ROMANS 1 1 PAUL, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the 2 gospel of God-which he formerly promised by his prophets in holy 3 scriptures-concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring 4 according to the flesh, and installed as Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead; even Jesus Christ 5 our Lord, through whom we received the favour of being commissioned 6 to secure obedience to the faith for his name's sake among all the nations, 7 among whom you yourselves are also, called to be Jesus Christ's: 8 to all who are in Rome, God's beloved ones, called to be saints; grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. At the very outset, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, 9 because your faith is proclaimed through the whole world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, is my witness, that 10 without ceasing I always make mention of you in my prayers, entreating that some day at last I may be sped upon my way to you by the will of 11 God. For I am yearning to see you that I may impart to you some 12 spiritual privilege, so that you may be established; that is, so that I also 13 may be comforted among you, I by your faith as you by mine. would not have you ignorant, brothers, that I often purposed to come to you (yet up till now I have been prevented) to possess some fruit among 14 you as well as among the rest of the nations. To Greeks and to bar15 barians, to wise and to foolish, I am debtor. Hence my eagerness to 16 preach the gospel to you in Rome as well. For I am not ashamed of the I gospel; it is God's power for salvation to every one who believes, to the 17 Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it God's uprightness is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: Now by faith shall the upright live. 18 For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and 19 iniquity of men who impede the truth by iniquity; inasmuch as what is to be known of God is disclosed to them. God himself disclosed it to 20 them; for from the creation of the world his invisible things, his everlasting power and divinity, are clearly seen, understood through the 21 things of his workmanship. So they are without excuse, inasmuch as they knew God yet neither honoured him as God nor gave him thanks. They were befooled as they reasoned, and their ignorant heart was dark22, 23 ened; pretending to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the majesty of the imperishable God for the likeness of an image of perishing man, of 24 birds, of things fourfooted and creeping. Wherefore God gave them up in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonour their 25 bodies among themselves-men who had exchanged the truth of God for what is false, worshipping and serving the created rather than the Creator, 26 who is blessed for ever: Amen. Therefore God gave them up to vile passions their women exchanged the sexual use that is natural for the 27 unnatural; and so too the men, abandoning the natural use of the woman, flamed up in their lust for one another, men perpetrating unseemliness with men and receiving within themselves the due recom28 pense of their error. And as they disdained to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do what is un29 befitting, filled with all iniquity, wickedness, covetousness, and malice, full of envy, murder, quarrelling, deceit, and malignity, slanderers, 30 defamers, loathed by God, outrageous, haughty, braggarts, devisers of 31 evil, disobedient to their parents, ignorant, untrue to their word, without 32 natural affection, unmerciful-men aware of God's ordinance, that those who practise such things deserve death, yet not only themselves doing the very things, but also applauding those who practise them. 21 Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whoever thou art that judgest; in judging the other man thou art condemning thyself, for thou 2 that judgest art practising the very things. We know that the doom of God falls justly upon those who practise such things. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 =2 11 12 13 14 And dost thou imagine, O man, who judgest those who practise such things and doest the same thyself, That thou shalt escape the doom of God? Or art thou despising the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, Not knowing that the kindness of God points thee to repentance? With thy stubbornness and impenitent heart thou art laying up wrath for thyself At the day of wrath, when the just doom of God is revealed: Who will render to every man according to his works, To those who patiently in good work seek praise and honour and the imperishable, eternal life; But to those who factiously disobey the truth and moreover obey iniquity, anger and wrath— Distress and calamity fall upon every human soul that perpetrates evil, But praise and honour and peace are for everyone who does what For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For with God there is no respect of persons. All who have sinned apart from law, Apart from law shall they also perish: And all who have sinned under law, By law shall they be condemned. For those who hear law are not upright before God, It is those that obey law who shall be justified [For when Gentiles who have no law obey by nature the requirement of the law, they are a 15 law to themselves, although they have no law--men who show written in their hearts the work required by the law; while their conscience also bears witness to it, indeed their thoughts accuse or it may be defend them, 16 one with another] in the day when God judges the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ. 17 But if thou bearest the name of " Jew," relying on the law, exulting 18 in God, knowing his will, prizing the things that transcend, getting in19 struction from the law, and confident that thou art thyself a guide to the 20 blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the stupid, a teacher of children, since in the law thou hast the embodiment of knowledge and 21 truth-well then, thou teacher of another person, teachest thou not 22 thyself? thou preacher against stealing, dost thou steal? thou forbidder of adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou detester of idols, dost thou 23 rob temples? thou who art exulting in the law, art thou transgressing the 24 law and dishonouring God? Why, it is 31 owing to you that God's name is maligned among the Gentiles, even as it is written; Circumcision is indeed of use, if thou art observing the law : But if thou art transgressing the law, thy circumcision is turned to If then the Uncircumcision keep the ordinance of the law, And shall not the Uncircumcision which by nature fulfils the law He is no Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something outward in the flesh : He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, wrought by the spirit not by the written law, whose praise is of God, not of men. What is the Jew's advantage, then? or, what is the use of circum2 cision? Much in every way. This at the outset that the oracles of God 3 were intrusted to them. What though some were unfaithful? is their 4 faithlessness to annul the faithfulness of God? God forbid! let God be truthful, but every man perfidious; even as it is written, That thou mightest be vindicated in what thou sayest, And win when thou art on trial. 5 But if our iniquity establishes God's justice, what shall we say? Is God unjust because he inflicts wrath? (I use a merely human way of 6, 7 speaking.) God forbid! otherwise how is he to judge the world? If through my perfidy the truth of God redounded to his honour, says one, 8 why am I too still judged then to be a sinner? why not (as we are slanderously reported-and as some people declare we say) "let us do evil that good may come"? Such conduct is justly condemned. 9 What then? are we better off? Not at all. For against Jews as well as Greeks we have already brought the charge that all are under sin; 10 even as it is written, There is none upright, not one; There is none to understand, none to seek after God; All have swerved, have turned bad together, 11 12 13 An open sepulchre is their throat, 14 15 16 17 18 There is none to show kindness, not so much as one. With their tongues have they deceived, Venom of asps is under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, Swift are their feet to shed blood, Destruction and calamity are in their ways, And the way of peace they have not known; There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know in all that the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world 20 brought under the judgment of God; inasmuch as in his sight no flesh. of sin. shall be justified by deeds of law. For through law is the knowledge 21 But, as it is, the divine uprightness has been disclosed apart from 22 law, though the law and the prophets witness to it; that is, the divine uprightness which through faith in Jesus Christ is for all who believe. 23 There is no difference; all have sinned and fall short of the majesty of 24 God, being freely justified by his grace through the redemption which 25 is in Christ Jesus, whom God designed to be through faith a sacrifice of propitiation by his blood, in proof of his uprightness, seeing that the 26 former sins had been let pass through the forbearance of God-in proof of his uprightness at the present time, that he might be just himself and 27 might justify the man of faith in Jesus. Then where is the exulting? Shut out. By what kind of law? a law of deeds? No, by a 28 law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith apart from 29 deeds of law. What! is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of 30 Gentiles also? Assuredly, of Gentiles also, seeing that it is one God who shall justify the Circumcision in consequence of faith and the Uncircum31 cision through the same faith. Then "through faith" do "we annul the law"? God forbid ! we uphold the law. 41 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather after 2 the flesh? If "Abraham was justified by deeds," he has something to 3 exult about. But not to exult before God. For what saith the scripture? 4 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as uprightness. Now a 5 worker has his wages counted as a due, not as a favour; whereas one who is no worker but a believer on him who justifies the impious, has his faith 6 counted as uprightness. Just as David also pronounces that man to be "happy," to whom God counts uprightness apart from deeds; 78 Happy they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered! 9 Is this happiness then pronounced for the Circumcision, or for the Uncircumcision as well? We say, Abraham's faith was counted to him as 10 uprightness. Then how was it counted? When he was in circumcision 11 or in uncircumcision? In uncircumcision, not circumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the uprightness which belonged to the faith he had when he was in uncircumcision, so that he might be the father of all who believe amid uncircumcision, that uprightness 12 might be counted to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only belong to the Circumcision but also walk in the steps of the faith which 13 our father Abraham had when he was in uncircumcision. For the promise made to Abraham or to his offspring, that he should be heir of the world, came not through the law but through the uprightness of 14 faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, then faith is void, the 15 promise vain. (For the law results in wrath; but where there is no law, 16 there is no transgression either.) Therefore heirship is of faith, so as to be a matter of grace, in order that the promise may be confirmed to all the offspring, not merely to the offspring which is of the law, but also to 17 the seed which is of Abraham's faith (who is father of us all; as it is written father of many nations have I made thee) by the judgment of the God whom he believed, who makes the dead live and calls into being the 18 things which are not-Abraham, who against hope believed in hope; that he should be father of many nations, according to the saying, so shall thy 19 offspring be-without becoming weak in faith, he marked his own body, which was now as good as dead (he was already about a hundred years 20 old), also the deadness of Sara's womb, yet hesitated not in unbelief over 21 God's promise, but grew strong in faith, doing honour to God and being 22 fully convinced that he was able to do what he had promised. Therefore 23 it was counted to him as uprightness. Now the word "it was 24 counted to him" was not written for his sake alone but also for the sake of us, to whom it is to be counted, as we believe on him who raised from 25 the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. 51 Justified then by faith, we have 2 peace with God through our Lord 2 Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our access into this grace in which we stand. And we exult in hope of the majesty of God. 3 Not only so, but we exult also in our distresses, knowing that distress 4 results in patient endurance, patient endurance in tried character, 5 tried character in hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the holy Spirit given 6 to us. For Christ, while we were still weak, died at the appointed time 7 for impious men (even for an upright man one will hardly die though perhaps for what is good, one might, if need be, bring himself to die); 8 God proves his own love to us in this, that Christ died for us while we 9 were still sinners. Much more then, as we are now justified by his blood, 10 we shall be saved through him from the Wrath. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son; much 11 more, after being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we exult also in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12 Therefore, as through one man sin came into the world, and through 13 sin death; and so death spread to all men, seeing that all sinned :-for sin was in the world already before law; but in the absence of law, sin 14 is not charged. Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned, even over those who did not sin after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a type of him who is to come. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 But very different is the free gift from the trespass. Much more did the grace of God and that free gift Which is by the grace of the man Jesus Christ abound to the many. And the free gift is not occasioned as by one who sinned. For while the judgment passed from one into condemnation, So also through the upright act of One the issue for all is justifica- For just as through the one man's disobedience the many were consti tuted sinners, So also through the obedience of the One shall the many be constituted upright. Now the law canie in between to increase the trespass : But where sin increased, grace abounded to overflowing; Grace might also reign through uprightness to life eternal, through 1 Omitting [[xx]]. 2 Reading ἔχομεν. 3 Omitting [[ xíoru]]. |