Romans 1-3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Salutation

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,^{(A) 3} the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh^{(B) 4} and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit^[a] of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,^{(C) 5} through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for the sake of his name,^{(D) 6} including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷ To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.^(E)

Prayer of Thanksgiving

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.^{(F) 9} For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel^[b] of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers,^{(G) 10} asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened— ¹² or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles. ¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, ¹⁵ hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Power of the Gospel

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes,^[c] for the Jew first and also for the Greek.^{(H) 17} For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”^[d](I)

The Guilt of Humankind

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who by their injustice suppress the truth.^{(J) 19} For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ Ever since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been seen and understood through the things God has made. So they are without excuse,^{(K) 21} for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened.^{(L) 22} Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.^(M)

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.^{(N) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.^(O)

²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Their females exchanged natural intercourse^[e] for unnatural,^{(P) 27} and in the same way also the males, giving up natural intercourse^[f] with females, were consumed with their passionate desires for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.^(Q)

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind and to do things that should not be done.^{(R) 29} They were filled with every kind of injustice, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters,^[g] insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,^{(S) 31} foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.^{(T) 32} They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.^(U)

The Righteous Judgment of God

2 Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.^{(V) 2} We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth. ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^{(W) 5} But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.^{(X) 6} He will repay according to each one’s deeds:^{(Y) 7} to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury.^{(Z) 9} There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek,^{(AA) 10} but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.^(AB)

¹² All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified.^{(AC) 14} When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do^[h] what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. ¹⁵ They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶ on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.^(AD)

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God^{(AE) 18} and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹ and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,^{(AF) 21} you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^{(AG) 22} You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? ²⁴ For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed^[i] among the gentiles because of you.”^(AH)

²⁵ Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.^{(AI) 26} So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{(AJ) 29} Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^(AK)

3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ² Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews^[j] were entrusted with the oracles of God.^{(AL) 3} What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?^{(AM) 4} By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,

⁵ But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)^{(AO) 6} By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!^(AP)

None Is Righteous

⁹ What then? Are we any better off?^[l] No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,^{(AQ) 10} as it is written:

¹⁹ Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.^{(AU) 20} For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^(AV)

Righteousness through Faith

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets,^{(AW) 22} the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ^[m] for all who believe.^[n] For there is no distinction,^{(AX) 23} since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;^{(AY) 24} they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,^{(AZ) 25} whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement^[o] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;^{(BA) 26} it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.^[p]

²⁷ Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith.^{(BB) 28} For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.^{(BC) 29} Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.^{(BD) 31} Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.