Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Romans
Romans 1
¶1. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Romans 1:1-172.which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures,
3.concerning His Son who, as regards the flesh, was born of the seed of David,
4.and who was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness, through the resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord,
5.through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about, for his name’s sake, the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles,
6.among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.
7. To all those in Rome who are beloved of God and called to be saints:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
¶8. First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is being spoken of throughout the world.
9. God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, is my witness that without ceasing, I make mention of you,
10.always asking in my prayers whether I might now, at last, be given success by the will of God to come to you.
11. For I long to see you, that I might impart to you some spiritual gift, that you might be established,
12.that is, that I might be comforted together with you by our mutual faith, both yours and mine.
13. For I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, that I have often purposed to come to you (but have been hindered until now), so that I might also have some fruit among you, as among the other Gentiles.
14. I am under obligation to both the Greeks and Barbarians, to both the learned and the unlearned;
15.therefore, on my part, I am eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
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 then the Greek.
17. For by it, the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[1]
¶18. For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth by unrighteousness,
19.seeing that what may be known about God is manifest to them, for God has made it manifest to them.
20. For from the creation of the world, His invisible attributes (namely, His eternal power and divine nature) are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, so that they are without excuse.
21. For although they knew about God, they did not honor Him as God, nor were they thankful, but they were made vain in their thinking, and their senseless heart was darkened.
22. Claiming to be wise, they were turned over to foolishness,
23.and they traded the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
¶24. On which account also, God turned them over in the lusts of their own hearts to uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves,
25.who traded the truth of God for a lie and began to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26. That is why God turned them over to shameful passions. Their females even exchanged the natural use of their bodies for what is contrary to nature,
27.and the males likewise, leaving the natural use of a female, burned in their desire for one another, males committing disgraceful acts with males, receiving in themselves a fitting recompense for their error.
28. Yea, since they did not see fit to retain God in their knowledge, God turned them over to a reprobate mind, to do things that should not be done,
29.being filled with all unrighteousness: fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, and full of envy, murder, strife, treachery, ungodliness. They became gossipers,
30.slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, devisers of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31.undiscerning, unfaithful, unfeeling, implacable, unmerciful,
32.who, knowing well the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 2
¶1. Therefore, O man, you are without excuse, whoever you are who judges, for in the thing in which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who are judging do the same things.
2. (But we know that the judgment of God upon those who practice such things is in accordance with truth.)
3. And do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things and yet are doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4. Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5. But with your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6.who will render to every man according to his deeds.
7. To those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, God will grant eternal life,
8.but to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, God will pour out indignation and wrath,
9.tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who does evil – to the Jew first, and then the Greek –
10.but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good – to the Jew first, and then the Greek.
11. For there is no respect of persons with God.
12. As many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law,
13.for it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be justified.
14. For whenever Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, they, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15.who show the work of the law to be written on their hearts, their conscience bearing them witness, and all the while their thoughts either accusing or defending them,
16.until the day when God will judge the secret things of man according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ.
¶17. Behold! You call yourself a Jew, and you rest in the law, and boast in God,
18.and you know His will, and being instructed by the law, you put things that differ to the test,
19.and you have convinced yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness,
20.an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of little children, possessing the form of the knowledge and truth that is in the law.
21. Well then, O teacher of others, do you not teach yourself? O man who preaches not to steal, do you steal?
22. O man who says not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? O man who abhors idols, do you commit sacrilege?
23. You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by transgressing the law?
24. For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.[2]
25. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you observe the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26. If, therefore, the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27. And shall not the one in the natural state of uncircumcision who fulfills the law judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?
28. For one is not a Jew outwardly; nor is circumcision outward in the flesh.
29. On the contrary, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Romans 3
¶1. What, then, is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
2. Much in every way, but principally because they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
3. So what, if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness invalidate God’s faithfulness?
4. Absolutely not! Let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, “That you might be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.”[3]
5. Now, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what are we to say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
6. Absolutely not! Else, how will God condemn the world?
7. For if the truth of God is magnified by my lie unto His glory, why, then, am I still condemned as a sinner?
8. And not rather, as we be slanderously accused, and as some claim that we say (whose damnation is just), “Let us do evil, that good might come!”
¶9. What then? Are we exalting ourselves? Not in the least, for we already made the charge that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10.just as it is written: “There is none righteous, not one;
11.there is no one who understands; there is no one seeking God;
12.all have fallen away; they have all, together, become worthless; there is no one doing good; there is not even one”;[4]
13.“Their throat is an open sepulcher; they deceive with their tongues;”[5] “The poison of adders is under their lips”;[6]
14.“Whose mouth is full of curses and bitterness”;[7]
15.“Their feet are swift to shed blood”;[8]
16.“Ruin and misery are in their ways,
17.and the way of peace they have not known”;[9]
18.“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[10]
¶19. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth might be shut and the whole world might be accountable to God.
20. Wherefore, by works of the law shall no flesh be justified before Him, for by the law came the knowledge of sin.
21. But the righteousness of God without the law has now been revealed, being borne witness by the law and the prophets,
22.the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all who believe (and there is no difference,
23.for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God),
24.being freely made righteous by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25.whom God openly set forth as propitiation, through faith in his blood, for the manifestation of His righteousness (on account of the overlooking of sins that are past
26.through the forbearance of God) – for the manifestation of His righteousness, I say, in this present time, that He might be just, and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus.
27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Of course not! By the law of faith!
28. So then, we conclude that a man is made righteous by faith, without works of the law.
29. Is He God of the Jews only? Is He not also God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles, too,
30.seeing there is one God, who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.
31. Then, do we nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we confirm the law.
Romans 4
¶1. What, then, are we to say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has found?
2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he had something of which to boast, – but not before God,
3.for what does the scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”[11]
4. Now, to the one who works, the reward is not reckoned as a gift but as a debt,
5.but to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
6. Just as David says about the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness without works:
7.“Blessed are they whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
8.Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”[12]
9. So then, is this blessedness only for the circumcision, or for the uncircumcision as well? Remember, we say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.”
10. How, then, was it reckoned? While he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision,
11.and then he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all who believe while in uncircumcision, so that righteousness might be reckoned also to them,
12.as well as the father of circumcision to those who are not merely in circumcision, but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham when uncircumcised.
13. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not made to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14. For if they are heirs because of the law, then faith is rendered worthless and the promise is of no effect.
15. For the law works wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression.
16. Therefore, it is by faith, that it might be of grace, so that the promise might be secured to all the seed, not to that which is under the law only, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17.(as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”[13]) before Him whom he believed, even God, who brings the dead to life and calls things into being that do not exist.
18. Against hope, he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, as it had been said, “Thus shall your seed be.”[14]
19. And then, being not weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already as good as dead, being about a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20. He did not waver in unbelief at the promise of God; on the contrary, strengthened by faith, he gave glory to God,
21.being also fully persuaded that what He had promised, He is able also to do.
22. And that is why it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
23. Now, “it was reckoned to him” was not written for him alone,
24.but also for us, to whom it shall be reckoned who believe in Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead,
25.who was delivered up for our trespasses and was raised up for our justification.
Romans 5
¶1. Being justified, then, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2.through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of the glory of God.
3. Not only that, but we also boast in tribulations, seeing that tribulation produces patience,
4.and patience, character, and character, hope.
5. And hope does not make ashamed, for the love of God is poured out within our hearts by the holy Spirit which is given to us.
6. For when we were yet without strength, at the appointed time, Christ died for the ungodly.
7. Rarely will someone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, one might possibly bring himself to die,
8.but God commends to us His kind of love, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
¶12. Therefore, as through one man, sin entered into the world (and death through sin), so also death has spread to all men because all have sinned.
13. Now, before the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not commit sins like the transgression of Adam (who is a figure of the one who was to come).
15. Then again, the gift of God is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of one, many be dead, much more, the grace of God, even the gift of life by grace, which is from one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.
16. Nor is the gift of God as it was with the one who sinned. For God’s judgment brought condemnation after a single trespass, but the gift of God brought justification after many trespasses.
17. For if by the trespass of one man, death reigned because of one, much more, those who receive the abundance of the grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life because of one, Jesus Christ.
18. So then, as by one man’s trespass, condemnation came upon all men, so also by one man’s righteousness, justification of life came upon all men.
19. For as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one man, many will be made righteous.
20. Now, the law entered in so that transgression might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more,
21.so that just as sin reigned in death, so also might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6
¶1. What shall we say, then? “Let us continue in sin so that grace may abound”?
2. Absolutely not! How shall we, the ones who have died to sin, live in it any longer?
3. Do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4. We were buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might also walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection,
6.knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ so that our sinful body might be rendered powerless, to the end that we are no longer slaves to sin.
7. For he who is dead is freed from sin.
8. Now, if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
9.knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, can die no more; death has no more dominion over him.
10. As concerns his death, he died to sin once, but as concerns his life, he lives to God.
11. You, likewise, think of yourselves as completely dead to sin, too, yet alive to God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
¶12. So then, let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its desires.
13. Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
14. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
¶15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!
16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are slaves to whom you obey, either as slaves of sin, which leads to death, or as slaves of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17. But thanks be to God! For you used to be slaves of sin, but you obeyed from the heart the kind of doctrine to which you were entrusted,
18.and then, made free from sin, you were made slaves to righteousness.
19. (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) Just as you once presented your members as slaves to uncleanness, and lawlessness upon lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness.
20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
21. But what fruit did you have then from the things of which you are now ashamed? Indeed, the end of those things is death.
22. But being now made free from sin, and being made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and in the end, eternal life.
23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 7
¶1. Do you not know, brothers (I am talking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man only as long as he is alive?
2. For example, the married woman is bound to her husband by the law while he lives, but should her husband die, she is released from the law concerning her husband.
3. So then, she will be called an adulteress if while her husband is alive, she becomes another man’s wife, but if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress, though she become another man’s wife.
4. Likewise, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.
5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful affections in our members, working through the law, bore fruit leading to death.
6. But having died to that by which we were bound, we are released from the law so that we now serve God in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
¶7. What, then, shall we say? “The law is sin”? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin, were it not for the law. For example, I would not have known covetousness, had the law not said, “You shall not covet.”
8. But sin, taking advantage of the commandment, produced in me every evil passion. For apart from law, sin is dead.
9. And I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died;
10.so then, the very commandment that was ordained for life was found by me to be for death.
11. For sin, taking advantage of the commandment, deceived me, and with it, killed me.
12. Therefore, the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13. But has that which was good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, that it might be revealed to be sin, worked death in me through what is good so that through the commandment, sin might become exceedingly sinful.
14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15. For what I do, I do not understand, for what I want, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do.
16. Now, if I do that which I do not want to do, I am agreeing with the law, that it is good.
17. So then, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
18. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing, for the willingness is present in me, but I do not find the doing of what is good.
19. For the good that I desire, I do not do; instead, the evil that I do not desire, this I do.
20. And if I do that which I do not desire, it is no longer I myself doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
21. I find, then, this law, that evil is present in me even when I desire to do good.
22. With the inner man, I joyfully consent to the law of God,
23.but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.
24. Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?
25. I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, in my mind I serve the law of God, but in the flesh, the law of sin.
Romans 8
¶1. There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit.
2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death!
3. For what the law could not do, in that it was powerless because it was of the flesh, God did, after He had sent His Son in the form of sinful flesh to deal with sin. He condemned sin in the flesh
4.so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit.
5. For those who are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but those who are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace,
7.for the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to God’s law; neither, indeed, can it be.
8. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him,
10.but if Christ be in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He who raised Christ from the dead shall also bring to life your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you.
¶12. Therefore, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh,
13.for if you live after the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
15. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery, leading back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Father!”)
16. The Spirit itself bears witness, together with our spirit, that we are the children of God,
17.and if children, then heirs – heirs of God, and heirs with Christ – provided that we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
¶18. I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us.
19. Indeed, the earnest longing of the creature is eagerly awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God.
20. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by Him who subjected it in hope,
21.seeing that even the creature itself shall be delivered from its bondage to corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22. For we know that to this very moment, all creation is groaning and travailing in pain.
23. And not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, also groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body.
24. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for what someone sees, why does he still hope for it?
25. But if we hope for that which we do not see, then with patience do we earnestly wait for it.
¶26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps with our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as one should, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with groanings beyond words.
27. And He who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit means, for it is by God that it makes intercession for saints.
28. So, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are the called according to His purpose.
29. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30. And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
¶31. What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32. Indeed, He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall He not also, with him, freely give us all things?
33. Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
34. Who is the one that condemns? Christ is the one who died, but more than that, who was also raised up, who also is at God’s right hand, who also is making intercession for us.
35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36.(As it is written, “For your sake, we are put to death all the day long; we are thought of as sheep for slaughter.”[15])
37. No! In all these things, we do more than conquer, through him who loved us.
38. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39.nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Romans 9
¶1. I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the holy Spirit,
2.that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3. There have been times I prayed to be accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4.who are the Israelites, whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,
5.whose are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, came Christ, who is above all. God be blessed forever. Amen.
6. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not everyone who is from Israel is Israel.
7. Neither are they all children just because they are Abraham’s seed, but “In Isaac shall your seed be called.”[16]
8. That is to say, the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9. For this is the word of promise: “At the appointed time, I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”[17]
10. And not only that, but Rebekah also, when she had conceived by a man, our father Isaac
11. (the twins being not yet born, neither having done anything good or evil, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of the one who calls),
12.it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”[18]
13. Just as it is written, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”[19]
¶14. What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
15. For He said to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”[20]
16. So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God, who shows mercy.
17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “This is the very reason I raised you up, that in you, I might demonstrate my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[21]
18. So then, to whom He will, He shows mercy, and whom He will, He hardens.
¶19. You will say to me, then, “Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?”
20. Hold on there, O man! Who are you who talks back at God? Will the thing shaped say to Him who shaped it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21. Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22. So what, if God, desiring to demonstrate His wrath and to make known His power, bore with great patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction,
23.so that He might also make known the riches of His glory upon the vessels of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory,
24.even us whom He has called, not only from the Jews, but also from Gentiles?
25. As He also says in Hosea, “I will call them my people who are not my people, and will call her beloved who was not beloved.”[22]
26. “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.”[23]
27. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only the remnant shall be saved.”[24]
28. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, for a short work will the Lord make on the earth.
29. And as Isaiah also foretold, “Had the Lord of Hosts not left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have become like Gomorrah.”[25]
¶30. What shall we say then? This: the Gentiles, who were not seeking righteousness, have taken hold of righteousness – the righteousness that comes from faith,
31.while Israel, seeking after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but, sought it as if it were by works of the law. For they stumbled over the stumbling-stone,
33.as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stumbling-stone and a rock of offense, and no one who believes on him will be put to shame.”[26]
Romans 10
¶1. Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation.
2. I bear them witness, that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness and striving to maintain their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4. For to everyone who believes, Christ is the end of righteousness by the law.
5. Moses writes about the righteousness which is by the law, that the man who does these things “shall live by them.”[27]
6. But the righteousness which is by faith speaks like this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down),
7.or, ‘Who shall descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)”.
8. But what does he say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,”[28] that is, the word of faith that we preach,
9.that if you confess with your mouth, “Lord Jesus”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
11. For the scripture says, “No one who believes on him will be put to shame.”
12. There is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich toward all who call upon him,
13.for “whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”[29]
14. But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15. And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the gospel of peace, who proclaim the sweet message of good things!”[30]
16. (Nevertheless, not everyone obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “O Lord, who has believed our report?”[31])
¶17. So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18. But I say, did they not hear? Of course they did. “Their sound has gone out to all the land, and their words to the ends of the earth.”[32]
19. But I say, did Israel not know? First, Moses said, “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a people; by a foolish nation will I provoke you to anger.”[33]
20. Then Isaiah is very bold and says, “I have been found by those who do not seek me. I have made myself known to those who do not ask for me.”[34]
21. But to Israel he says, “I have stretched out my hands all day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people.”[35]
Romans 11
¶1. I say then, has God repudiated His people? Absolutely not! For I myself am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God has not repudiated His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,
3.“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life!”[36]
4. But what does God’s answer say to him? “I have preserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[37]
5. Likewise, there exists also, at this present time, a remnant chosen by grace.
6. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace. That is, if it is by works, it is no longer grace; otherwise, the work is no longer a work.
7. What then? That which Israel seeks after, he has not obtained, but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest were blinded,
8.as it is written, “God has given them a spirit of slumber, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, until this very day.”[38]
9. And David says, “Let their table be for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-stone, and for a recompense to them.
10.Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their back to bow down always.”[39]
11. I say then, have they stumbled so that they might fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their failure, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to provoke them to jealousy.
12. Now, if their failure be gain for the world, and their loss be gain for the Gentiles, how much more so their fullness!
¶13. Here, I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office,
14.if I might somehow provoke to jealousy my kinsman in the flesh and save some of them.
15. For if the casting away of them be reconciliation for the world, what will the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16. Now, if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump, and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and have become a partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive,
18.do not gloat over the branches. But if you do gloat – you do not sustain the root, but the root, you.
19. You will say then, “The branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
20. True; they were broken off because of unbelief – but you stand by faith. Do not be high-minded, but fear,
21.for if God did not spare the natural branches, He might not spare you, either.
22. Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God; toward those who have fallen, severity, but toward you, goodness – if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you, too, shall be cut off.
23. And even they, if they do not continue in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24. For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
¶25. Brothers, I would not have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own sight, that blindness has come upon Israel, in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in,
26.and thus, all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer shall come out of Zion,”[40] and “he shall turn ungodliness away from Jacob,”[41]
27.and “this shall be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”[42]
28. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as regards the election, they are beloved because of the fathers.
29. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30. For just as you also were once disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy through their disobedience,
31.so these, too, have now disobeyed, that through the mercy shown to you, they might obtain mercy as well.
32. God has locked up everyone together in disobedience so that He might have mercy upon everyone.
¶33. Oh, the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and inscrutable His ways!
34. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?
35. Or who has first given to Him, so that it will be repaid to him?
36. For all things are of Him, and through Him, and for Him. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 12
¶1. Therefore, I entreat you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you might discern what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
¶3. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone who is among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned to each one.
4. For just as we have many members in one body, and not all the members have the same function,
5.so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another.
6. Having, then, different gifts, according to the grace given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
7.or if ministry, let us attend to the ministry; or he who teaches, let him attend to the teaching;
8.or he who exhorts, to exhortation. He who gives, let him give with sincerity. He who rules, let him rule with diligence. He who shows mercy, let him do so cheerfully.
9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor the evil; cling to the good.
10. Be devoted to one another with brotherly love, preferring one another in honor;
11.concerning diligence, not slack; zealous in spirit, serving the Lord;
12.rejoicing in hope; persevering in tribulation; persistent in prayer;
13.contributing to the needs of the saints; pursuing hospitality.
14. Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse.
15. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and weep with those who are weeping.
16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not mind high things, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own sight.
17. Repay no one evil for evil. Provide good things in the sight of all men.
18. If possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
19. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine”;[43] “I will repay, says the Lord.”[44]
20. Therefore, “If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink, for in doing this, you will heap coals of fire on his head.”[45]
21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 13
¶1. Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities, for there is no authority but of God; the authorities that exist are ordained by God.
2. Therefore, he who opposes the authority is resisting the ordinance of God, and they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil works. Would you not fear the authority? Do what is good, and you shall have praise of the same,
4.for he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is a minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon the one who does evil.
5. Wherefore, it is necessary to be subject, not just because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.
6. This is also why you pay taxes, for they are ministers of God, continually attending to this very thing.
7. Render to all, therefore, what is due them: tax to whom tax; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
¶8. Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9. For this, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet;”[46] and whichever other commandment, is summed up by this statement: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[47]
10. Love does not do wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
¶11. Besides this, we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is nearer now than when we believed.
12. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand; therefore, let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13. Let us walk decently, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, nor in promiscuity and sensuality, nor in strife and envy.
14. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Romans 14
¶1. Receive him who is weak in the faith, but not for quarrels over opinions.
2. One has faith to eat anything, but he who is weak eats only plants.
3. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat condemn him who eats, for God has received him.
4. Who are you who judges another man’s servant? To his own master, he stands or falls. And he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5. One man regards one day above another, but another man regards every day alike. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. Moreover, he who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and he gives thanks to God.
7. No one among us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
8. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Whether we live or whether we die, therefore, we are the Lord’s.
9. For to this end, Christ both died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10. So, why do you condemn your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”[48]
12. Therefore, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
¶13. So then, let us no longer judge one another, but determine this instead: to lay no stumbling-block before a brother, or anything that causes him to fall.
14. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing of itself is unclean; and yet, to him who considers something to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15. If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not, with what you eat, destroy him for whom Christ died!
16. Do not let your good be evil spoken of.
17. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit,
18.and he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19. Therefore, let us follow after the things that make for peace, and the things that make for the edification of one another.
20. Do not destroy the work of God on account of food! All things are indeed pure, but it is wrong for the man whose eating is a stumbling-block.
21. It is good not to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.
22. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in the thing he allows.
23. But he who has doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not of faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin.[49]
¶24. To Him who is able to establish you in my gospel, and in the preaching of Jesus Christ, and in the revelation of the mystery kept secret from time immemorial,
25.but now is revealed, made known through the writings of the prophets, by command of the eternal God, for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles,
26.to Him, the only wise God, be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Romans 15
¶1. Now, we who are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2. Let each of us please his neighbor, to the extent that it is good for edification.
3. For even Christ did not please himself, but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me.”[50]
4. And surely, whatever was written before was written for our learning, so that through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope.
5. May the God of patience and comfort give you the same mind toward one another in Christ Jesus,
6.so that in one accord, you might glorify with one voice the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7. Wherefore, receive one another, just as Christ also received you, for the glory of God.
8. For I say, Christ Jesus was made a minister of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
9.and for the Gentiles to glorify God for mercy, as it is written, “For this cause will I confess you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.”[51]
10. And again, it says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”[52]
11. And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and extol Him, all peoples!”[53]
12. And again, Isaiah says, “There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall arise to rule the nations.”[54] “In him shall the Gentiles hope.”[55]
13. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you might abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit.
¶14. I am also persuaded of you, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.
15. Nevertheless, refreshing your memory, as it were, I have written you rather boldly in some parts, brothers, because of the grace that is given to me by God
16.for me to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the holy Spirit.
17. Therefore, in Christ Jesus I have something to boast about: the things of God.
18. I will not presume to speak of any of the things that Christ has not wrought through me to bring about the obedience of Gentiles in word and deed,
19.with mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God. So, as for me, from Jerusalem and beyond, as far as Illyricum, I have fully preached the good news of Christ,
20.striving thus to preach the good news, not where Christ has been named, lest I build upon another man’s foundation,
21.but, as it is written, “That which had not been told them of him shall they see, and those who had not heard shall understand.”[56]
¶22. And for that reason, I have been prevented many times from coming to you,
23.but now, no longer having a place in these parts, and for many years having an earnest desire to come to you,
24.if and when I go to Spain, I will come to you, for I hope to visit you on my way through and to be helped by you on my journey there, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.
25. But now, I am going to Jerusalem to do a service to the saints,
26.for Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
27. They were pleased, it is true, and yet, they are their debtors. For since the Gentiles have partaken of their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them with natural things.
28. So then, when I have finished this and sealed this fruit to them, I will go on to Spain by way of you.
29. And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
¶30. Now, I entreat you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit’s love, to strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
31.that I might be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe and that my service to the saints in Jerusalem might be acceptable,
32.so that by the will of God, I might come to you with joy, and together with you be refreshed.
33. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Romans 16
¶1. I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the Assembly that is in Cenchrea,
2.that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and that you help her in whatever matter she may need of you, for she has been a patroness of many, and of myself as well.
¶3. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,
4.who have risked their own neck for my life, for whom not only I give thanks, but also all the Assemblies of the Gentiles,
5.and greet the Assembly in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
6. Greet Mariam, who has bestowed much labor on us.
7. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9. Greet Urbanus, our fellow-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.
10. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, women who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet Persis, who is beloved, who has done much hard labor in the Lord.
13. Greet Rufus, who is chosen in the Lord, and his mother, and mine.
14. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brothers with them.
15. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The Assemblies of Christ greet you.
¶17. Now, I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you have learned, and avoid them.
18. For such are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and with smooth words and flattery, they lead innocent hearts astray.
19. Your obedience has spread abroad to all men. I rejoice, therefore, over you, but I want you to be wise concerning good, and pure concerning evil.
20. The God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet soon.
¶The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
¶21. Timothy, my fellow-worker, greets you, and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.
22. I, Tertius, the one who wrote out this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23. Gaius, my host, and the whole Assembly greet you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, and Quartus his brother, greet you.
24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Footnotes
[1]Hab. 2:4.
[2] Cf. Isa. 52:5 and Ezek. 36:21.
[3] Ps. 51:4.
[4] Ps. 14:2–3; 53:2–3.
[5] Ps. 5:9.
[6] Ps. 140:3.
[7] Ps. 10:7.
[8] Prov. 1:16.
[9] Isa. 59:7–8.
[10] Ps. 36:1.
[11] Gen. 15:6.
[12] Ps. 32:1–2.
[13] Gen. 17:5b.
[14] Gen. 15:5.
[15] Ps. 44:22.
[16] Gen. 21:12.
[17] Gen. 18:14.
[18] Gen. 25:23.
[19] Mal. 1:2–3.
[20] Ex. 33:19.
[21] Ex. 9:16.
[22] Hos. 2:23.
[23] Hos. 1:10.
[24] Isa. 10:22.
[25] Isa. 1:9.
[26] Isa. 28:16. Cf. Isa. 8:14.
[27] Lev. 18:5.
[28] Dt. 30:12–14.
[29] Joel 2:32.
[30] Isa. 52:7.
[31] Isa. 53:1.
[32] Ps. 19:4.
[33] Dt. 32:21.
[34] Isa. 65:1.
[35] Isa. 65:2.
[36] 1Kgs. 19:10, 14.
[37] 1Kgs. 19:18.
[38] Isa. 6:10
[39] Ps. 69:22–23.
[40] Cf. Ps. 14:7.
[41] Cf. Isa. 27:9.?
[42] Cf. Isa. 59:21.
[43] Dt. 32:35.
[44] Ezek. 11:21.
[45] Prov. 25:21–22.
[46] Ex. 20:13–15, 17.
[47] Lev. 19:18.
[48] Isa. 45:23.
[49] The following three verses (14:24–26) are found at the end of this book in some manuscripts, and understandably so. They interrupt the train of thought here and seem more fitting as part of a conclusion. However, the interjection of praise “to the only wise God” appears near the beginning of both 1Timothy and Jude; so, despite the seeming awkwardness, it is altogether possible that Paul paused here to compose a few lines of praise to God.
[50] Ps. 69:9.
[51] Ps. 57:9; 108:3.
[52] Dt. 32:43.
[53] Ps. 117:1.
[54] Isa. 11:10.
[55] Cf. Jer. 4:2.
[56] Isa. 52:15.