Bible in 90 Days

¹⁷ After three days, Paul called together the leading men of the Jews. When they arrived, he began to speak.

“My brothers,” he said, “I have done nothing against our people or our ancestral customs. Yet I was made a prisoner in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. ¹⁸ The Romans put me on trial and wanted to let me go, because they couldn’t find me guilty of any capital crime. ¹⁹ But the Judaeans opposed this, and forced me to appeal to Caesar. This had nothing to do with my bringing any charges against my nation! ²⁰ So that’s why I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel, you see, that I am wearing this chain.”

²¹ “For our part,” they responded, “we haven’t received any letters about you from Judaea. Nor has anyone of our nation come here to tell us anything, or to say anything bad about you. ²² We want to hear from your own lips what you have in mind. However, as for this new sect, the one thing we know is that people everywhere are speaking out against it.”

The end is where we start from

²³ So they fixed a day and came in large numbers to Paul’s lodgings. He spoke to them and gave his testimony about the kingdom of God. From morning to night, he explained to them the things about Jesus, from the law of Moses and the prophets.

²⁴ Some were persuaded by what he said, and others did not believe. ²⁵ They disagreed among themselves. So, as they were getting ready to leave, Paul said one last thing.

“The holy spirit,” he said, “spoke truly through the prophet Isaiah to your ancestors, ²⁶ when he said,

²⁸ “Let it then be known to you that this salvation from God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.”

³⁰ Paul lived there for two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed everyone who came to see him. ³¹ He announced the kingdom of God, and taught the things about the Lord Jesus the Messiah, with all boldness, and with no one stopping him.

Good news about the new king

1 Paul, a slave of the Messiah, King Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for God’s good news, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the sacred writings— ³ the good news about his son, who was descended from David’s seed in terms of flesh, ⁴ and who was marked out powerfully as God’s son in terms of the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead: Jesus, the royal Messiah, our Lord!

⁵ Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about believing obedience among all the nations for the sake of his name. ⁶ That includes you, too, who are called by Jesus the Messiah.

⁷ This letter comes to all in Rome who love God, all who are called to be his holy people. Grace and peace to you from God our father, and Messiah Jesus, the Lord.

Paul longs to see the Roman Christians

⁸ Let me say first that I thank my God for all of you, through Jesus the king, because all the world has heard the news of your faith. ⁹ God is my witness—the God I worship in my spirit in the good news of his son—that I never stop remembering you ¹⁰ in my prayers. I ask God again and again that somehow at last I may now be able, in his good purposes, to come to you. ¹¹ I’m longing to see you! I want to share with you some spiritual blessing to give you strength; ¹² that is, I want to encourage you, and be encouraged by you, in the faith you and I share. ¹³ I don’t want you to be unaware, my dear family, that I’ve often made plans to come to you; it’s just that up to now something has always got in the way. I want to bear some fruit among you, as I have been doing among the other nations.

Good news, salvation and the justice of God

¹⁴ I am under obligation to Greeks and barbarians alike, you see; both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ That’s why I’m eager to announce the good news to you, too, in Rome. ¹⁶ I’m not ashamed of the good news; it’s God’s power, bringing salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also, equally, to the Greek. ¹⁷ This is because God’s covenant justice is unveiled in it, from faithfulness to faithfulness. As it says in the Bible, “the just shall live by faith.”

Humans reject God and embrace corruption

¹⁸ For the anger of God is unveiled from heaven against all the ungodliness and injustice performed by people who use injustice to suppress the truth. ¹⁹ What can be known of God, you see, is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ There are, of course, things about God which you can’t see, namely, his eternal power and deity. But, ever since the world was created, they have been known and seen in the things he has made. As a result, they have no excuse: ²¹ they knew God, but didn’t honor him as God or thank him. Instead, they learned to think in useless ways, and their unwise heart grew dark. ²² They declared themselves to be wise, but in fact they became foolish. ²³ They swapped the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of the image of mortal humans—and of birds, animals and reptiles.

Unclean desires, dishonored bodies

²⁴ So God gave them up to uncleanness in the desires of their hearts, with the result that they dishonored their bodies among themselves. ²⁵ They swapped God’s truth for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, Amen.

²⁶ So God gave them up to shameful desires. Even the women, you see, swapped natural sexual practice for unnatural; ²⁷ and the men, too, abandoned natural sexual relations with women, and were inflamed with their lust for one another. Men performed shameless acts with men, and received in themselves the appropriate repayment for their mistaken ways.

Darkened mind, darkened behavior

²⁸ Moreover, just as they did not see fit to hold on to knowledge of God, God gave them up to an unfit mind, so that they would behave inappropriately. ²⁹ They were filled with all kinds of injustice, wickedness, greed and evil; they were full of envy, murder, enmity, deceit and cunning. They became gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, self-important, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ unwise, unfaithful, unfeeling, uncaring. ³² They know that God has rightly decreed that people who do things like that deserve death. But not only do they do them; they give their approval to people who practice them.

God’s coming judgment will be impartial, the same for all

2 So you have no excuse—anyone, whoever you are, who sits in judgment! When you judge someone else, you condemn yourself, because you, who are behaving as a judge, are doing the same things. ² We know that God’s judgment falls, in accordance with the truth, on those who do such things. ³ But if you judge those who do them and yet do them yourself, do you really suppose that you will escape God’s judgment?

⁴ Or do you despise the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance and patience? Don’t you know that God’s kindness is meant to bring you to repentance? ⁵ But by your hard, unrepentant heart you are building up a store of anger for yourself on the day of anger, the day when God’s just judgment will be unveiled— ⁶ the God who will “repay everyone according to their works.”

⁷ When people patiently do what is good, and so pursue the quest for glory and honor and immortality, God will give them the life of the age to come. ⁸ But when people act out of selfish desire, and do not obey the truth, but instead obey injustice, there will be anger and fury. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every single person who does what is wicked, the Jew first and also, equally, the Greek— ¹⁰ and there will be glory, honor and peace for everyone who does what is good, the Jew first and also, equally, the Greek. ¹¹ God, you see, shows no partiality.

How God’s impartial judgment will work

¹² Everyone who sinned outside the law, you see, will perish outside the law—and those who sinned from within the law will be judged by means of the law. ¹³ After all, it isn’t those who hear the law who are in the right before God. It’s those who do the law who will be declared to be in the right!

¹⁴ This is how it works out. Gentiles don’t possess the law as their birthright; but whenever they do what the law says, they are a law for themselves, despite not possessing the law. ¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their conscience bears witness as well, and their thoughts will run this way and that, sometimes accusing them and sometimes excusing them, ¹⁶ on the day when (according to the gospel I proclaim) God judges all human secrets through Messiah Jesus.

The claim of the Jew—and its problems

¹⁷ But supposing you call yourself a “Jew.” Supposing you rest your hope in the law. Supposing you celebrate the fact that God is your God, ¹⁸ and that you know what he wants, and that by the law’s instruction you can make appropriate moral distinctions. ¹⁹ Supposing you believe yourself to be a guide to the blind, a light to people in darkness, ²⁰ a teacher of the foolish, an instructor for children—all because, in the law, you possess the outline of knowledge and truth.

²¹ Well then: if you’re going to teach someone else, aren’t you going to teach yourself? If you say people shouldn’t steal, do you steal? ²² If you say people shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? If you loathe idols, do you rob temples? ²³ If you boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ This is what the Bible says: “Because of you, God’s name is blasphemed among the nations!”

The badge, the name and the meaning

²⁵ Circumcision, you see, has real value for people who keep the law. If, however, you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. ²⁶ Meanwhile, if uncircumcised people keep the law’s requirements, their uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision, won’t it? ²⁷ So people who are by nature uncircumcised, but who fulfill the law, will pass judgment on people like you who possess the letter of the law and circumcision but who break the law.

²⁸ The “Jew” isn’t the person who appears to be one, you see. Nor is “circumcision” what it appears to be, a matter of physical flesh. ²⁹ The “Jew” is the one in secret; and “circumcision” is a matter of the heart, in the spirit rather than the letter. Such a person gets “praise,” not from humans, but from God.

God’s determined faithfulness

3 What advantage, then, does the Jew possess? What, indeed, is the point of circumcision? ² A great deal, in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with God’s oracles. ³ What follows from that? If some of them were unfaithful to their commission, does their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? ⁴ Certainly not! Let God be true, and every human being false! As the Bible says,

⁵ But if our being in the wrong proves that God is in the right, what are we going to say? That God is unjust to inflict anger on people? (I’m reducing things to a human scale!) ⁶ Certainly not! How then could God judge the world? ⁷ But if God’s truthfulness grows all the greater and brings him glory in and through my falsehood, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸ And why not “do evil so that good may come”—as some people blasphemously say about us, and as some allege that we say? People like that, at least, deserve the judgment they get!

Jews as well as Gentiles are guilty of sin

⁹ What then? Are we in fact better off? No, certainly not. I have already laid down this charge, you see: Jews as well as Greeks are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰ This is what the Bible says:

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it is speaking to those who are “in the law.” The purpose of this is that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be brought to the bar of God’s judgment. ²⁰ No mere mortal, you see, can be declared to be in the right before God on the basis of the works of the law. What you get through the law is the knowledge of sin.

The unveiling of God’s covenant justice

²¹ But now, quite apart from the law (though the law and the prophets bore witness to it), God’s covenant justice has been displayed. ²² God’s covenant justice comes into operation through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, for the benefit of all who have faith. For there is no distinction: ²³ all sinned, and fell short of God’s glory— ²⁴ and by God’s grace they are freely declared to be in the right, to be members of the covenant, through the redemption which is found in the Messiah, Jesus.

Jesus’ death reveals God’s covenant justice

²⁵ God put Jesus forth as the place of mercy, through faithfulness, by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his covenant justice, because of the passing over (in divine forbearance) of sins committed beforehand. ²⁶ This was to demonstrate his covenant justice in the present time: that is, that he himself is in the right, and that he declares to be in the right everyone who trusts in the faithfulness of Jesus.

The God of both Jew and Gentile

²⁷ So what happens to boasting? It is ruled out! Through what sort of law? The law of works? No: through the law of faith! ²⁸ We calculate, you see, that a person is declared to be in the right on the basis of faith, apart from works of the law. ²⁹ Or does God belong only to Jews? Doesn’t he belong to the nations as well? Yes, of course, to the nations as well, ³⁰ since God is one. He will make the declaration “in the right” over the circumcised on the basis of faith, and over the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹ Do we then abolish the law through faith? Certainly not! Rather, we establish the law.

God’s covenant with Abraham

4 What shall we say, then? Have we found Abraham to be our ancestor in a human, fleshly sense? ² After all, if Abraham was reckoned “in the right” on the basis of works, he has grounds to boast—but not in God’s presence!

³ So what does the Bible say? “Abraham believed God, and it was calculated in his favor, putting him in the right.” ⁴ Now when someone “works,” the “reward” they get is not calculated on the basis of generosity, but on the basis of what they are owed. ⁵ But if someone doesn’t “work,” but simply believes in the one who declares the ungodly to be in the right, that person’s faith is calculated in their favor, putting them in the right.

⁶ We see the same thing when David speaks of the blessing that comes to someone whom God calculates to be in the right apart from works:

Abraham the father of both uncircumcised and circumcised

⁹ So, then, does this blessing come on circumcised people or on uncircumcised? This is the passage we quoted: “His faith was calculated to Abraham as indicating that he was in the right.” ¹⁰ How was it calculated? When he was circumcised or when he was uncircumcised? It wasn’t when he was circumcised; it was when he was uncircumcised! ¹¹ He received circumcision as a sign and seal of the status of covenant membership, on the basis of faith, which he had when he was still uncircumcised. This was so that he could be the father of all who believe even when uncircumcised, so that the status of covenant membership can be calculated to their account as well. ¹² He is also, of course, the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who follow the steps of the faith which Abraham possessed while still uncircumcised.

Abraham is the father of all believers

¹³ The promise, you see, didn’t come to Abraham or to his family through the law—the promise, that is, that he would inherit the world. It came through the covenant justice of faith. ¹⁴ For if those who belong to the law are going to inherit, then faith is empty, and the promise has been abolished. ¹⁵ For the law stirs up God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no lawbreaking.

¹⁶ That’s why it’s “by faith”: so that it can be in accordance with grace, and so that the promise can thereby be validated for the entire family—not simply those who are from the law, but those who share the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, ¹⁷ just as the Bible says, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.

Abraham’s faith—and ours

¹⁸ Against all hope, but still in hope, Abraham believed that he would become the father of many nations, in line with what had been said to him: “That’s what your family will be like.” ¹⁹ He didn’t become weak in faith as he considered his own body (which was already as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old), and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He didn’t waver in unbelief when faced with God’s promise. Instead, he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully convinced that God had the power to accomplish what he had promised. ²² That is why “it was calculated in his favor, putting him in the right.”

²³ But it wasn’t written for him alone that “it was calculated to him.” ²⁴ It was written for us as well! It will be calculated to us, too, since we believe in the one who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was handed over because of our trespasses and raised because of our justification.

Peace and hope

5 The result is this: since we have been declared “in the right” on the basis of faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah. ² Through him we have been allowed to approach, by faith, into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate the hope of the glory of God.

³ That’s not all. We also celebrate in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patience, ⁴ patience produces a well-formed character, and a character like that produces hope. ⁵ Hope, in its turn, does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us.

Jesus’ death reveals God’s love and guarantees final salvation

⁶ This is all based on what the Messiah did: while we were still weak, at that very moment he died on behalf of the ungodly. ⁷ It’s a rare thing to find someone who will die on behalf of an upright person—though I suppose someone might be brave enough to die for a good person. ⁸ But this is how God demonstrates his own love for us: the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners.

⁹ How much more, in that case—since we have been declared to be in the right by his blood—are we going to be saved by him from God’s coming anger! ¹⁰ When we were enemies, you see, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son; if that’s so, how much more, having already been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ And that’s not all. We even celebrate in God, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

The big picture in shorthand: Adam and the Messiah

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one human being, and death through sin, and in that way death spread to all humans, in that all sinned . . . ¹³ Sin was in the world, you see, even in the absence of the law, though sin is not calculated where there is no law. ¹⁴ But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over the people who did not sin by breaking a command, as Adam had done—Adam, who was the imprint of the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But it isn’t “as the trespass, so also the gift.” For if many died by one person’s trespass, how much more has God’s grace, and the gift in grace through the one person Jesus the Messiah, abounded to the many? ¹⁶ And nor is it “as through the sin of the one, so also the gift.” For the judgment which followed the one trespass resulted in a negative verdict, but the free gift which followed many trespasses resulted in a positive verdict. ¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the gift of covenant membership, of “being in the right,” reign in life through the one man Jesus the Messiah?

The triumphant reign of grace

¹⁸ So, then, just as, through the trespass of one person, the result was condemnation for all people, even so, through the upright act of one person, the proper verdict is life for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of one person many received the status of “sinner,” so through the obedience of one person many will receive the status of being “in the right.”

²⁰ The law came in alongside, so that the trespass might be filled out to its full extent. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more; ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, even so, through God’s faithful covenant justice, grace might reign to the life of the age to come, through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

Leaving the state of sin through baptism

6 What are we to say, then? Shall we continue in the state of sin, so that grace may increase? ² Certainly not! We died to sin; how can we still live in it? ³ Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into the Messiah, Jesus, were baptized into his death? ⁴ That means that we were buried with him, through baptism, into death, so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the father’s glory, we too might behave with a new quality of life. ⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Dead to sin, alive to God

⁶ This is what we know: our old humanity was crucified with the Messiah, so that the bodily solidarity of sin might be abolished, and that we should no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ A person who has died, you see, has been declared free from all charges of sin.

⁸ But if we died with the Messiah, we believe that we shall live with him. ⁹ We know that the Messiah, having been raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has any authority over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, you see, he died to sin, once and only once. But the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In the same way you, too, must calculate yourselves as being dead to sin, and alive to God in the Messiah, Jesus.

The call to holy living

¹² So don’t allow sin to rule in your mortal body, to make you obey its desires. ¹³ Nor should you present your limbs and organs to sin to be used for its wicked purposes. Rather, present yourselves to God, as people alive from the dead, and your limbs and organs to God, to be used for the righteous purposes of his covenant. ¹⁴ Sin won’t actually rule over you, you see, since you are not under law but under grace.

The two types of slavery

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you really are slaves of the one you obey, whether that happens to be sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to final vindication? ¹⁷ Thank God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were committed. ¹⁸ You were freed from sin, and now you have been enslaved to God’s covenant justice. ¹⁹ (I’m using a human picture because of your natural human weakness!) For just as you presented your limbs and organs as slaves to uncleanness, and to one degree of lawlessness after another, so now present your limbs and organs as slaves to covenant justice, which leads to holiness.

Where the two roads lead

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you see, you were free in respect of covenant justice. ²¹ What fruit did you ever have from the things of which you are now ashamed? Their destination is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have fruit for holiness. Its destination is the life of the age to come. ²³ The wages paid by sin, you see, are death; but God’s free gift is the life of the age to come, in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.

Dying to the law

7 Surely you know, my dear family—I am, after all, talking to people who know the law!—that the law rules a person as long as that person is alive? ² The law binds a married woman to her husband during his lifetime; but if he dies, she is free from the law as regards her husband. ³ So, then, she will be called an adulteress if she goes with another man while her husband is alive; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she goes with another man.

⁴ In the same way, my dear family, you too died to the law through the body of the Messiah, so that you could belong to someone else—to the one who was raised from the dead, in fact—so that we could bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were living a mortal human life, the passions of sins which were through the law were at work in our limbs and organs, causing us to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been cut loose from the law; we have died to the thing in which we were held tightly. The aim is that we should now be enslaved in the new life of the spirit, not in the old life of the letter.

When the law arrived: Sinai looks back to the fall

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? Certainly not! But I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin grabbed its opportunity through the commandment, and produced all kinds of covetousness within me.

Apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment which pointed to life turned out, in my case, to bring death. ¹¹ For sin grabbed its opportunity through the commandment. It deceived me, and, through it, killed me.

¹² So, then, the law is holy; and the commandment is holy, upright and good.

Looking back on life under the law

¹³ Was it that good thing, then, that brought death to me? Certainly not! On the contrary; it was sin, in order that it might appear as sin, working through the good thing and producing death in me. This was in order that sin might become very sinful indeed, through the commandment.

¹⁴ We know, you see, that the law is spiritual. I, however, am made of flesh, sold as a slave under sin’s authority. ¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want, you see, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ So if I do what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the law is good.

¹⁷ But now it is no longer I that do it; it’s sin, living within me. ¹⁸ I know, you see, that no good thing lives in me, that is, in my human flesh. For I can will the good, but I can’t perform it. ¹⁹ For I don’t do the good thing I want to do, but I end up doing the evil thing I don’t want to do. ²⁰ So if I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer “I” doing it; it’s sin, living inside me.

The double “law” and the miserable “I”

²¹ This, then, is what I find about the law: when I want to do what is right, evil lies close at hand! ²² I delight in God’s law, you see, according to my inmost self; ²³ but I see another “law” in my limbs and organs, fighting a battle against the law of my mind, and taking me off into captivity in the law of sin which is in my limbs and organs.

²⁴ What a miserable person I am! Who is going to rescue me from the body of this death? ²⁵ Thank God—through Jesus our Messiah and Lord! So then, left to my own self I am enslaved to God’s law with my mind, but to sin’s law with my human flesh.

God’s action in Messiah and spirit

8 So, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in the Messiah, Jesus! ² Why not? Because the law of the spirit of life in the Messiah, Jesus, released you from the law of sin and death.

³ For God has done what the law (being weak because of human flesh) was incapable of doing. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sin-offering; and, right there in the flesh, he condemned sin. ⁴ This was in order that the right and proper verdict of the law could be fulfilled in us, as we live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

The work of the spirit

⁵ Look at it like this. People whose lives are determined by human flesh focus their minds on matters to do with the flesh, but people whose lives are determined by the spirit focus their minds on matters to do with the spirit. ⁶ Focus the mind on the flesh, and you’ll die; but focus it on the spirit, and you’ll have life, and peace. ⁷ The mind focused on the flesh, you see, is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law; in fact, it can’t. ⁸ Those who are determined by the flesh can’t please God.

⁹ But you’re not people of flesh; you’re people of the spirit (if indeed God’s spirit lives within you; note that anyone who doesn’t have the spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him). ¹⁰ But if the Messiah is in you, the body is indeed dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of covenant justice. ¹¹ So, then, if the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you, the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies, too, through his spirit who lives within you.

Children of God, led by the spirit

¹² So then, my dear family, we are in debt—but not to human flesh, to live our life in that way. ¹³ If you live in accordance with the flesh, you will die; but if, by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ All who are led by the spirit of God, you see, are God’s children. ¹⁵ You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery, did you, to go back again into a state of fear? But you received the spirit of sonship, in whom we call out “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶ When that happens, it is the spirit itself giving supporting witness to what our own spirit is saying, that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And if we’re children, we are also heirs: heirs of God, and fellow heirs with the Messiah, as long as we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Creation renewed and patient hope

¹⁸ This is how I work it out. The sufferings we go through in the present time are not worth putting in the scale alongside the glory that is going to be unveiled for us. ¹⁹ Yes: creation itself is on tiptoe with expectation, eagerly awaiting the moment when God’s children will be revealed. ²⁰ Creation, you see, was subjected to pointless futility, not of its own volition, but because of the one who placed it in this subjection, in the hope ²¹ that creation itself would be freed from its slavery to decay, to enjoy the freedom that comes when God’s children are glorified.

²² Let me explain. We know that the entire creation is groaning together, and going through labor pains together, up until the present time. ²³ Not only so: we too, we who have the first fruits of the spirit’s life within us, are groaning within ourselves, as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ We were saved, you see, in hope. But hope isn’t hope if you can see it! Who hopes for what they can see? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it eagerly—but also patiently.

Prayer, sonship and the sovereignty of God

²⁶ In the same way, too, the spirit comes alongside and helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what to pray for as we ought to; but that same spirit pleads on our behalf, with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷ And the Searcher of Hearts knows what the spirit is thinking, because the spirit pleads for God’s people according to God’s will. ²⁸ We know, in fact, that God works all things together for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ Those he foreknew, you see, he also marked out in advance to be shaped according to the model of the image of his son, so that he might be the firstborn of a large family. ³⁰ And those he marked out in advance, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Nothing shall separate us from God’s love

³¹ What then shall we say to all this?

³⁷ No: in all these things we are completely victorious through the one who loved us. ³⁸ I am persuaded, you see, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor the present, nor the future, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Messiah Jesus our Lord.

The privileges and tragedy of Israel

9 I’m speaking the truth in the Messiah, I’m not lying. I call my conscience as witness, in the holy spirit, ² that I have great sorrow and endless pain in my heart. ³ Left to my own self, I am half inclined to pray that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, on behalf of my own family, my own flesh-and-blood relatives. ⁴ They are Israelites: the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises all belong to them. ⁵ The patriarchs are their ancestors; and it is from them, according to the flesh, that the Messiah has come—who is God over all, blessed forever, Amen!

Abraham’s two families

⁶ But it can’t be the case that God’s word has failed! Not all who are from Israel, you see, are in fact Israel. ⁷ Nor is it the case that all the children count as “seed of Abraham.” No: “in Isaac shall your seed be named.” ⁸ That means that it isn’t the flesh-and-blood children who are God’s children; rather, it is the children of the promise who will be calculated as “seed.” ⁹ This was what the promise said, you see: “Around this time I shall return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰ And that’s not all. The same thing happened when Rebecca conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹ When they had not yet been born, and had done nothing either good or bad—so that what God had in mind in making his choice might come to pass, ¹² not because of works but because of the one who calls—it was said to her, “the elder shall serve the younger.” ¹³ As the Bible says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

God’s purpose and justice

¹⁴ So what are we going to say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! ¹⁵ He says to Moses, you see, “I will have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy, and I will pity those I will pity.” ¹⁶ So, then, it doesn’t depend on human willing, or on human effort; it depends on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the Bible says to Pharaoh: “This is why I have raised you up, to show my power in you, and so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So, then, he has mercy on the one he wants, and he hardens the one he wants.

¹⁹ You will say to me, then, “So why does he still blame people? Who can stand against his purpose?” ²⁰ Are you, a mere human being, going to answer God back? “Surely the clay won’t say to the potter, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” ²¹ Doesn’t the potter have authority over the clay, so that he can make from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²² Supposing God wanted to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, and for that reason put up very patiently with the vessels of anger created for destruction, ²³ in order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, the ones he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ including us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

God calls a remnant

²⁵ This is what he says in Hosea,

²⁷ Isaiah cries out, concerning Israel,

²⁹ As Isaiah said in an earlier passage,

Israel, the nations and the Messiah

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the nations, who were not aspiring towards covenant membership, have obtained covenant membership, but it is a covenant membership based on faith. ³¹ Israel meanwhile, though eager for the law which defined the covenant, did not attain to the law. ³² Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as though it was on the basis of works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³ as the Bible says,

10 My dear family, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God on their behalf, is for their salvation. ² I can testify on their behalf that they have a zeal for God; but it is not based on knowledge. ³ They were ignorant, you see, of God’s covenant faithfulness, and they were trying to establish a covenant status of their own; so they didn’t submit to God’s faithfulness. ⁴ The Messiah, you see, is the goal of the law, so that covenant membership may be available for all who believe.

The fulfillment of the covenant

⁵ Moses writes, you see, about the covenant membership defined by the law, that “the person who performs the law’s commands shall live in them.” ⁶ But the faith-based covenant membership puts it like this: “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who shall go up to heaven?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah down), ⁷ “or, ‘Who shall go down into the depths?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we proclaim); ⁹ because if you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ Why? Because covenant membership comes by believing with the heart, and salvation comes by professing with the mouth. ¹¹ The Bible says, you see, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich towards all who call upon him. ¹³ “All who call upon the name of the Lord,” you see, “will be saved.”

The call to the world, and the failure of Israel

¹⁴ So how are they to call on someone when they haven’t believed in him? And how are they to believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear without someone announcing it to them? ¹⁵ And how will people make that announcement unless they are sent? As the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of the ones who bring good news of good things.”

¹⁶ But not all obeyed the good news. Isaiah asks, you see, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of the Messiah.

¹⁸ This might make us ask, did they not hear? But they certainly did:

¹⁹ But I ask, did Israel not know? To begin with, Moses says,

²⁰ Then Isaiah, greatly daring, puts it like this:

²¹ But in respect of Israel he says,

The remnant of grace

11 So I ask, has God abandoned his people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham and the tribe of Benjamin. ² “God has not abandoned his people,” the ones he chose in advance.

Don’t you know what the Bible says in the passage about Elijah, describing how he pleads with God against Israel? ³ “Lord,” he says, “they have killed your prophets, they have thrown down your altars; I’m the only one left, and they are trying to kill me!” ⁴ But what is the reply from the divine word? “I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

⁵ In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

A stumble with a purpose

⁷ What then? Did Israel not obtain what it was looking for? Well, the chosen ones obtained it—but the rest were hardened, ⁸ as the Bible says:

⁹ And David says,

¹¹ So I ask, then: Have they tripped up in such a way as to fall completely? Certainly not! Rather, by their trespass, salvation has come to the nations, in order to make them jealous. ¹² If their trespass means riches for the world, and their impoverishment means riches for the nations, how much more will their fullness mean!

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I celebrate my particular ministry, ¹⁴ so that, if possible, I can make my “flesh” jealous, and save some of them. ¹⁵ If their casting away, you see, means reconciliation for the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

The two olive trees

¹⁶ Take another illustration: if the first fruits are holy, so is the whole lump.

And another: if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you—a wild olive tree!—were grafted in among them, and came to share in the root of the olive with its rich sap, ¹⁸ don’t boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember this: it isn’t you that supports the root, but the root that supports you.

¹⁹ I know what you’ll say next: “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ That’s all very well. They were broken off because of unbelief—but you stand firm by faith. Don’t get big ideas about it; instead, be afraid. ²¹ After all, if God didn’t spare the natural branches, there’s a strong possibility he won’t spare you.

²² Note carefully, then, that God is both kind and severe. He is severe to those who have fallen, but he is kind to you, provided you continue in his kindness—otherwise you too will be cut off. ²³ And they, too, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted back in. God is able, you see, to graft them back in. ²⁴ For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will they, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

Mercy upon all

²⁵ My dear brothers and sisters, you mustn’t get the wrong idea and think too much of yourselves. That is why I don’t want you to remain in ignorance of this mystery: a hardening has come for a time upon Israel, until the fullness of the nations comes in. ²⁶ That is how “all Israel shall be saved,” as the Bible says:

²⁸ As regards the good news, they are enemies—for your sake! But as regards God’s choice they are beloved because of the patriarchs. ²⁹ God’s gifts and God’s call, you see, cannot be undone. ³⁰ For just as you were once disobedient to God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, ³¹ so they have now disbelieved as well, in order that, through the mercy which has come your way, they too may now receive mercy. ³² For God has shut up all people in disobedience, so that he may have mercy upon all.

To God be the glory

The living sacrifice

12 So, my dear family, this is my appeal to you by the mercies of God: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That’s what properly thought-out worship looks like. ² What’s more, don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.

³ Through the grace which was given to me, I have this to say to each one of you: don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think. Rather, think soberly, in line with faith, the true standard which God has marked out for each of you. ⁴ As in one body we have many limbs and organs, you see, and all the parts have different functions, ⁵ so we, many as we are, are one body in the Messiah, and individually we belong to one another.

Living together in the Messiah

⁶ Well then, we have gifts that differ in accordance with the grace that has been given to us, and we must use them appropriately. If it is prophecy, we must prophesy according to the pattern of the faith. ⁷ If it is serving, we must work at our serving; if teaching, at our teaching; ⁸ if exhortation, at our exhortation; if giving, with generosity; if leading, with energy; if doing acts of kindness, with cheerfulness.

⁹ Love must be real. Hate what is evil, stick fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Be truly affectionate in showing love for one another; compete with each other in giving mutual respect. ¹¹ Don’t get tired of working hard. Be on fire with the spirit. Work as slaves for the Lord. ¹² Celebrate your hope; be patient in suffering; give constant energy to prayer; ¹³ contribute to the needs of God’s people; make sure you are hospitable to strangers.

Living alongside the world

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless them, don’t curse them. ¹⁵ Celebrate with the joyful, mourn with the mourners. ¹⁶ Come to the same mind with one another. Don’t give yourselves airs, but associate with the humble. Don’t get too clever for yourselves.

¹⁷ Never repay anyone evil for evil; think through what will seem good to everyone who is watching. ¹⁸ If it’s possible, as far as you can, live at peace with all people. ¹⁹ Don’t take revenge, my dear people, but allow God’s anger room to work. The Bible says, after all, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ No: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will pile up burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Don’t let evil conquer you. Rather, conquer evil with good.

The divine purpose, and limited role, of ruling authorities

13 Every person must be subject to the ruling authorities. There is no authority, you see, except from God, and those that exist have been put in place by God. ² As a result, anyone who rebels against authority is resisting what God has set up, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terrors for people who do good, but only for people who do evil.

If you want to have no fear of the ruling power, do what is good, and it will praise you. ⁴ It is God’s servant, you see, for you and your good. But if you do evil, be afraid; the sword it carries is no empty gesture. It is God’s servant, you see: an agent of justice to bring his anger on evildoers. ⁵ That is why it is necessary to submit, not only to avoid punishment but because of conscience.

⁶ That, too, is why you pay taxes. The officials in question are God’s ministers, attending to this very thing. ⁷ So pay each of them what is owed: tribute to those who collect it, revenue to those who collect it. Respect those who should be respected. Honor the people one ought to honor.

Love, the law and the coming day

⁸ Don’t owe anything to anyone, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your neighbor, you see, you have fulfilled the law. ⁹ Commandments like “don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t covet”—and any other commandment—are summed up in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to its neighbor; so love is the fulfillment of the law.

¹¹ This is all the more important because you know what time it is. The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep. Our salvation, you see, is nearer now than it was when first we came to faith. ¹² The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let’s put off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let’s behave appropriately, as in the daytime: not in wild parties and drunkenness, not in orgies and shameless immorality, not in bad temper and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and don’t make any allowance for the flesh and its lusts.

The weak and the strong

14 Welcome someone who is weak in faith, but not in order to have disputes on difficult points. ² One person believes it is all right to eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats should not despise the one who doesn’t, and the one who doesn’t should not condemn the one who does—because God has welcomed them.

⁴ Who do you think you are to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own master. And stand they will, because the master can make them stand.

⁵ One person reckons one day more important than another. Someone else regards all days as equally important. Each person must make up their own mind. ⁶ The one who celebrates the day does so in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, does so in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God; the one who does not eat abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God.

The final judgment is the only one that counts

⁷ We none of us live to ourselves; we none of us die to ourselves. ⁸ If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, then, whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹ That is why the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰ You, then: why do you condemn your fellow Christian? Or you: why do you despise a fellow Christian? We must all appear before the judgment seat of God, ¹¹ as the Bible says:

¹² So then, we must each give an account of ourselves to God.

The way of love and peace

¹³ Do not, then, pass judgment on one another any longer. If you want to exercise your judgment, do so on this question: how to avoid placing obstacles or stumbling blocks in front of a fellow family member.

¹⁴ I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, except that some things do become unclean for the person who regards them as such. ¹⁵ For if your brother or sister is being harmed by what you eat, you are no longer behaving in accordance with love. Don’t let your food destroy someone for whom the Messiah died!

¹⁶ So don’t let something that is good for you make other people blaspheme. ¹⁷ God’s kingdom, you see, isn’t about food and drink, but about justice, peace, and joy in the holy spirit. ¹⁸ Anyone who serves the Messiah like this pleases God and deserves respect from other people. ¹⁹ So, then, let’s find and follow the way of peace, and discover how to build each other up. ²⁰ Don’t pull down God’s work on account of food. Everything is pure, but it becomes evil for anyone who causes offense when they eat. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat, or drink wine, or anything else which makes your fellow Christian stumble.

²² Hold firmly to the faith which you have as a matter between yourself and God. When you’ve thought something through, and can go ahead without passing judgment on yourself, God’s blessing on you! ²³ But anyone who doubts is condemned even in the act of eating, because it doesn’t spring from faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin.