in my prayers at all times, asking that somehow by God's will I may at last succeed in coming to you.

For I am longing to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong,

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.

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

For since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse.

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

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

Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done.

Although they know God's just requirement that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.

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?

For he will repay everyone according to what that person has done:

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

on that day when God, through Jesus the Messiah, will judge people's secrets according to my gospel.

and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness,

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.

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!

Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

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

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.

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

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 the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the Law, but through the righteousness produced by faith.

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,

being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

Not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

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

Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him!

Not only that, but we also continue to boast about God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now been reconciled.

Nor can the free gift be compared to what came through the man who sinned. For the sentence that followed one man's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift brought justification, even after many offenses.

For if, through one man, death ruled because of that man's offense, how much more will those who receive such overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness rule in life because of one man, Jesus the Messiah!

Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more,

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.

What should we say, then? Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

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.

We know that our old natures were crucified with him so that our sin-laden bodies might be rendered powerless and we might no longer be slaves to sin.

Now if we have died with the Messiah, we believe that we will also live with him,

for we know that the Messiah, who was raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

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.

Therefore, do not let sin rule your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.

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?

But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted!

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.

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.

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?

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.

and I died. I found that the very rule that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

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.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out.

For I don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me.

but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death?

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity, he condemned sin by being incarnate,

so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to human nature but according to the Spirit.

That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God's Law because it is powerless to do so.

Consequently, brothers, we are not with respect to human nature, that is under an obligation to live according to human nature.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Now if we are children, we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.

that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God's children.

For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.

For we were saved with this hope in mind. Now a hope that can be observed is not really hope, for who hopes for what can be seen?

And we know that for those who love God, that is, for those who are called according to his purpose, all things are working together for good.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that the Son might be the firstborn among many brothers.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

for I could wish that I myself were condemned and cut off from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my own people,

and not all of Abraham's descendants are his true descendants. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that descendants will be named for you."

That is, it is not merely the children born through natural descent who were regarded as God's children, but it is the children born through the promise who were regarded as descendants.

Not only that, but Rebecca became pregnant by our ancestor Isaac.

Yet before their children had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's plan of election might continue to operate

For the Scripture says about Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for this very purpose, to demonstrate my power through you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

On the contrary, who are you mere man that you are to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can't he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction?

Can't he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory

What can we say, then? Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have attained righteousness, a righteousness that comes through faith.

Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on achievements. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble.

As it is written, "Look! I am placing a stone in Zion over which people will stumble a large rock that will make them fall and the one who believes in him will never be ashamed."

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God about the Jews is that they would be saved.

For I can testify on their behalf that they have a zeal for God, but it is not in keeping with full knowledge.

For they are ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God while they try to establish their own, and they have not submitted to God's means to attain righteousness.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law as follows: "The person who obeys these things will find life by them."

But the righteousness that comes from faith says, "Do not say in your heart, "Who will go up to heaven?' (that is, to bring the Messiah down),

or "Who will go down into the depths?' (that is, to bring the Messiah back from the dead)."

But what does it say? "The message is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart." This is the message about faith that we are proclaiming: