Romans

Paul’s Letter to the Romans

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, a chosen apostle set apart for God’s gospel 2 which he had previously promised in holy scripture through his prophets, 3 about his Son, who came of David’s stock in the way of flesh 4* and who was betokened God’s son in power in the way of spirit of holiness by resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we received grace and a mission on behalf of his name to bring about obedience of faith among all the nations, 6 among whom are you too, Jesus Christ’s called men,— 7 to all who are at Rome, dear to God, holy men called: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is reported all over the world. 9 For God, to whom I perform service in my spirit in carrying the gospel of his Son, is my witness how I uninterruptedly make mention of you at all times in my prayers, 10* petitioning in the hope that at long last I may by God’s will have a chance to come to you; 11 for I am longing to see you in order that I may pass on to you a share in some spiritual gift with a view to your being fortified— 12 that is, to enjoying mutual encouragement among you through each other’s faith, yours and mine. 13* And I do not want you to be without the knowledge, brothers, that several times I intended to come to you and hitherto was prevented; I wanted to have some fruit in you too, as I had in the rest of the nations. 14 I owe a duty both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise men and to stupid men; 15* thus I on my part am heartily ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome too.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is a power of God’s for salvation to everybody who believes, Jew first, Greek too; 17 for a righteousness of God’s is revealed in it, coming out of faith, leading into faith, as it is written “But the righteous man shall have life out of faith.”

18 For God’s anger is revealed from heaven against every impiety and crime of men, who keep the truth down by crime,— 19* because knowledge of God is manifest in them, for God manifested it to them; 20 for since the creation of the world what is invisible of him has been under observation, sensed by what he has made, his eternal power and his divinity, so as to make them inexcusable 21 because when they knew God they did not glorify or thank him as God but ran into fatuity in their conceptions, and their unintelligent heart was darkened. 22 While professing to be wise they grew foolish, 23 and changed the glory of the imperishable God for the likeness of an image of perishable man and of birds and quadrupeds and reptiles. 24* Wherefore God gave them up in their hearts’ desires to the uncleanness of having their bodies dishonored while they wear them, 25 whereas they exchanged God’s truth for falsehood and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator—who is blessed forever; amen! 26* That was why God gave them up to dishonorable passions; for the females of them changed the natural intercourse for the unnatural, 27** and so did the males too, leaving off the natural intercourse with the female, get inflamed with appetite for each other, males committing indecency with males and receiving in themselves the requital that they ought to for their misguided course. 28* And as they did not think well of recognizing God, God gave them up to a mind that cannot be thought well of, to do what ought not to be done, 29 crammed with all injustice, villainy, greed, viciousness, full of envy, murder, quarreling, fraud, malice; whisperers, 30* detractors, God-haters, bullies, proud, pretentious, inventors of vices, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, faithless, loveless, pitiless— 32* who, aware of God’s verdict that those who commit such things deserve death, not only do the things but even approve of doing them.