Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter Electronic Books

The New Jerusalem Bible with Apocrypha
Romans

As well as being the longest of Paul's letters (and so printed first) Rm is a noble synthesis of his teaching on the Law and faith, a theme already treated in Ga. Writing to the mixed community of Jewish and gentile origin at Rome, Paul wants partly to introduce himself before a proposed visit and partly to give help on the problems which caused friction between the two sections in the community. It is a calmer treatment than Ga, and Paul is less negative towards the Law. The main point of the letter is that the Law is powerless to save, and gives only knowledge of sin, not strength. Salvation is offered to all humanity through faith in Christ, who delivers from the retribution of God. This faith is expressed in baptism, by which Christians are buried with Christ and rise with Christ to new life as adopted sons and members of Christ, sharing his life and his experiences. Among the most striking of all Pauline passages are chh. 9-11: by reflection on Scripture, Paul explores the agonising problem of the mystery of the refusal of his brothers the Jews to recognise Christ.

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Chapter 1

THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE CHURCH IN ROME
Address

¹From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, ²set apart for the service of the gospel that God promised long ago through his prophets in the holy scriptures. ³This is the gospel concerning his Son who, in terms of human nature ⁴was born a descendant of David and who, in terms of the Spirit and of holiness, was designated Son of God in power by resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ, our Lord, ⁵through whom we have received grace and our apostolic mission of winning the obedience of faith among all the nations for the honour of his name. ⁶You are among these, and by his call you belong to Jesus Christ. ⁷To you all, God's beloved in Rome, called to be his holy people. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and prayer

⁸First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is talked of all over the world. ⁹God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually mention you in my prayers, ¹⁰asking always that by some means I may at long last be enabled to visit you, if it is God's will. ¹¹For I am longing to see you so that I can convey to you some spiritual gift that will be a lasting strength, ¹²or rather that we may be strengthened together through our mutual faith, yours and mine. ¹³I want you to be quite certain too, brothers, that I have often planned to visit you-though up to the present I have always been prevented-in the hope that I might work as fruitfully among you as I have among the gentiles elsewhere. ¹⁴I have an obligation to Greeks as well as barbarians, to the educated as well as the ignorant, ¹⁵and hence the eagerness on my part to preach the gospel to you in Rome too.

SALVATION BY FAITH
I: JUSTIFICATION
The theme stated

¹⁶For I see no reason to be ashamed of the gospel; it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith-Jews first, but Greeks as well- ¹⁷for in it is revealed the saving justice of God: a justice based on faith and addressed to faith. As it says in scripture: Anyone who is upright through faith will live. ^{*[Hab 2:4 LXX]}

THE RETRIBUTION OF GOD AGAINST GENTILE AND JEW
God's retribution against the gentiles

¹⁸The retribution of God from heaven is being revealed against the ungodliness and injustice of human beings who in their injustice hold back the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them, since God has made it plain to them: ²⁰ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind's understanding of created things. And so these people have no excuse: ²¹they knew God and yet they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but their arguments became futile and their uncomprehending minds were darkened. ²²While they claimed to be wise, in fact they were growing so stupid ²³that they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an imitation, ^{*[Jr 2:11]} for the image of a mortal human being, or of birds, or animals, or crawling things. ²⁴That is why God abandoned them in their inmost cravings to filthy practices of dishonouring their own bodies- ²⁵because they exchanged God's truth for a lie and have worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. ²⁶That is why God abandoned them to degrading passions: ²⁷why their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices; and the men, in a similar fashion, too, giving up normal relations with women, are consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameful things with men and receiving in themselves due reward for their perversion. ²⁸In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behaviour. ²⁹And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, ³⁰libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, ³¹without brains, honour, love or pity. ³²They are well aware of God's ordinance: that those who behave like this deserve to die-yet they not only do it, but even applaud others who do the same.

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Chapter 2

The Jews are not exempt from the retribution of God

^2:1So no matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. It is yourself that you condemn when you judge others, since you behave in the same way as those you are condemning. ²We are well aware that people who behave like that are justly condemned by God. ³But you-when you judge those who behave like this while you are doing the same yourself-do you think you will escape God's condemnation? ⁴Or are you not disregarding his abundant goodness, tolerance and patience, failing to realise that this generosity of God is meant to bring you to repentance? ⁵Your stubborn refusal to repent is only storing up retribution for yourself on that Day of retribution when God's just verdicts will be made known. ⁶He will repay everyone as their deeds deserve. ^{*[Ps 62:12] 7}For those who aimed for glory and honour and immortality by persevering in doing good, there will be eternal life; ⁸but for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth but injustice, there will be the fury of retribution. ⁹Trouble and distress will come to every human being who does evil-Jews first, but Greeks as well; ¹⁰glory and honour and peace will come to everyone who does good-Jews first, but Greeks as well. ¹¹There is no favouritism with God. ^{*[Dt 10:17]}

The Law will not save them

¹²All those who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law; and those under the Law who have sinned will be judged by the Law. ¹³For the ones that God will justify are not those who have heard the Law but those who have kept the Law. ¹⁴So, when gentiles, not having the Law, still through their own innate sense behave as the Law commands, then, even though they have no Law, they are a law for themselves. ¹⁵They can demonstrate the effect of the Law engraved on their hearts, to which their own conscience bears witness; since they are aware of various considerations, some of which accuse them, while others provide them with a defence . . . on the day when, ¹⁶according to the gospel that I preach, God, through Jesus Christ, judges all human secrets. ¹⁷If you can call yourself a Jew, and you really trust in the Law, and are proud of your God, ¹⁸and know his will, and tell right from wrong because you have been taught by the Law; ¹⁹if you are confident that you are a guide to the blind and a beacon to those in the dark, ²⁰that you can teach the ignorant and instruct the unlearned because the Law embodies all knowledge and all truth- ²¹so then, in teaching others, do you teach yourself as well? You preach that there is to be no stealing, but do you steal? ²²You say that adultery is forbidden, but do you commit adultery? You detest the worship of objects, but do you desecrate holy things yourself? ²³If, while you are boasting of the Law, you disobey it, then you are bringing God into contempt. ²⁴As scripture says: It is your fault that the name of God is held in contempt among the nations. ^{*[Ezk 36:20]}

Circumcision will not save them

²⁵Circumcision has its value if you keep the Law; but if you go on breaking the Law, you are no more circumcised than the uncircumcised. ²⁶And if an uncircumcised man keeps the commands of the Law, will not his uncircumcised state count as circumcision? ²⁷More, the man who, in his native uncircumcised state, keeps the Law, is a condemnation of you, who, by your concentration on the letter and on circumcision, actually break the Law. ²⁸Being a Jew is not only having the outward appearance of a Jew, and circumcision is not only a visible physical operation. ²⁹The real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew, and real circumcision is in the heart, a thing not of the letter but of the spirit. He may not be praised by any human being, but he will be praised by God.

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Chapter 3

God's promises will not save them

^3:1Is there any benefit, then, in being a Jew? Is there any advantage in being circumcised? ²A great deal, in every way. First of all, it was to the Jews that the message of God was entrusted. ³What if some of them were unfaithful? Do you think their lack of faith could cancel God's faithfulness? ⁴Out of the question! God will always be true even if no human being can be relied on. ^{*[In vv. 4-20 Paul uses numerous quotations from the Pss and Is 59:7-8]} As scripture says: That you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence and your victory may appear when you give judgement. ⁵But if our injustice serves to bring God's saving justice into view, can we say that God is unjust when-to use human terms-he brings his retribution down on us? ⁶Out of the question! It would mean that God could not be the judge of the world. ⁷You might as well say that if my untruthfulness makes God demonstrate his truthfulness, to his greater glory, then I should not be judged to be a sinner at all. ⁸In this case, the slanderous report some people are spreading would be true, that we teach that one should do evil that good may come of it. In fact such people are justly condemned.

All are guilty

⁹Well: are we any better off? Not at all: we have already indicted Jews and Greeks as being all alike under the dominion of sin. ¹⁰As scripture says: Not one of them is upright, not a single one, ¹¹not a single one is wise, not a single one seeks God. ¹²All have turned away, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a single one. ¹³Their throats are wide-open graves, their tongues seductive. Viper's venom behind their lips; ¹⁴their speech is full of cursing and bitterness. ¹⁵Their feet quick to shed innocent blood, ¹⁶wherever they go there is havoc and ruin. ¹⁷They do not know the way of peace, ¹⁸there is no fear of God before their eyes. ¹⁹Now we are well aware that whatever the Law says is said for those who are subject to the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world brought under the judgement of God. ²⁰So then, no human being can be found upright at the tribunal of God by keeping the Law; all that the Law does is to tell us what is sinful.

FAITH AND THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD
The revelation of God's judgement

²¹God's saving justice was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, but now it has been revealed altogether apart from law: ²²God's saving justice given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. ²³No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack God's glory, ²⁴and all are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Christ Jesus. ²⁵God appointed him as a sacrifice for reconciliation, through faith, by the shedding of his blood, and so showed his justness; first for the past, when sins went unpunished because he held his hand; ²⁶and now again for the present age, to show how he is just and justifies everyone who has faith in Jesus.

What faith does

²⁷So what becomes of our boasts? There is no room for them. On what principle- that only actions count? No; that faith is what counts, ²⁸since, as we see it, a person is justified by faith and not by doing what the Law tells him to do. ²⁹Do you think God is the God only of the Jews, and not of gentiles too? Most certainly of gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God; he will justify the circumcised by their faith, and he will justify the uncircumcised through their faith. ³¹Are we saying that the Law has been made pointless by faith? Out of the question; we are placing the Law on its true footing.

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Chapter 4

THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM
Abraham justified by faith

^4:1Then what do we say about Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are descended physically? ²If Abraham had been justified because of what he had done, then he would have had something to boast about. But not before God: ³does not scripture say: Abraham put his faith in God and this was reckoned to him as uprightness? ^{*[Gn 15:6] 4}Now, when someone works, the wages for this are not considered as a favour but as due; ⁵however, when someone, without working, puts faith in the one who justifies the godless, it is this faith that is reckoned as uprightness. ⁶David, too, says the same: he calls someone blessed if God attributes uprightness to that person, apart from any action undertaken: ⁷How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out. ⁸How blessed are those to whom the Lord imputes no guilt. ^{*[Ps 32:1-2]}

Justified before circumcision

⁹Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or is it said of the uncircumcised as well? Well, we said of Abraham that his faith was reckoned to him as uprightness. ¹⁰Now how did this come about? When he was already circumcised, or before he had been circumcised? Not when he had been circumcised, but while he was still uncircumcised; ¹¹and circumcision ^{*[Quotations about Abraham from Gn (17:10; 17:5; 15:5; 17:17)]} was given to him later, as a sign and a guarantee that the faith which he had while still uncircumcised was reckoned to him as uprightness. In this way, Abraham was to be the ancestor of all believers who are uncircumcised, so that they might be reckoned as upright; ¹²as well as the ancestor of those of the circumcision who not only have their circumcision but who also follow our ancestor Abraham along the path of faith that he trod before he was circumcised.

Not justified by obedience to the Law

¹³For the promise to Abraham and his descendants that he should inherit the world was not through the Law, but through the uprightness of faith. ¹⁴For if it is those who live by the Law who will gain the inheritance, faith is worthless and the promise is without force; ¹⁵for the Law produces nothing but God's retribution, and it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law. ¹⁶That is why the promise is to faith, so that it comes as a free gift and is secure for all the descendants, not only those who rely on the Law but all those others who rely on the faith of Abraham, the ancestor of us all ¹⁷(as scripture says: I have made you the father of many nations). Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into existence what does not yet exist.

Abraham's faith a model of Christian faith

¹⁸Though there seemed no hope, he hoped and believed that he was to become father of many nations in fulfilment of the promise: Just so will your descendants be. ¹⁹Even the thought that his body was as good as dead-he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah's womb was dead too did not shake his faith. ²⁰Counting on the promise of God, he did not doubt or disbelieve, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, ²¹fully convinced that whatever God promised he has the power to perform. ²²This is the faith that was reckoned to him as uprightness. ²³And the word 'reckoned' in scripture applies not only to him; ²⁴it is there for our sake too-our faith, too, will be 'reckoned' ²⁵because we believe in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus who was handed over to death for our sins ^{*[Is 53:6]} and raised to life for our justification.

SALVATION
Faith guarantees salvation

⁵So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; ²it is through him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God's favour in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God's glory. ³Not only that; let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding that hardship develops perseverance, ⁴and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope, ⁵and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. ⁶When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless. ⁷You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die. ⁸So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. ⁹How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God. ¹⁰For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. ¹¹What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

DELIVERANCE FROM SIN, DEATH AND LAW
Adam and Jesus Christ

¹²Well then; it was through one man that sin came into the world, ^{*[Ws 2:24]} and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. ¹³Sin already existed in the world before there was any law, even though sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴Nonetheless death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was not the breaking of a commandment, as Adam's was. He prefigured the One who was to come . . . ¹⁵There is no comparison between the free gift and the offence. If death came to many through the offence of one man, how much greater an effect the grace of God has had, coming to so many and so plentifully as a free gift through the one man Jesus Christ! ¹⁶Again, there is no comparison between the gift and the offence of one man. One single offence brought condemnation, but now, after many offences, have come the free gift and so acquittal! ¹⁷It was by one man's offence that death came to reign over all, but how much greater the reign in life of those who receive the fullness of grace and the gift of saving justice, through the one man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸One man's offence brought condemnation on all humanity; and one man's good act has brought justification and life to all humanity. ¹⁹Just as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience are many to be made upright. ²⁰When law came on the scene, it was to multiply the offences. But however much sin increased, grace was always greater; ²¹so that as sin's reign brought death, so grace was to rule through saving justice that leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Chapter 6

Baptism

⁶What should we say then? Should we remain in sin so that grace may be given the more fully? ²Out of the question! We have died to sin; how could we go on living in it? ³You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. ⁴So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. ⁵If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his; ⁶realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin. ⁷Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin. ⁸But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too. ⁹We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. ¹⁰For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God. ¹¹In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

Holiness, not sin, to be the master

¹²That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires; ¹³or give any parts of your bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness; ¹⁴and then sin will no longer have any power over you-you are living not under law, but under grace.

The Christian is freed from the slavery of sin

¹⁵What is the implication? That we are free to sin, now that we are not under law but under grace? Out of the question! ¹⁶You know well that if you undertake to be somebody's slave and obey him, you are the slave of him you obey: you can be the slave either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to saving justice. ¹⁷Once you were slaves of sin, but thank God you have given whole-hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching to which you were introduced; ¹⁸and so, being freed from serving sin, you took uprightness as your master. ¹⁹I am putting it in human terms because you are still weak human beings: as once you surrendered yourselves as servants to immorality and to a lawlessness which results in more lawlessness, now you have to surrender yourselves to uprightness which is to result in sanctification.

The reward of sin and the reward of uprightness

²⁰When you were the servants of sin, you felt no obligation to uprightness, ²¹and what did you gain from living like that? Experiences of which you are now ashamed, for that sort of behaviour ends in death. ²²But, now you are set free from sin and bound to the service of God, your gain will be sanctification and the end will be eternal life. ²³For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Chapter 7

The Christian is freed from slavery to the Law

⁷As people who are familiar with the Law, brothers, you cannot have forgotten that the law can control a person only during that person's lifetime. ²A married woman, for instance, is bound to her husband by law, as long as he lives, but when her husband dies all her legal obligation to him as husband is ended. ³So if she were to have relations with another man while her husband was still alive, she would be termed an adulteress; but if her husband dies, her legal obligation comes to an end and if she then has relations with another man, that does not make her an adulteress. ⁴In the same way you, my brothers, through the body of Christ have become dead to the Law and so you are able to belong to someone else, that is, to him who was raised from the dead to make us live fruitfully for God. ⁵While we were still living by our natural inclinations, the sinful passions aroused by the Law were working in all parts of our bodies to make us live lives which were fruitful only for death. ⁶But now we are released from the Law, having died to what was binding us, and so we are in a new service, that of the spirit, and not in the old service of a written code.

The function of the Law

⁷What should we say, then? That the Law itself is sin? Out of the question! All the same, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have known what sin was; for instance, I should not have known what it meant to covet if the Law had not said: You are not to covet. ^{*[Ex 20:17] 8}But, once it found the opportunity through that commandment, sin produced in me all kinds of covetousness; as long as there is no Law, sin is dead. ⁹Once, when there was no Law, I used to be alive; but when the commandment came, sin came to life ¹⁰and I died. The commandment was meant to bring life but I found it brought death, ¹¹because sin, finding its opportunity by means of the commandment, beguiled ^{*[Gn 3:13]} me and, by means of it, killed me. ¹²So then, the Law is holy, and what it commands is holy and upright and good. ¹³Does that mean that something good resulted in my dying? Out of the question! But sin, in order to be identified as sin, caused my death through that good thing, and so it is by means of the commandment that sin shows its unbounded sinful power.

The inward struggle

¹⁴We are well aware that the Law is spiritual: but I am a creature of flesh and blood sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate. ¹⁶While I am acting as I do not want to, I still acknowledge the Law as good, ¹⁷so it is not myself acting, but the sin which lives in me. ¹⁸And really, I know of nothing good living in me-in my natural self, that is-for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: ¹⁹the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want-that is what I do. ²⁰But every time I do what I do not want to, then it is not myself acting, but the sin that lives in me. ²¹So I find this rule: that for me, where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side. ²²In my inmost self I dearly love God's law, ²³but I see that acting on my body there is a different law which battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? ²⁵God-thanks be to him-through Jesus Christ our Lord. So it is that I myself with my mind obey the law of God, but in my disordered nature I obey the law of sin.

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Chapter 8

THE CHRISTIAN'S SPIRITUAL LIFE
The life of the spirit

⁸Thus, condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus, ²because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³What the Law could not do because of the weakness of human nature, God did, sending his own Son in the same human nature as any sinner to be a sacrifice for sin, and condemning sin in that human nature. ⁴This was so that the Law's requirements might be fully satisfied in us as we direct our lives not by our natural inclinations but by the Spirit. ⁵Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things. ⁶And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace, ⁷because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot, ⁸and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God. ⁹You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified; ¹¹and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you. ¹²So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it. ¹³If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.

Children of God

¹⁴All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God; ¹⁵for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!' ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. ¹⁷And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.

Glory as our destiny

¹⁸In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us, ¹⁹for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰It was not for its own purposes that creation had frustration imposed on it, but for the purposes of him who imposed it- ²¹with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God. ²²We are well aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been groaning in labour pains. ²³And not only that: we too, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we are groaning inside ourselves, waiting with eagerness for our bodies to be set free. ²⁴In hope, we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly present, or we should not be hoping-nobody goes on hoping for something which is already visible. ²⁵But having this hope for what we cannot yet see, we are able to wait for it with persevering confidence. ²⁶And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; ²⁷and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.

God has called us to share his glory

²⁸We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good. ²⁹He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; ³⁰it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory.

A hymn to God's love

³¹After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts? ³³Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice ³⁴who can condemn? ^{*[Is 50:8]} Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died-yes and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God's right hand-and who is adding his plea for us? ³⁵Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ-can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence; ³⁶as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered? ^{*[Ps 44:22] 37}No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us. ³⁸For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, ³⁹nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Chapter 9

THE PLACE OF ISRAEL
^{*[The quotations in chh. 9-11 are too frequent to be placed]}

The privileges of Israel

⁹This is the truth and I am speaking in Christ, without pretence, as my conscience testifies for me in the Holy Spirit; ²there is great sorrow and unremitting agony in my heart: ³I could pray that I myself might be accursed and cut off from Christ, if this could benefit the brothers who are my own flesh and blood. ⁴They are Israelites; it was they who were adopted as children, the glory was theirs and the covenants; to them were given the Law and the worship of God and the promises. ⁵To them belong the fathers and out of them, so far as physical descent is concerned, came Christ who is above all, God, blessed for ever. Amen.

God has kept his promise

⁶It is not that God's promise has failed. Not all born Israelites belong to Israel, ⁷and not all the descendants of Abraham count as his children, for Isaac is the one through whom your Name will be carried on. ⁸That is, it is not by being children through physical descent that people become children of God; it is the children of the promise that are counted as the heirs. ⁹The actual words of the promise were: I shall come back to you at this season, and Sarah will have a son. ¹⁰Even more to the point is what was said to Rebecca when she was pregnant by our ancestor, Isaac, ¹¹before her children were born, so that neither had yet done anything either good or bad, but in order that it should be God's choice which prevailed 12-not human merit, but his call-she was told: the elder one will serve the younger. ¹³Or as scripture says elsewhere: I loved Jacob but hated Esau.

God is not unjust

¹⁴What should we say, then? That God is unjust? Out of the question! ¹⁵For speaking to Moses, he said: I am gracious to those to whom I am gracious and I take pity on those on whom I take pity. ¹⁶So it is not a matter of what any person wants or what any person does, but only of God having mercy. ¹⁷Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason, to display my power in you and to have my name talked of throughout the world. ¹⁸In other words, if God wants to show mercy on someone, he does so, and if he wants to harden someone's heart, he does so. ¹⁹Then you will ask me, 'How then can he ever blame anyone, since no one can oppose his will?' ²⁰But you-who do you think you, a human being, are, to answer back to God? Something that was made, can it say to its maker: why did you make me this shape? ²¹A potter surely has the right over his clay to make out of the same lump either a pot for special use or one for ordinary use. ²²But suppose that God, although all the time he wanted to reveal his retribution and demonstrate his power, has with great patience gone on putting up with those who are the instruments of his retribution and designed to be destroyed; ²³so that he may make known the glorious riches ready for the people who are the instruments of his faithful love and were long ago prepared for that glory. ²⁴We are that people, called by him not only out of the Jews but out of the gentiles too.

All has been foretold in the Old Testament

²⁵Just as he says in the book of Hosea: I shall tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people,' and I shall take pity on those on whom I had no pity. ²⁶And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be told that they are 'children of the living God'. ²⁷And about Israel, this is what Isaiah cried out: Though the people of Israel are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved; ²⁸for without hesitation or delay the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth. ²⁹As Isaiah foretold: Had the Lord Sabaoth not left us a few survivors, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same as Gomorrah. ³⁰What should we say, then? That the gentiles, although they were not looking for saving justice, found it, and this was the saving justice that comes of faith; ³¹while Israel, looking for saving justice by law-keeping, did not succeed in fulfilling the Law. ³²And why? Because they were trying to find it in actions and not in faith, and so they stumbled over the stumbling-stone- ³³as it says in scripture: Now I am laying in Zion a stumbling-stone, a rock to trip people up; but he who relies on this will not be brought to disgrace.

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Chapter 10

Israel fails to see that it is God who makes us holy

¹⁰Brothers, my dearest wish and my prayer to God is for them, that they may be saved. ²I readily testify to their fervour for God, but it is misguided. ³Not recognising God's saving justice they have tried to establish their own, instead of submitting to the saving justice of God. ⁴But the Law has found its fulfilment in Christ so that all who have faith will be justified.

The testimony of Moses

⁵Moses writes of the saving justice that comes by the Law and says that whoever complies with it will find life in it. ⁶But the saving justice of faith says this: Do not think in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?'- ⁷that is to bring Christ down; or 'Who will go down to the depths?'-that is to bring Christ back from the dead. ⁸What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach, ⁹that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. ¹⁰It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved. ¹¹When scripture says: No one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace, ¹²it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who appeal to him, ¹³for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Israel has no excuse

¹⁴How then are they to call on him if they have not come to believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard of him? And how will they hear of him unless there is a preacher for them? ¹⁵And how will there be preachers if they are not sent? As scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news. ¹⁶But in fact they have not all responded to the good news. As Isaiah says: Lord, who has given credence to what they have heard from us? ¹⁷But it is in that way faith comes, from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ. ¹⁸Well then, I say, is it possible that they have not heard? Indeed they have: in the entire earth their voice stands out, their message reaches the whole world. ¹⁹Well, another question, then: is it possible that Israel did not understand? In the first place Moses said: I shall rouse you to jealousy with a non-people, I shall exasperate you with a stupid nation. ²⁰And Isaiah is even bold enough to say: I have let myself be found by those who did not seek me; I have let myself be seen by those who did not consult me; ²¹and referring to Israel, he says: All day long I have been stretching out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people.

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Chapter 11

The remnant of Israel

¹¹What I am saying is this: is it possible that God abandoned his people? Out of the question! I too am an Israelite, descended from Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God never abandoned his own people to whom, ages ago, he had given recognition. Do you not remember what scripture says about Elijah and how he made a complaint to God against Israel: ³Lord, they have put your prophets to the sword, torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me? ⁴And what was the prophetic answer given? I have spared for myself seven thousand men that have not bent the knee to Baal. ⁵In the same way, then, in our own time, there is a remnant, set aside by grace. ⁶And since it is by grace, it cannot now be by good actions, or grace would not be grace at all! ⁷What follows? Israel failed to find what it was seeking; only those who were chosen found it and the rest had their minds hardened; ⁸just as it says in scripture: God has infused them with a spirit of lethargy; until today they have not eyes to see or ears to hear. ⁹David too says: May their own table prove a trap for them, a pitfall and a snare; let that be their retribution. ¹⁰May their eyes grow so dim they cannot see, and their backs be bent for ever.

The Jews to be restored in the future

¹¹What I am saying is this: Was this stumbling to lead to their final downfall? Out of the question! On the contrary, their failure has brought salvation for the gentiles, in order to stir them to envy. ¹²And if their fall has proved a great gain to the world, and their loss has proved a great gain to the gentiles-how much greater a gain will come when all is restored to them! ¹³Let me say then to you gentiles that, as far as I am an apostle to the gentiles, I take pride in this work of service; ¹⁴and I want it to be the means of rousing to envy the people who are my own blood-relations and so of saving some of them. ¹⁵Since their rejection meant the reconciliation of the world, do you know what their re-acceptance will mean? Nothing less than life from the dead!

The Jews are still the chosen people

¹⁶When the first-fruits are made holy, so is the whole batch; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷Now suppose that some branches were broken off, and you are wild olive, grafted among the rest to share with the others the rich sap of the olive tree; ¹⁸then it is not for you to consider yourself superior to the other branches; and if you start feeling proud, think: it is not you that sustain the root, but the root that sustains you. ¹⁹You will say, 'Branches were broken off on purpose for me to be grafted in.' True; ²⁰they through their unbelief were broken off, and you are established through your faith. So it is not pride that you should have, but fear: ²¹if God did not spare the natural branches, he might not spare you either. ²²Remember God's severity as well as his goodness: his severity to those who fell, and his goodness to you as long as you persevere in it; if not, you too will be cut off. ²³And they, if they do not persevere in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for it is within the power of God to graft them back again. ²⁴After all, if you, cut off from what was by nature a wild olive, could then be grafted unnaturally on to a cultivated olive, how much easier will it be for them, the branches that naturally belong there, to be grafted on to the olive tree which is their own.

The conversion of the Jews

²⁵I want you to be quite certain, brothers, of this mystery, to save you from congratulating yourselves on your own good sense: part of Israel had its mind hardened, but only until the gentiles have wholly come in; ²⁶and this is how all Israel will be saved. As scripture says: From Zion will come the Redeemer, he will remove godlessness from Jacob. ²⁷And this will be my covenant with them, when I take their sins away. ²⁸As regards the gospel, they are enemies, but for your sake; but as regards those who are God's choice, they are still well loved for the sake of their ancestors. ²⁹There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or of his choice. ³⁰Just as you were in the past disobedient to God but now you have been shown mercy, through their disobedience; ³¹so in the same way they are disobedient now, so that through the mercy shown to you they too will receive mercy. ³²God has imprisoned all human beings in their own disobedience only to show mercy to them all.

A hymn to God's mercy and wisdom

³³How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways. ³⁴Who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? ³⁵Who has given anything to him, so that his presents come only as a debt returned? ³⁶Everything there is comes from him and is caused by him and exists for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.

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Chapter 12

EXHORTATION
Spiritual worship

¹²I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people. ²Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and mature.

Humility and charity

³And through the grace that I have been given, I say this to every one of you: never pride yourself on being better than you really are, but think of yourself dispassionately, recognising that God has given to each one his measure of faith. ⁴Just as each of us has various parts in one body, and the parts do not all have the same function: ⁵in the same way, all of us, though there are so many of us, make up one body in Christ, and as different parts we are all joined to one another. ⁶Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us: if it is a gift of prophecy, we should prophesy as much as our faith tells us; ⁷if it is a gift of practical service, let us devote ourselves to serving; if it is teaching, to teaching; ⁸if it is encouraging, to encouraging. When you give, you should give generously from the heart; if you are put in charge, you must be conscientious; if you do works of mercy, let it be because you enjoy doing them. ⁹Let love be without any pretence. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good. ¹⁰In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself. ¹¹In the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit. ¹²Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly; ¹³share with any of God's holy people who are in need; look for opportunities to be hospitable.

Charity to everyone, including enemies

¹⁴Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them. ¹⁵Rejoice with others when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow. ¹⁶Give the same consideration to all others alike. Pay no regard to social standing, but meet humble people on their own terms. Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom. ^{*[Pr 3:7, followed by Lv 19:18; Pr 25:21-22] 17}Never pay back evil with evil, but bear in mind the ideals that all regard with respect. ¹⁸As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone. ¹⁹Never try to get revenge: leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As scripture says: Vengeance is mine-I will pay them back, the Lord promises. ²⁰And more: If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. By this, you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head. ²¹Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good.

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Chapter 13

Submission to civil authority

¹³Everyone is to obey the governing authorities, because there is no authority except from God and so whatever authorities exist have been appointed by God. ²So anyone who disobeys an authority is rebelling against God's ordinance; and rebels must expect to receive the condemnation they deserve. ³Magistrates bring fear not to those who do good, but to those who do evil. So if you want to live with no fear of authority, live honestly and you will have its approval; ⁴it is there to serve God for you and for your good. But if you do wrong, then you may well be afraid; because it is not for nothing that the symbol of authority is the sword: it is there to serve God, too, as his avenger, to bring retribution to wrongdoers. ⁵You must be obedient, therefore, not only because of this retribution, but also for conscience's sake. ⁶And this is why you should pay taxes, too, because the authorities are all serving God as his agents, even while they are busily occupied with that particular task. ⁷Pay to each one what is due to each: taxes to the one to whom tax is due, tolls to the one to whom tolls are due, respect to the one to whom respect is due, honour to the one to whom honour is due.

Love and Law

⁸The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfil the law. ⁹All these: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and all the other commandments that there are, are summed up in this single phrase: You must love your neighbour ^{*[Ex 20:13-17 summed up in Lv 19:18]} as yourself. ¹⁰Love can cause no harm to your neighbour, and so love is the fulfilment of the Law.

Children of the light

¹¹Besides, you know the time has come; the moment is here for you to stop sleeping and wake up, because by now our salvation is nearer than when we first began to believe. ¹²The night is nearly over, daylight is on the way; so let us throw off everything that belongs to the darkness and equip ourselves for the light. ¹³Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. ¹⁴Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled.

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Chapter 14

Charity towards the scrupulous

¹⁴Give a welcome to anyone whose faith is not strong, but do not get into arguments about doubtful points. ²One person may have faith enough to eat any kind of food; another, less strong, will eat only vegetables. ³Those who feel free to eat freely are not to condemn those who are unwilling to eat freely; nor must the person who does not eat freely pass judgement on the one who does-because God has welcomed him. ⁴And who are you, to sit in judgement over somebody else's servant? Whether he deserves to be upheld or to fall is for his own master to decide; and he shall be upheld, for the Lord has power to uphold him. ⁵One person thinks that some days are holier than others, and another thinks them all equal. Let each of them be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶The one who makes special observance of a particular day observes it in honour of the Lord. So the one who eats freely, eats in honour of the Lord, making his thanksgiving to God; and the one who does not, abstains from eating in honour of the Lord and makes his thanksgiving to God. ⁷For none of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself; ⁸while we are alive, we are living for the Lord, and when we die, we die for the Lord: and so, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord. ⁹It was for this purpose that Christ both died and came to life again: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰Why, then, does one of you make himself judge over his brother, and why does another among you despise his brother? All of us will have to stand in front of the judgement-seat of God: ¹¹as scripture says: By my own life says the Lord, every knee shall bow before me, every tongue shall give glory to God. ^{*[Is 45:23] 12}It is to God, then, that each of us will have to give an account of himself. ¹³Let us each stop passing judgement, therefore, on one another and decide instead that none of us will place obstacles in any brother's way, or anything that can bring him down. ¹⁴I am sure, and quite convinced in the Lord Jesus, that no food is unclean in itself; it is only if someone classifies any kind of food as unclean, then for him it is unclean. ¹⁵And indeed, if through any kind of food you are causing offence to a brother, then you are no longer being guided by love. You are not to let the food that you eat cause the ruin of anyone for whom Christ died. ¹⁶A privilege of yours must not be allowed to give rise to harmful talk; ¹⁷for it is not eating and drinking that make the kingdom of God, but the saving justice, the peace and the joy brought by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸It is the person who serves Christ in these things that will be approved by God and respected by everyone. ¹⁹So then, let us be always seeking the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support one another. ²⁰Do not wreck God's work for the sake of food. Certainly all foods are clean; but all the same, any kind can be evil for someone to whom it is an offence to eat it. ²¹It is best to abstain from eating any meat, or drinking any wine, or from any other activity which might cause a brother to fall away, or to be scandalised, or to weaken. ²²Within yourself, before God, hold on to what you already believe. Blessed is the person whose principles do not condemn his practice. ²³But anyone who eats with qualms of conscience is condemned, because this eating does not spring from faith-and every action which does not spring from faith is sin.

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Chapter 15

¹⁵It is for us who are strong to bear with the susceptibilities of the weaker ones, and not please ourselves. ²Each of us must consider his neighbour's good, so that we support one another. ³Christ did not indulge his own feelings, either; indeed, as scripture says: The insults of those who insult you fall on me. ^{* [Ps 69:9.] 4}And all these things which were written so long ago were written so that we, learning perseverance and the encouragement which the scriptures give, should have hope. ⁵Now the God of perseverance and encouragement give you all the same purpose, following the example of Christ Jesus, ⁶so that you may together give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one heart. ⁷Accept one another, then, for the sake of God's glory, as Christ accepted you. ⁸I tell you that Christ's work was to serve the circumcised, fulfilling the truthfulness of God by carrying out the promises made to the fathers, ⁹and his work was also for the gentiles, so that they should give glory to God for his faithful love; as scripture says: For this I shall praise you among the nations and sing praise to your name. ^{*[Ps 18:49, followed by Dt 32:43; Ps 117:1; Is 11:10] 10}And in another place it says: Nations, rejoice, with his people, ¹¹and in another place again: Praise the Lord, all nations, extol him, all peoples. ¹²And in Isaiah, it says: The root of Jesse will appear, he who rises up to rule the nations, and in him the nations will put their hope. ¹³May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in your faith, so that in the power of the Holy Spirit you may be rich in hope.

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EPILOGUE

Paul's ministry

¹⁴My brothers, I am quite sure that you, in particular, are full of goodness, fully instructed and capable of correcting each other. ¹⁵But I have special confidence in writing on some points to you, to refresh your memories, because of the grace that was given to me by God. ¹⁶I was given grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles, dedicated to offer them the gospel of God, so that gentiles might become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷So I can be proud, in Christ Jesus, of what I have done for God. ¹⁸Of course I can dare to speak only of the things which Christ has done through me to win the allegiance of the gentiles, using what I have said and done, ¹⁹by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. In this way, from Jerusalem and all round, even as far as Illyricum, I have fully carried out the preaching of the gospel of Christ; ²⁰and what is more, it has been my rule to preach the gospel only where the name of Christ has not already been heard, for I do not build on another's foundations; ²¹in accordance with scripture: Those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand. ^{*[Is 52:15]}

Paul's plans
^{*[We do not know whether Paul completed this journey]}

²²That is why I have been so often prevented from coming to see you; ²³now, however, as there is nothing more to keep me in these parts, I hope, after longing for many years past to visit you, to see you when I am on the way to Spain- ²⁴and after enjoying at least something of your company, to be sent on my way with your support. ²⁵But now I have undertaken to go to Jerusalem in the service of the holy people of God there, ²⁶since Macedonia and Achaia have chosen to make a generous contribution to the poor among God's holy people at Jerusalem. ²⁷Yes, they chose to; not that they did not owe it to them. For if the gentiles have been given a share in their spiritual possessions, then in return to give them help with material possessions is repaying a debt to them. ²⁸So when I have done this, and given this harvest into their possession, I shall visit you on the way to Spain. ²⁹I am sure that, when I do come to you, I shall come with the fullest blessing of Christ. ³⁰Meanwhile I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that in your prayers to God for me you exert yourselves to help me; ³¹praying that I may escape the unbelievers in Judaea, and that the aid I am carrying to Jerusalem will be acceptable to God's holy people. ³²Then I shall come to you, if God wills, for a happy time of relaxation in your company. ³³The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Greetings and good wishes
^{*[vv. 1-23 possibly formed no part of the original letter]}

¹⁶I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae; ²give her, in the Lord, a welcome worthy of God's holy people, and help her with whatever she needs from you-she herself has come to the help of many people, including myself. ³My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, ⁴who risked their own necks to save my life; to them, thanks not only from me, but from all the churches among the gentiles; ⁵and my greetings to the church at their house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, the first of Asia's offerings to Christ. ⁶Greetings to Mary, who worked so hard for you. ⁷Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me. ⁸Greetings to Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. ⁹Greetings to Urban, my fellow-worker in Christ, and to my dear friend Stachys. ¹⁰Greetings to Apelles, proved servant of Christ. Greetings to all the household of Aristobulus. ¹¹Greetings to my kinsman, Herodion, and greetings to those who belong to the Lord in the household of Narcissus. ¹²Greetings to Tryphaena and Tryphosa who work hard in the Lord; greetings to my dear friend Persis, also a very hard worker in the Lord. ¹³Greetings to Rufus, chosen servant of the Lord, and to his mother-a mother to me too. ¹⁴Greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. ¹⁵Greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all God's holy people who are with them. ¹⁶Greet each other with the holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their greetings.

A warning and first postscript

¹⁷I urge you, brothers, be on your guard against the people who are out to stir up disagreements and bring up difficulties against the teaching which you learnt. Avoid them. ¹⁸People of that sort are servants not of our Lord Christ, but of their own greed; and with talk that sounds smooth and reasonable they deceive the minds of the unwary. ¹⁹Your obedience has become known to everyone, and I am very pleased with you for it; but I should want you to be learned only in what is good, and unsophisticated about all that is evil. ²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Last greetings and second postscript

²¹Timothy, who is working with me, sends greetings to you, and so do my kinsmen Lucius, Jason and Sosipater. ²²I, Tertius, who am writing this letter, greet you in the Lord. ²³Greetings to you from Gaius, my host here, and host of the whole church. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends greetings to you, and our brother Quartus. [24]^{*[Some authorities add v. 24, 'The grace . . . with you' as in v. 20]}

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Doxology

^{*[A solemn summary, placed by some authorities after 15:33]}

²⁵And now to him who can make you strong in accordance with the gospel that I preach and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with that mystery which for endless ages was kept secret ²⁶but now (as the prophets wrote) is revealed, as the eternal God commanded, to be made known to all the nations, so that they obey in faith: ²⁷to him, the only wise God, give glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.

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