Romans 2-5

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

2 Therefore you have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce].

² [But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things.

³ And do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His sentence and adverse verdict?

⁴ Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (^[a]to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

⁵ But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed.

⁶ For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]:^(A)

⁷ To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [^[b]springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [^[c]the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.

⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and self-willed and disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath.

⁹ [And] there will be tribulation and anguish and calamity and constraint for every soul of man who [habitually] does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

¹⁰ But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

¹¹ For God shows no partiality [^[d]undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another].^(B)

¹² All who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law.

¹³ For it is not merely hearing the Law [read] that makes one righteous before God, but it is the doers of the Law who will be held guiltless and acquitted and justified.

¹⁴ When Gentiles who have not the [divine] Law do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, since they do not have the Law.

¹⁵ They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences (sense of right and wrong) also bear witness; and their [moral] ^[e]decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving ^[f]thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend and excuse [them]

¹⁶ On that day when, as my Gospel proclaims, God by Jesus Christ will judge men in regard to ^[g]the things which they conceal (their hidden thoughts).^(C)

¹⁷ But if you bear the name of Jew and rely upon the Law and pride yourselves in God and your relationship to Him,

¹⁸ And know and understand His will and discerningly approve the better things and have a sense of what is vital, because you are instructed by the Law;

¹⁹ And if you are confident that you [yourself] are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, and [that

²⁰ You are] a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the childish, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

²¹ Well then, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you teach against stealing, do you steal (take what does not really belong to you)?

²² You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery [are you unchaste in action or in thought]? You who abhor and loathe idols, do you rob temples [do you appropriate to your own use what is consecrated to God, thus robbing the sanctuary and ^[h]doing sacrilege]?

²³ You who boast in the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law [by stealthily infringing upon or carelessly neglecting or openly breaking it]?

²⁴ For, as it is written, The name of God is maligned and blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you! [The words to this effect are from your own Scriptures.]^(D)

²⁵ Circumcision does indeed profit if you keep the Law; but if you habitually transgress the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.

²⁶ So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be credited to him as [equivalent to] circumcision?

²⁷ Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the Law will condemn you who, although you have the code in writing and have circumcision, break the Law.

²⁸ For he is not a [real] Jew who is only one outwardly and publicly, nor is [true] circumcision something external and physical.

²⁹ But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and [true] circumcision is of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal [matter]. His praise is not from men but from God.

3 Then what advantage remains to the Jew? [How is he favored?] Or what is the value or benefit of circumcision?

² Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the brief communications, the intentions, the utterances) of God.^(E)

³ What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]?

⁴ By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].^(F)

⁵ But if our unrighteousness thus establishes and exhibits the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust and wrong to inflict His wrath upon us [Jews]? I speak in a [purely] human way.

⁶ By no means! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

⁷ But [you say] if through my falsehood God’s integrity is magnified and advertised and abounds to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner?

⁸ And why should we not do evil that good may come?—as some slanderously charge us with teaching. Such [false teaching] is justly condemned by them.

⁹ Well then, are we [Jews] superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control].

¹⁰ As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one.^(G)

¹¹ No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God.^(H)

¹² All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!

¹³ Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously). The venom of asps is beneath their lips.^(I)

¹⁴ Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.^(J)

¹⁵ Their feet are swift to shed blood.

¹⁶ Destruction [as it dashes them to pieces] and misery mark their ways.

¹⁷ And they have no experience of the way of peace [they know nothing about peace, for a peaceful way they do not even recognize].^(K)

¹⁸ There is no [reverential] fear of God before their eyes.^(L)

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that [the murmurs and excuses of] every mouth may be hushed and all the world may be held accountable to God.

²⁰ For no person will be justified (made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable) in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law. For [the real function of] the Law is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin [^[i]not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works toward repentance, faith, and holy character].

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from the Law, although actually it is attested by the Law and the Prophets,

²² Namely, the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ (the Messiah). [And it is meant] for all who believe. For there is no distinction,

²³ Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory ^[j]which God bestows and receives.

²⁴ [All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus,

²⁵ Whom God put forward [^[k]before the eyes of all] as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood [the cleansing and life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received] through faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment.

²⁶ It was to demonstrate and prove at the present time (^[l]in the now season) that He Himself is righteous and that He justifies and accepts as righteous him who has [true] faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Then what becomes of [our] pride and [our] boasting? It is excluded (banished, ruled out entirely). On what principle? [On the principle] of doing good deeds? No, but on the principle of faith.

²⁸ For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by faith independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds (works of the Law). [The observance of the Law has nothing to do with justification.]

²⁹ Or is God merely [the God] of Jews? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰ Since it is one and the same God Who will justify the circumcised by faith [^[m]which germinated from Abraham] and the uncircumcised through their [newly acquired] faith. [For it is the same trusting faith in both cases, a firmly relying faith in Jesus Christ].

³¹ Do we then by [this] faith make the Law of no effect, overthrow it or make it a dead letter? Certainly not! On the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the Law.

4 [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?]

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

³ For 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).^(M)

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

⁵ But 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).

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

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

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

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

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

¹¹ He 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,

¹² As 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.

¹³ For 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.^(O)

¹⁴ If 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).

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

¹⁶ Therefore, [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.

¹⁷ As 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.^(P)

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.^(Q)

¹⁹ He 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.^(R)

²⁰ No 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,

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

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

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

²⁴ But [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,

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

5 Therefore, since we are justified (^[s]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 ^[t]enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

² Through 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.

³ Moreover [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.

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

⁵ Such 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.

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

⁷ Now 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.

⁸ But 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.

⁹ Therefore, since we are now justified (^[x]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.

¹⁰ For 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 [^[y]resurrection] life.

¹¹ Not 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.^(S)

¹² Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [^[z]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].

¹⁴ Yet 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, ^[aa]the former destructive, the Latter saving].^(T)

¹⁵ But 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.

¹⁶ Nor 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 (^[ab]an act of righteousness).

¹⁷ For 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).

¹⁸ Well 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.

¹⁹ For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, ^[ac]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).

²⁰ But 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,

²¹ So 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.