Day 23 of 30

¹Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,

²which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

³concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,

⁴who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

⁵through whom we received grace and the office of apostle, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake;

⁶among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

⁷to 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.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

⁹For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

¹⁰requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;

¹²that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

¹³Now I do not desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

¹⁵So, as much as is in me, I am eager to proclaim the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

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

¹⁷For in it is revealed God's righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith."

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

¹⁹because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

²⁰For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divine nature; that they may be without excuse.

²¹Because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

²⁴Therefore God also abandoned them in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,

²⁵who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

²⁶For this reason, God abandoned them to their degrading passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

²⁷Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

²⁸Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God abandoned them to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

²⁹being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,

³⁰backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

³¹without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful;

³²who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

¹Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

²We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

³Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

⁴Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

⁵But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;

⁶who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:"

⁷to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

⁸but to those who are self-seeking, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,

⁹oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹⁰But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹¹For there is no partiality with God.

¹²For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

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

¹⁴(for when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

¹⁵in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)

¹⁶in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Christ Jesus.

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,

¹⁸and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

¹⁹and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

²⁰a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

²¹You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who proclaim that a man should not steal, do you steal?

²²You who say a man should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

²³You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?

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

²⁵For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

²⁶If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won't his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

²⁷Won't the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

²⁸For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

²⁹but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

¹Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

²Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

³For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?

⁴May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment."

⁵But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

⁶May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

⁸Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, that good may come?" Those who say so are justly condemned.

⁹What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written, "There is no one righteous; no, not one.

¹¹There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

¹²They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."

¹³"Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit." "The poison of vipers is under their lips;"

¹⁴"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."

¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood.

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways.

¹⁷The way of peace, they have not known."

¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

¹⁹Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

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

²¹But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets;

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all those who believe. For there is no distinction,

²³for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

²⁴being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

²⁵whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance;

²⁶to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

²⁸We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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

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

³¹Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

¹What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

³For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

⁴Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt.

⁵But to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

⁶Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,

⁷"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin."

⁹Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

¹²The father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

¹³For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

¹⁵For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

¹⁶For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

¹⁷As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations." This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

¹⁸Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So will your seed be."

¹⁹Without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

²⁰Yet, looking to the promise of God, he did not waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

²²Therefore it also was "reckoned to him for righteousness."

²³Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

¹Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

²through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

³Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance;

⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:

⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷For rarely does one die for the righteous. Yet perhaps for a good person someone might dare to die.

⁸But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God's wrath through him.

¹⁰For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

¹¹Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

¹³For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.

¹⁴Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

¹⁵But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

¹⁶The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.

¹⁷For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

¹⁹For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;

²¹that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

²May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

³Or do you not know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

⁹knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

¹⁰For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

¹³Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

¹⁴For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

¹⁶Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

¹⁷But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.

¹⁸Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

¹⁹I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²²But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

²For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

³So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

⁴Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

⁶But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I would not have known sin, except through the law. For I would not have known coveting, unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

⁸But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

⁹I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

¹⁰The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;

¹¹for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

¹²Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

¹³Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

¹⁵For I do not know what I am doing. For I do not practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

¹⁶But if what I do not desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

¹⁷So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.

¹⁹For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice.

²⁰But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

²²For I delight in God's law after the inward man,

²³but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God's law, but with the flesh, the sin's law.

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made you free from the law of sin and of death.

³For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

⁴that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

⁶For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.

⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

¹⁰If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹¹But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

¹²So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

¹³For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

¹⁵For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

¹⁷and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

¹⁹For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

²¹that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

²³Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

²⁴For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?

²⁵But if we hope for that which we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

²⁷He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

³⁰Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.

³¹What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

³³Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

³⁴Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶Even as it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

³⁷No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.