unfoldingWord_en_BP_Paratext/UST/46ROMust.SFM

\id ROM EN_UST en_English_ltr Wed Dec 07 2022 14:03:42 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) tc
\usfm 3.0
\ide UTF-8
\h Romans
\toc1 The Letter to the Romans
\toc2 Romans
\toc3 Rom
\mt1 Romans
\c 1
\p
\v 1 \add I,\add* Paul, \add am writing this letter\add*. I serve the Messiah Jesus. He called me to represent him and specially chose me to proclaim God’s good news.
\v 2 God previously promised this good news by means of his spokesmen who prophesied about it \add and wrote it down\add* in the sacred writings.
\v 3 \add This good news is\add* about God’s Son. He was born a natural descendant of David.
\v 4 In accordance with the Holy Spirit, God powerfully demonstrated that Jesus is his Son by causing him to live again after he had died. \add God’s Son is\add* Jesus the Messiah, \add who is\add* our Lord.
\v 5 Jesus favored us who represent him and authorized us to represent him on his behalf in order that all the nations would obey \add God\add* by trusting \add in Jesus the Messiah\add*.
\v 6 Jesus the Messiah has also called you who are \add living\add* among the nations.
\v 7 \add I am writing this letter\add* to all of you \add believers\add* who dwell in the city of Rome. God loves you and has called you to be people who belong to him. \add May\add* God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah \add continue to\add* be kind to you and make you peaceful.
\p
\v 8 Now, \add the\add* first \add thing I want to tell you, is that\add* I am constantly thanking my God through Jesus the Messiah for all of you \add believers in the Messiah\add*. \add I thank him\add* because \add people\add* throughout the known world are proclaiming how you trust \add in Jesus\add*.
\v 9 \add I can say this truthfully\add* because God testifies for me that I frequently pray for you. I serve him devotedly by proclaiming the good news about his Son\add , Jesus\add*.
\v 10 \add When\add* I pray, I very often request that I might finally succeed in coming to \add visit\add* you because God wants \add me to\add*.
\v 11 \add I pray for this\add* because I deeply desire to see you \add in person\add* in order to share some kind of gracious gift with you from the Holy Spirit in order to help you become spiritually stronger.
\v 12 In other words, \add I want to share some gracious gift with you\add* in order that we may mutually encourage one other. Both you and I can help each other by sharing how we mutually trust in God.
\v 13 My fellow believers, I certainly want you to know that I planned to visit you many times. But \add God\add* has prevented me from visiting you until the present time. \add I planned to visit you\add* in order to lead some people to believe in Christ among you as well, just like \add how I have\add* also \add done so\add* among the other nations.
\v 14 I am obligated \add to proclaim the good news\add* to all non-Jewish people, whether or not they are \add culturally\add* Greek and whether or not they are educated.
\v 15 So then, if it were my choice, I would gladly proclaim the good news to you who dwell in Rome.
\p
\v 16 \add I would gladly do this\add* because I am deeply honored to proclaim the good news because it is the powerful way that God uses to save anyone who believes \add it\add*. \add This is true for\add* both the Jews \add who\add* first \add heard the good news\add* and then everyone else.
\v 17 \add This is true\add* because whenever \add people proclaim\add* the good news, they reveal how God makes people righteous, which is entirely through trusting \add in the Messiah\add*. This is what \add the prophet Habakkuk meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “But the person whom God makes righteous will live forever by trusting \add in God\add*.”
\p
\v 18 \add This is true\add* because from where God dwells he is revealing how he is furious toward \add and will judge\add* every person who does ungodly and unrighteous things. These people suppress the things that God says are true by living in an unrighteous manner.
\p
\v 19 \add God will judge them\add* because what anyone can know about God is obvious to these people since God has made it obvious to them.
\v 20 \add This is true\add* because people can clearly perceive those things about God that they cannot see \add with their eyes\add*. \add These things are\add* how powerful God is and the fact that he is God. \add People could perceive these things\add* since the time God created the universe. The things that God has made have understood \add these things\add*. For this reason, people cannot excuse themselves \add from acknowledging that God exists\add*.
\v 21 \add People cannot excuse themselves\add* because they do not honor him as God, even though they know that he exists. They also refuse to thank him. In contrast, they think about worthless things, and they are unable to understand spiritual things.
\v 22 \add Although\add* they assert that they are wise, they are \add actually\add* fools.
\v 23 They stop glorifying the God who is immortal, and instead they glorify idols that resemble mortal people, birds, four-legged animals, and animals that crawl \add on the ground\add*.
\p
\v 24 Consequently, God lets these people do the lustful things that they desire to do, so that they become \add spiritually\add* impure and they disgrace their bodies with one another \add by doing sexually immoral acts\add*.
\v 25 These people stop believing what is true about God and instead believe what is false \add about idols\add*. They reverently worship things that God has created, instead of \add worshiping\add* \add the God\add* who created those things. \add He is the one\add* whom people should bless forever! May it be so!
\p
\v 26 Because \add these people do that\add*, God lets them do the dishonorable things they strongly desire \add to do\add*. For example, their women stop doing natural \add sexual\add* acts \add with men\add* and instead do unnatural \add sexual\add* acts \add with women\add*.
\v 27 Similarly, the men also stopped doing natural \add sexual\add* acts with women \add and\add* lusted intensely after other men. These men do shameless \add sexual\add* acts with each other. They experience God penalizing them in their own bodies. \add God must penalize them\add* because they pervert \add God’s natural sexual acts\add*.
\p
\v 28 As these people thought that acknowledging God was worthless, God let their minds become worthless. As a result, they do inappropriate things.
\v 29 \add These people\add* are completely controlled by all kinds of unrighteous, wicked, covetous, and malicious \add thoughts\add*. They are completely willing to be jealous, take another’s life, argue, deceive, and commit evil deeds \add against others\add*. They reveal secrets \add about others\add*.
\v 30 They speak badly of \add other people\add*. They hate God. They act violently. They think too highly of themselves. They boast \add about themselves\add*. They think of \add new kinds of\add* evil things \add to do\add*. They do not obey their parents.
\v 31 These people are \add morally\add* foolish. They do not do what they promise to do. They do not care \add about other people\add*. They do not show mercy \add to others\add*.
\v 32 These people fully understand that God has righteously declared that people who keep doing such \add inappropriate\add* things deserve to die \add spiritually\add*. \add Nevertheless,\add* they not only keep on doing those \add inappropriate\add* things, but they even happily approve of people who do such things!
\c 2
\p
\v 1 Consequently, any one of you who judges another person cannot excuse yourself \add at all\add* \add when God condemns you\add*. \add This is\add* because you are actually condemning yourself when you judge someone else, since you who judge someone else do the exact same things \add that they do\add*!
\v 2 Certainly, we acknowledge that God will correctly judge those people who continue doing such \add inappropriate\add* things.
\v 3 You who judge the people who continue to do such \add inappropriate\add* things while you do the exact same things yourself should certainly not think that you can escape when God judges you!
\v 4 You who despise \add how\add* abundantly kind, tolerant, and patient God is must certainly know that God’s kind acts \add are meant to\add* cause you to repent.
\v 5 Instead, because you are stubborn and refuse to repent, you are causing God to punish you even more severely. \add This will happen\add* when God punishes \add sinners\add* and reveals how justly he judges.
\p
\v 6 God will \add justly\add* reward or punish everyone for whatever they do.
\v 7 Living eternally \add is how God repays\add* those people who keep striving for God to glorify, honor, and preserve them \add forever\add*. \add They do this\add* by persisting in doing what is good.
\v 8 By contrast, God will fiercely punish those people who refuse to do what he says is true and right because they are selfishly ambitious.
\v 9 \add God will cause\add* every human being who does what is evil to become distressed and troubled. \add This will happen\add* especially to the Jew \add who does what is evil\add* and also to everyone else \add who does so\add*.
\v 10 By contrast, God will glorify, honor, and reconcile every person who does what is good. \add This will happen\add* especially to the Jew \add who does what is good\add* and also to everyone else \add who does so\add*.
\v 11 \add These things are true\add* because God is impartial.
\p
\v 12 \add We know this about God,\add* because he will punish forever all people who sin without \add knowing\add* the laws \add that God gave the Jews\add* \add even though\add* they do not know those laws. At the same time, God will judge according to his laws whoever sins while knowing those laws.
\v 13 \add God will judge everyone who sins\add* because God does not make righteous those people who \add only\add* hear his laws. Rather, God will make righteous those people who obey his laws.
\v 14 \add God will judge everyone who sins\add* because whenever nations which do not know the laws \add that God gave the Jews\add* naturally obey rules from those laws, \add they prove that\add* they know laws within their minds even though they do not know God’s laws.
\v 15 \add By naturally following some laws that God gave through Moses,\add* these people demonstrate that God has made each person aware of how to obey his laws. What they think shows that this is true, in that what each of them thinks will either accuse or even defend their actions.
\v 16 \add This will happen\add* at the time when God \add finally\add* judges the hidden thoughts that people think. \add God’s\add* good news that I proclaim teaches that he will judge \add mankind\add* through the Messiah Jesus.
\p
\v 17 Now, \add I am addressing\add* you who identify yourselves as Jews: You depend on the laws \add God gave you\add* \add to avoid God’s judgment\add*. You brag that you know God.
\v 18 You know what God wants. Also, since \add some people\add* have taught you \add God’s law\add*, you approve of what is superior.
\v 19 You have even convinced yourselves that you \add Jews\add* are the only ones who can teach those \add non-Jewish people\add* who do not know \add about God\add*. \add You are convinced that\add* only you can enable ignorant people to understand \add who God is\add*.
\v 20 \add You have convinced yourself that\add* you should instruct people who are foolish. \add You have convinced yourself that\add* you should teach \add people who are as ignorant as\add* infants. \add You think this way\add* because you know the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*, which fully contain what we can know and what is true.
\v 21 So \add even though you Jews have convinced yourself that these things are true\add*, you should teach yourselves to do what you teach others to do \add because you don’t do those things\add*! You keep telling others that they should not steal, but you steal!
\v 22 You keep telling \add people\add* not to have sexual relations with people whom they did not marry, \add but\add* you do so! You \add supposedly\add* detest idols, \add but\add* you ransack temples \add that contain idols\add*!
\v 23 You brag about \add how well you understand\add* the laws \add God gave you\add*, \add but\add* you disgrace God by disobeying those laws!
\v 24 \add These things are true\add* because it is what \add the prophet Isaiah meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “The nations say bad things about God because of \add how wickedly\add* you \add Jews act\add*.”
\p
\v 25 \add You Jews who have sinned will be judged\add* because, being circumcised \add only\add* benefits you if you obey the laws \add God gave you\add*. However, if you disobey those laws, being circumcised does not benefit you at all.
\v 26 So then, if uncircumcised people obey what God requires in the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*, God will regard those uncircumcised people as being circumcised.
\v 27 And people who are physically uncircumcised yet fully obey the laws \add from God\add* will judge you \add Jews\add*! Although \add you know\add* the written rules \add God gave the Jews\add* and you are circumcised, you have disobeyed those laws!
\v 28 \add This is true\add* because a \add true\add* Jew is not someone who does Jewish rituals that people can see. \add Similarly,\add* people cannot see \add true\add* circumcision on a person’s body.
\v 29 Rather, a \add true\add* Jew is one \add by means of something\add* that people cannot see. \add True\add* circumcision \add happens\add* in a person’s mind \add and\add* the \add Holy\add* Spirit does it. \add Obeying\add* the written rules \add God gave the Jews\add* cannot do it. God commends a true Jew, but other people do not.
\c 3
\p
\v 1 \add You Jews might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely being a Jew is not advantageous! Surely being circumcised is not beneficial at all!”
\v 2 \add Then I would say, “Being a Jew benefits a person\add* in many ways!” \add This is\add* certainly \add true\add* because, first of all, God trusted the Jews with preserving what he had said \add in the Scriptures\add*.
\v 3 \add So you might say,\add* “Some of these \add Jews\add* were certainly unfaithful \add to God\add*! How unfaithful those people are certainly cannot invalidate how faithful God is!”
\v 4 \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not!” On the contrary, God \add is always\add* truthful, but everyone else is not. This is what \add David meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “The result \add of my sin\add* is that people will acknowledge that you\add , God,\add* are right when you speak and victorious when people \add try to\add* judge you.”
\p
\v 5 But \add you might say,\add* “Suppose \add this is true and\add* how unrighteous we \add Jews\add* are \add actually\add* confirms how righteous God is. \add That\add* could not \add possibly mean\add* that God is unrighteous because he punishes \add us\add*!” (When I talk like this, I am expressing how human beings think.)
\v 6 \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not! If God were unrighteous when he punishes us, then he could not \add possibly\add* judge \add anyone in\add* the world!”
\v 7 But \add then you might say,\add* “Suppose \add this is true, and\add* my lying further glorifies God \add and\add* how truthful he is. \add If that is so,\add* then \add surely\add* God should not still judge me as if I were sinning!
\v 8 And \add if this is true, then\add* you should \add just\add* tell us to act wickedly in order that good things can happen!” (This is exactly what some people say falsely about me and claim that I say. It is right \add for God\add* to condemn people \add who speak and act\add* this way!)
\p
\v 9 \add You Jews might then say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then we are surely not superior \add to non-Jewish people\add*!” \add And I would say that\add* indeed we are not. \add I say this\add* because I have previously charged that all Jews and non-Jewish people cannot stop being sinful.
\v 10 This is what \add the prophets meant when\add* they wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “No one is righteous, no one at all!”
\p
\v 11 “No one thinks wisely. No one is even trying to know God!
\p
\v 12 Everyone has refused to obey \add God\add*. As a whole, they are worthless \add for doing what God wants\add*. No one is kind, no one at all!”
\q1
\v 13 “What people say is morally corrupt \add like the smell of rotten corpses in\add* a grave! They constantly deceive \add people\add* by what they say!” “What they say hurts people, like the venom of venomous snakes!”
\v 14 “They constantly curse \add others\add* and speak harshly \add against them\add*.”
\v 15 “They rush eagerly to murder people.
\v 16 Wherever they go, they destroy lives and make people suffer.
\v 17 They do not understand how to live peacefully \add with others\add*.”
\v 18 “They do not fear God \add at all\add*!”
\p
\v 19 Certainly, we Jews know all that God says in his laws applies to \add the Jews,\add* to whom God gave his laws. This is in order that no one can excuse themselves \add from being judged by God.\add* \add This is\add* also in order that God can justly punish everyone in the world as guilty.
\v 20 \add This is true\add* because God will not make anyone righteous with himself \add simply\add* because they obey the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*. \add This is so\add* because those laws \add only\add* make people aware of how sinful they are.
\p
\v 21 But now God has revealed how he makes people righteous. \add Becoming righteous\add* is not related to obeying the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*. \add Yet,\add* in what they wrote \add in the Scriptures\add* Moses and the prophets testify \add about how God makes people righteous\add*.
\v 22 How God makes people righteous is by trusting in Jesus the Messiah. \add God will make\add* all \add types of\add* people \add righteous\add* if they trust in \add Jesus\add*. \add This is\add* because God does not distinguish \add between different types of people\add*.
\v 23 \add This is\add* because all \add types of\add* people sin and fail to acquire the glorious status from God.
\v 24 God makes \add these sinful people\add* righteous as a gift because he is so kind. \add People receive this gift from God\add* when God unites them to Jesus the Messiah, who redeemed them \add from being punished for being sinful\add*.
\v 25 God offered Jesus as the one who atones \add for everyone’s sins\add*. \add People are rescued from being punished for being sinful\add* by trusting in his \add sacrificial\add* death. \add God did this\add* in order to show how God makes people righteous. \add This happened\add* because God disregarded people’s sinful acts that they had previously done.
\v 26 \add God did this\add* because he is so tolerant. \add God also did this\add* in order to show how he makes people righteous during our time. \add This is\add* for the purpose of showing that God is righteous and that he makes people righteous \add if\add* they trust in Jesus.
\p
\v 27 \add You Jews might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely no one can boast!” \add Then I would say,\add* “Indeed, no one can!” \add Then you might say,\add* “Surely \add we can become righteous\add* by obeying the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*! Surely doing \add those things\add* \add will make us righteous\add*!” \add Then I would say,\add* “Absolutely not! On the contrary, \add people become righteous\add* by trusting \add in Jesus the Messiah\add*.
\v 28 Indeed, we \add Jewish Christians\add* consider people to become righteous by trusting \add in Jesus the Messiah\add*. \add Being righteous\add* is not related to doing those things \add that God commanded\add* in the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*.”
\v 29 \add Or you might say,\add* “Surely God is not only the God of the Jews. Surely he is the God of \add all\add* the nations too!” \add So I would say,\add* “Absolutely! He is the God of \add all\add* the nations too.
\v 30 \add This is true\add* because there is certainly \add only\add* one God \add for all people\add*. He will make righteous \add both\add* the Jews who trust \add in Jesus\add* and the non-Jewish people who trust in \add Jesus\add*.”
\v 31 \add You Jews might say,\add* “Then surely we make the laws \add God gave us\add* invalid by trusting in \add Jesus\add*!” \add So I would say,\add* “Of course not! On the contrary, we confirm that \add what God said in\add* those laws is valid.”
\c 4
\p
\v 1 \add You Jews might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely our physical ancestor Abraham found out \add about it\add*.
\v 2 \add This must be true\add* because if Abraham became righteous based on doing the things \add that God commanded in his laws\add*, then he could brag \add about it\add*.” On the contrary, \add I would say that\add* \add Abraham could\add* not possibly \add boast about it\add* to God!
\v 3 \add I say this\add* because, \add Moses\add* surely tells \add us\add* in the Scriptures, “Abraham trusted in God, and God considered Abraham to be righteous because he trusted in him.”
\v 4 Indeed, when a person works, he does not consider the wage \add he earns\add* to be a gracious gift. On the contrary, \add that person considers the wage he earns\add* to be what his employer owes him.
\v 5 By contrast, when a person does not obey \add the laws God gave the Jews\add*, but trusts in the God who can make unrighteous people righteous, God considers him to be righteous because he trusted in him.
\v 6 This is also the same thing that David wrote \add in the Scriptures\add* about how blessed people are when God considers them to be righteous, even though they do not do those things \add that God commanded\add*. \add David wrote:\add*
\q1
\v 7 “People are so happy when God forgives their lawless acts! People are so happy when God no longer acknowledges their sinful acts!
\v 8 Any person whom the Lord never again considers to be sinful is so happy!”
\p
\v 9 Therefore, these happy people are not only circumcised \add Jews\add* but even uncircumcised people \add who are not Jews\add*! \add This must be true\add* because we \add Jews\add* quote \add the scripture that states,\add* “God considers Abraham to be righteous because he trusted \add in him\add*.”
\v 10 So then, \add you surely know\add* when Abraham trusted in God and God considered \add him to be righteous\add*! \add You surely know whether this happened\add* before he was circumcised or afterward! \add Indeed,\add* it was not while Abraham was circumcised, but while he was still uncircumcised \add that God considered him to be righteous\add*.
\v 11 Abraham was circumcised as a mark \add in his body\add* to prove that God had made him righteous because Abraham trusted \add in him\add* before he was circumcised. \add This happened\add* in order for him to become the \add spiritual\add* ancestor for every non-Jewish person who trusts in God in order that God would consider them to be righteous \add because they trust in him\add*.
\v 12 \add This\add* also \add happened in order for Abraham to become\add* the \add spiritual\add* ancestor of those people who are circumcised, that is, those circumcised \add Jews\add* \add who are not only circumcised in their bodies\add*, but who also trust in God the same way that our ancestor Abraham did even before he was circumcised.
\p
\v 13 \add This is true\add* because \add when\add* God promised Abraham and those who descend from him that the \add whole\add* world would belong to him, \add God did not promise this\add* because \add Abraham obeyed\add* the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*. Rather, \add God promised this\add* because God had made \add Abraham\add* righteous because Abraham trusted \add in him\add*.
\v 14 \add This is true\add* because, if people could inherit \add what God promised Abraham\add* by obeying the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*, \add then\add* trusting \add in God\add* would become useless! What God promised would also become invalid.
\v 15 \add This is\add* because the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* are intended to punish \add those who disobey them\add*. However, where God’s laws do not exist, no one can disobey \add them\add*.
\v 16 This is why what God promised comes by trusting in him in order to show how kind he is. \add God was so kind\add* in order that he could secure what he promised to everyone who has \add spiritually\add* descended \add from Abraham\add*. \add Those who have spiritually descended from Abraham\add* are not only those \add Jews\add* who obey the laws \add God gave them\add*, but also those who trust \add in God\add* as Abraham did. Abraham is the \add spiritual\add* ancestor of all of us \add who trust in God\add*.
\v 17 (This is exactly what \add God\add* said in the Scriptures \add about Abraham\add*: “I have chosen you to be a \add spiritual\add* ancestor for numerous people groups.”) God considers \add Abraham to be our spiritual ancestor\add*. Abraham trusted God. \add God is the one\add* who causes dead people to become alive \add again\add*. He also commands things that do not exist \add to exist\add*, then they exist.
\v 18 Abraham trusted \add in God\add* by hoping \add in God\add* despite what seemed hopeless. As a result, he became the \add spiritual\add* ancestor for numerous people groups. \add This happened\add* just as God had promised \add him\add* \add in the Scriptures\add*: “The people who descend from you will become as numerous \add as the stars in the sky\add*.”
\v 19 Abraham thought that his body was too old to produce children. (He was almost 100 years old!) \add He also thought\add* that \add his wife\add* Sarah was unable to become pregnant \add because she never had been able to do so before\add*. \add Nevertheless,\add* Abraham kept on trusting \add God\add*.
\v 20 Indeed, Abraham did not faithlessly doubt what God had promised. On the contrary, God empowered Abraham to continue trusting \add in him\add* while Abraham was glorifying God.
\v 21 God also totally assured Abraham that he is able to do what he had promised \add to do\add*.
\v 22 And this is why, “God considered Abraham to be righteous because he trusted in him.”
\p
\v 23 Yet, when \add Moses\add* wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “God considered how Abraham trusted \add him\add*,” \add these words\add* not only refer to Abraham.
\v 24 On the contrary, \add these words\add* also refer to us \add who trust in Jesus\add*. God is going to consider how we \add believers\add* trust \add him\add*. \add We are\add* the people who trust him. \add He is\add* the one who caused our Lord Jesus to become alive again after he had died.
\v 25 God allowed people to kill Jesus because we sinned \add against God\add*. \add God\add* also caused Jesus to become alive again in order to make us righteous.
\c 5
\p
\v 1 Consequently, we should live peacefully with God by means of \add what\add* our Lord Jesus the Messiah \add did for us\add* because we have become righteous by trusting \add in Jesus\add*.
\v 2 Our Lord Jesus the Messiah also allows us to continually experience how kind God is by trusting in Jesus. We can confidently boast that we will share in God’s glorious status.
\v 3 This is not the only thing \add about which we can confidently boast\add*. Rather, we can also confidently boast about the painful things \add that we have experienced\add*. \add We can do this\add* because we know that a painful thing \add that we experience\add* causes us to endure \add hardships better than before\add*.
\v 4 And being able to endure \add hardships\add* results in \add God\add* approving \add us\add*. And \add when God\add* approves \add us, we become more\add* confident.
\v 5 And when we become confident, we will not be disappointed. \add This is\add* because the Holy Spirit has enabled us to deeply understand \add how much\add* God loves us. God has given us this Holy Spirit.
\p
\v 6 In fact, while we were still helpless, \add Jesus\add* the Messiah died for the sake of \add us\add* impious people. \add God caused this to happen\add* at just the right time.
\v 7 Indeed, someone would rarely consider dying for the sake of a person who is righteous, although someone might possibly even bravely consider dying for the sake of a good person.
\v 8 However, God shows his own love towards we \add believers\add* by this fact: while we were still sinful, \add Jesus\add* the Messiah died for our benefit!
\v 9 Consequently, since the Messiah’s \add sacrificial\add* death has already made us righteous, it is even more certain that he will rescue us when God \add finally\add* punishes \add sinners\add*!
\v 10 Indeed, God’s Son \add Jesus\add* died to reconcile us to God while we were \add still\add* \add his\add* enemies. Therefore, since Jesus has \add already\add* reconciled us to God, it is even more certain that he will rescue us \add when God punishes sinners\add* because he is alive \add again\add*!
\v 11 Now these are not the only things \add God does for us\add*. Rather, we also boast about God by means of \add what\add* our Lord Jesus the Messiah \add has done for us\add*. Jesus has already reconciled us \add with God\add*!
\p
\v 12 So then, sin started existing in the world because one man sinned, and \add living things started\add* to die because he sinned. In the same way, everyone started dying as well, because everyone sins.
\v 13 Indeed, people throughout the world sinned before \add God gave his\add* laws \add to the Jews\add*. However, God did not legally regard what they did as sinning, since those laws did not yet exist \add to identify what it means to sin\add*.
\v 14 However, everyone died from \add the time of the first man\add* Adam until \add the time of\add* Moses. Even those people died who did not sin by violating the same command God gave to Adam. Adam is like the person who would come \add later\add*.
\v 15 But what God has kindly given \add us\add* is not the same as how Adam rejected \add God’s command\add*. In fact, it is true that many people died because the one man \add Adam\add* rejected \add God’s command\add*. \add But\add* how kind God is and that which God kindly gives through the one man Jesus the Messiah extend to many people \add and are\add* much greater!
\v 16 Yet, what God gives is not like \add what happened\add* because the one man \add Adam\add* sinned. \add This is true\add* because, in fact, God judged \add everyone\add* after the sinful thing \add that Adam did\add*, which resulted in God condemning \add everyone\add*. By contrast, what God kindly gave \add people\add* after they rejected \add his commands\add* many \add times\add* resulted in God making them righteous.
\v 17 Indeed, since everyone died because the one man \add Adam\add* rejected \add God’s command\add*, it is even more certain that those \add people\add* who accept how abundantly kind God is and \add are those people whom\add* he makes righteous will live in control \add of themselves\add*. \add This will happen\add* because of \add what\add* Jesus the Messiah \add has done\add*.
\p
\v 18 Therefore, in the way that God condemned everyone because \add Adam\add* rejected \add God’s command\add*, in the same way, God makes everyone righteous, which results in \add them\add* living eternally, because of the righteous act that \add Jesus\add* did.
\v 19 Indeed, in the same way that people became sinful because the one man \add Adam\add* disobeyed \add God\add*, in the same way many people will become righteous because the one man \add Jesus\add* obeyed \add God\add*.
\v 20 Yet \add God\add* added \add his\add* laws in order that people might reject \add his commands\add* even more. Nevertheless, whenever people began to sin even more, then even more God showed how kind he is!
\v 21 \add This happened\add* so that God could be gracious to people by making them righteous. Just as being sinful controlled people by making them die, in the same way, when God makes people righteous, they live forever. \add This is\add* because of \add what\add* our Lord Jesus the Messiah \add has done\add*.
\c 6
\p
\v 1 \add Someone might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely we \add believers\add* should keep on sinning in order that, even more, God might show how kind he is even more!”
\v 2 \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not!” We who are no longer controlled by sinning surely must not continue living sinfully!
\v 3 You surely know that God unites to the Messiah Jesus whomever someone baptizes, and it is as if that baptized person also died with the Messiah!
\v 4 So, by being baptized as if we died with \add the Messiah\add*, it is like God buried us \add in the tomb\add* with \add Jesus\add*. \add This is so\add* in order that, just as God the Father’s glorious power caused the Messiah to become alive again after he had died, in the same way, we too can live a new way of living.
\v 5 Indeed, since we share in what resembles Jesus dying, we will surely also share in God making us alive again.
\v 6 We know that God \add also\add* did away with our former \add sinful\add* way of living when people crucified Jesus. \add He did this\add* in order to totally remove the way sin controls us, so that we no longer have to live sinfully.
\v 7 \add This is\add* because, when people \add who live sinfully\add* share in \add Jesus’\add* death, God frees them from having to live sinfully.
\v 8 Now since \add it is as if\add* we died with the Messiah, we trust that we will also live with him \add eternally\add*.
\v 9 We know that the Messiah can never die again, because God caused him to become alive again after he had died. Nothing can ever cause the Messiah to die again!
\v 10 \add This is\add* because when Jesus died, he only had to die that one time only in order to remove \add the way\add* sin \add controls people\add*. Now that he is alive \add again\add*, he lives in order to glorify God.
\v 11 Similarly, you too regard yourselves as no longer controlled by sinning. Indeed, \add regard yourselves\add* as alive in order to glorify God because God has united you to the Messiah Jesus.
\v 12 Since this is true, do not allow your sinful desires to control you. \add This would\add* result in you doing \add the sinful things\add* that you want to do.
\v 13 Do not use your body parts in order to do unrighteous things \add or\add* to sin. Instead, live in order to do what God wants you to do, like people whom God caused to live again after they had died. Also, use your body parts in order to do righteous things to glorify God.
\v 14 Indeed, do not allow your desire to sin to control you because the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* do not control you. Instead, how kind God is controls you.
\p
\v 15 \add Someone might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely we \add believers\add* should keep on sinning because the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* do not control us. Instead, how kind God is controls us!” \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not!”
\v 16 You surely know that if you submit yourselves to be controlled by a thing or person, you become like slaves to that thing or person you submit to! \add This is true\add* whether you submit yourselves to living sinfully, which will kill you \add eternally\add*, or you submit yourselves to God, which will make you righteous.
\v 17 Although you used to submit yourselves to living sinfully, \add now\add* you are sincerely submissive to the type of teaching to which God has submitted you. Thank God!
\v 18 Indeed, since God liberated you from living sinfully, you are \add now\add* serving \add God\add* righteously.
\v 19 (I \add Paul\add* am speaking in human terms, because you are spiritually immature.) Indeed, just as you \add previously\add* used your body parts to live impurely and to increasingly break God’s laws, in the same way, now use your body parts to live righteously. \add This will cause you\add* to live like God’s people should live.
\v 20 \add This is\add* because when you used to submit yourselves to living sinfully, you were not living righteously.
\v 21 So, formerly you did not benefit from those \add sinful\add* things \add you did\add* that now embarrass you. \add This is because\add* those things will eventually kill \add you\add* \add eternally\add*.
\v 22 But now \add that you trust in Jesus\add*, God has freed you from living sinfully and has caused you to serve him the way slaves would serve him. Therefore, you receive what is beneficial, which results in you living like God’s people should live. Indeed, \add living in that way\add* will eventually result in you living eternally.
\v 23 \add I say this\add* because living sinfully causes those who do so to die \add eternally\add*, but God graciously causes those who are united to our Lord, the Messiah Jesus, to live eternally.
\c 7
\p
\v 1 My fellow \add Jewish\add* believers, you are well-aware that the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* must be obeyed by \add Jewish\add* people throughout their whole lives. (\add I know that you are well-aware of this fact\add*, because I am speaking to people who are familiar with the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*.)
\v 2 For instance, according to the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*, a married woman must remain married to her husband as long as he lives. However, if her husband dies, \add God’s\add* law no longer requires her to remain married to him.
\v 3 Therefore, if she marries another man while her husband is alive, \add according to God’s law\add* she will be an adulterous woman. However, if her husband dies, she no longer has to obey \add what\add* God’s law \add requires of those who are married\add*. As a result, she would not be an adulterous woman if she married another man.
\v 4 So, my fellow \add Jewish\add* believers, by means of the Messiah dying \add on the cross\add* the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* no longer control you. \add God did this\add* in order to unite you to the Messiah, \add as if you were marrying a new husband\add*. He is the person whom God made alive again after he had died. \add God did this\add* in order that we may do things that please him.
\v 5 Indeed, when living sinfully used to control us, the laws \add God gave us\add* caused us to want to sin even more. \add Our living sinfully\add* controlled what we did with our body parts. As a result, we would \add eventually\add* die \add eternally\add*.
\v 6 But now \add that we trust in Jesus\add*, God cancels what his laws require \add us to do\add*. The laws \add God gave the Jews\add* no longer control us as if we were prisoners. As a result, we now serve God in the new way that comes from the \add Holy\add* Spirit. \add We\add* no longer \add serve God\add* in the old way that the written rules \add God gave the Jews\add* require.
\p
\v 7 \add Someone might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* are sinful!” \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not!” On the contrary, without the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*, I would never have become aware of \add what it means to\add* sin. For instance, if God did not say in his laws, “You must not covet,” I would never have become aware of \add what it means to\add* covet.
\v 8 However, since I am sinful, I wanted to covet in many ways because I knew that \add God\add* commanded \add us not to covet\add*. \add This is\add* because if the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* did not exist, living sinfully would cease.
\v 9 There was a time when I was living without being aware of the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*. But, when I became aware of those commandments, I wanted to sin even more.
\v 10 I became \add spiritually\add* dead. God’s command was supposed to result in me living \add eternally\add*. But God’s command actually will result in me dying \add eternally\add*.
\v 11 \add This is so\add* because \add I\add* wanted to sin even more because I knew what God had commanded. When I sinned, I tricked myself. Then \add disobeying\add* what God had commanded killed me \add spiritually\add*.
\v 12 So the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* are worthy of God and what God has commanded is worthy of God, just, and good.
\p
\v 13 So, \add God’s laws\add*, which are good, surely did not cause me to die \add spiritually\add*! Of course not! Rather, living sinfully did so. \add This happened\add* so that \add God’s\add* good \add laws\add* would reveal how sinful it is to live sinfully. \add This also happened\add* so that what God commands would reveal that living sinfully is utterly sinful.
\p
\v 14 \add This is true\add* because we are \add all\add* aware that the laws \add God gave the Jews\add* are from God’s Spirit. But as for me, I am \add spiritually\add* weak. \add It is as if\add* I must serve as a slave to living sinfully.
\v 15 \add This is true\add* because I do not comprehend what I do! Indeed, I keep on doing what I do not want to do. But I do what I hate \add that I do\add*.
\v 16 Now because I do what I do not want \add to do\add*, \add this proves that\add* I agree with the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*. \add I also testify\add* that they are good \add laws\add*.
\v 17 This means that now I am no longer the one who causes me to do \add these sinful things\add*. Rather, my wanting to live sinfully causes me \add to do them\add*.
\v 18 Indeed, I am aware that I am not good \add at all\add*. In other words, my sinful self \add is not good at all\add*. \add This is true\add* because, even though I really want to do \add what is good\add*, I am unable to do so.
\v 19 Indeed, I do not do the good things I want \add to do\add*. Rather, I keep on doing evil things that I do not want \add to do\add*.
\v 20 Now because I do what I do not want \add to do\add*, I am no longer the one who causes me to do \add these sinful things\add*. Rather, my wanting to live sinfully causes me \add to do them\add*.
\v 21 Consequently, I realized that a principle exists: I keep on doing evil things, \add even though\add* I really want to do good things.
\v 22 \add This is true\add* because the laws God gave \add the Jews\add* make my mind rejoice.
\v 23 Yet, I notice another principle that controls what I do with my body parts. \add This principle\add* conflicts with the \add other\add* principle that my mind \add accepts\add*. It also controls me, making me its prisoner by means of the principle that I tend to live sinfully. \add Living sinfully\add* controls what I do with my body parts.
\v 24 I am truly a wretched person! \add I feel as though there is no one\add* who could \add possibly\add* rescue me from this body that kills me!
\v 25 I thank God \add who rescued me\add* by means of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! Therefore, I actually do obey with my mind the laws God gave \add the Jews\add*. Yet \add at the same time\add* with my sinful self \add I obey\add* the principle that I tend to live sinfully.
\c 8
\p
\v 1 So now, God absolutely does not condemn anyone whom he has united with the Messiah Jesus.
\v 2 \add This is true\add* because the principle that pertains to the life-giving Holy Spirit has caused you \add believers\add* to no longer be controlled by the principle that causes people to sin and die \add eternally\add*. \add It did this\add* by uniting you with the Messiah Jesus.
\v 3 Indeed, God \add accomplished\add* what the laws \add he gave the Jews\add* could not accomplish, because they could not prevent people from living sinfully. Through \add the crucifying of\add* \add his Son’s\add* body, God removed \add how\add* sinning \add controls people\add*. \add He did this\add* by sending his own Son \add Jesus\add* \add to the world\add* in a human body \add that was\add* like the bodies of sinful people. \add God sent his Son\add* in order to \add remove\add* that which causes man to sin.
\v 4 \add God did these things\add* so that we \add believers\add* could do the righteous acts that the laws \add he gave the Jews\add* required. We can live as people whom living sinfully does not control. Rather, \add we can live as people\add* whom the \add Holy\add* Spirit controls.
\v 5 \add This is true\add* because those \add people\add* whom living sinfully controls think about those things that are related to living sinfully. However, those people whom the \add Holy\add* Spirit controls think about those things that are related to the \add Holy\add* Spirit.
\v 6 Indeed, focusing on living sinfully will cause \add a person\add* to die \add eternally\add*. However, focusing on the \add Holy\add* Spirit will cause \add a person\add* to live \add eternally and\add* peacefully.
\v 7 \add This is true\add* because \add people\add* who focus on living sinfully are God’s enemies. \add This is\add* because they do not voluntarily obey the laws God gave \add the Jews\add*; they are incapable \add of doing so\add*.
\v 8 But those whom living sinfully controls are incapable of pleasing God.
\v 9 By contrast, you \add believers\add* are not those whom living sinfully controls. Rather, you are those whom the \add Holy\add* Spirit controls because God’s Spirit really does reside within you. But if some person does not possess Jesus the Messiah’s Spirit, this person does not belong to the Messiah.
\v 10 Now, since the Messiah resides within you \add believers\add*, the \add Holy\add* Spirit gives \add you\add* \add eternal\add* life because he has made you righteous. \add This is true\add* even though your bodies will die because you sin.
\v 11 The \add Holy\add* Spirit does indeed reside within you. \add He came\add* from God, who caused Jesus to become alive again after he had died. \add Since this is true,\add* God, who caused the Messiah Jesus to become alive again after he had died, will also cause your physical bodies to become alive \add again\add* by his Spirit. This \add Spirit\add* resides within you.
\p
\v 12 Therefore, \add my\add* fellow believers, we are obligated. \add But we are not obligated\add* to live sinfully, \add which means\add* to live like those whom living sinfully controls.
\v 13 Indeed, if you live like those whom living sinfully controls, you will die \add eternally\add*. However, if the \add Holy\add* Spirit enables you to stop doing what is sinful with your bodies, you will live \add eternally\add*.
\p
\v 14 \add This is\add* because those people whom God’s Spirit guides are God’s \add spiritual\add* children.
\v 15 Indeed, God has not given you \add believers\add* an enslaved mind to terrify you, such as you had before. Rather, God has given you the Holy Spirit to \add spiritually\add* adopt you \add as his children\add*. \add It is\add* the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry out, “Abba, my Father!”
\v 16 The \add Holy\add* Spirit personally testifies, along with our own minds, that we are God’s \add spiritual\add* children.
\v 17 Since we are \add God’s spiritual\add* children, we are also those who will inherit \add blessings from God\add*. We inherit \add blessings from God himself\add* and also together with the Messiah \add Jesus\add*. \add This is true\add* only if we keep suffering together with the Messiah in order for God to also glorify us together with the Messiah.
\p
\v 18 Indeed, I regard what we \add believers in the Messiah\add* suffer at this time as being incomparable to what glorious things God will reveal to us \add in the future\add*.
\v 19 Indeed, what God created is very eagerly waiting for \add the time\add* when God reveals whom his \add spiritual\add* children are.
\v 20 \add This is\add* because God subjugated what he created so that it became useless. \add What God created\add* did not want this to happen. Rather, \add God subjugated what he created\add* because he wanted to \add do so\add*. \add He did this\add* to keep \add the creation\add* confidently expecting
\v 21 that God would also enable what he created to stop decaying and let it freely experience the same glorious status that belongs to his \add spiritual\add* children.
\v 22 Indeed, we are aware that, \add even\add* at the present time, everything God has created keeps groaning and suffering together \add like a mother experiencing pain before bearing a child\add*.
\v 23 \add It is\add* not only \add what God created that groans\add*! On the contrary, even we ourselves who possess the \add Holy\add* Spirit as the first portion \add from God\add* feel suffering. \add We feel this way\add* while we eagerly wait for God to \add spiritually\add* adopt us, which will be when God redeems our bodies.
\v 24 \add This is so\add* because God rescued us while we confidently expect this. If we \add already\add* had what we have been confidently expecting, then we would have nothing to confidently expect. \add This is\add* because surely nobody confidently expects something that he \add already\add* has.
\v 25 Yet, if we keep on confidently expecting what we do not yet have, then we will keep on eagerly waiting for it while persevering.
\p
\v 26 The \add Holy\add* Spirit similarly also assists us because we are weak. \add This is\add* because we are not aware for what we should pray. However, the \add Holy\add* Spirit personally pleads on our behalf by groaning without speaking words.
\v 27 Now God is the one who investigates what we think and feel. He is aware of what the \add Holy\add* Spirit intends, because the Spirit pleads for the sake of God’s people according to \add what\add* God \add wants\add*.
\p
\v 28 We are certain that God makes all things that happen to benefit those who love him. \add They are\add* the people whom God called because he previously planned \add to do so\add*.
\v 29 \add This is\add* because those whom God chose in advance, he also decided in advance to make resemble his Son \add Jesus\add*. \add God did these things\add* in order for his Son \add Jesus\add* to have first place among many \add spiritual\add* siblings.
\v 30 Certainly, the people whom God chose in advance \add to become his people\add*, he also summoned to become his people. And those people whom God summoned \add to become his people\add*, he also made righteous. And those people whom God made righteous, he will also make glorious.
\p
\v 31 \add Since these things are true,\add* then we should say this about them: since God supports us, surely no one \add is powerful enough\add* to oppose us!
\v 32 God did not even spare his own Son, \add Jesus\add*. On the contrary, God handed him over \add to die\add* for the sake of us all. So God surely will also graciously give us, along with Jesus, every \add blessing\add*!
\v 33 Surely no one can \add rightly\add* accuse those whom God chose \add to become his people\add*! \add This is because\add* God is the one who makes people righteous.
\v 34 Surely no one can condemn \add God’s people\add*! \add This is because\add* the Messiah Jesus is the one who died. Furthermore, he is the one whom God made alive again. He is also at the place of highest honor next to God, and he even pleads for our sake.
\v 35 Surely no one can make Jesus stop loving us! If people trouble us or distress us or persecute us, or if we are hungry or naked or in danger, or if people kill us with swords, surely none of those things can make Jesus stop loving us!
\v 36 This is what \add God meant when\add* he said \add in the Scriptures\add*, “They constantly kill us because of you\add , God\add*. They consider us to be like sheep for them to slaughter.”
\v 37 However, he who loved us enables us to completely overcome all of these things \add that might happen to us\add*.
\v 38 In fact, God has persuaded me that \add none of these things\add*—whether being dead, or what happens while we are alive, or angels, or demons who rule, or things that are happening to us, or things that will happen to us, or powerful demons,
\v 39 or what is above \add us\add*, or what is below \add us\add*, or anything else that God created—can stop God from loving us! \add God loves us\add* because we are united to the Messiah Jesus, our Lord!
\c 9
\p
\v 1 I speak what is true as one whom God has united with the Messiah. I do not speak what is false. The Holy Spirit confirms what my conscience testifies within myself \add when I say\add*
\v 2 that I grieve very greatly and constantly!
\v 3 \add I do so\add* because I truly wish that God would curse me and completely alienate me from \add Jesus\add* the Messiah for my fellow \add kinsmen\add* \add to be saved\add*! They are physically related to me.
\v 4 These \add kinsmen of mine\add* are the Israelites. \add They are those\add* whom God \add spiritually\add* adopted. God allowed them to experience how glorious he is. God made covenants with them. God gave them his laws. God gave them the way to worship him. God also made promises to them.
\v 5 \add Our Jewish\add* forefathers \add Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob\add* were Israelites. The Messiah is also one of them, as someone physically related to them. The Messiah rules over everything. \add He is\add* the blessed God forever. May it be so!
\p
\v 6 Yet God has not failed to do what he promised \add to the Israelites\add*. \add This is true\add* because not all people who have physically descended from Israel are \add true\add* Israelites.
\v 7 \add It is\add* also not \add true\add* that all those who physically descended \add from Abraham\add* are Abraham’s \add true\add* offspring. Rather, \add as God says to Abraham in the Scriptures,\add* “I will identify your \add true\add* offspring through \add those who descend from\add* Isaac.”
\v 8 In other words, the people who \add only\add* physically descended \add from Abraham\add* are not God’s \add spiritual\add* children. Rather, those \add who became God’s spiritual\add* children as a result of what God promised are regarded as \add Abraham’s true spiritual\add* offspring.
\v 9 Indeed, this is what God promised \add would happen\add* \add when he said in the Scriptures\add*, “At a set time, I will come. As a result, Sarah will give birth to a son.”
\v 10 This is not the only \add promise God made\add*. But \add God made a promise\add* also when Rebekah became pregnant by this same man, Isaac. \add He is\add* the ancestor of us \add Israelites\add*.
\v 11 Indeed, \add God chose only one of her two sons\add* even though she had not yet born them and they had not yet done anything right or wrong. \add God did this\add* in order that what he had previously planned with regard to choosing \add people\add* would happen.
\v 12 \add God did not choose only one of her sons\add* because of what he did. Rather, it was because God summons \add those whom he chooses\add*. \add This is why\add* God told Rebekah \add in the Scriptures\add*, “Your older son will become a slave to your younger son.”
\v 13 This is what \add God meant when\add* he said \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I love \add the younger son\add* Jacob, but I emphatically reject \add the older son\add* Esau.”
\p
\v 14 \add Someone might say,\add* \add “If what you have said is true,\add* then surely God must be unrighteous!” \add Then I would say,\add* “Of course not!”
\v 15 \add We know that God is truly righteous\add* because God told Moses \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I will be merciful to whomever I want to be merciful. I will be compassionate to whomever I want to be compassionate.”
\v 16 Therefore, \add who receives God’s mercy does\add* not \add depend\add* on \add how much\add* someone desires \add to receive it\add*. \add Who receives God’s mercy\add* also does not depend on \add how much\add* effort someone exerts. Rather, \add it depends on\add* what God wants. \add He is\add* the one who is merciful.
\v 17 Indeed, this is what God told Pharaoh in the Scriptures, “I allowed you \add to become king in Egypt\add* for this exact reason: in order that I could use you to exhibit how powerful I am. I also \add allowed you to become king\add* in order that I will be famous all over the world.”
\v 18 Therefore, God is merciful to whomever he wants \add to be merciful\add*. But he makes stubborn whomever he wants \add to become stubborn\add*.
\p
\v 19 As a result \add of what I have said,\add* one of you may tell me, “\add If what you have said is true,\add* then surely God should not blame people \add for doing what they do\add*! \add God should not do that\add* because no one can ever stop him from doing whatever he wants \add to do\add*!”
\v 20 \add Then I would say,\add* “You \add mere\add* human! You who argue with God are truly not worthy \add to do so\add*! Who God has made surely must not say to God who made him, ‘You should not have made me to be like this!’”
\v 21 \add God can surely do whatever he wants to do with what he has made. In the same way,\add* someone who makes containers can do whatever he wants to do with his materials. From the same material he can make both containers for special use and containers for ordinary use.
\v 22 Now, \add you should surely not argue with God\add* because he very patiently endured those people whom he would punish \add and\add* had prepared to destroy \add eternally\add*. \add He endured them\add* because he wanted to show how angry he is and to reveal how powerful he is.
\v 23 \add God\add* also \add endures those whom he will punish\add* in order to reveal how abundantly glorious he is to those people to whom he will be merciful. God has previously arranged to glorify these people \add eternally\add*.
\v 24 We are also \add among those people to whom God is merciful and\add* whom God has summoned. \add God summons people\add* from \add among\add* Jewish people and even from \add among\add* non-Jewish people.
\v 25 In the same way, God also told Hosea \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I will give the name ‘My people’ to people who were not my people. I will also give the name ‘Loved one’ to the person whom I did not love.”
\p
\v 26 \add God also told Hosea,\add* “Then it will happen, in the \add exact\add* same location where I previously told them, ‘You are not my people,’ I will give them the name, ‘Children of God who lives.’”
\p
\v 27 Indeed, \add elsewhere in the Scriptures\add* Isaiah shouts out about \add the people\add* of Israel, “Even though there were as many Israelites as there are grains of sand along the seashore, God will refrain from punishing \add only\add* a few of them.
\v 28 \add This is\add* because the Lord will fully and swiftly accomplish what he promised \add to do\add* on the earth.”
\p
\v 29 \add It is\add* also just like Isaiah previously said \add in the Scriptures\add*, “Unless the Lord, who rules over angel armies, had preserved offspring for us \add Israelites\add*, he would have utterly destroyed us like he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
\p
\v 30 \add Since these things are true\add*, we should surely say that \add although\add* the nations are not trying to be righteous, \add they\add* became righteous. \add However,\add* they became righteous by trusting \add God\add*.
\v 31 By contrast, \add the people of\add* Israel tried to obey the laws \add God gave them\add* in order to become righteous. \add But\add* they could not become righteous by \add obeying\add* those laws.
\v 32 The reason why \add the people of Israel could not become righteous\add* is that they did not \add try to become righteous\add* by trusting \add God\add*. Instead, they tried to become righteous by working \add for it\add*. \add Because of this\add* \add the Messiah offended them when he came\add*. It is as if the Messiah is\add* a stone that causes them to trip.
\v 33 This is what \add God meant when\add* he had \add Isaiah\add* write \add in the Scriptures\add*, “Pay attention! I am placing in Jerusalem \add someone who is like\add* a stone that trips \add people\add* and a rock that offends \add people\add*. But God will not humiliate \add anyone\add* who trusts in that person.”
\c 10
\p
\v 1 My fellow believers, I strongly desire \add that God will save the Israelites\add*. I also pray for him \add to save\add* them!
\v 2 \add This is\add* because I personally confirm that they are zealous about God. However, \add they are\add* not \add zealous\add* based on fully knowing \add God\add*.
\v 3 \add This is\add* because they are not aware of how God makes people righteous, and they try to make themselves righteous. \add This is why\add* they refuse to subject themselves to the way God makes people righteous.
\v 4 \add They were wrong to try to make themselves righteous\add*, because \add Jesus\add* the Messiah has ended the laws \add that God gave the Jews\add*. \add Christ did this\add* in order for God to make righteous anyone who trusts \add in Jesus\add*.
\p
\v 5 Indeed, this is what Moses wrote \add in the Scriptures\add* about being righteous by \add obeying\add* the laws \add God gave the Jews\add*: “The person who obeys \add all\add* \add God’s\add* laws \add perfectly\add* will live \add eternally\add* by doing so.”
\v 6 However, this is what \add Moses\add* said \add in the Scriptures\add* about people becoming righteous by trusting \add in God\add*, “Do not say to yourselves, ‘Surely no one can go up to heaven!’” (This refers to trying to make the Messiah come down \add to the earth\add*.)
\v 7 \add Moses\add* also \add said not to say,\add* “Surely no one can go down into the bottomless pit!” (This refers to trying to make the Messiah become alive again after he had died.)
\v 8 However, \add Moses also\add* said this \add in the Scriptures\add* \add about people becoming righteous by trusting in God\add*, “You can easily know what God said. You can proclaim it and know it personally.” This refers to what God said about trusting \add in him\add*. \add This is what\add* we \add believers in the Messiah\add* keep announcing.
\v 9 \add What we keep announcing is\add* that God will save \add any of\add* you who verbally acknowledges that Jesus is the Lord \add over all things\add* and \add personally\add* trusts that God made Jesus become alive again after he had died.
\v 10 \add This is true\add* because God makes righteous anyone who personally trusts \add in Jesus\add*, and he saves anyone who verbally acknowledges \add that Jesus is the Lord\add*.
\v 11 Indeed, this is \add what God\add* said in the Scriptures, “God will not humiliate \add anyone\add* who trusts in that person.”
\v 12 Indeed, the Lord \add Jesus\add* does not discriminate between Jewish people and non-Jewish people. \add This is\add* because \add Jesus\add* is the same Lord \add who rules\add* over everyone. He generously blesses all people who call out to him \add to save them\add*.
\v 13 Indeed, \add Joel wrote in the Scriptures,\add* “God will save all people who call out to the Lord \add to save them\add*.”
\p
\v 14 So, people certainly will not call out \add for the Lord Jesus to save them\add* \add if\add* they do not trust \add in him\add*. And people certainly will not trust \add in Jesus\add* \add if\add* they have not heard \add about him\add*. And people certainly will not hear \add about Jesus\add* \add if\add* someone does not proclaim \add to them who he is\add*.
\v 15 And certainly people would not proclaim \add to other people who Jesus is\add* unless someone sends them out! This is what \add Isaiah meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “It is a beautiful thing when people go and declare \add to other people\add* the good news about good things!”
\v 16 However, not all \add Jews\add* accepted the good news \add about Jesus\add*. Indeed, this is what Isaiah \add meant when\add* he said \add in the Scriptures\add*, “Lord, no one trusts what we say!”
\v 17 So then, \add a person can only\add* trust \add in Jesus\add* by hearing \add about him\add*. And \add a person can only\add* hear \add about Jesus\add* through \add hearing\add* the message \add that is about\add* the Messiah.
\v 18 However, this is what I say, “The Jews most definitely heard \add the message\add*!” It is a fact. \add As David wrote in the Scriptures,\add* “\add The heavenly bodies are like witnesses and\add* everyone throughout the entire world could hear what they said.”
\p
\v 19 This is also what I say, “\add The people of\add* Israel most definitely understood \add the message\add*!” \add God\add* first said through Moses \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I will \add personally\add* make you envious and angry by \add using\add* a nation that does not \add belong to me\add* and does not \add even\add* know \add me\add*.”
\v 20 Moreover, \add God\add* quite boldly declared through Isaiah \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I revealed myself to those \add non-Jewish people\add* who were not interested in knowing me and did not \add even\add* ask about me.”
\p
\v 21 However, \add God\add* told \add the people of\add* Israel \add in the Scriptures\add*, “I am always inviting \add you\add* to know me, \add but you\add* \add constantly\add* disobey and oppose \add me\add*!”
\c 11
\p
\v 1 Since \add these things are true\add*, this is what I say, “God certainly has not rejected his people, the Israelites!” Of course not! \add I know this is true\add* because I too am one of the Israelites. I descended from Abraham. \add More specifically, I descended\add* from the tribe that descended from Benjamin.
\v 2 God did not discard his people. \add They are the people\add* whom he chose in advance. You certainly are aware of what the Prophet Elijah said in the Scriptures when he appealed to God against the people of Israel!
\v 3 \add Elijah said,\add* “Lord, the people of Israel murdered \add all of\add* your prophets \add except for me\add*! They demolished \add all of\add* your altars! I am the very last \add prophet\add* who is still alive! Now, they are trying to kill me \add too\add*!”
\v 4 However, this is how God replied to Elijah, “I have kept alive 7,000 men for my purposes. These men have not worshipped \add the false god\add* Baal.”
\v 5 So, similarly, at this time some faithful Israelites also remain. \add This is\add* because God has graciously chosen them \add to remain\add*.
\v 6 Yet because \add God chooses his people\add* based on how gracious he is, \add God\add* does not \add choose his people\add* based on what they do. \add If God chose people based on what they do,\add* then how gracious he is would not \add really\add* be gracious.
\p
\v 7 So this is what we should conclude: Although \add the people of\add* Israel keep trying to make themselves righteous, they cannot do so. Instead, those whom God \add graciously\add* chose \add from them\add* became righteous. But God made stubborn those people of Israel whom he did not \add graciously\add* choose.
\v 8 This is exactly \add what God meant when he wrote\add* in the Scriptures, “God caused the people of Israel to not think properly. Until this present day, God has made them completely unable to understand \add how to become righteous\add*.”
\v 9 David also stated \add in the Scriptures\add*, “\add O God\add*, make the luxurious way they live punish them completely \add like a hunter catches an animal\add* in a net or trap! \add Make the luxurious way they live\add* cause them to sin and pay them back \add for sinning\add*!
\q1
\v 10 Make them unable to understand! Make them suffer like slaves forever!”
\p
\v 11 Since \add these things are true\add*, this is what I say, “The Jewish people were certainly not offended in order that God would completely reject them!” Of course not! Rather, God saves non-Jewish people because the Jewish people disobeyed \add him\add*. This happened in order for God to make the Jewish people envious \add of non-Jewish people who know him\add*.
\v 12 Indeed, God used how the Jewish people disobeyed \add him and\add* failed \add to make themselves righteous\add* to abundantly bless people from all the nations in the whole world. So, \add when\add* the complete amount of \add faithful\add* Jewish people \add become righteous\add*, there will be even greater blessings!
\p
\v 13 But now I am speaking to you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add*. God indeed made me his representative to non-Jewish people. Therefore, I show how glorious is what I do to minister \add to non-Jewish people\add*.
\v 14 If possible, I want to make those who I am physically related to, the Jews, envious \add of the non-Jewish people who know God\add*, so that God will save some of them.
\v 15 Indeed, God is reconciling with \add people in\add* the world as a result of him rejecting the Jewish people. So, when God accepts the Jewish people, it will result in God making alive those who are dead.
\v 16 Indeed, because \add the ancestors of the Jewish people belong to God, just like\add* the first portion \add of a lump of dough\add* belongs to God, \add all the Jewish people belong to God, just like\add* that whole lump of dough \add belongs to God\add*. Also, because \add the ancestors of the Jewish people belonged to God, just like\add* the root \add of an olive tree\add* belongs to God, \add all the Jewish people belong to God, just like\add* the branches of that \add same\add* tree \add belong to God\add*.
\p
\v 17 Indeed, \add God has removed some of the Jewish people from his people, as\add* a farmer breaks \add unfruitful\add* branches off \add of an olive tree\add*. But, \add God has made\add* you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add* \add part of his people, as\add* a farmer grafts wild olive branches into \add a cultivated tree\add*. \add You\add* also \add share together in benefitting from being part of God‘s people, as\add* grafted branches share in the nutrition in the olive tree root.
\v 18 Therefore, you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add* must not boast against the \add Jewish people whom God removed, even though they are like\add* broken off branches! If you do boast, \add you must realize that\add* you indeed do not sustain the Jewish people. Rather, \add they sustain\add* you, as the root sustains \add the branches\add*!
\v 19 So then, you might say, “\add God removed some of the Jewish people from his people, as\add* a farmer breaks \add unfruitful\add* branches off \add of a tree\add*. \add God did this\add* in order that \add he could join\add* me \add to his people, as\add* a farmer grafts a branch into \add a tree\add*.”
\v 20 \add I would reply by saying that\add* what you said is correct. \add God removed\add* some of the Jewish people \add from being his people, as\add* a farmer breaks off \add unfruitful\add* branches because they were unfaithful. However, you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add* remain \add part of God‘s people\add* by trusting \add in him\add*. Do not arrogantly think \add that you are better than unbelieving Jewish people\add*! Rather, fear \add God!\add*
\v 21 \add You should fear God\add* because he did not show pity to the \add faithless Jewish people, who are like\add* natural branches. So, he will not show pity to you \add non-Jewish people\add* \add if you stop trusting in Jesus\add*!
\p
\v 22 Since \add this is true\add*, pay attention to how kind and severe God can be! God acts severely toward those who stop trusting in him. However, God will act kindly toward you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add* if you continue accepting how kind he is. But, if you do not \add do this\add*, \add God will reject you, like\add* a farmer cuts an \add unfruitful\add* branch off of a tree!
\v 23 However, if those faithless Jewish people believe \add in Jesus\add*, God will allow them to \add rejoin his people, just as\add* a farmer grafts \add branches\add* into \add a tree\add*. \add This is\add* because God is powerful enough to rejoin the Jewish people \add to his people\add*.
\v 24 Indeed, \add God removed\add* you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus from the nations and joined you to his people, as\add* a farmer cuts off a branch from a naturally wild olive tree and grafts it into a cultivated olive tree, \add even though doing so is\add* not natural. Since \add this is true\add*, \add God\add* will certainly \add join Israelites back into his people, just as\add* a farmer grafts a naturally cultivated olive branch back into its own tree.
\p
\v 25 \add I say this\add* because I really want you, my \add non-Jewish\add* fellow believers, to know what God had previously hidden \add from people\add*, so that you do not become arrogant. \add God had previously hidden from people the fact\add* that some of \add the people of\add* Israel will stubbornly oppose \add him\add* until all the non-Jewish people God has chosen have joined his people.
\v 26 Then, in the same way, God will save all \add of the people of\add* Israel. This is what \add Isaiah meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “God will send from Jerusalem someone to rescue \add his people\add*. \add That man\add* will make \add the descendants of\add* Jacob stop being ungodly.”
\p
\v 27 \add God says,\add* “This is the agreement that I will make with the descendants of Jacob, when I forgive \add them for the\add* sinful things \add that they have done\add*.”
\p
\v 28 With regard to \add Jewish people rejecting\add* the good news, they are enemies \add of God\add* for your benefit. However, with regard to \add God\add* choosing \add Jewish people\add*, God loves them for the sake of \add what he promised\add* their ancestors.
\v 29 \add This is true\add* because God does not revoke the things he graciously gives. \add He\add* also \add does not revoke\add* \add the people whom\add* he summons \add to be his people\add*.
\v 30 Indeed, \add it is\add* just as you \add non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus\add* used to disobey God, but now God has been merciful to you because the Jewish people disobeyed \add him\add*.
\v 31 In the same way, the Jewish people also are now disobeying \add God\add* because God has been merciful to you \add non-Jewish people\add*. \add This happened\add* in order for God to now also be merciful to them.
\v 32 Indeed, God allowed everyone to disobey him in order to be merciful to them.
\p
\v 33 God is so very wealthy, wise, and knowledgeable! No one can fully understand what he does!
\v 34 Indeed, \add as Isaiah wrote,\add* “\add No one\add* could \add ever\add* comprehend what the Lord thinks or advise him!”
\v 35 Furthermore, “No one could \add ever\add* give God \add anything\add* that would cause God to owe him \add something\add*!”
\p
\v 36 \add No one can do these things\add*, because everything \add came\add* from God, \add exists\add* by God, and \add exists\add* for God. \add I pray that\add* everyone will glorify him forever. May this truly be so!
\c 12
\p
\v 1 So then, \add considering everything that I have told you,\add* I exhort you fellow believers, based on how compassionate God is: Devote yourselves \add to God\add*, as if you were living animals someone offers to God. Be holy and please God. Doing so is the reasonable way for you to serve \add God\add*.
\v 2 Do not change yourselves to be like the \add sinful people who live at\add* the current time. Rather, let God change the way you behave by changing the way you think in order that you can test and prove what God wants \add you to do\add*. \add God wants you to do\add* what is good, pleasing, and flawless.
\p
\v 3 Indeed, based on \add how\add* God has kindly authorized me \add to represent him,\add* I am telling every one of you to not think you are better than you really are. Rather, think properly \add about yourselves\add*, according to the amount of trusting \add in God\add* that God has apportioned to each one \add of you\add*.
\v 4 \add You must think properly about yourselves\add* because, in the same way that a \add human\add* body has many parts that all function for different purposes,
\v 5 so also, we many \add believers in the Messiah\add* are united to the Messiah as one group. \add Each one of us is united to each other like\add* the individual parts \add of a human body\add* are united.
\v 6 Yet we \add believers in the Messiah\add* have received different spiritual abilities in accordance with what God has kindly given to us. If \add God has enabled you\add* to prophesy, \add then prophesy\add* in accordance with the amount of trusting \add in God\add* that God has apportioned to you.
\v 7 If \add God has enabled you\add* to serve, \add then you should\add* serve \add others\add*. \add If God has enabled you\add* to teach \add others\add*, \add then you should\add* teach \add others\add*.
\v 8 If \add God has enabled you\add* to encourage \add others\add*, \add then\add* you should encourage \add others. If God has enabled you\add* to give \add what you have to others\add*, \add then\add* you should generously give \add what you have to others\add*. \add If God has enabled you\add* to lead \add others\add*, \add then\add* you should lead \add others\add* diligently. \add If God has enabled you\add* to be merciful, \add then\add* you should cheerfully be merciful.
\p
\v 9 Love \add each other\add* genuinely. Detest what is wicked. Fervently retain what is good.
\v 10 Be affectionate toward each other in regard to loving fellow believers. Be the first to honor other \add fellow believers\add*.
\v 11 Do not be lazy, \add but\add* be diligent. Be sincerely enthusiastic. Serve the Lord.
\v 12 Rejoice because you are confident \add in the Lord\add*. Be patient when you suffer. Pray persistently.
\v 13 Share \add what you have\add* \add to provide\add* what God’s people need. Find opportunities to welcome \add others into your home\add*.
\v 14 \add Ask God to\add* bless the people who mistreat you. \add Ask God to\add* bless them rather than curse them.
\v 15 Rejoice along with those people who are rejoicing. Cry along with those who are crying.
\v 16 Be as concerned for each other as you are for yourselves. Do not think arrogantly \add about yourselves\add*. Rather, associate with humble people. Do not be arrogant.
\v 17 Do not do something evil to someone who has done something evil to you. Think carefully about \add doing\add* things that everyone considers to be good.
\v 18 Live peacefully with everyone whenever it is possible for you to do so.
\v 19 \add Fellow believers\add* whom I love, do not retaliate \add when people do something evil against you\add*. Rather, let God punish \add them\add*. \add I say this\add* because Moses wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “The Lord says, ‘I will retaliate \add when people do something evil against you\add*. I will punish \add them according to what they have done\add*.’”
\v 20 Rather \add than permitting us to retaliate, God instructed us in the Scriptures\add*, “Feed your enemy if that person is hungry. Give your enemy something to drink if that person is thirsty. \add Do this\add* because when you do so, \add your enemy will feel ashamed, as if\add* you were piling up burning coals on top of that person’s head.”
\v 21 \add In other words,\add* do not let what is evil defeat you \add by causing you to do what is evil\add*. Rather, defeat what is evil by \add doing\add* what is good.
\c 13
\p
\v 1 Every one of you must submit yourselves to those whom God has authorized to govern you. \add This is\add* because no one \add can govern\add* unless God authorizes them \add to do so\add*. God has instituted the existing governments.
\v 2 So people who resist those whom God has authorized \add to govern\add* are opposing what God has commanded. God will punish those people who oppose \add those whom he has authorized to govern\add*.
\v 3 Indeed, the people who rule are \add not supposed\add* to terrify \add those people who do\add* what is good. Rather, \add they are supposed to terrify\add* \add those people who do\add* what is evil. If you do not want to fear those whom God authorizes to rule, \add then\add* do what is good and those who rule will commend you for doing so.
\v 4 \add This is\add* because the people \add whom God authorizes to rule\add* serve God for your benefit. But if you do what is evil, you should be afraid, because God has authorized those people who rule to punish \add people\add* for a good reason. Indeed, those people who rule serve God by avenging \add what is evil\add* in order to punish anyone who practices what is evil.
\v 5 Consequently, you must submit yourselves \add to those people whom God authorizes to rule\add*. \add You must do this\add* not only because they can punish you, but also because you know \add that to disobey them is to disobey God\add*!
\v 6 Indeed, you also pay taxes because of these things. \add You also pay taxes\add* because those people \add whom God authorizes to rule\add* serve God. They devote themselves to serving \add by governing\add*.
\v 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay taxes to whom you owe taxes. Pay fees to whom you owe fees. Fear those people whom you should fear. Honor those people whom you should honor.
\p
\v 8 Do not owe anything to anyone. Rather, continue to love other \add people who believe in the Messiah\add* \add as if you owe it to them\add*. \add Do this\add* because someone who loves another person accomplishes \add what God required in\add* the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*.
\v 9 \add This is true\add* because \add God commanded\add* these things \add in his laws when he said\add*, “Do not have sexual relations with someone whom you did not marry. Do not murder. Do not rob people. Do not lust for what belongs to other people.” You could summarize anything else that God commands \add in the laws he gave the Jews\add* with this \add other\add* thing \add God commanded\add*: “Love other people in the same way you love yourself.”
\v 10 \add When you\add* love other people, \add you\add* do not do evil things \add to them\add*. This is why loving \add other people\add* accomplishes \add what God required in\add* the laws \add he gave the Jews\add*.
\p
\v 11 \add Do\add* these things because you know what time it is. It is already the time for you to be spiritually alert because \add the time when Jesus will return\add* to \add finally\add* save us is now closer than when we began trusting \add in him\add*.
\v 12 \add In the same way that\add* the night ends just before the day begins\add , the time of this sinful world is almost over, and Jesus will return soon\add*. So, we must stop doing \add what is evil, which is like\add* what people do when it is dark. Instead, we must \add oppose what is evil by doing what is good, which is like\add* a soldier puts on his armor \add to fight the enemy\add* during the day.
\v 13 We must behave appropriately, as if it were daytime \add and people could see what we do\add*. We must not celebrate drunkenly or get drunk \add at all\add*. We must not do any unrestrained sexually immoral acts \add at all\add*. We must not quarrel \add with others\add* or be jealous \add of others\add*.
\v 14 Rather \add than doing those things\add*, act like the Lord Jesus the Messiah would act. Do not concern yourselves with \add anything that is related to\add* what your \add sinful\add* self wants to do.
\c 14
\p
\v 1 Welcome any fellow \add believer in the Messiah\add* who is immature in how they believe. \add Do\add* not \add welcome them\add* in order to argue with them about matters of opinion.
\v 2 \add There are some people\add* who are convinced that they can eat any \add kind of food\add*. But the immature \add believer in the Messiah\add* \add thinks that they can only\add* eat vegetables.
\v 3 \add The believer in the Messiah\add* who eats \add every kind of food\add* must not scorn \add his fellow believer\add* who does not eat \add every kind of food. The believer in the Messiah\add* who does not eat \add every kind of food\add* also must not judge \add his fellow believer\add* who eats \add every kind of food\add*. \add This is\add* because God has welcomed \add both of\add* them.
\v 4 You should not judge \add your fellow believer, who is like\add* a slave belonging to another \add master\add*. He either pleases or does not please his master, \add according to how the master judges\add*. Yet God will make him pleasing \add to himself\add* because the Lord can do so.
\p
\v 5 Some people consider certain days to be special, while other people consider all days \add to be the same\add*. Each person must be completely certain \add that what they do honors God\add*.
\v 6 The person who thinks certain days are special does so in order to \add honor\add* the Lord. The person who eats \add every kind of food\add* does so in order to \add honor\add* the Lord. \add This is\add* because that person is thankful to God. The person who refuses to eat \add certain foods\add* does so in order to \add honor\add* the Lord. That person is thankful to God as well.
\v 7 \add This is true\add* because not one of us \add believers in the Messiah\add* lives \add only\add* to \add please\add* himself, and not one of us dies \add only\add* to \add please\add* himself.
\v 8 Indeed, while we \add believers in the Messiah\add* live, we live to \add please\add* the Lord. When we die, we die to \add please\add* the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
\v 9 Indeed, this is why the Messiah \add Jesus\add* died and \add became\add* alive \add again\add*: in order to become Lord over those who are dead and those who are alive.
\p
\v 10 As for you, those of you who judge your fellow believers must not do so! You also must not scorn your fellow believers! \add Do not do these things\add* because \add one day\add* God will judge all of us \add who believe in the Messiah\add*.
\v 11 Indeed, Isaiah wrote in the Scriptures, “The Lord says \add this oath\add*, ‘As certainly as I am alive, \add it is just as certain that\add* everyone will worship me. And everyone will acknowledge to me \add that I am God\add*.’”
\p
\v 12 Therefore, each one of us \add who believes in the Messiah\add* will certainly answer to God for whatever we do \add while we are alive\add*.
\p
\v 13 So we must stop judging other believers. Instead, we must resolve not to do anything that could tempt our fellow believers to sin.
\v 14 I am absolutely convinced by the Lord Jesus that no \add food\add* is inherently sinful \add for believers in the Messiah to eat\add*. If someone regards some \add food\add* as sinful to eat, then it is \add only\add* sinful for that person to eat it.
\v 15 \add Do not tempt fellow believers to sin\add* because, if you grieve your fellow believer by eating what that person considers to be sinful to eat, you are not acting in a loving manner anymore. Do not cause a fellow believer to \add stop trusting in God and\add* become ruined \add eternally\add* because of what you \add want to\add* eat! The Messiah died to save that person!
\v 16 So then, do not do anything that will cause anyone to slander the good things that God has given you.
\v 17 \add Do not do this\add*, because eating and drinking do not characterize God’s kingdom. Rather, being righteous, peaceful, and joyful through the Holy Spirit \add characterizes God’s kingdom\add*.
\v 18 Indeed, \add any\add* believer who serves the Messiah by doing these things greatly pleases God, and \add other\add* people will \add also\add* approve of that person.
\p
\v 19 Therefore, we must eagerly try to live peacefully \add with other believers\add* and help each other become \add spiritually\add* mature.
\v 20 Do not ruin what God has done because \add you want to eat certain\add* foods! God permits us to eat all \add kinds of food\add*. However, it is sinful for someone to eat \add certain foods\add* if doing so tempts \add your fellow believer\add* to sin.
\v 21 It is better not to eat \add any\add* meat, or drink \add any\add* wine, or \add do\add* anything that could tempt your fellow believer to sin, [or that could offend that person or cause that person to remain spiritually immature].
\v 22 Keep what you believe \add that God permits you to do\add* between you and God. The person who does not feel guilty concerning what he believes to be right is blessed.
\v 23 By contrast, God judges someone who considers \add eating certain foods to be sinful\add* and eats \add those foods\add*. \add This is\add* because that person did not act according to what that person believes \add is right\add*. A person who does anything that is not according to what that person believes \add is right\add* is sinning.
\c 15
\p
\v 1 Indeed, we \add spiritually\add* mature \add believers in the Messiah\add* must support \add our\add* fellow believers in the Messiah who are \add spiritually\add* immature. We must not \add only\add* do what pleases us.
\v 2 Each one of us believers in the Messiah must do what pleases his fellow believers in order to do what is good \add for them, and\add* in order to help them become \add spiritually\add* mature.
\v 3 For instance, not even the Messiah \add Jesus\add* pleased himself! Rather, \add he lived to please others\add*. This is what \add David meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures about the Messiah saying to God\add*, “When people insult you, they \add also\add* insult me!”
\v 4 Indeed, the prophets previously wrote everything \add in the Scriptures\add* in order to teach us. \add They also wrote the Scriptures\add* in order to make us confident through what the Scriptures say that helps us endure and encourages us.
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\v 5 I pray that \add our\add* patient and encouraging God will allow you to live harmoniously with each other the way the Messiah Jesus did.
\v 6 \add I pray that you will live harmoniously with each other\add* in order that you might be united when you glorify God. \add He is\add* the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
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\v 7 Consequently, welcome your fellow believers \add in the Messiah\add* in the same way that the Messiah \add Jesus\add* also welcomed you in order to glorify God!
\v 8 Indeed, I\add , Paul,\add* am telling \add you\add* that the Messiah \add Jesus\add* serves the circumcised \add Jews\add* because of how trustworthy God is. \add He did this\add* in order to secure what God had promised to the \add Jewish\add* forefathers \add Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob\add*.
\v 9 \add Jesus also did this\add* in order for the nations to glorify God because he is so merciful. This is what \add David meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “So I will proclaim \add who\add* you \add are\add* \add when I am\add* among the nations, and I will praise you by singing songs.”
\v 10 Again, \add Moses\add* said in the Scriptures, “\add All you\add* nations, celebrate along with God’s people!”
\v 11 And also \add in the Scriptures someone said\add*, “All \add you\add* nations, praise the Lord! All \add you\add* people groups, commend him!”
\v 12 \add The Prophet\add* Isaiah also said \add in the Scriptures\add*, “The one who descends from \add David’s father\add* Jesse will come. He will begin to rule over the nations. The nations will become confident because of him.”
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\v 13 I pray that the God who makes \add people\add* confident will cause you to feel exceedingly joyful and peaceful by trusting \add in him\add*! \add I pray that God will do this\add* in order for you to be exceedingly confident by the Holy Spirit enabling you.
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\v 14 My fellow believers, God has also persuaded me personally that each of you are exceedingly good, exceedingly knowledgeable of many things, and even able to teach other people.
\v 15 \add In this letter\add* I have written to you \add believers in the Messiah\add* in a bold manner about some things in order to remind you \add of them\add*. \add I have done this\add* because God has kindly authorized me \add to do so\add*.
\v 16 \add God did this\add* in order for me to serve the Messiah Jesus among non-Jewish people \add by preaching\add* the good news from God as if I were a priest. \add I do this\add* in order for the non-Jewish people \add who trust in Jesus\add* to be \add like\add* something offered \add to God that\add* pleases \add him, and that\add* the Holy Spirit has set apart \add for him\add*.
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\v 17 So, as someone who is united with the Messiah Jesus, I have \add good reasons\add* to boast about what God is doing \add through me\add*!
\v 18 Indeed, I will only be so bold as to speak about what the Messiah has done through me \add that has led\add* to the nations obediently \add trusting in God’s good news\add*! \add The Messiah did this\add* through what I said and did.
\v 19 \add The Messiah also did this\add* through powerful and wonderful miracles as God’s \add Holy\add* Spirit powerfully \add enabled me\add*! As a result, I have completed proclaiming the good news about the Messiah all the way around from Jerusalem to the \add province of\add* Illyricum.
\v 20 And so, I aspire to preach the good news where people have never heard about the Messiah \add Jesus\add*. \add I desire this\add* in order to not \add interfere with someone else’s work, as if I were\add* building something where another person had already laid the foundation.
\v 21 Rather, \add I preach the good news to those who have never heard it.\add* This is what \add Isaiah meant when\add* he wrote \add in the Scriptures\add*, “Those people whom no one told about him will perceive \add who he is\add*. Those people who have not heard \add about him\add* will comprehend \add who he is\add*.”
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\v 22 That also hindered me over and over again from visiting all of you \add at Rome\add*.
\v 23 Yet at the present time I have nowhere left to go in these areas \add to proclaim the good news\add*. I also have deeply desired to visit you for many years.
\v 24 \add So\add* whenever I go to \add the province of\add* Spain, I truly expect to visit you while passing through \add Rome\add*. \add I\add* also \add expect\add* you to help me continue my journey to Spain after I first enjoy being with you for some time.
\v 25 Yet, at the present time I am going to Jerusalem in order to serve God’s people \add there\add*.
\v 26 \add I am doing this\add* because \add the believers in\add* the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia were glad to give money to help the poor people of God \add who live\add* in Jerusalem.
\v 27 In fact, those believers were glad, and they should \add help\add* the poor believers in Jerusalem. \add This is\add* because the non-Jewish believers have spiritually benefited from the Jewish believers. \add So,\add* the non-Jewish believers should also serve the Jewish believers by providing what they physically need.
\v 28 So then, after I finish this task and safely deliver this money to the poor believers in Jerusalem, I will pass through \add your city\add* on my way to Spain.
\v 29 I am certain that the Messiah will fully bless \add us\add* when I visit you!
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\v 30 Fellow believers, I appeal to you based on our Lord Jesus the Messiah and how the \add Holy\add* Spirit has enabled us to love \add each other\add*: Fervently pray to God with me \add and\add* for me!
\v 31 \add Pray\add* that God will rescue me from the Jews in the province of Judea who do not believe \add in Jesus\add*. \add Pray\add* also that God’s people in Jerusalem will accept the money that I give them for \add the poor believers there\add*.
\v 32 \add Pray also\add* that I can joyfully visit you as God wants, \add and\add* we may refresh each other.
\v 33 Finally, \add I pray that\add* the God who makes \add us\add* peaceful will be with all of you. May it be so!
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\v 1 I, \add Paul,\add* recommend to you our fellow believer whose name is Phoebe. She also serves the group of believers \add that meets\add* in the city of Cenchrea.
\v 2 \add I recommend Phoebe to you\add* in order for you to accept her \add as a fellow believer\add* in the Lord \add Jesus\add*. \add Accept her\add* in a way that is appropriate for God’s people. \add I\add* also \add recommend her to you in order for you\add* to help her in whatever way and with anything she might need from you. \add Do this\add* because she has helped many people, including me personally.
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\v 3 Say hello to Priscilla and \add her husband\add* Aquila. They have worked with me \add to tell people\add* about the Messiah Jesus.
\v 4 They risked \add the Romans\add* executing them in order to save my life. Both I and all the groups of believers among the nations are thankful for them.
\v 5 Also, \add say hello to\add* the group of believers \add that meets\add* in the home of Priscilla and Aquila. Say hello to Epaenetus, whom I love. He is the first person from the province of Asia \add Minor\add* to believe in the Messiah \add Jesus\add*.
\v 6 Say hello to Mary. She has labored a lot for your sake.
\v 7 Say hello to Andronicus and Junia. They are my fellow Jews, and we were in prison together. Those whom Jesus sent to represent him know them very well. God united them to the Messiah before \add he did so to\add* me.
\v 8 Say hello to Ampliatus. I love him \add as a fellow believer\add* in the Lord \add Jesus\add*.
\v 9 Say hello to Urbanus. He works with us \add to tell people\add* about the Messiah \add Jesus\add*. Also say hello to Stachys, whom I love.
\v 10 Say hello to Apelles. The Messiah \add Jesus\add* has approved him. Say hello to those \add believers\add* who live in the household of Aristobulus.
\v 11 Say hello to my fellow Jew Herodion. Say hello to those whom God united to the Lord \add Jesus\add* who live in the household of Narcissus.
\v 12 Say hello to Tryphaena and Tryphosa. These ladies labor \add to tell people\add* about the Lord \add Jesus\add*. Say hello to Persis, whom I love. She has labored a lot \add to tell people\add* about the Lord \add Jesus\add*.
\v 13 Say hello to Rufus. The Lord \add Jesus\add* chose him. Also \add say hello to\add* his mother. She has been like a mother to me as well.
\v 14 Say hello to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and our fellow believers who \add meet\add* together with them.
\v 15 Say hello to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas. Also \add say hello to\add* all God’s people who \add meet\add* together with them.
\v 16 Say hello to each other in a loving way. All of the groups of believers who belong to the Messiah \add in this area\add* say hello to you!
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\v 17 My fellow believers, I exhort you to look out for the people who are causing \add believers\add* to argue \add with each other\add* and tempting \add them\add* to sin, which contradicts what we have taught you. Stay away from them!
\v 18 Indeed, people like this are not serving our Lord \add Jesus\add* the Messiah! Rather, \add they only serve\add* their own appetites. By speaking so eloquently and flatteringly, they trick the minds of people who do not suspect \add them of teaching what is false\add*.
\v 19 \add I tell you these things\add* because \add believers\add* in many places have heard about how you obey \add God\add*. As a result, I am overjoyed because of you! But I \add also\add* desire that you act wisely with regard to what is good and remain innocent with regard to what is bad.
\v 20 The God who makes \add us\add* peaceful will quickly \add make you victorious over Satan, as if\add* you were trampling\add him\add* under your feet! \add I pray that\add* our Lord Jesus the Messiah \add will\add* be gracious to you!
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\v 21 Timothy, who works with me \add to tell people about Jesus\add*, says hello to you. My fellow Jews, Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, also \add say hello to you\add*.
\v 22 I \add am\add* Tertius, \add and I am\add* writing this letter \add as Paul dictates it to me\add*. I say hello to you \add as a fellow believer\add* in the Lord \add Jesus\add*.
\v 23 Gaius says hello to you. He hosts me and the whole group of believers \add who meet here\add*. Erastus controls the money for this city. \add He\add* and Quartus, \add our\add* fellow believer, say hello to you.
\v 24 \f + \ft The best ancient manuscripts do not include verse 24. (See: Romans 16:20).\f* [\add I pray that\add* our Lord Jesus the Messiah \add will\add* be gracious to all of you! May it be so!]
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\v 25 \add I pray that everyone will glorify God.\add* He is the one who can strengthen you \add spiritually\add* based on the good news that I proclaim about Jesus the Messiah. \add What I proclaim is\add* based on the mysterious \add plan\add* that God revealed but \add previously\add* concealed \add from people\add* for a very long time.
\v 26 However, now God has revealed \add that mysterious plan\add*. He has made it known through his prophets who wrote about it \add in the Scriptures\add*. \add They did this\add* according to what the God who lives forever commanded in order that all the nations would obey \add God\add* by trusting \add in Jesus the Messiah\add*.
\v 27 God alone is wise. \add I pray that everyone will\add* glorify him through Jesus the Messiah forever! May it be so!