God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 kFor the lwrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and munrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For nwhat can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, ohave been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,1 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 pthey became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, qthey became fools, 23 and rexchanged the glory of the immortal God for images sresembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore tGod gave them up in the ulusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a vlie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, wmen committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due xpenalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, yhaughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s zrighteous decree that those who practice such things adeserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
God’s Righteous Judgment
1 bTherefore you have cno excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For din passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the ejudgment of God rightly falls on fthose who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and gforbearance and hpatience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up iwrath for yourself on the jday of wrath when God’s krighteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one laccording to his works: 7 to those who by mpatience nin well-doing oseek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking2 and pdo not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, qthe Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God rshows no partiality.
God’s Judgment and the Law
12 For all who have sinned swithout the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned tunder the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is unot the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse vor even excuse them 16 on that wday when, according to my gospel, xGod judges the secrets of men yby Christ Jesus.
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and zrely aon the law and boast in God 18 and bknow his will and capprove what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a dguide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 eyou then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, fdo you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who gboast in the law dishonor God by hbreaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, i“The name of God is blasphemed jamong the Gentiles because of you.”
25 kFor lcircumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 mSo, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded3 as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically4 uncircumcised but keeps the law will ncondemn you who have the owritten code5 and circumcision but break the law. 28 For pno one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and qcircumcision is a matter of the heart, rby the Spirit, not by the letter. sHis praise is not from man but from God.
God’s Righteousness Upheld
1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, tthe Jews were entrusted with the uoracles of God. 3 vWhat if some were unfaithful? wDoes their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
x“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, ywhat shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could zGod judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And awhy not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
No One Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we Jews6 any better off?7 No, not at all. For we have already charged that ball, both cJews and dGreeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
e“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 f“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
g“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 h“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 i“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 j“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are kunder the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For lby works of the law no human being8 will be justified in his sight, since mthrough the law comes knowledge of sin.
Peace with God Through Faith
1 Therefore, since we have been sjustified by faith, we1 have tpeace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained uaccess by faith2 into this grace in which we stand, and we3 rejoice4 vin hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we wrejoice in our sufferings, xknowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and yhope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been zpoured into our hearts athrough the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For bwhile we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us cin that dwhile we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the ewrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were freconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also grejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Death in Adam, Life in Christ
12 Therefore, hjust as sin came into the world ithrough one man, and jdeath kthrough sin, and so death spread to all men5 because lall sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before mthe law was given, but nsin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, owho was a ptype of the one who was to come.
15 But the free qgift 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 by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded rfor many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For 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 Therefore, as one trespass6 led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness7 leads to sjustification and life for tall men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s uobedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the 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 leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 vWhat shall we say then? wAre we to continue in sin that xgrace may abound? 2 By no means! yHow can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been zbaptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were aburied therefore with him by baptism into death, bin order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in cnewness of life.
5 For if we have been dunited with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our eold self8 was fcrucified with him in order that the gbody of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be henslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free9 from sin. 8 Now iif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being jraised from the dead, will knever die again; ldeath mno longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, nonce for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves odead to sin and palive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its qpassions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but rpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought sfrom death to life, and your members to God as instruments tfor righteousness. 14 For sin will have no udominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? vAre we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,10 you are slaves of the one whom you obey, weither of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once xslaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set yfree from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking zin human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to asanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But bwhat fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For 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 cfruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 dFor the wages of sin is death, but the efree gift of God is eternal flife in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Released from the Law
1 Or do you not know, brothers11—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For ga married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.12 3 Accordingly, she will be called an hadulteress 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 brothers, you also have idied 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 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful jpassions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit kfor death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve lin the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the mwritten code.13
The Law and Sin
7 nWhat then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! oYet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, p“You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. qFor apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment rthat promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So sthe law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing 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 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For tI 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 with the law, that it is good. 17 So now uit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that vnothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a wlaw that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I xdelight in the law of God, in my yinner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this zbody of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
