen by me, too, as though I were born out of time.

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

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

and if Christ was not raised, the message which we preach has nothing in it; there is nothing in our faith either,

For since it was through a man that death resulted, it was also through a man that the resurrection of the dead resulted.