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¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God  —

²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures —

³concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh

⁴and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.

⁵Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles,

⁶including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.

⁷To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.

⁹God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son — that I constantly mention you,

¹⁰always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

¹²that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

¹³Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now ) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish.

¹⁵So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

¹⁸For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

¹⁹since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

²⁰For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

²¹For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

²⁶For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

²⁷The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

²⁸And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

²⁹They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

³¹senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.

³²Although they know God’s just sentence — that those who practice such things deserve to die  — they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

¹Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.

²We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth.

³Do you really think — anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same — that you will escape God’s judgment?

⁴Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

⁵Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.

⁶He will repay each one according to his works:

⁷eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;

⁸but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.

⁹There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek;

¹⁰but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

¹¹For there is no favoritism with God.

¹²All who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

¹³For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

¹⁴So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.

¹⁵They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them

¹⁶on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

¹⁷Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God,

¹⁸and know his will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law,

¹⁹and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness,

²⁰an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law —

²¹you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal” — do you steal?

²²You who say, “You must not commit adultery” — do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples?

²³You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

²⁴For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

²⁵Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

²⁶So if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

²⁷A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who keeps the law, will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision.

²⁸For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.

²⁹On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.

¹So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

²Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God.

³What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?

⁴Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.

⁵But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?

⁶Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?

⁷But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?

⁸And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

⁹What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,

¹⁰as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.

¹¹There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

¹²All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

¹³Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.

¹⁴Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,

¹⁷and the path of peace they have not known.

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.

²⁰For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets.

²²The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

²³For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

²⁴They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁵God presented him as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

²⁶God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.

²⁸For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

³⁰since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.