Beginning
4 ¶ What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he has reason to glory in himself, but not before God.
3 For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 But unto him that works, the reward is not reckoned as grace, but as debt.
5 But to him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, the faith is counted as righteousness.
6 Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God doth attribute righteousness without works,
7 saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.
9 ¶ Is this blessedness, therefore, only upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all the uncircumcised believers, that it might be counted unto them also as righteousness,
12 that he be the father of the circumcision: not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also unto those who walk in the steps of the faith that was in our father Abraham before he was circumcised.
13 For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if those who are of the law are the heirs, faith is in vain, and the promise annulled,
15 because the law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no rebellion either.
16 Therefore by faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
17 ¶ as it is written, As a father of many Gentiles have I placed thee before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which are not as those that are.
18 Who believed to wait against all hope, that he might become the father of many Gentiles, according to that which had been spoken unto him, So shall thy seed be.
19 And he did not weaken in faith: he considered not his own body now dead when he was about one hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb;
20 he doubted not the promise of God, with unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 being fully persuaded that he was also powerful to do all that he had promised;
22 therefore, his faith was also attributed unto him as righteousness.
23 ¶ Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was so reckoned to him,
24 but for us also to whom it shall be so reckoned, that is, to those that believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
5 ¶ Justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Christ,
2 by whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and glory in hope of the glory of the sons of God.
3 And not only this, but we even glory in the tribulations, knowing that the tribulation works patience;
4 and patience, experience; and experience, hope;
5 and the hope shall not be ashamed, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.
6 ¶ For the Christ, when we were yet weak, in his time died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God increased the price of his charity toward us in that while we were yet sinners the Christ died for us.
9 Then much more now justified in his blood, we shall be saved from wrath by him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled with God by the death of his Son, much more, now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only this, but we even glory in God through our Lord Jesus, the Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12 Therefore, in the manner which sin entered into the world by one man, and because of sin, death; and so death passed upon all men in the one in whom all sinned.
13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but the sin was not imputed, there being no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even in those that did not sin after the manner of the rebellion of Adam, who is a figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offense, so also is the gift. For if through the offense of that one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus the Christ, has abounded unto many.
16 Nor was it in the same manner as by one sin, likewise also the gift; for the judgment truly came of one sin unto condemnation, but grace came of many offenses unto justification.
17 For if by one offense, death reigned because of one man; much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of gifts and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus the Christ.
18 Therefore, in the same manner that by the iniquity of one guilt came upon all men unto condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, grace came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,
21 so that in the same manner as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.
6 ¶ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 No, in no wise. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not that all of us that are baptized into Jesus the Christ are baptized into his death?
4 For we are buried with him by baptism into death, that just as the Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father, likewise we also walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,
6 knowing this: that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that we should not serve sin any longer.
7 For he that is dead is justified from sin.
8 Now if we die with the Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
9 knowing that the Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more dominion over him.
10 For he that is dead died unto sin once, and he that lives, lives unto God.
11 Likewise also reckon yourselves to be truly dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 So that sin shall have no dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? No, in no wise.
16 Or know ye not that to whom ye present yourselves slaves to obey, his slaves ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of the obedience unto righteousness?
17 Thank God that, although ye were the slaves of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine unto which ye are delivered;
18 and freed from sin, ye are become the slaves of righteousness.
19 I speak a human thing because of the weakness of our flesh: that as ye presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, likewise now present your members to serve righteousness unto holiness.
20 For being previously the slaves of sin, now ye have been made the slaves of righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now freed from sin and made slaves to God, ye have as your fruit sanctification and as the end, everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
7 ¶ Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to those that know the law), that the law has dominion over a man only as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who is subject to a husband is obligated to the law so long as the husband lives; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law of the husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she belongs to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress if she belongs to another man.
4 Likewise ye also, my brethren, are become dead to the law in the body of the Christ that ye should belong to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the affections of the sins which were by the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are free from the law of death in which we were held, that we might serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 ¶ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? No, in no wise. But, I did not know sin except by the law; for neither would I have known lust if the law did not say, Thou shalt not covet.
8 Then sin, when there was occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust. For without the law sin was as if it were dormant.
9 So that without the law I lived for some time; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And I found that the same commandment, which was unto life, was mortal unto me.
11 For sin, having had occasion, deceived me by the commandment and by it killed me.
12 So the law is truly holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? No, in no wise. But sin, to show itself sin by that which is good, worked death in me, making sin exceedingly sinful by the commandment.
14 ¶ For we now know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto subjection by sin.
15 For that which I do, I do not understand, and not even the good that I desire is what I do; but what I hate, that is what I do.
16 If then I do that which I do not desire, I approve that the law is good.
17 So that it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 And I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing; for I have the desire, but I am not able to perform that which is good.
19 For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not desire, that I do.
20 And if I do that which I do not desire, I am not working, but sin that dwells in me.
21 So that, desiring to do good, I find this law: evil is natural unto me.
22 For I delight with the law of God with the inward man,
23 but I see another law in my members which rebels against the law of my mind, bringing captive unto the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 The grace of God, by Jesus, the Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International