Romans 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 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 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 mayest 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 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 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 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 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 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 sonship. 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.
- 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 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 sonship, 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 call,
- 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 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 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 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 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 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 upbuilding.
- 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 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 fulness 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 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.
- 24
-
- 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.