Romans, chapter
1
1: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set
apart for the gospel of God
2: which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy
scriptures,
3: the gospel concerning His Son, who was descended from David
according to the flesh
4: and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
5: through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring
about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the
nations,
6: including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
7: To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,
because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
9: For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the
gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my
prayers,
10: asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed
in coming to you.
11: For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some
spiritual gift to strengthen you,
12: that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's
faith, both yours and mine.
13: I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to
come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap
some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14: I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both
to the wise and to the foolish:
15: so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in
Rome.
16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God
for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek.
17: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith
for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous
shall live."
18: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the
truth.
19: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God
has shown it to them.
20: Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature,
namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the
things that have been made. So they are without excuse;
21: for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or
give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their
senseless minds were darkened.
22: Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23: and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
24: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25: because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is
blessed for ever! Amen.
26: For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27: and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and
were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless
acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for
their error.
28: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.
29: They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil,
covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity,
they are gossips,
30: slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31: foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32: Though they know God's decree that those who do such things
deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice
them.
Romans, chapter
2
1: Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you
judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself,
because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.
2: We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who
do such things.
3: Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such
things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?
4: Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and
forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant
to lead you to repentance?
5: But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath
for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be
revealed.
6: For He will render to every man according to his works:
7: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and
honor and immortality, He will give eternal life;
8: but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but
obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.
9: There will be tribulation and distress for every human being
who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
10: but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good,
the Jew first and also the Greek.
11: For God shows no partiality.
12: All who have sinned without the law will also perish without
the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the
law.
13: For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before
God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
14: When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law
requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the
law.
15: They show that what the law requires is written on their
hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting
thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them
16: on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the
secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
17: But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and
boast of your relation to God
18: and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you
are instructed in the law,
19: and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a
light to those who are in darkness,
20: a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in
the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth --
21: you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While
you preach against stealing, do you steal?
22: You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit
adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23: You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the
law?
24: For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles because of you."
25: Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if
you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
26: So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the
law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
27: Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law
will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break
the law.
28: For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true
circumcision something external and physical.
29: He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a
matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from
men but from God.
Romans, chapter
3
1: Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of
circumcision?
2: Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with
the oracles of God.
3: What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify
the faithfulness of God?
4: By no means! Let God be true though every man be false, as it
is written, "That Thou may be justified in Thy words, and prevail
when Thou art judged."
5: But if our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what
shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a
human way.)
6: By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
7: But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his
glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?
8: And why not do evil that good may come? -- as some people
slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
9: What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I
have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the
power of sin,
10: as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;
11: no one understands, no one seeks for God.
12: All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one
does good, not even one."
13: "Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues
to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."
14: "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
15: "Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16: in their paths are ruin and misery,
17: and the way of peace they do not know."
18: "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
19: Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who
are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole
world may be held accountable to God.
20: For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of
the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart
from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
22: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for
all who believe. For there is no distinction;
23: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24: they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the
redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
25: whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be
received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;
26: it was to prove at the present time that he himself is
righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.
27: Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what
principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith.
28: For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works
of law.
29: Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles
also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30: since God is one; and He will justify the circumcised on the
ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith.
31: Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On
the contrary, we uphold the law.
Romans, chapter
4
1: What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according
to the flesh?
2: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to
boast about, but not before God.
3: For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God,
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."
4: Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but
as his due.
5: And to one who does not work but trusts Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
6: So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God
reckons righteousness apart from works:
7: "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered;
8: blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon his
sin."
9: Is this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised, or also
upon the uncircumcised? We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as
righteousness.
10: How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he
had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
11: He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the
righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being
circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,
12: and likewise the father of the circumcised who are not merely
circumcised but also follow the example of the faith which our father
Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13: The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should
inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the
righteousness of faith.
14: If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs,
faith is null and the promise is void.
15: For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is
no transgression.
16: That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise
may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants -- not only
to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of
Abraham, for he is the father of us all,
17: as it is written, "I have made you the father of many
nations" -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who
gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not
exist.
18: In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the
father of many nations; as he had been told, "So shall your
descendants be."
19: He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body,
which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or
when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
20: No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but
he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
21: fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.
22: That is why his faith was "reckoned to him as
righteousness."
23: But the words, "it was reckoned to him," were
written not for his sake alone,
24: but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in
Him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
25: who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our
justification.
Romans, chapter
5
1: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2: Through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we
stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3: More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance,
4: and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5: and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to
us.
6: While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for
the ungodly.
7: Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man -- though perhaps
for a good man one will dare even to die.
8: But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us.
9: Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more
shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.
10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life.
11: Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.
12: Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and
death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned
--
13: sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin
is not counted where there is no law.
14: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose
sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one
who was to come.
15: But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died
through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free
gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
16: And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's
sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but
the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.
17: If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that
one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the
free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus
Christ.
18: Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men,
so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all
men.
19: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
20: Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more,
21: so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign
through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans, chapter
6
1: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace
may abound?
2: By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4: We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so
that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too might walk in newness of life.
5: For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we
shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like his.
6: We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the
sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to
sin.
7: For he who has died is freed from sin.
8: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also
live with Him.
9: For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never
die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10: The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life
he lives he lives to God.
11: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus.
12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make
you obey their passions.
13: Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of
wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought
from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of
righteousness.
14: For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not
under law but under grace.
15: What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but
under grace? By no means!
16: Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as
obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin,
which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17: But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin
have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which
you were committed,
18: and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of
righteousness.
19: I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural
limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and
to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to
righteousness for sanctification.
20: When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to
righteousness.
21: But then what return did you get from the things of which you
are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal
life.
23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans, chapter
7
1: Do you not know, brethren -- for I am speaking to those who
know the law -- that the law is binding on a person only during his
life?
2: Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as
he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law
concerning the husband.
3: Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives
with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she
is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an
adulteress.
4: Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the
body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been
raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.
5: While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions,
aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
6: But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which
held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in
the new life of the Spirit.
7: What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet,
if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should
not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You
shall not covet."
8: But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me
all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
9: I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died;
10: the very commandment which promised life proved to be death
to me.
11: For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me
and by it killed me.
12: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and
good.
13: Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means!
It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin
might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become
sinful beyond measure.
14: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold
under sin.
15: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I
want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16: Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.
17: So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells
within me.
18: For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my
flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
19: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want
is what I do.
20: Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it,
but sin which dwells within me.
21: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil
lies close at hand.
22: For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self,
23: but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.
24: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death?
25: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of
myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the
law of sin.
Romans, chapter
8
1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus.
2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me
free from the law of sin and death.
3: For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could
not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
He condemned sin in the flesh,
4: in order that the just requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit.
5: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set
their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6: To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on
the Spirit is life and peace.
7: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it
does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot;
8: and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9: But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in
fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the
Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.
10: But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead
because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
11: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in
you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your
mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
12: So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh --
13: for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if
by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
14: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you have received the spirit of son ship. When we cry,
"Abba! Father!"
16: it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that
we are children of God,
17: and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be
glorified with Him.
18: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing
of the sons of God;
20: for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own
will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope;
21: because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage
to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22: We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail
together until now;
23: and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the
first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24: For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not
hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with
patience.
26: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words.
27: And He who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind
of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to
the will of God.
28: We know that in everything God works for good with those who
love Him, who are called according to his purpose.
29: For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son, in order that He might be the
first-born among many brethren.
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30:
And those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called
He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified.
31: What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is
against us?
32: He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all,
will He not also give us all things with Him?
33: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who
justifies;
34:
who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised
from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes
for us?
35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword?
36: As it is written, "For Thy sake we are being killed all
the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us.
38: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39: nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
Romans, chapter
9
1: I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my
conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2: that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3: For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from
Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race.
4: They are Israelites, and to them belong the son ship, the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the
promises;
5: to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to
the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen.
6: But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not
all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
7: and not all are children of Abraham because they are his
descendants; but "Through Isaac shall your descendants be
named."
8: This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are
the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as
descendants.
9: For this is what the promise said, "About this time I
will return and Sarah shall have a son."
10: And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children
by one man, our forefather Isaac,
11: though they were not yet born and had done nothing either
good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not
because of works but because of His calling,
12: she was told, "The elder will serve the younger."
13: As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I
hated."
14: What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By
no means!
15: For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
16: So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's
mercy.
17: For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up
for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be
proclaimed in all the earth."
18: So then He has mercy upon whomever He wills, and He hardens
the heart of whomever He wills.
19: You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault?
For who can resist His will?"
20: But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is
molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me thus?"
21: Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the
same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?
22: What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his
power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for
destruction,
23: in order to make known the riches of his glory for the
vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory,
24: even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also
from the Gentiles?
25: As indeed He says in Hose'a, "Those who were not My
people I will call `My people,' and her who was not beloved I will call
`My beloved.'"
26: "And in the very place where it was said to them, `You
are not my people,' they will be called `sons of the living God.'"
27: And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the
number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant
of them will be saved;
28: for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with
rigor and dispatch."
29: And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not
left us children, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like
Gomor'rah."
30: What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue
righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;
31: but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based
on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
32: Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if
it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33: as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone
that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall; and he who
believes in Him will not be put to shame."
Romans, chapter
10
1: Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that
they may be saved.
2: I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is
not enlightened.
3: For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God,
and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's
righteousness.
4: For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith
may be justified.
5: Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness
which is based on the law shall live by it.
6: But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your
heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?" (that is, to bring
Christ down)
7: or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to
bring Christ up from the dead).
8: But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and
in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach);
9: because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be
saved.
10: For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he
confesses with his lips and so is saved.
11: The scripture says, "No one who believes in Him will be
put to shame."
12: For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same
Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon Him.
13: For, "every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will
be saved."
14: But how are men to call upon Him in whom they have not
believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never
heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
15: And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is
written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good
news!"
16: But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says,
"Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"
17: So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by
the preaching of Christ.
18: But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for
"Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the
ends of the world."
19: Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
"I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a
foolish nation I will make you angry."
20: Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by
those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask
for me."
21: But of Israel He says, "All day long I have held out my
hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
Romans, chapter
11
1: I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I
myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe
of Benjamin.
2: God has not rejected his people whom He foreknew. Do you not
know what the scripture says of Eli'jah, how He pleads with God against
Israel?
3: "Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, they have
demolished Thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."
4: But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself
seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba'al."
5: So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by
grace.
6: But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7: What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect
obtained it, but the rest were hardened,
8: as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes
that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very
day."
9: And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a
trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them;
10: let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend
their backs for ever."
11: So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But
through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make
Israel jealous.
12: Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if
their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their
full inclusion mean!
13: Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an
apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry
14: in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some
of them.
15: For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
16: If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole
lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17: But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild
olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the
olive tree,
18: do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it
is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.
19: You will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might
be grafted in."
20: That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief,
but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand
in awe.
21: For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will
He spare you.
22: Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity
toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you
continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.
23: And even the others, if they do not persist in their
unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in
again.
24: For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive
tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how
much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own
olive tree.
25: Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to
understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of
Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in,
26: and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The
Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from
Jacob";
27: "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away
their sins."
28: As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake;
but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their
forefathers.
29: For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
30: Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have
received mercy because of their disobedience,
31: so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy
shown to you they also may receive mercy.
32: For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that He may
have mercy upon all.
33: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34: "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been
his counselor?"
35: "Or who has given a gift to him that He might be
repaid?"
36: For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To
Him be glory for ever. Amen.
Romans, chapter
12
1: I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
2: Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what
is good and acceptable and perfect.
3: For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to
think of himself more highly than He ought to think, but to think with
sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has
assigned him.
4: For as in one body we have many members, and all the members
do not have the same function,
5: so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members one of another.
6: Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
7: if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching;
8: he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in
liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with
cheerfulness.
9: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is
good;
10: love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another
in showing honor.
11: Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord.
12: Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant
in prayer.
13: Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
14: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
16: Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but
associate with the lowly; never be conceited.
17: Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is
noble in the sight of all.
18: If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably
with all.
19: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath
of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says
the Lord."
20: No, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals
upon his head."
21: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans, chapter
13
1: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For
there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
instituted by God.
2: Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has
appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3: For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would
you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and
you will receive his approval,
4: for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be
afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God
to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.
5: Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath
but also for the sake of conscience.
6: For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities
are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
7: Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due,
revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to
whom honor is due.
8: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who
loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9: The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You
shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any
other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love
your neighbor as yourself."
10: Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law.
11: Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time
now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than
when we first believed;
12: the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast
off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;
13: let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in
reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in
quarreling and jealousy.
14: But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for
the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Romans, chapter
14
1: As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for
disputes over opinions.
2: One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only
vegetables.
3: Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him
who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him.
4: Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is
before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld,
for the Master is able to make him stand.
5: One man esteems one day as better than another, while another
man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own
mind.
6: He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He
also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God;
while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to
God.
7: None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
8: If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the
Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
9: For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be
Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10: Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you
despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
God;
11: for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee
shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God."
12: So each of us shall give account of himself to God.
13: Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather
decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a
brother.
14: I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is
unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean.
15: If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no
longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one
for whom Christ died.
16: So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.
17: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit;
18: he who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved
by men.
19: Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building.
20: Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.
Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for any one to make others
fall by what he eats;
21: it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that
makes your brother stumble.
22: The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God; happy
is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves.
23: But he who has doubts is condemned, if he eats, because he
does not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is
sin.
Romans, chapter
15
1: We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak,
and not to please ourselves;
2: let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him.
3: For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written,
"The reproaches of those who reproached Thee fell on Me."
4: For whatever was written in former days was written for our
instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
scriptures we might have hope.
5: May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to
live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,
6: that together you may with one voice glorify the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7: Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
8: For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised
to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to
the patriarchs,
9: and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his
mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise Thee among the
Gentiles, and sing to Thy name";
10: and again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His
people";
11: and again, "Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all
the peoples praise Him";
12: and further Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come,
He who rises to rule the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles hope."
13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in
hope.
14: I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you
yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to
instruct one another.
15: But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way
of reminder, because of the grace given me by God
16: to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the
priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the
Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17: In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work
for God.
18: For I will not venture to speak of anything except what
Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by
word and deed,
19: by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyr'icum I have
fully preached the gospel of Christ,
20: thus making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where
Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man's foundation,
21: but as it is written, "They shall see who have never
been told of Him, and they shall understand who have never heard of
Him."
22: This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from
coming to you.
23: But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these
regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,
24: I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped
on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a
little.
25: At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem with aid for the
saints.
26: For Macedo'nia and Acha'ia have been pleased to make some
contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem;
27: they were pleased to do it, and indeed they are in debt to
them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual
blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material
blessings.
28: When therefore I have completed this, and have delivered to
them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain;
29: and I know that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness
of the blessing of Christ.
30: I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by
the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to
God on my behalf,
31: that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and
that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32: so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be
refreshed in your company.
33: The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Romans, chapter
16
1: I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church
at Cen'chre-ae,
2: that you may receive her in the Lord as befits the saints, and
help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper
of many and of myself as well.
3: Greet Prisca and Aq'uila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4: who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but
also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks;
5: greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved
Epae'netus, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ.
6: Greet Mary, who has worked hard among you.
7: Greet Androni'cus and Ju'nias, my kinsmen and my fellow
prisoners; they are men of note among the apostles, and they were in
Christ before me.
8: Greet Amplia'tus, my beloved in the Lord.
9: Greet Urba'nus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved
Stachys.
10: Greet Apel'les, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who
belong to the family of Aristobu'lus.
11: Greet my kinsman Hero'dion. Greet those in the Lord who
belong to the family of Narcis'sus.
12: Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphae'na and Trypho'sa.
Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.
13: Greet Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine.
14: Greet Asyn'critus, Phlegon, Hermes, Pat'robas, Hermas, and
the brethren who are with them.
15: Greet Philol'ogus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olym'pas,
and all the saints who are with them.
16: Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of
Christ greet you.
17: I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create
dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you
have been taught; avoid them.
18: For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own
appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of
the simple-minded.
19: For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice
over you, I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to
what is evil;
20: then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21: Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason
and Sosip'ater, my kinsmen.
22: I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23: Ga'ius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets
you. Eras'tus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
25: Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my
gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret for long ages
26: but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is
made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faith --
27: to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus
Christ! Amen.
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