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God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
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since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
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For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
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Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
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All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
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Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”
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No One Is Righteous
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
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Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
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for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
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God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
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since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
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“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
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Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
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Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
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He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
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Peace and Hope
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
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But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
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Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
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To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
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Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
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Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
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For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
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The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
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so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
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By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
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For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
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because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
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For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
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The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
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In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
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Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
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For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
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Slaves to Righteousness
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
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Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
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But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
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You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
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When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
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But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
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For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
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The Law and Sin
What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
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But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
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Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
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For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
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Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
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We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
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As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
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For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
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Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
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but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
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Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
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because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
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For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
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But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
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Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
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And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
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Love in Action
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
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But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
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and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”
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Paul’s Plan to Visit Rome
But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you,
