Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, an Apostle by the selection of God, given authority as a preacher of the good news,

Of which God had given word before by his prophets in the holy Writings,

But was marked out as Son of God in power by the Holy Spirit through the coming to life again of the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord,

To all those who are in Rome, loved by God, marked out as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, I give praise to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because news of your faith has gone into all the world.

For God is my witness, whose servant I am in spirit in the good news of his Son, that you are at all times in my memory and in my prayers,

And that I am ever making prayers that God will give me a good journey to you.

For which reason I have the desire, as far as I am able, to give the knowledge of the good news to you who are in Rome.

For I have no feeling of shame about the good news, because it is the power of God giving salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek.

For in it there is the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith to faith: as it is said in the holy Writings, The man who does righteousness will be living by his faith.

For there is a revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all the wrongdoing and evil thoughts of men who keep down what is true by wrongdoing;

Because the knowledge of God may be seen in them, God having made it clear to them.

For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing:

Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark.

And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed and made into the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.

For this reason God gave them up to the evil desires of their hearts, working shame in their bodies with one another:

Because by them the true word of God was changed into that which is false, and they gave worship and honour to the thing which is made, and not to him who made it, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.

For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural:

And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right;

Hated by God, full of pride, without respect, full of loud talk, given to evil inventions, not honouring father or mother,

Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.

And we are conscious that God is a true judge against those who do such things.

But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you?

Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?

But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;

To those who go on with good works in the hope of glory and honour and salvation from death, he will give eternal life:

But glory and honour and peace to all whose works are good, to the Jew first and then to the Greek:

For one man is not different from another before God.

All those who have done wrong without the law will get destruction without the law: and those who have done wrong under the law will have their punishment by the law;

For it is not the hearers of the law who will be judged as having righteousness before God, but only the doers:

In the day when God will be a judge of the secrets of men, as it says in the good news of which I am a preacher, through Jesus Christ.

But as for you who have the name of Jew, and are resting on the law, and take pride in God,

You who say that a man may not be untrue to his wife, are you true to yours? you who are a hater of images, do you do wrong to the house of God?

You who take pride in the law, are you doing wrong to the honour of God by behaviour which is against the law?

For the name of God is shamed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is said in the holy Writings.

But he is a Jew who is a secret one, whose circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Much in every way: first of all because the words of God were given to them.

And if some have no faith, will that make the faith of God without effect?

In no way: but let God be true, though every man is seen to be untrue; as it is said in the Writings, That your words may be seen to be true, and you may be seen to be right when you are judged.

But if the righteousness of God is supported by our wrongdoing what is to be said? is it wrong for God to be angry (as men may say)?

In no way: because if it is so, how is God able to be the judge of all the world?

But if, because I am untrue, God being seen to be true gets more glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner?

Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment.

Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God;

They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one:

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God:

But now without the law there is a revelation of the righteousness of God, to which witness is given by the law and the prophets;

That is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who have faith; and one man is not different from another,

For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God;

Whom God has put forward as the sign of his mercy, through faith, by his blood, to make clear his righteousness when, in his pity, God let the sins of earlier times go without punishment;

For this reason, then, a man may get righteousness by faith without the works of the law.

Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not in the same way the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles:

If God is one; and he will give righteousness because of faith to those who have circumcision, and through faith to those who have not circumcision.

What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got?

For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God.

But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

As David says that there is a blessing on the man to whose account God puts righteousness without works, saying,

For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if they who are of the law are the people who get the heritage, then faith is made of no use, and the word of God has no power;

For this reason it is of faith, so that it may be through grace; and so that the word of God may be certain to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

(As it is said in the holy Writings, I have made you a father of a number of nations) before him in whom he had faith, that is, God, who gives life to the dead, and to whom the things which are not are as if they were.

Still, he did not give up faith in the undertaking of God, but was made strong by faith, giving glory to God,

And being certain that God was able to keep his word.

For which reason, because we have righteousness through faith, let us be at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

Through whom, in the same way, we have been able by faith to come to this grace in which we now are; and let us have joy in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

Now it is hard for anyone to give his life even for an upright man, though it might be that for a good man someone would give his life.

But God has made clear his love to us, in that, when we were still sinners, Christ gave his life for us.

Much more, if we now have righteousness by his blood, will salvation from the wrath of God come to us through him.

For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life;

And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God.

But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men.

And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number.

Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man.

For his death was a death to sin, but his life now is a life which he is living to God.

Even so see yourselves as dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.

And do not give your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrongdoing, but give yourselves to God, as those who are living from the dead, and your bodies as instruments of righteousness to God.

Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.

But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed;

But now, being free from sin, and having been made servants to God, you have your fruit in that which is holy, and the end is eternal life.

For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will get the name of one who is untrue to her husband: but if the husband is dead, she is free from the law, so that she is not untrue, even if she takes another man.

In the same way, my brothers, you were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, even to him who came again from the dead, so that we might give fruit to God.

But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good.

Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.

But, if I do that which I have no mind to do, I am in agreement with the law that the law is good.

For I am conscious that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is nothing good: I have the mind but not the power to do what is right.

For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.

So I see a law that, though I have a mind to do good, evil is present in me.

In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God,

I give praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I am a servant to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.

For what the law was not able to do because it was feeble through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the image of the evil flesh, and as an offering for sin, gave his decision against sin in the flesh:

Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be:

So that those who are in the flesh are not able to give pleasure to God.

You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not one of his.

And all those who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not get the spirit of servants again to put you in fear, but the spirit of sons was given to you, by which we say, Abba, Father.

The Spirit is witness with our spirit that we are children of God:

And if we are children, we have a right to a part in the heritage; a part in the things of God, together with Christ; so that if we have a part in his pain, we will in the same way have a part in his glory.