Romans 4-7 (Amplified Bible)

Romans 4

 ¹[BUT] IF so, what shall we say about Abraham, our forefather humanly speaking--[what did he] find out? [How does this affect his position, and what was gained by him?]

    ²For if Abraham was justified (^[a]established as just by acquittal from guilt) by good works [that he did, then] he has grounds for boasting. But not before God!

    ³For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed in (trusted in) God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living and right standing with God).^(A)

    ⁴Now to a laborer, his wages are not counted as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation (something owed to him).

    ⁵But to one who, not working [by the Law], trusts (believes fully) in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (the standing acceptable to God).

    ⁶Thus David ^[b]congratulates the man and pronounces a blessing on him to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works he does:

    ⁷Blessed and happy and ^[c]to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried.

    ⁸Blessed and happy and ^[d]to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him.^(B)

    ⁹Is this blessing (happiness) then meant only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

    ¹⁰How then was it credited [to him]? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

    ¹¹He received the mark of circumcision as a token or an evidence [and] seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised--[faith] so that he was to be made the father of all who [truly] believe, though without circumcision, and who thus have righteousness (right standing with God) imputed to them and credited to their account,

    ¹²As well as [that he be made] the father of those circumcised persons who are not merely circumcised, but also walk in the way of that faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

    ¹³For the promise to Abraham or his posterity, that he should inherit the world, did not come through [observing the commands of] the Law but through the righteousness of faith.^(C)

    ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the Law who are to be the heirs, then faith is made futile and empty of all meaning and the promise [of God] is made void (is annulled and has no power).

    ¹⁵For the Law results in [divine] wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression [of it either].

    ¹⁶Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants--not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all.

    ¹⁷As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.^(D)

    ¹⁸[For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be.^(E)

    ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah's [deadened] womb.^(F)

    ²⁰No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God,

    ²¹Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.

    ²²That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God).

    ²³But [the words], It was credited to him, were written not for his sake alone,

    ²⁴But [they were written] for our sakes too. [Righteousness, standing acceptable to God] will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God, Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

    ²⁵Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our ^[e]acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].

   

Romans 5

 ¹THEREFORE, SINCE we are justified (^[f]acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to ^[g]enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

    ²Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God's favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God.

    ³Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

    ⁴And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of ^[h]character (approved faith and ^[i]tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] ^[j]joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.

    ⁵Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

    ⁶While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.

    ⁷Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.

    ⁸But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

    ⁹Therefore, since we are now justified (^[k]acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ's blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.

    ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His [^[l]resurrection] life.

    ¹¹Not only so, but we also rejoice and exultingly glory in God [in His love and perfection] through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received and enjoy [our] reconciliation.^(G)

    ¹²Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [^[m]no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.

    ¹³[To be sure] sin was in the world before ever the Law was given, but sin is not charged to men's account where there is no law [to transgress].

    ¹⁴Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did. Adam was a type (prefigure) of the One Who was to come [in reverse, ^[n]the former destructive, the Latter saving].^(H)

    ¹⁵But God's free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man's falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God's grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and for [the benefit of] many.

    ¹⁶Nor is the free gift at all to be compared to the effect of that one [man's] sin. For the sentence [following the trespass] of one [man] brought condemnation, whereas the free gift [following] many transgressions brings justification (^[o]an act of righteousness).

    ¹⁷For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

    ¹⁸Well then, as one man's trespass [one man's false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man's act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.

    ¹⁹For just as by one man's disobedience (failing to hear, ^[p]heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man's obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).

    ²⁰But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God's unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,

    ²¹So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.

   

Romans 6

 ¹WHAT SHALL we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God's grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?

    ²Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

    ³Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

    ⁴We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.

    ⁵For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].

    ⁶We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.

    ⁷For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].

    ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

    ⁹Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

    ¹⁰For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

    ¹¹Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

    ¹²Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

    ¹³Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and ^[q]faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and ^[r]faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

    ¹⁴For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy].

    ¹⁵What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God's favor and mercy? Certainly not!

    ¹⁶Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

    ¹⁷But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.

    ¹⁸And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

    ¹⁹I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and ^[s]faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and ^[t]faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

    ²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

    ²¹But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.

    ²²But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

    ²³For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.

   

Romans 7

 ¹DO YOU not know, brethren--for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law--that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

    ²For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

    ³Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

    ⁴Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

    ⁵When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, ^[u]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

    ⁶But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

    ⁷What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].^(I)

    ⁸But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing].

    ⁹Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).^(J)

    ¹⁰And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death.^(K)

    ¹¹For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me.

    ¹²The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good.

    ¹³Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

    ¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.

    ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [^[v]which my moral instinct condemns].

    ¹⁶Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

    ¹⁷However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.

    ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]

    ¹⁹For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.

    ²⁰Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [^[w]fixed and operating in my soul].

    ²¹So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

    ²²For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].^(L)

    ²³But I discern in my bodily members [^[x]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [^[y]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

    ²⁴O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

    ²⁵O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.