Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless,

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

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.

By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Slaves to Righteousness

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

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.

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.

For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

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.

As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

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.

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.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

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.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

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.

in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.