Romans Chapters

1 | •  ¹From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,

an apostle called and set apart for God’s Good News,

²the very promises he foretold through his prophets in the sacred Scriptures

³regarding his Son, who was born in the flesh a descendant of David,

⁴and has been recognized as the Son of God endowed with Power,

upon rising from the dead through the Holy Spirit.

Through him, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵and for the sake of his name,

we received grace and mission in all the nations for them to accept the faith.

⁶All of you, the elected of Christ, are part of them;

you, the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy:

⁷May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Paul Longs to Visit Them

⁸First of all, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is spoken of all over the world. ⁹And God, whom I serve in spirit by announcing the Good News of his Son, is my witness that I remember you in my prayers at all times. ¹⁰I pray constantly that, if it is his will, he makes it possible for me to visit you. ¹¹I long to see you and share some spiritual blessings to strengthen you. ¹²In that way, we will encourage each other by sharing our common faith.

¹³You must know, brothers and sisters, that I have often made plans to go to you, but till now, I have been prevented. ¹⁴I would like to harvest some fruits among you, as I have done among other nations. Whether Greeks or foreigners, cultured or ignorant, I feel under obligation to all. ¹⁵Hence, I am eager to proclaim the gospel to you who are in Rome.

•  ¹⁶For I am not ashamed at all of this Good News; it is God’s power, saving those who believe, first the Jews, and then the Greeks. ¹⁷This Good News shows us God's saving justice, which saves exclusively by faith, as the Scripture says: The upright one shall live by faith.

Humankind Is Under God’s “Wrath”

•  ¹⁸For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who have silenced the truth by their wicked ways. ¹⁹For everything that could have been known about God was clear to them: God himself made it plain. ²⁰Because his invisible attributes—his everlasting power and divinity—are made visible to reason by means of his works since the world's creation.

So they have no excuse, ²¹for they knew God, and did not glorify him as was fitting; nor did they give thanks to him. On the contrary, they lost themselves in their reasoning, and darkness filled their minds.

²²Believing themselves wise, they became foolish: ²³They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likes of mortal human beings, birds, animals, and reptiles. ²⁴Because of this, God gave them up to their inner cravings; they did shameful things and dishonored their bodies.

²⁵They exchanged God’s truth for a lie; they honored and worshiped created things instead of the Creator, to whom be praise forever, Amen! ²⁶Because of that, God gave them up to shameful passions: their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷Similarly, the men giving up natural sexual relations with women were lustful of each other: they did, men with men, shameful things, bringing upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wickedness. ²⁸And since they did not think that God was worth knowing, he gave them up to their senseless minds so that they committed all kinds of obscenities.

²⁹And so, they are full of injustice, perversity, greed, evil, jealousy, murder, strife, deceit, bad will, and gossip. ³⁰They commit calumny, offend God, are haughty; they are proud, liars, and clever in doing evil. They are rebellious toward their parents, ³¹senseless, disloyal, cold-hearted and merciless. ³²They know of God’s judgment, which declares worthy of death to anyone living in this way; yet, not only do they do all these things, but they even applaud anyone who does the same.

The Jews Also Must Fear Judgment

2 | •  ¹Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you are able to judge others. For, in judging your neighbor, you condemn yourself, for you practice what you are judging. ²We know that the condemnation of God will justly reach those who commit these things, ³and do you think that by condemning others, you will escape from the judgment of God, you who are doing the same?

⁴This would be taking advantage of God and his infinite goodness, patience, and understanding and not realizing that his goodness is to lead you to conversion. ⁵If your heart becomes hard and you refuse to change, then you are storing for yourself a great punishment on the day of judgment when God will appear as a just judge.

⁶He will give each one his due according to his actions. ⁷He will give everlasting life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality and persevere in doing good. ⁸But anger and vengeance will be the lot of those who do not serve the truth, but injustice. ⁹There will be suffering and anguish for everyone committing evil, first the Jew, then the Greek. ¹⁰But God will give glory, honor, and peace to whoever does good, first the Jew, then the Greek, ¹¹because one is not different from the other before God.

Everyone Is Judged by His Conscience

¹²Those who, without knowing the law, committed sin, will perish without the law; and whoever committed sin, knowing the law, will be judged by that law. ¹³What makes us righteous before God is not hearing the law but obeying it. ¹⁴When non-Jews, who do not have the law practice what the law commands naturally, they give themselves a law, ¹⁵showing that the law's commandments are engraved in their minds. Their conscience speaks within them, also shown when they condemn or approve their actions. ¹⁶The same is to happen on the day when God, according to my gospel, will judge people’s secret actions in the person of Jesus Christ.

¹⁷But, suppose you call yourself a Jew: you have the law as the foundation and feel proud of your God. ¹⁸You know the will of God, and the law teaches you to distinguish what is better, ¹⁹and so, you believe you are the guide for the blind, a light in the darkness, ²⁰a corrector of the foolish and the instructor of the ignorant because you possess in the law the formulation of true knowledge. ²¹Well then, you who teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? If you say that one must not steal, why do you steal? ²²You say one must not commit adultery, yet you commit it! You say you hate idols, but you steal into their temples! ²³You feel proud of the law, yet you do not obey it, and you dishonor your God. ²⁴In fact, as the Scripture says, the other nations despise the name of God because of you.

²⁵Circumcision is of value to you if you obey the law, but if you do not obey, it is as if you were not circumcised. ²⁶On the contrary, if those who are uncircumcised obey the commandments of the law, do you not think that despite them being pagans, they make themselves like the circumcised? ²⁷The one who obeys the law without being marked in his body with circumcision will judge you who have been marked with circumcision and who have the law, which you do not obey. ²⁸For external things do not make a true Jew, nor is real circumcision that which is marked on the body. ²⁹A Jew must be so interiorly; the heart’s circumcision belongs to the spirit and not to a written law; he who lives in this way will be praised not by people but by God.

What Advantage Is It to Be a Jew?

3 | •  ¹Then, what is the advantage of being a Jew? And what is the use of circumcision? ²It is important from any point of view. In the first place, it was to the Jews that God entrusted his word.

³Well, now, if some of them were not faithful, will their unfaithfulness do away with the faithfulness of God? Of course not! ⁴Rather, it will be proved that God is truthful, every human a liar, as the Scripture says: it will be proved that your words are true and you will be the winner if they want to judge you.

⁵If our wickedness shows God to be just, would it be correct to say that God is unjust when he gets angry and punishes us? (I speak in a human way.)

⁶– Not at all because, otherwise, how could God judge the world?

⁷– But if my lie makes God's truth more evident, thus increasing his glory, is it correct to call me a sinner?

⁸– Then your only choice would be to sin so that good may come of it. Some slanderers say this is my teaching, but they must answer for their words.

⁹Do we have, then, any advantage? Not really. For we have just demonstrated that all, Jews and non-Jews, are under the power of sin, ¹⁰as the Scripture says:

Nobody is good, not even one,

¹¹no one understands, and no one looks for God.

¹²All have gone astray and have become base. There is no one doing what is good, not even one.

¹³Their throats are open tombs, their words deceit.

¹⁴Their lips hide the poison of vipers; from their mouths come bitter curses.

¹⁵They run to where they can shed blood, ¹⁶leaving behind ruin and misery. ¹⁷They do not know the way of peace.

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now, we know that whatever the Scripture says, it is said for the people of the law, that is, for the Jews. Let all be silent, then, and recognize that the whole world is guilty before God. ²⁰Still more: no mortal will be worthy before God by performing the demands of the law. What comes from the law is the consciousness of sin.

Faith, the Way to Salvation

•  ²¹But now it has been revealed apart from the law, as it was already foretold in the law and the prophets: ²²God makes us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, which is applied to all who believe without distinction of persons. ²³Because all have sinned and fall short of God's glory; ²⁴and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus. ²⁵For God has given him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.

So, God shows us how he makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven, which God has overlooked till now. ²⁶For now, he wants to reveal his way of righteousness: how he is just and how he makes us righteous through faith in Jesus.

²⁷Then, what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the law and its observances but through another law, which is faith. ²⁸For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the law. ²⁹Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews, but is he not the God of pagan nations as well? ³⁰Of course, he is, for there is only one God, and he will save by faith the circumcised Jews, as well as the uncircumcised nations. ³¹Do we, then, deny the value of the law because of what we say of faith? Of course not; instead, we place the Law in its proper place.

Abraham, Father of the Just

4 | •  ¹Let us consider Abraham, our father in the flesh. What has he found? ²If Abraham attained righteousness because of his deeds, he could be proud. But he cannot be this before God ³because Scripture says: Abraham believed God who took it into account and held him to be a just man.

⁴Now, when someone does work, salary is not given as a favor but as a debt that is paid. ⁵Here, on the contrary, someone who has no deeds to show but believes in him, who makes sinners righteous before him: such faith is taken into account, and that person is held as righteous. ⁶David congratulates in this way those who become righteous, by the favor of God and not by their actions: ⁷Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose offenses are forgotten; ⁸blessed the one whose sin God does not take into account!

⁹Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or is it also for the uncircumcised? We have just said that Abraham was made a just man because of his faith, ¹⁰but when did this happen? After Abraham was circumcised or before? Not after, but before. ¹¹He received the rite of circumcision as a sign of the righteousness given him, through faith, when he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those uncircumcised who come to faith and are made just. ¹²And he was to be the father of the Jews, provided that, besides being circumcised, they also imitate the faith Abraham showed before being circumcised.

¹³If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because he obeyed the law but because he was just and a friend of God through faith. ¹⁴If now the promise is kept for those who rely on the law, then faith has no power, and nothing is left of the promise. ¹⁵For it is proper of the law to bring punishment, and it is only when there is no law that it is possible to live without breaking the law.

¹⁶For that reason, faith is the way, and all is given by grace; and Abraham's promises are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children, according to the law, but also for all the others who have believed.

Abraham is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written: I will make you the father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

¹⁸Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming the father of many nations, as he had been told: See how many will be your descendants. ¹⁹He did not doubt, although his body could no longer give life—he was about a hundred years old—and, despite his wife, Sarah, being unable to have children. ²⁰He did not doubt nor distrust the promise of God, and by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God: ²¹he was convinced that He who had given the promise had [the] power to fulfill it.

²²This was taken into account for him to attain righteousness. ²³This was taken into account: these words of Scripture are not only for him, ²⁴but us too because we believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from among the dead, ²⁵he, who was delivered for our sins and raised to life for us to receive true righteousness.

Now we Are at Peace with God

5 | •  ¹By faith, we have received true righteousness, and we are at peace with God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. ²Through him, we obtain this favor in which we remain, and we even boast to expect the glory of God.

³Not only that, we continue to shout our praise even in trials, knowing that trials produce patience, ⁴from patience comes merit; merit is the source of hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, pouring into our hearts the love of God.

⁶Consider the time that Christ died for us: when we were still helpless and unable to do anything. ⁷Few would accept to die for an upright person, although for a very good person, perhaps someone would dare to die. ⁸But see how God manifested his love for us: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; ⁹and we have become just through his blood. With much more reason now, he will save us from any condemnation. ¹⁰Once enemies, we have been reconciled with God through the death of his Son; with much more reason, now we may be saved through his life. ¹¹Not only that, but we even boast in God because of Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom we have been reconciled.

Adam and Jesus Christ

•  ¹²Therefore, sin entered the world through one man; and through sin, death; and later on, death spread to all humankind because all sinned. ¹³As long as there was no law, they could not speak of disobedience, but sin was already in the world. ¹⁴This is why, from Adam to Moses, death reigned among them, although their sin was not disobedience as in Adam’s case—this was not the true Adam but foretold the other who was to come.

¹⁵Such has been the fall, but God’s gift goes far beyond. All died because of the fault of one man, but how much more does the grace of God spread when the gift he granted reaches all from this unique man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁶Again, there is no comparison between the gift and one man's offense. The disobedience that brought condemnation was of one sinner, whereas the grace of God brings forgiveness to a world of sinners. ¹⁷If death reigned through the disobedience of one and only one person, how much more will there be a reign of life for those who receive the grace and the gift of true righteousness through the one person, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸Just as one transgression brought sentence of death to all, so too, one man’s good act has brought justification and light to all; ¹⁹and, as the disobedience of only one made all sinners, so the obedience of one person allowed all to be made just and holy.

²⁰The law introduced later on caused sin to increase, but grace abounded all the more where sin increased. ²¹And as sin caused death to reign, grace will reign in its own time, and after making us just and friends of God, will bring us to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Through Baptism, we Died with Christ

6 | •  ¹Then, what shall we say? Shall we continue sinning so that grace may come more abundantly? ²Can we live again in sin? Of course not: we are now dead regarding sin.

³Don’t you know that in baptism, which unites us to Christ, we are all baptized and plunged into his death? ⁴By this baptism in his death, we were buried with Christ and, as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, we begin walking in a new life. ⁵If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so shall we be by a resurrection like his.

•  ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with Christ to destroy what of us was sin so that we may no longer be in slavery to sin. ⁷If we are dead, we are no longer in debt to sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, once risen from the dead, will not die again and death has no more dominion over him. ¹⁰For, by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now, the life that he lives is life with God.

¹¹So you, too, must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God, in Christ Jesus. ¹²Do not allow sin to control your mortal bodies; do not submit yourselves to its evil inclinations, ¹³and do not give your members over to sin as instruments to do evil. On the contrary, offer yourselves, as persons returned from death to life, and let your body members be holy instruments at the service of God. ¹⁴Sin will not lord it over you again, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵I ask again: are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Certainly not. ¹⁶If you have given yourselves up to someone as his slave, you are to obey the one who commands you, aren’t you? You go to death with sin, and by accepting faith, you go the right way. ¹⁷Let us give thanks to God, for after having sin as your master, you have been given to another, that is, to the doctrine of faith to which you listen willingly. ¹⁸And being free from sin, you began to serve true righteousness—¹⁹you see that I speak very humanly, considering that you are not fully mature.

There was a time when you let your members be slaves of impurity and disorder, walking in the way of sin; convert them now into servants of righteousness, to the point of becoming holy.

²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you did not feel under obligation to righteousness, ²¹but what were the fruits of those actions of which you are now ashamed? Such things bring death. ²²Now, however, you have been freed from sin and serve God. You are bearing fruit and growing in holiness, and the result will be life everlasting. ²³So, on one side is sin: its reward, death; on the other side is God: He gives us by grace life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Christian Is Not Bound by the Jewish Religion

7 | •  ¹You, my friends, understand the law. The law has power only while a person is alive. ²The married woman, for example, is bound by law to her husband while he is alive, but if he dies, she is free from her obligations as a wife. ³If she gives herself to another while her husband is alive, she will be an adulteress; but once the husband dies, she is free, and if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴It was the same with you, brothers and sisters: you have died to the law with the person of Christ, and you belong to another who has risen from among the dead so that we may produce fruit for God. ⁵When we lived as humans used to do, the law stirred up the desires for all that is sin, and they worked in our bodies with fruits of death. ⁶But we have died to what was holding us; we are freed from the law and no longer serve a written law—which was the old; with the Spirit, we are in the new.

⁷Then, shall we say that the law is part of sin? Of course not! However, I would not have known sin had it not been for the law. I would not be aware of greed if the law did not tell me: Do not covet. ⁸Sin took advantage of the commandment to stir in me all kinds of greed, whereas, without a law, sin lies dead.

⁹First, there was no law and I lived. Then the commandment came and gave life to sin, ¹⁰and I died. It happened that the law of life had brought me death. ¹¹Sin took advantage of the commandment. It lured me and killed me through the commandment.

¹²But the law itself is holy, just and good. ¹³Is it possible that something good brings death to me? Of course not. This comes from sin that may be seen as sin when it takes advantage of something good to kill: the commandment lets sin appear fully sinful.

The Law Without Christ Makes Humans Divided

•  ¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; as for me, I am flesh and have been sold to sin. ¹⁵I cannot explain what is happening to me because I do not do what I want, but, on the contrary, the very things I hate. ¹⁶Well then, if I do the evil I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good; ¹⁷but, in this case, I am not the one striving toward evil, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that what is right does not abide in me, I mean, in my flesh. I want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it. ¹⁹In fact, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate. ²⁰Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one striving toward evil, but sin, which is in me.

²¹I discover, then, this reality: though I wish to do what is right, the evil within me asserts itself first. ²²My inmost self agrees and rejoices with the law of God, ²³but I notice in my body another law, challenging the law of the spirit and delivering me as a slave to the law of sin, written in my members. ²⁴Alas for me! Who will free me from this being which is only death? ²⁵Let us give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

So, with my conscience, I am a servant of the law of God, and with my mortal body, I serve the law of sin.

We Have Received the Spirit

8 | •  ¹This contradiction no longer exists for those who are in Jesus Christ. ²For in Jesus Christ the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. ³The law was without effect, weak as it was through the flesh. God, planning to destroy sin, sent his own Son in the likeness of those subject to the sinful human condition; by doing this, he condemned the sin in this human condition. ⁴Since then, the perfection intended by the law would be fulfilled in those not walking in the flesh's way but in the spirit's way.

Life Through the Spirit

•  ⁵Those walking according to the flesh tend toward what is flesh; those led by the spirit, to what is spirit. ⁶The flesh tends toward death, while spirit aims at life and peace. ⁷What the flesh seeks is against God: it does not agree; it cannot even submit to the law of God. ⁸So, those walking according to the flesh cannot please God.

⁹Yet, your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to him. ¹⁰But Christ is within you; though the body is branded by death, as a consequence of sin, the spirit is life and holiness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him, who raised Jesus from the dead, is within you, he who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, he will do it through his Spirit who dwells within you.

¹²Then, brothers and sisters, let us leave the flesh and no longer live according to it. ¹³If not, we will die. Rather, walking in the Spirit, let us put the body’s deeds to death so that we may live.

¹⁴All those who walk in the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. ¹⁵Then, no more fear: you did not receive a spirit of slavery, but the spirit that makes you sons and daughters, and every time we cry, “Abba! (this is Dad!) Father!” ¹⁶the Spirit assures our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God. ¹⁷If we are children, we are heirs too. Ours will be the inheritance of God, and we will share it with Christ; for if we now suffer with him, we will also share glory with him.

The Universe, Too, Waits for its Redemption

•  ¹⁸I consider that the suffering of our present life cannot be compared with the glory that will be revealed and given to us. ¹⁹All creation is eagerly expecting the birth, in glory, of the children of God. ²⁰For, if now, the created world was unable to attain its purpose, this did not come from itself but from the one who subjected it. But it is not without hope; ²¹for even the created world will be freed from this fate of death and share the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pangs of birth. ²³Not creation alone, but even ourselves; although the Spirit was given to us as a foretaste of what we are to receive, we groan in our innermost being, eagerly awaiting the day when God will give us full rights and rescue our bodies as well.

²⁴In hope, we already have salvation. But if we saw what we hoped for, there would no longer be hope: how can you hope for what is already seen? ²⁵ So we hope for what we do not see, and we will receive it through patient hope.

•  ²⁶Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes for us without words, as if with groans. ²⁷And he, who sees inner secrets, knows the desires of the Spirit, for he asks for the holy ones what is pleasing to God.

Who Shall Separate Us from the Love of God?

•  ²⁸We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him, whom he has called according to his plan. ²⁹Those he knew beforehand he has also predestined to be like his Son, similar to him, so that he may be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰And so those whom God predestined, he called; and those whom he called, he makes righteous; and to those he makes righteous, he will give his glory.

³¹What shall we say after this? If God is with us, who shall be against us? ³²If he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not give us all things with him? ³³Who shall accuse those chosen by God: He takes away their guilt. ³⁴Who will dare to condemn them? Christ who died, and better still, rose, and is seated at the right hand of God interceding for us?

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will it be trials or anguish, persecution or hunger, lack of clothing, or dangers or sword? ³⁶As the Scripture says: For your sake, we are being killed all day long; they treat us like sheep to be slaughtered.

³⁷No, in all this, we are more than conquerors, thanks to him, who loved us. ³⁸I am certain that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor spiritual powers, neither the present nor the future, nor cosmic powers ³⁹were they from heaven or from the deep world below, nor any creature whatsoever, will separate us from the love of God, which we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Why Have the Jews Not Believed?

9 | •  ¹I tell you sincerely, in Christ, and my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit that I am not lying: ²I have great sadness and constant anguish for the Jews. ³I would even desire that I myself suffer the curse of being cut off from Christ instead of my brethren: I mean my own people, my kin. ⁴They are Israelites whom God adopted, and on them rests his glory. Theirs are the covenants, the law, the worship, and the promises of God. ⁵They are descendants of the patriarchs, and from their race, Christ was born, and he who as God is above all distinctions. Blessed be He forever and ever: Amen!

⁶We cannot say that the promise of God has failed. For not all Israelites belong to Israel. ⁷And not because they are of the race of Abraham, they are all his children, for it was said to him: The children of Isaac will be called your descendants. ⁸This means that the children of God are not identified with the race of Abraham, but only with the children born to him because of the promise of God. ⁹To such a promise this text refers: I shall return about this time and Sarah will have a son. ¹⁰And listen: Rebecca, the wife of our father Isaac, became pregnant, ¹¹and before the twins were born or had done anything, right or wrong, so that God’s purpose of election might continue ¹²not on the merits but of who is called, she was told: The elder will serve the younger; ¹³as the Scripture says: I chose Jacob and rejected Esau.

God Is Not Unjust

•  ¹⁴Shall we say that God is unjust? Of course not. ¹⁵However, God said to Moses: I shall forgive whom I forgive and have pity on whom I have pity. ¹⁶So what is important is not that we worry or hurry, but that God has compassion. ¹⁷And he says in Scripture to Pharaoh: I made you, Pharaoh, to show my power in you, and for the whole world to know my name. ¹⁸And so God takes pity on whom he wishes and hardens the heart of whomsoever he wishes.

¹⁹Maybe you say: “Why, then, does God complain if it is impossible to evade his decision?” ²⁰But you, my friend, who are you to call God to account? Should the clay pot say to its maker: Why did you make me like this? ²¹Is it not up to the potter to make from the same clay a vessel for beauty and a vessel for menial use?

²²Thus, God very patiently endures vessels that deserve his wrath, fit to be broken, and through them, he wants to show his wrath and the extent of his power. ²³But he also wants to show the riches of his glory in others, in vessels of mercy prepared for glory. ²⁴And he called us, not only from among the Jews, but from among the pagans too, ²⁵as he said through the prophet Hosea: I will call “my people” those that were not my people, and “my beloved” the one who was not beloved. ²⁶And in the same place where they were told, “You are not my people,” they will be called children of the living God.

²⁷Regarding Israel, Isaiah proclaims: Even if the Israelites are as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a few will be saved. ²⁸This is a matter that the Lord will settle in Israel without fail or delay. ²⁹Isaiah also announced: If the Almighty Lord had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom and similar to Gomorrah.

³⁰What are we saying, then? That the pagans, who were not aiming at true righteousness, found it (I speak of righteousness through faith); ³¹while Israel, striving to observe a law of righteousness, lost the purpose of the law. ³²Why? Because they relied on the observance of the law, not on faith. And they stumbled over the stumbling stone (Christ), ³³as it was said: Look, I am laying in Zion a stone, that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall; but whoever relies on him will not be deceived.

They Tried to Achieve their Own Righteousness

10 | •  ¹My brothers and sisters, I wish with all my heart that the Jews be saved, and I pray to God for them. ²I can testify that they are zealous for God, but this is not the way. ³They don’t know God’s way of righteousness, and they try to achieve their own righteousness: this is why they did not enter God’s way of righteousness. ⁴For Christ is the aim of the law, and it is then that the believer reaches this righteousness.

⁵Moses, indeed, speaks of becoming just through the law; he writes: The one who obeys the law will find life through it. ⁶But the righteousness coming from the faith says instead: Do not say in your heart: Who will go up to heaven? (because, in fact, Christ came down from there) ⁷or who will go down to the world below? (because, in fact, Christ came up from among the dead). ⁸True righteousness, coming from faith, also says: The word of God is near you, on your lips, and in your hearts. This is the message that we preach and this is faith.

⁹You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and in your heart, you believe that God raised him from the dead. ¹⁰By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; you are saved by confessing the faith with your lips. ¹¹For Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be ashamed. ¹²Here, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord who is very generous with whoever calls on him. ¹³Truly, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

¹⁴But how can they call upon the name of the Lord without having believed in him? And how can they believe in him without having first heard about him? And how will they hear about him if no one preaches about him? ¹⁵And how will they preach about him if no one sends them? As Scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news. ¹⁶Although not everyone obeyed the good news, as Isaiah said: Lord, who has believed in our preaching? ¹⁷So, faith comes from preaching, and preaching is rooted in the word of Christ.

¹⁸I ask: Have the Jews not heard? But, of course, they have. Because the voice of those preaching resounded all over the earth, and their voice was heard to the ends of the world. ¹⁹Then, I must ask: Did Israel not understand? Moses was the first to say: I will make you jealous of a nation that is not a nation; I will excite your anger against a senseless nation. ²⁰Isaiah dares to add more: I was found by those not looking for me; I have shown myself to those not asking for me. ²¹While referring to Israel, the same Isaiah says: I hold out my hands the whole day long to a disobedient and rebellious people.

A Remnant of Israel Has Been Saved

11 | •  ¹And so I ask: Has God rejected his people? Of course not! I, myself, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. ²No, God has not rejected the people he knew beforehand. Don’t you know what the Scripture says of Elijah when he accused Israel before God? ³He said: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, destroyed your altars, and I alone remain; and now they want to kill me.” ⁴What was God’s answer? “I kept for myself seven thousand who did not worship Baal.” ⁵In the same way, now there is a remnant in Israel, those chosen by grace. ⁶It is said: by grace, not because of what they did. Otherwise, grace would not be grace.

⁷What then? What Israel was looking for it did not find, but those whom God elected found it. The others hardened their hearts ⁸as Scripture says: God made them dull of heart and mind; to this day their eyes cannot see, nor their ears hear. ⁹David says: May they be caught and trapped at their banquets; may they fall and be punished. ¹⁰May their eyes be closed so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever.

Do Not Despise Those Who Stumbled

¹¹Again, I ask: Did they stumble to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations, and this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. ¹²If Israel’s shortcoming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?

¹³Listen to me, you who are not Jews: I am spending myself as an apostle to the pagan nations, ¹⁴but I hope my ministry will be successful enough to awaken the jealousy of those of my race and, finally, to save some of them. ¹⁵If the world made peace with God when they remained apart, what would it be when they were welcomed? Nothing less than a passing from death to life.

¹⁶The whole is consecrated to God when the first fruits are consecrated. If the roots are holy, so will the branches. ¹⁷Some branches have been cut from the olive tree while you, as a wild olive tree, have been grafted in their stead, and you are benefiting from their roots and sap. ¹⁸Now, therefore, do not be proud and despise the branches because you do not support the roots; the roots support you. ¹⁹You may say, “They cut off the branches to graft me.” ²⁰Well and good! But they were cut off because they did not believe while you stand by faith. Then do not pride yourself on this too much, rather beware: ²¹if God did not spare the natural branches, even less will he spare you.

²²Admire at the same time both the goodness and severity of God: he was severe with the fallen, and he is generous with you as long as you remain faithful. Otherwise, you will be cut off. ²³If they do not keep rejecting the faith, they will be grafted in, for God can graft them back again. ²⁴If you were taken from the wild olive tree to which you belonged and, despite being a different species, you were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more will those who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

Israel Will Be Saved

•  ²⁵I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident: a part of Israel will remain hardened until the majority of pagans have entered. ²⁶Then the whole of Israel will be saved as Scripture says: From Zion will come the Liberator who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin. ²⁷And this is the Covenant I will make with them: I will take away from them their sins.

²⁸Regarding the gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding the election, they are beloved because of their ancestors; ²⁹because the call of God and his gifts cannot be nullified.

³⁰Through the disobedience of the Jews, the mercy of God came to you who did not obey God. ³¹They, in turn, will receive mercy in due time after this disobedience that brought God’s mercy to you. ³²So, God has submitted all to disobedience to show mercy to all.

³³How deep are God's riches, wisdom, and knowledge! His decisions cannot be explained, nor can his ways be understood! ³⁴Who has ever known God’s thoughts? Who has ever been his adviser? ³⁵Who has given him something first so that God had to repay him? ³⁶For everything comes from him, has been made by him, and has to return to him. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Christian Life: Be Concerned for Others

12 | •  ¹I beg you, dearly beloved, by the mercy of God, to give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God; that is the kind of worship for you as sensible people. ²Don’t let yourselves be shaped by the world where you live, but rather be transformed through the renewal of your mind. You must discern the will of God: what is good, what pleases, what is perfect.

³The grace that God has given me allows me to tell each of you: don’t pretend too much, but think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

•  ⁴See, the body is one even if formed by many members, but not all of them with the same function. ⁵The same with us; being many, we are one body in Christ depending on one another. ⁶Let each one of us, therefore, serve according to our different gifts. Are you a prophet? Then give the insights of faith. ⁷Let the minister fulfill his office; let the teacher teach, ⁸the one who encourages convince.

You must, likewise, give with an open hand, preside with dedication, and be cheerful in your works of charity.

•  ⁹Let love be sincere. Hate what is evil and hold to whatever is good. ¹⁰Love one another and be considerate. Outdo one another in mutual respect. ¹¹Be zealous in fulfilling your duties. Be fervent in the spirit and serve God.

¹²Have hope and be cheerful. Be patient in trials and pray constantly. ¹³Share with other needy Christians. With those passing by, be ready to receive them.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not wish evil on anyone. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who are joyful, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in peace with one another. Do not dream of extraordinary things; be humble and do not hold yourselves as wise.

¹⁷Do not return evil for evil; let everyone see your good will. ¹⁸Do your best to live in peace with everybody. ¹⁹Beloved, do not avenge yourselves but let God be the one who punishes, as Scripture says: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. ²⁰And it adds: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink; by doing this, you will heap burning coals upon his head. ²¹Do not let evil defeat you, but conquer evil with goodness.

Submission to Authority

13 | •  ¹Let everyone be subject to the authorities. For there is no authority that does not come from God, and the offices have been established by God. ²Whoever, therefore, resists authority goes against a decree of God, and those who resist deserve to be condemned.

³In fact, who fears authority? Not those who do good but those who do evil. Do you want to be without fear of a person in authority? Do good and you will receive praise. ⁴They are the stewards of God, for your good. But if you do not behave, fear them, for they do not carry arms in vain; they are at the service of God when they judge and punish wrongdoers.

⁵It is necessary to obey, not through fear, but as a matter of conscience. ⁶In the same way, you must pay taxes, and the collectors are God’s officials. ⁷Pay to all what is due them; to whomsoever you owe contributions, make a contribution; to whom taxes are due, pay taxes; to whom respect is due, give respect; to whom honor is due, give honor.

⁸Do not be in debt to anyone. Let this be the only debt of one to another: Love. The one who loves their neighbor fulfills the law. ⁹For the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not covet, and whatever else, are summarized in this one: You will love your neighbor as yourself. ¹⁰Love cannot harm the neighbor, so love fulfills the whole law.

Children of the Light

•  ¹¹You know what hour it is. This is the time to awake, for our salvation is now nearer than when we first believed; ¹²the night is almost over, and the day is at hand. Let us discard, therefore, everything that belongs to darkness and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³As we live in the full light of day, let us behave with decency; no banquets with drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴Put on, instead, the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not be led by the will of the flesh nor follow its desires.

The Weak and the Strong

14 | •  ¹Welcome those weak in faith and do not criticize their scruples. ²Some think they can eat any food, while others less liberated eat only vegetables. ³If you eat, do not despise those who abstain; if you abstain, do not criticize those who eat, for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? Whether he stands or falls, the one concerned is his master. But he will not fall, for his master can keep him standing.

⁵Some judge one day to be better than the other; let us act according to our own opinion. ⁶The one who distinguishes among days does that for the Lord; and the one who eats, eats for the Lord and in eating, gives thanks to the Lord. And the one who does not eat does it for the Lord and gives him thanks as well.

⁷In fact, none of us lives for ourselves nor dies for ourselves. ⁸If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Either in life or in death, we belong to the Lord. ⁹It was for this purpose that Christ both died and came to life again, to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

¹⁰Then you, why do you criticize your brother or sister? And you, why do you despise them? For we will all appear at the tribunal of God. ¹¹It is written: I swear by myself—word of the Lord—every knee will bend before me, and every tongue shall give glory to God. ¹²So each of us will account for himself before God.

¹³Therefore, let us not continue criticizing one another; let us try, rather, never to put in the way of our brother or sister anything that would make him stumble or fall. ¹⁴I know, I am sure of this in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself; it is only unclean for those who consider it unclean. ¹⁵But if you hurt your brother or sister because of a particular food, you no longer walk according to love. Let not your eating cause the loss of one for whom Christ died.

¹⁶Don’t put yourself in the wrong with something good. ¹⁷The kingdom of God is not a matter of food or drink; it is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸If you serve Christ this way, you will please God and be praised by people. ¹⁹Let us look then for what strengthens peace and makes us better.

²⁰Do not destroy the work of God because of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat. ²¹And it may be better not to eat meat, drink wine, or anything else that causes your brother or sister to stumble.

²²Keep your own belief before God, and happy are you if you never act against your own belief. ²³Instead, whoever eats something despite his doubt is condemned by his conscience because whatever we do against our conscience is sinful.

15 | ¹We, the strong and liberated, should bear the weakness of those who are not strong instead of pleasing ourselves. ²Let each of us bring joy to our neighbors, helping them for a good purpose, for building up. ³Christ, himself, did not look for his own contentment, as Scripture says: The insults of those insulting you fell upon me. ⁴And we know that whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, for both perseverance and comfort, given us by the Scripture, to sustain our hope. ⁵May God, the source of all perseverance and comfort, give to all of you to live in peace in Christ Jesus, ⁶that you may be able to praise in one voice God, Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

•  ⁷Welcome then one another, as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God. ⁸Look: Christ put himself at the service of the Jewish world to fulfill the promises made by God to their ancestors; here you see God’s faithfulness. ⁹The pagans instead, give thanks to God for his mercy, as Scripture says: Because of that, I will sing and praise your name among the pagans. ¹⁰And in another place: Rejoice, pagan nations, with God’s people. ¹¹And again: Praise the Lord, all people, and let all nations speak of his magnificence. ¹²Isaiah says: A descendant of Jesse will come and rule the pagan nations, and they will hope in him.

¹³May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace in the faith so that your hope may increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul Feels Responsible for the Christians of Rome

•  ¹⁴As for me, brothers and sisters, I am convinced that you have goodwill, knowledge, and the capacity to advise each other; ¹⁵nevertheless, I have written boldly in some parts of this letter to remind you of what you already know. I do this according to the grace God has given to me ¹⁶when I was sent to the pagan nations. I dedicated myself to the service of the Good News of God as a minister of Christ Jesus to present the non-Jews to God as an agreeable offering consecrated by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷ For me, this service of God is a cause of pride in Christ Jesus.

¹⁸Of course, I would not dare speak of other things, but what Christ himself has done through me, my words and my works, ¹⁹with miracles and signs, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that non-Jews may obey the faith. In this way, I have extended the Good News to all parts, from Jerusalem to Illyricum.

²⁰I have been very careful, however, and I am proud of this, not to preach in places where Christ is already known and not to build upon foundations laid by others. ²¹Let it be as Scripture says: Those not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

Help for the Christians in Jerusalem

•  ²²This work has prevented me from going to you. ²³But now there is no more place for me in these regions and, as I have wanted for so long to go and see you, ²⁴I hope to visit you when I go to Spain. Then you could help me go to that nation once I have fully enjoyed your company.

²⁵Right now, I am going to Jerusalem to help that community. ²⁶Know that the churches of Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution to the poor among the believers of Jerusalem. ²⁷They have decided to do that, and in fact, they were indebted to them. For the non-Jews have shared the spiritual goods of the Jews, and now they must help them materially. ²⁸So I am to complete this task and give over the amount that has been collected. Then I will go to you, and from there, to Spain. ²⁹And I am sure that when I go to you, I will go with all the blessings of God.

³⁰I beg of you, brothers and sisters, by Christ Jesus our Lord and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in the fight, praying to God for me; ³¹pray that I may avoid the snares of the enemies of the faith in Judea and that the community of Jerusalem may welcome the help I bring. ³²And so I will go to you with joy and, God willing, be refreshed in your company. ³³The God of peace be with you. Amen.

Greetings

16 | •  ¹I recommend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church of Cenchreae. ²Please receive her, in the name of the Lord, as it should be among brothers and sisters in the faith and help her in whatever is necessary because she helped many; among them, myself.

³Greetings to Prisca and Aquilas, my helpers in Christ Jesus. ⁴To save my life, they risked theirs; I am very grateful to them, as are all the churches of the pagan nations. ⁵Greetings also to the church that meets in their house. Greetings to my dear Epaenetus, the first in the province of Asia to believe in Christ. ⁶Greet Mary, who worked so much for you.

⁷Greetings to Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and companions in prison; they are well-known apostles and served Christ before I did.

⁸Give greetings to Ampliatus, whom I love so much in the Lord. ⁹Greetings to Urbanus, our fellow worker, and my dear Stachys. ¹⁰Greetings to Apelles, who suffered for Christ and the family of Aristobulus. ¹¹Greetings to my relative Herodion and those in the household of Narcissus who work in the Lord’s service. ¹²Greetings to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who toil for the Lord’s sake. ¹³Greetings to Rufus, elected of the Lord, and his mother, who was a second mother to me. ¹⁴Greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters staying with them. ¹⁵Greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympas, and all the holy ones in Christ Jesus with them. ¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their greetings.

A Warning

•  ¹⁷Brothers and sisters, I beg you to be careful of those causing divisions and troubles in teaching you a different teaching from the one you were taught. Keep away from them, ¹⁸because those persons do not serve Christ our Lord, but their own interests, deceiving with their soft and entertaining language those who are simple of heart. ¹⁹Everybody knows that you are very obedient, and because of that, I am happy, but I want you to be sensible in doing good and firm against evil. ²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan and place him under your feet.

May Christ Jesus, our Lord, bless you. ²¹Timothy, who is with me, sends you greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipatros, my relatives.

²²I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, send you greetings in the Lord.

²³Greetings from Gaius who has given me lodging and in whose house the church meets. Greetings from Erastus, treasurer of the city, and from our brother Quartus. (²⁴)

²⁵Glory be to God!

He can give you strength according to the Good News I proclaim, announcing Christ Jesus.

The mysterious plan, which has been hidden for ages, is now revealed.

²⁶It is brought to light through the prophetic books by the will of the eternal God, and all nations shall believe the faith proclaimed to them.

²⁷Glory to God who alone is wise, through Christ Jesus, forever and ever! Amen.