Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to immorality, to the disgracing of their own bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is to be praised forevermore. Amen. Because of this God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. For their females changed their natural relations into what is against nature; and so likewise the males, forsaking the natural intercourse with the female, were inflamed with desire for each other, males for males, acting shamefully and receiving the retribution due them for their misguided ways. And as they did not see fit to keep God in mind, so God delivered them over to a state of mind that was unworthy, and to unbecoming conduct; being filled with every wrong, wickedness, greed, badness; stuffed with envy bloodthirstiness contentiousness treachery malignity; whisperers gossips god haters violent proud pretentious; devisers of evil, disobedient to parents; mindless faithless loveless pitiless; who though they knew well about the verdict of God, that those who do such things deserve death, nevertheless not only do them but encourage others who do.
11 Thus you, whoever you are, who are human, and judge, have no defense. In judging another you convict yourself, for you who judge do the same thing; but we know that the judgment of God is truly against those who do such things. Then you, who are human, and judge those who do such things while you do them yourself, do you count on escaping the jud^nent of God? Or do you misunderstand the wealth of his goodness and forbearance and patience, not realizing that the goodness of God means to lead you to repentance? Through your hardness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up for yourself anger on the day of anger and the revelation of the righteous jud^nent of God, who will give to each according to his actions: to those who, through steadfastness in doing good, strive for glory and honor and incorruptibility, he will give everlasting life; but for those who out of contentiousness are disobedient to the truth but obey unrighteousness there shall be rage and anger, affliction and anguish for every soul of a man who does evil, Jew first, but also Greek; but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, Jew first, but also Greek, for there is no discrimination with God.
For those who sinned outside the law will also perish outside the law: and those who sinned while within the law will be judged according to the law. For it is not those who listen to the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those who do what is in the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature what is in the law, they, without having the law, are their own law; and they display the work of the law engraved on their hearts; with their conscience bearing them witness, as their arguments attack or defend each other, on that day when God will judge the secrets of men, as it is said in my gospel, through Jesus Christ.
But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and glory in God and know his will, and pass judgment on what is important, being educated in the law; and are confident that you are the guide of the blind, light for those in the dark, instructor of the ignorant, teacher of the simple, possessing, in the law, the shape of knowledge and truth; do you then, who teach someone else, not teach yourself? You who preach no stealing, do you steal? You, who forbid adultery, do you commit it? And you, who loathe idols, do you steal from temples? Do you, who glory in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law? Because, as it is written, the name of God is ill spoken of among the Gentiles, because of you.
Circumcision is helpful if you do obey the law, but if you transgress the law, your circumcision becomes un- circumcision. If, then, the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, shall not that uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And the uncircumcised, who by nature fulfill the law, shall judge you who have the circumcision and the letter of the law, but break it. For one is not a Jew by what can be seen, nor is circumcision in what can be seen in the flesh; but one is a Jew in what cannot be seen, and circumcision is a thing of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, for one whose approval comes not from men but from God.
1 What then is the Jew's advantage, and what is the use of circumcision? Great, in every way. In the first place, to them were entrusted the oracles of God. But what then? If some were unfaithful, will not their unfaithfulness make void the good faith of God? Never! God must be truthful and every man a liar, as it is written: So that you may be justified in your words and triumph when you are brought to judgment. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what are we to say? Can God be unfair in visiting his anger? (I speak in human terms.) Never: since then how shall God judge the world? But if, through my falseness, God's truthfulness redounds to his glory, why am I condemned as a sinner? Am I not what my detractors call me, when certain people say that I say: Let us do evil so that good may come of it? Their condemnation is just.
What then? Are we Jews better? Not altogether, for we have already charged all Jews and Greeks with being subject to sin, as it is written: There is not one righteous man, not one, there is not one who understands, not one who seeks out God. They have all gone off the course, and with that they have become useless; there is none
ROMANS: 3.12-31
who practices honesty, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they are deceitful; the poison of asps is on their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift toward bloodshed. Ruin and wretchedness are in their ways, and they have not learned the way of peace. Their eyes know no fear of God.
We know that the law says what it says to those who are within the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be subject to the judgment of God; because it is not from the works of the law that all flesh will be justified in his presence, since through the law comes consciousness of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been made evident apart from the law. It was testified to by the law and the prophets, but the righteousness of God is through belief in Jesus Christ; for all who believe, for there is no distinction. For all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but are justified by the gift of his grace through their redemption by Christ Jesus, whom God put forward for propitiation through faith in his blood, for the demonstration of his righteousness by the forgiveness of sins committed before, through the indulgence of God; for the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, that he is righteous himself and justifies one who believes in Jesus.
Where then is the exultation? It is excluded. By what law? The law of actions? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a man is justified through faith without the actions of the law. Is God the God of the Jews alone? Not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised from faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Are we then making the law void through faith? Never. We are confirming the law.
11 What then shall we say of Abraham, our forefather in the way of the flesh? If Abraham was justified because of his actions, he has reason for glorying; but not before God, since what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness in him. For one who does something, repayment is counted not as grace but as his due; but for one who does nothing, but believes in him who justifies the impious man, his faith is counted as righteousness. So David also says of the blessedness of the man whom God counts as righteous, apart from his actions: Blessed are they whose lawless acts have been forgiven and whose sins have been hidden away. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count.
Now, is this blessedness for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Since we say the faith of Abraham was counted as righteousness. How then was it counted? in his circumcised or uncircumcised state? It was when he was not yet circumcised, but still uncircumcised. And he received the mark of circumcision, the seal upon the righteousness of that faith he had when he was still un- ci
rcumcised; to be the father of all those who are believers through their uncircumcised state so that righteousness could be counted for them, and also to be the father of the circumcised for those who not only have been circumcised but also walk in his footsteps through the faith, which our father Abraham had when he was still uncir- cumcised. For the promise to Abraham, or his seed, that he should be the inheritor of the world, was not on account of the law, but of the righteousness of his faith. For if the inheritors are those who belong to the law, then the faith is made void and the promise is gone; for the law causes anger, but where there is no law there is no lawbreaking.
Thus (it is) because of faith, and thus by grace, that the promise should hold good for all his seed; not only for him who has the law but for him who has the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. It held good in the sight of God, in whom he believed, the God who puts life into the dead and summons into existence the things that do not exist. He against hope believed in the hope that he would become the father of many nations according to what had been said, that is: Thus shall your seed be. And Abraham, without weakening in his faith, knew that his own body was that of a dead man, since he was about a hundred years old, and he knew the dead state of Sarah's womb, but he was not distracted with unbelief in God's promise but was strengthened in his belief, giving glory to God and assured that God was able to do as he had promised.
Thus it was that faith counted as righteousness in him. But it was not written for him alone that it was so counted for him, but also for us for whom it is to be counted, for us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was betrayed for our sins and raised up again for our justification.
1 Justified therefore through faith, let us keep peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have got by faith access to that grace in which we stand, and let us exult in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, let us even exult in afflictions, knowing that affliction causes endurance, and endurance quality, and quality, hope, and hope does not disappoint us. Because God's love is diffused in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us; if indeed when we were sick Christ died in time for the sake of us, who were sinful. Indeed, one will scarcely die for a righteous man. Perhaps one does even dare to die for a good man. But God shows his love for us; because it was when we were still sinners that Christ died for us. All the more then, being justified now by his blood, shall we be saved from the anger to come. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled through the death of his son, all the more, now reconciled, shall we be saved by his life; not only that, but exulting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now got this reconciliation.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and through sin, death, so also death went about among all men, because all sinned. Before there was the law there was sin in the world, but when there was no law it was not reckoned as sin. But death was king from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin after the example of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of what was to come.
But the gift of grace is not like the transgression; for if by the transgression of one many died, far more has been the abundance, for the many, of the grace of God and his gift in the grace of one man, Jesus Christ. And the gift is not as when one man sinned; for the judgment from one leads to condemnation, but the gift of grace, after many transgressions, leads to justification. For if by the transgression of one man death was king because of the one, so all the more shall they be kings in life, who have received the abundance of grace and righteousness, through one, Jesus Christ.
So then, just as one blunder meant condemnation for all men, so also one righteous act shall mean the vindication of life for all men; for just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinful, so also through the obedience of the one man the many shall be made righteous. The law came in to increase the transgression; but where the sin has increased, grace has increased even more, so that just as sin was king in death, so also grace shall be king through righteousness for life everlasting, because of Jesus Christ our Lord.
11 What then shall we say? Shall we persist in our sin, so that the grace may be multiplied? Never. How shall we, who died to sin, still live in it? Or do you not know that we, who were baptized for Christ, were baptized for his death? So we were buried with him through the baptism for death; so that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of his father, so we too may walk in a renewal of life. For if we were united with him in the same kind of death, so shall we share his resurrection; knowing that the old person who was in us was crucified with him, so the body of our sin might be destroyed, and we shall no longer be the slaves of sin, since one who has died is absolved of sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more, for death no longer has lordship over him. When he died, he died to sin, once for all; but when he lives, he lives for God. Thus do you also count yourselves as dead for sin, but living for God, in Jesus Christ.
Do not then let sin be king in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not give your limbs to sin as the weapons of wrongdoing, but give yourselves to God, as living people who have been dead, and give your limbs to God as the weapons of righteousness. For sin will have no lordship over you, for you are subject not to law but to grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are subject not to the law but to grace? Never. Do you not know that when you give yourselves as slaves to someone, to obey him, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, either of sin, for death, or of obedience, for righteousness? Thanks be to God, though you were the slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that form of teaching which had been made traditional for you; and when set free from sin you were enslaved to righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For as you gave your bodies over as slaves to debauchery and lawlessness, so now give over your bodies as slaves to righteousness, to be sanctified. For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free for righteousness. What was then the harvest you reaped from those acts of which you are now ashamed? Their end is death. But now, set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have your harvest, to be sanctified, and the end is life everlasting. For the stipend of sin is death, but God's gift of grace is life everlasting through Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Aie you not aware, brothers—I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has power over a person only as long as he is alive? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is set free from the law of her husband. So while her husband lives she will be called an adulteress if she goes to another man; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she goes to another man. Thus, my brothers, you also have died for the law through the body of the Christ, to belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead so that we may bear harvest to God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of our sins, because of the law, worked in our bodies to make us bear harvest to death. But now, by dying, we have been set free from the law, to which we had been subjected, so as to be slaves, in a new way, of the Spirit, and not, in the old way, of the letter.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? Never. But I never would have known sin except through the law, for I never would have known desire if the law had not said: You shall not desire what is not yours. But it was by getting a starting point through the commandment that sin caused every kind of desire in me, since without the law sin is a dead thing. I once did live without the law; but when the commandment came the sin came to life, and I died, and my commandment for life was found to be for my death. So it was by getting a starting point through the commandment that sin distracted me and, through the commandment, killed me.<
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Thus the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Then was this good thing death for me? Never. But it was sin, so that sin might be shown, through the good, to be accomplishing my death; so that sin might be surpassingly sinful, because of the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I ^ carnal, sold into subjection to sin. I do not know what I am doing. I do not do what I want, but what I hate;
that is what I do. But if what I do is what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer I who do this but the sin that lives in me. For I know that good does not live in me, not, that is, in my flesh; for it is in my power to wish for the good, but not to do good. I do not do the good that I want, but the bad that I do not want. That is what I do. But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but the sin that lives in me.
I find that the law, for me, who wish to do good, comes as an evil. I rejoice, in my inner person, in the law of God, but I see another law in my body arrayed for battle against the law of my mind, and it takes me captive by means of the law of sin which is in my body. I ^ a wretched human being. Who will rescue me from this body which belongs to death? Thanks be to God, it will be through Jesus Christ our Lord. I myself am slave by the mind to the law of God, but slave by the flesh to the law of sin.
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