Greeting

¹Paul, aa servant1 of Christ Jesus, bcalled to be an apostle, cset apart for the gospel of God, ²which dhe promised beforehand ethrough his prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³concerning his Son, fwho was descended from David2 gaccording to the flesh ⁴and hwas declared to be the Son of God iin power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵through whom jwe have received grace and kapostleship lto bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name mamong all the nations, ⁶including you who are ncalled to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

oGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Longing to Go to Rome

⁸First, pI thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, qbecause your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ⁹rFor God is my witness, swhom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, tthat without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰always in my prayers, asking that somehow uby God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹For vI long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹²that is, that we may be mutually encouraged wby each other's faith, both yours and mine. ¹³I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,3 that xI have often intended to come to you (but ythus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some zharvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. ¹⁴aI am under obligation both to Greeks and to bbarbarians,4 both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

¹⁶For dI am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ethe power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew ffirst and also to gthe Greek. ¹⁷For in it hthe righteousness of God is revealed ifrom faith for faith,5 jas it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”6

God's Wrath on Unrighteousness

¹⁸For kthe wrath of God lis revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be mknown about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, nhave been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,7 in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²pClaiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and qexchanged the glory of rthe immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴Therefore sGod gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to tthe dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for ua lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, vwho is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶For this reason wGod gave them up to xdishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, ymen committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, zGod gave them up to aa debased mind to do bwhat ought not to be done. ²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know cGod's righteous decree that those who practice such things ddeserve to die, they not only do them but egive approval to those who practice them.