1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
1:2 (Which he promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
1:3 Concerning his Son, who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh;
1:4 And through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord,
1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake;
1:6 And you also are among those called to belong to Jesus Christ:
1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers;
1:10 Making request, that by some means I might now at last, by the will of God, succeed in coming to you.
1:11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so you may be established;
1:12 That is, that we may together be comforted, each by the other's faith, both yours and mine.
1:13 Now I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, that I often intended to come to you, (but was prevented until now,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the other Gentiles.
1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the foolish.
1:15 So, for my part, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel [of Christ], for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by unrighteousness;
1:19 Because that which may be known about God is evident to them; for God has shown it to them.
1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible nature, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly seen, being understood by the things that have been made; so that they are without excuse:
1:21 Because, though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
1:23 And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
1:24 Therefore God gave them up, through the lusts of their own hearts, to sexual impurity, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves:
1:25 Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
1:26 For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women exchanged natural relations for that which is against nature:
1:27 And likewise the men, leaving their natural relations with woman, burned in their lust toward one another; men with men doing that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
1:28 And as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.
1:29 They were filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malevolence; whisperers,
1:30 Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
1:31 Without understanding, untrustworthy, without natural affection, unmerciful:
1:32 Who knowing the just decree of God, that those who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do these things, but applaud those who practice them.
2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you pass judgement: for when you pass judgement on another, you condemn yourself; for you who pass judgement do the same things.
2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things.
2:3 And do you think, O man, that when you pass judgement on those who do such things, yet do the same yourself, that you shall escape the judgment of God?
2:4 Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience; not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart you are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God shall be revealed;
2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
2:7 To those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
2:8 But to those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.
2:9 There shall be tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who does evil, first for the Jew, and also for the Greek;
2:10 But glory, honour, and peace for every man who does good works, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek:
2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
2:12 For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law;
2:13 (For it is not the hearers of the law who are justified before God, but it is the doers of the law who shall be justified.
2:14 For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves.
2:15 They show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or perhaps defending them.)
2:16 On that day God shall judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ, as my gospel proclaims.
2:17 Behold, if you call yourself a Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast of your relationship with God,
2:18 And know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law;
2:19 And are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light for those who are in darkness,
2:20 An instructor for the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law:
2:21 You, therefore, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? you who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?
2:22 You who say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? you who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
2:23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?
2:24 For as it is written, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
2:25 For circumcision is truly of value, if you keep the law: but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has becomes uncircumcision.
2:26 Therefore, if the uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
2:27 And shall not the physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, judge you, who, though you have the letter of the law and circumcision, are transgressors of the law?
2:28 For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh:
2:29 But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, by the spirit, and not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision?
3:2 Much in every way: First, because the oracles of God were entrusted to them.
3:3 What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God?
3:4 God forbid: let God be true, even if every man is a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your words, and might overcome when you are judged.
3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man)
3:6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
3:7 But if, through my lie, the truthfulness of God brings him even greater glory; why am I still condemned as a sinner?
3:8 And why not say, (as we are slanderously reported as saying, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? Their condemnation is just.
3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, by no means: for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;
3:10 As it is written, There is no one righteous, no, not one:
3:11 There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks after God.
3:12 They have all left the way, together they have become unprofitable; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
3:13 Their throats are an open grave; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
3:14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be held accountable to God.
3:20 Therefore, by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight: for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been manifested, though it is witnessed to by the law and the prophets;
3:22 This is the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe: for there is no difference:
3:23 For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
3:25 Whom God has set forth to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood. He did this to declare his righteousness, for in the forbearance of God, he passed over sins of the past;
3:26 To declare at this present time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
3:27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.
3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the law.
3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
3:30 Since God is one, and he shall justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
3:31 Do we then make the law void through faith? Not at all: rather, we establish the law.
4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something of which to boast; but not before God.
4:3 For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
4:4 Now to the one who works, his reward is not counted as a gift, but as his due.
4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
4:6 Thus David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
4:7 Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
4:8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count against him.
4:9 Is this blessedness upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised as well? for we say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
4:10 How then was it credited? when he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all those who believe without being circumcised; that righteousness might be credited to them as well:
4:12 And the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the steps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was yet uncircumcised.
4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not given to Abraham, or to his descendants, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
4:14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, then faith is made void, and the promise is made invalid:
4:15 Because the law brings wrath: but where there is no law, there is no transgression.
4:16 Therefore it is by faith, that it might be by grace; so that the promise might be certain to all his descendants; not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
4:17 (As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before him in whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls into being those things which are not.
4:18 Against all hope he believed, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall your descendants be.
4:19 And he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, now as good as dead, for he was about a hundred years old, or the deadness of Sarah's womb:
4:20 He did not waver through unbelief in the promise of God; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
4:21 And was fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
4:22 And therefore it was credited to him as righteousness.
4:23 Now it was not for him alone that these words were written, It was credited to him;
4:24 But also for us. It shall be credited to those of us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
4:25 He was delivered to death for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
5:1 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
5:2 By whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
5:3 And not only this, but we also rejoice in tribulations: knowing that tribulation works perseverance;
5:4 And perseverance, character; and character, hope:
5:5 And hope does not disappoint; because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
5:6 For when we were still without strength, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
5:7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man: though perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
5:8 But God shows his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
5:9 Having been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him.
5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, having being reconciled, shall we shall be saved by his life.
5:11 And not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation.
5:12 Therefore, since through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death spread to all men, for all have sinned:
5:13 For though sin was in the world before the law: sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way as Adam, who is the pattern of him who was to come.
5:15 But the free gift is not like the offence. For if through the offence of the one many died, how much more did the grace of God, and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many.
5:16 And the effect of the gift is not like the effect of the one who sinned, judgment following one trespass and resulting in condemnation; but the free gift came following many offences and resulted in justification.
5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned through that one; much more shall those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
5:18 Therefore, as the offence of one brought judgment upon all men, resulting in condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one came justification that brings life for all men.
5:19 For just as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
5:20 The law entered, that offences might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more:
5:21 So that as sin has reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.