Romans

Chapter 1

¹ Paul, a servant of Yeshua the Anointed, divinely selected as an ambassador and herald, set apart to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation, ² which He promised from old through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born a descendant of David according to flesh and blood, ⁴ who was declared the Son of God by the power of His resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, namely Yeshua the Anointed, our Lord, ⁵ through whom I have received merciful kindness and this commission as ambassador and herald of the good news in order to stir up obedience of faith ⁶ among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are divinely selected by Yeshua the Anointed;

⁷ to all who are beloved of God in Rome, divinely selected as holy ones:

Grace and peace, health, fruitfulness, and wholeness, to you from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Anointed.

⁸ First, I thank my God through Yeshua the Anointed for you all, because your faith is being made known throughout the whole world. ⁹ For God is my witness, whom I worship with my spirit through the good news of His Son, that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, ¹⁰ asking God, if perhaps now at last by His will I may succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may share with you some spiritual gift, so that you may remain steadfast— ¹² that is, that we may be strengthened together by our mutual faith, both you and me. ¹³ Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might reap some spiritual fruit from among you also, just as I am among the other Gentiles. ¹⁴ I am bound by duty both to the civilized and the uncivilized, both to the learned and unlearned. ¹⁵ Because of this, I am ready and willing to proclaim the good news to those of you in Rome also.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the good news of Yeshua the Anointed, for it is the mighty, wonderful work of God for deliverance, preservation, and security to everyone who puts their trust in Him, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the good news, the righteousness of God is made known, through faith, for the purpose of faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous will live by means of faith.’

¹⁸ For the indignation of God is made known from heaven against all lack of reverence toward Him and the immorality of men who suppress the truth by their wicked thoughts and deeds, ¹⁹ because that which is notable about God can be plainly recognized among them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became foolish in their empty speculations, and their ignorant heart was starved of light. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the praise and worship of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

²⁴ Therefore God allowed them to be taken captive, enslaved to the lusts of their hearts for impurity, so that their bodies would suffer shame by them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed unto the ages. Amen. ²⁶ For this reason God allowed them to be taken captive, enslaved to their shameful lusts; for their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for that which is against nature, and ²⁷ in the same way also the males abandoned natural sexual intercourse with females and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their delusion.

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit to remain closely joined to God any longer, God allowed them to be taken captive, enslaved by a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are gossipers, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹ undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; ³² who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Chapter 2

¹ Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever passes judgement, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you judge but practice the same things. ² Now we know that the verdict of God is in keeping with truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and yet are doing the same yourself, that you will escape a guilty verdict from God? ⁴ Or do you despise the abundance of His goodness, self-restraint, and patience, not knowing that it is the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

⁵ So then in keeping with your obstinate and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God is manifested, ⁶ who “will pay each one in keeping with the fruit of his labors”: ⁷ perpetual life to those who through patient endurance in continuing to do good pursue dignity, moral excellence, and purity; ⁸ but to those who are greedily self-promoting and do not obey the truth, but obey the lusts of the flesh— indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile; ¹⁰ but honor, esteem, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

¹¹ For there is no favoritism with God. ¹² For whoever sins in ignorance of Torah will still perish in their ignorance, and whoever sins knowing the Torah will be judged by the Torah ¹³ (for it’s not those that know the Torah that are just in the sight of God, but the one who obeys the Torah will be justified; ¹⁴ for when Gentiles, who do not possess the Torah, by natural inclination do the things in the Torah, these, although not possessing the Torah, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ who show the embodiment of the Torah written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing testimony, intervening in their thoughts accusing or else defending them) ¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the hidden things of men by Jesus Christ, according to my good news.

¹⁷ Indeed you are called a Jew, and rely on the Torah, and make your boast in God, ¹⁸ and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the Torah, ¹⁹ and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the semblance of knowledge and truth in the Torah. ²¹ You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ²² You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you plunder their shrines? ²³ You who rejoice in the Torah, do you treat God with contempt through violating the Torah? ²⁴ For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

²⁵ For circumcision is indeed beneficial if you keep the Torah; but if you are a violator of the Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, if an uncircumcised man observes the ordinances of the Torah, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷ And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the Torah, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of it? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter of the law; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Chapter 3

¹ What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the benefit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were entrusted the words of God. ³ For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief render the faithfulness of God ineffective or pointless? ⁴ Absolutely not! Indeed, God will remain faithful even if every man is unfaithful. As it is written:

“That You may be found faultless when You speak,
And may prevail when You are questioned.”

⁵ But if our unrighteousness attests to the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who exacts the due penalty for sin? (I speak from a worldly viewpoint.) ⁶ Certainly not! For then how will God rightly judge the world? ⁷ For if the truth of God is made abundantly apparent through my deception to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? —as we are slanderously reported and as some falsely swear that we say. They are rightly condemned by their lies. ⁹ What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously asserted that both Jews and Gentiles are all corrupted by sin.

¹⁰ As it is written:
“There is none who are innocent, no, not one;
¹¹ There is none who are wise in the ways of salvation;
There is none who pursue God in worship.
¹² They have all turned away from Him;
They have all together become fruitless and empty;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
¹³ “Their mouth is a gaping grave;
With their words they craft deception”;
“The venom of asps is behind their lips”;
¹⁴ “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter hatred.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ Devastation and anguish are left in their wake;
¹⁷ And the path of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “They are blinded by their irreverent attitude toward God.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those who are under the Torah, that every mouth may be silenced, and all the world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore by following the rules of the Torah no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Torah sin is brought to light. ²¹ But now the righteousness of God separate from the Torah is declared, being witnessed about by the Torah and the Prophets, ²² that is, the righteousness of God, through faith in Yeshua the Anointed, to all and on all who entrust themselves to Him. For there is no difference among them; ²³ for they all have sinned and fallen short of the excellence of God, ²⁴ and have been justified undeservedly by His lovingkindness through the deliverance paid by the Anointed Yeshua, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a sacrificial substitution by His blood, obtained through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His patient and merciful restraint God had disregarded and removed the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to declare from now on His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Yeshua.

²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of righteous deeds? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is made right before God by faith separate from the righteous deeds of the Torah. ²⁹ Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then deprive the Torah of its power and influence through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah by faith.

Chapter 4 [in progress]

​¹ What then shall we say, that Abraham our father has obtained righteousness according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was made righteous before God by his labors, then he has something to brag about, but not before God. ³ But instead, what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now to him who labors, the wages are not counted as a gracious gift but as what he is owed. ⁵ But to him who does not labor to become righteous but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as his righteousness, ⁶ just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from laborious efforts:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are blotted out;
⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not hold accountable for his sin.” –}

⁹ Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. ¹⁰ How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. ¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, ¹² and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
¹³ For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, ¹⁵ because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; ¹⁸ who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹ And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹ and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. ²² And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
²³ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, ²⁴ but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.