004:009 This declaration of blessedness, then, does it come simply
to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well?
For Abraham's faith--so we affirm--was placed to his
credit as righteousness.
004:010 What then were the circumstances under which this took place?
Was it after he had been circumcised, or before?
004:011 Before, not after. And he received circumcision as a sign,
a mark attesting the reality of the faith-righteousness which was
his while still uncircumcised, that he might be the forefather
of all those who believe even though they are uncircumcised--
in order that this righteousness might be placed to their credit;
004:012 and the forefather of the circumcised, namely of those who
not merely are circumcised, but also walk in the steps
of the faith which our forefather Abraham had while he was
as yet uncircumcised.
004:013 Again, the promise that he should inherit the world did
not come to Abraham or his posterity conditioned by Law,
but by faith-righteousness.
004:014 For if it is the righteous through Law who are heirs,
then faith is useless and the promise counts for nothing.
004:015 For the Law inflicts punishment; but where no Law exists,
there can be no violation of Law.
004:016 All depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance
with God might be an act of pure grace,
004:017 so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true
descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law,
but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham.
Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life
to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist,
as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us.
As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather
of many nations."
004:018 Under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed,
so that he might become the forefather of many nations,
in agreement with the words "Equally numerous shall
your posterity be."
004:019 And, without growing weak in faith, he could contemplate his
own vital powers which had now decayed--for he was nearly
100 years old--and Sarah's barrenness.
004:020 Nor did he in unbelief stagger at God's promise, but became
mighty in faith, giving glory to God,
004:021 and being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound
by He is able also to make good.
004:022 For this reason also his faith was placed to his
credit as righteousness.
004:023 Nor was the fact of its being placed to his credit put on record
for his sake only;
004:024 it was for our sakes too. Faith, before long, will be placed
to the credit of us also who are believers in Him who raised Jesus,
our Lord, from the dead,
004:025 who was surrendered to death because of the offences we
had committed, and was raised to life because of the acquittal
secured for us.
005:001 Standing then acquitted as the result of faith, let us enjoy
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
005:002 through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an
introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand,
and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.
005:003 And not only so: we also exult in our sufferings, knowing as we do,
that suffering produces fortitude;
005:004 fortitude, ripeness of character; and ripeness of character, hope;
005:005 and that this hope never disappoints, because God's love
for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been
given to us.
005:006 For already, while we were still helpless, Christ at the right
moment died for the ungodly.
005:007 Why, it is scarcely conceivable that any one would die for a
simply just man, although for a good and lovable man perhaps
some one, here and there, will have the courage even to lay
down his life.
005:008 But God gives proof of His love to us in Christ's dying for us
while we were still sinners.
005:009 If therefore we have now been pronounced free from guilt
through His blood, much more shall we be delivered from God's
anger through Him.
005:010 For if while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him
through the death of His Son, it is still more certain
that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation
through Christ's life.
005:011 And not only so, but we also exult in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained
that reconciliation.
005:012 What follows? This comparison. Through one man sin entered
into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed
to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned.
005:013 For prior to the Law sin was already in the world; only it
is not entered in the account against us when no Law exists.
005:014 Yet Death reigned as king from Adam to Moses even over
those who had not sinned, as Adam did, against Law.
And in Adam we have a type of Him whose coming was still future.
005:015 But God's free gift immeasurably outweighs the transgression.
For if through the transgression of the one individual the mass
of mankind have died, infinitely greater is the generosity
with which God's grace, and the gift given in His grace
which found expression in the one man Jesus Christ, have been
bestowed on the mass of mankind.
005:016 And it is not with the gift as it was with the results of one
individual's sin; for the judgement which one individual
provoked resulted in condemnation, whereas the free gift
after a multitude of transgressions results in acquittal.
005:017 For if, through the transgression of the one individual,
Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty,
all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace
and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through
the one individual, Jesus Christ.
005:018 It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression
is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also
the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving
acquittal which extends to the whole race.
005:019 For as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass
of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience
of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous.
005:020 Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression
might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed;
005:021 in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death,
so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing
a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
006:001 To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist
in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may
be the greater?
006:002 No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in
it any longer?
006:003 And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
006:004 Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death,
in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead
by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an
entirely new life.
006:005 For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death,
we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.
006:006 This we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him,
in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power,
so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;
006:007 for he who has paid the penalty of death stands absolved
from his sin.
006:008 But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him;
006:009 because we know that Christ, having come back to life,
is no longer liable to die.
006:010 Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death
which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin;
but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God.
006:011 In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead
in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God,
because you are in Christ Jesus.
006:012 Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies,
causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;
006:013 and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin
to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God
as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender
your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to
maintain the right.
006:014 For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects
not of Law, but of grace.
006:015 Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under
the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed!
006:016 Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants
to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey,
whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result)
or of Duty (resulting in righteousness)?
006:017 But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin,
you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth
in which you have been instructed.
006:018 You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became
the bondservants of Righteousness--
006:019 your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures--
and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage
to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you
must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever
advancing towards perfect holiness.
006:020 For when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no
sort of subjection to Righteousness.
006:021 At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct
which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally
result in death.
006:022 But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin,
and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward
in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages
as the final result.
006:023 For the wages paid by Sin are death; but God's free gift is
the Life of the Ages bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
007:001 Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted
with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are
subject to the Law?
007:002 A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him
by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her
to him has now no hold over her.
007:003 This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she
lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress;
but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under
the old prohibition, and even though she marries again,
she is not an adulteress.
007:004 So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation
of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to
Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield
fruit to God.
007:005 For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures,
sinful passions--made sinful by the Law--were always being
aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield
fruit to death.
007:006 But seeing that we have died to that which once held us
in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we
render a service which, instead of being old and formal,
is new and spiritual.
007:007 What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing?
No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught
by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin.
For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is,
if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet."
007:008 Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment
stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from
Law sin would be dead.
007:009 Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came,
sin sprang into life, and I died;
007:010 and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring
me life, brought me death.
007:011 For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment
it completely deceived me, and also put me to death.
007:012 So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy,
just and good.
007:013 Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed,
but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means
of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin,
in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable
sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.
007:014 For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--
the slave, bought and sold, of sin.
007:015 For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action.
What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse
to is what I do.
007:016 But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit
the excellence of the Law,
007:017 and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin
which has its home within me does them.
007:018 For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has
its home; for while the will to do right is present with me,
the power to carry it out is not.
007:019 For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do;
but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what
I constantly do.
007:020 But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer
be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home
within me does it.
007:021 I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire
to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.
007:022 For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;
007:023 but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law
of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law
which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.
007:024 (Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from
this death-burdened body?
007:025 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then,
with my understanding, I--my true self--am in servitude
to the Law of God, but with my lower nature I am in servitude
to the Law of sin.
008:001 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus;
008:002 for the Spirit's Law--telling of Life in Christ Jesus--
has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.
008:003 For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was
because it acted through frail humanity--God effected.
Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature
and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin
in human nature;
008:004 in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be
fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly,
but by our spiritual natures.
008:005 For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give
their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their
spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things.
008:006 Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death;
but for it to be given up to spiritual things means
Life and peace.
008:007 Abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to God.
Such a mind does not submit to God's Law, and indeed
cannot do so.
008:008 And those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things
cannot please God.
008:009 You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things,
if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if
any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not
belong to Him.
008:010 But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin,
yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness.
008:011 And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead
is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead
will give Life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit
who dwells in you.
008:012 Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we
are under obligation that we should live by their rule.
008:013 For if you so live, death is near; but if, through being
under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily
habits to death, you will live.
008:014 For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.
008:015 You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness
of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror.
But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been
adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud,
"Abba! our Father!"
008:016 The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits,
to the fact that we are children of God;
008:017 and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs
with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings,
in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.
008:018 Why, what we now suffer I count as nothing in comparison
with the glory which is soon to be manifested in us.
008:019 For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck,
is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.
008:020 For the Creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality
(not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who so subjected it).
008:021 Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself
would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy
the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.
008:022 For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together
in the pains of childbirth until this hour.
008:023 And more than that, we ourselves, though we possess
the Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future,
yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open
recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies.
008:024 It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object
of hope is such no longer when it is present to view;
for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said
to hope for it?
008:025 But if we hope for something which we do not see, then we
eagerly and patiently wait for it.
008:026 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we
do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them.
But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can
find no words,
008:027 and the Searcher of hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is,
because His intercessions for God's people are in harmony
with God's will.
008:028 Now we know that for those who love God all things are working
together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate
purpose He has called.
008:029 For those whom He has known beforehand He has also pre-destined
to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Eldest
in a vast family of brothers;
008:030 and those whom He has pre-destined He also has called;
and those whom He has called He has also declared free from guilt;
and those whom He has declared free from guilt He has also
crowned with glory.
008:031 What then shall we say to this? If God is on our side,
who is there to appear against us?
008:032 He who did not withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for all
of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
008:033 Who shall impeach those whom God has chosen? God declares
them free from guilt.
008:034 Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has
risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God,
and is interceding for us.
008:035 Who shall separate us from Christ's love? Shall affliction
or distress, persecution or hunger, nakedness or danger
or the sword?
008:036 As it stands written in the Scripture, "For Thy sake they are,
all day long, trying to kill us. We have been looked upon
as sheep destined for slaughter."
008:037 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who has loved us.
008:038 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower
ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present
nor things future, nor the forces of nature,
008:039 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be
able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
009:001 I am telling you the truth as a Christian man--it is no falsehood,
for my conscience enlightened, as it is, by the Holy Spirit
adds its testimony to mine--
009:002 when I declare that I have deep grief and unceasing
anguish of heart.
009:003 For I could pray to be accursed from Christ on behalf of my brethren,
my human kinsfolk--for such the Israelites are.
009:004 To them belongs recognition as God's sons, and they have His
glorious Presence and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law,
and the Temple service, and the ancient Promises.
009:005 To them the Patriarchs belong, and from them in respect of His
human lineage came the Christ, who is exalted above all,
God blessed throughout the Ages. Amen.
009:006 Not however that God's word has failed; for all who have sprung
from Israel do not count as Israel,
009:007 nor because they are Abraham's true children. But the promise
was "Through Isaac shall your posterity be reckoned."
009:008 In other words, it is not the children by natural descent
who count as God's children, but the children made such
by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.
009:009 For the words are the language of promise and run thus,
"About this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall
have a son."
009:010 Nor is that all: later on there was Rebecca too.
She was soon to bear two children to her husband,
our forefather Isaac--
009:011 and even then, though they were not then born and had not
done anything either good or evil, yet in order that God's
electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was,
not on their actions but on the will of Him who called them,
she was told,