Good News Translation (GNT)

1 Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised?

2 Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews.

3 But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful?

4 Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says,

“You must be shown to be right when you speak;

you must win your case when you are being tried.”

5 But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God’s doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.)

6 By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?

7 But what if my untruth serves God’s glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner?

8 Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.

No One Is Righteous

9 Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all!I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

10 As the Scriptures say:

“There is no one who is righteous,

11 no one who is wise

or who worships God.

12 All have turned away from God;

they have all gone wrong;

no one does what is right, not even one.

13 Their words are full of deadly deceit;

wicked lies roll off their tongues,

and dangerous threats, like snake’s poison, from their lips;

14 their speech is filled with bitter curses.

15 They are quick to hurt and kill;

16 they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go.

17 They have not known the path of peace,

18 nor have they learned reverence for God.”

19 Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgment.

20 For no one is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.

How We Are Put Right with God

21 But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it.

22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence.

24 But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.

25-26 God offered him, so that by his bloodhe should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

27 What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe.

28 For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands.

29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is.

30 God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith.

31 Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/3-9abe40249c25a6a6eb6edd6e5f6d6a79.mp3?version_id=68—

The Example of Abraham

1 What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience?

2 If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God’s sight.

3 The scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.”

4 A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned.

5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

6 This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

7 “Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven,

whose sins are pardoned!

8 Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!”

9 Does this happiness that David spoke of belong only to those who are circumcised? No indeed! It belongs also to those who are not circumcised. For we have quoted the scripture, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.”

10 When did this take place? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? It was before, not after.

11 He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

12 He is also the father of those who are circumcised, that is, of those who, in addition to being circumcised, also live the same life of faith that our father Abraham lived before he was circumcised.

God’s Promise Is Received through Faith

13 When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

14 For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God’s promise is worthless.

15 The Law brings down God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

16 And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God’s free gift to all of Abraham’s descendants—not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all;

17 as the scripture says, “I have made you father of many nations.” So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed—the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.

18 Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became “the father of many nations.” Just as the scripture says, “Your descendants will be as many as the stars.”

19 He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children.

20 His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God’s promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God.

21 He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.

22 That is why Abraham, through faith, “was accepted as righteous by God.”

23 The words “he was accepted as righteous” were not written for him alone.

24 They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death.

25 Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/4-f44fab71d9643abb884e5ed2b050134e.mp3?version_id=68—

Right with God

1 Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we havepeace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. And so we boastof the hope we have of sharing God’s glory!

3 We also boastof our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance,

4 endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope.

5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us.

6 For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose.

7 It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person.

8 But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!

9 By his bloodwe are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s anger!

10 We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!

11 But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God’s friends.

Adam and Christ

12 Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.

13 There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins.

14 But from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all human beings, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when he disobeyed God’s command.

Adam was a figure of the one who was to come.

15 But the two are not the same, because God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man. But God’s grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

16 And there is a difference between God’s gift and the sin of one man. After the one sin, came the judgment of “Guilty”; but after so many sins, comes the undeserved gift of “Not guilty!”

17 It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ.

18 So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life.

19 And just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way they will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.

20 Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more.

21 So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God’s grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/5-8156955fc6ad1bfd59912ce22ac9ea89.mp3?version_id=68—

Dead to Sin but Alive in Union with Christ

1 What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God’s grace will increase?

2 Certainly not! We have died to sin—how then can we go on living in it?

3 For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.

4 By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

5 For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was.

6 And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.

7 For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin.

8 Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again—death will no longer rule over him.

10 And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God.

11 In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.

12 Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self.

13 Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.

14 Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God’s grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

15 What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God’s grace? By no means!

16 Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.

17 But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received.

18 You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.

19 (I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

20 When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.

21 What did you gain from doing the things that you are now ashamed of? The result of those things is death!

22 But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God. Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him, and the result is eternal life.

23 For sin pays its wage—death; but God’s free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/6-9756f5d90de0c19aad9b695805a99bd0.mp3?version_id=68—

An Illustration from Marriage

1 Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live.

2 A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him.

3 So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man.

4 That is how it is with you, my friends. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God.

5 For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death.

6 Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.

Law and Sin

7 Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire.

8 But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing.

9 I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

10 and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death.

11 Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.

12 So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.

13 But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.

The Conflict in Us

14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin.

15 I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.

16 Since what I do is what I don’t want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.

17 So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me.

18 I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.

19 I don’t do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.

20 If I do what I don’t want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.

21 So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have.

22 My inner being delights in the law of God.

23 But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

24 What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?

25 Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!

This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God’s law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/7-8fc352070155c3db94dc129ecd0a3052.mp3?version_id=68—

Life in the Spirit

1 There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set mefree from the law of sin and death.

3 What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

4 God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

5 Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.

6 To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace.

7 And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God’s law, and in fact they cannot obey it.

8 Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.

9 But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to—if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for youbecause you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin.

11 If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

12 So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.

13 For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

14 Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.

15 For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!”

16 God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children.

17 Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory.

The Future Glory

18 I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

19 All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.

20 For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope

21 that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22 For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.

23 But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his children andset our whole being free.

24 For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.

27 And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

28 We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him,those whom he has called according to his purpose.

29 Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.

30 And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

31 In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?

33 Who will accuse God’s chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!

34 Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us!

35 Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?

36 As the scripture says,

“For your sake we are in danger of death at all times;

we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!

38 For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future,

39 neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/8-2dd5a83b80ef440c8bb8c65252803038.mp3?version_id=68—

God and His People

1 I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying

2 when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart

3 for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God’s curse and separated from Christ.

4 They are God’s people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenantswith them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God’s promises;

5 they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever!Amen.

6 I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God.

7 Nor are all of Abraham’s descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you.”

8 This means that the children born in the usual wayare not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God’s promise are regarded as the true descendants.

9 For God’s promise was made in these words: “At the right timeI will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”

10 And this is not all. For Rebecca’s two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac.

11-12 But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God’s own purpose, God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God’s choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.

13 As the scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

14 Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all.

15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.”

16 So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God’s mercy.

17 For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.”

18 So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.

God’s Anger and Mercy

19 But one of you will say to me, “If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God’s will?”

20 But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, “Why did you make me like this?”

21 After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.

22 And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction.

23 And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.

24 For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.

25 This is what he says in the book of Hosea:

“The people who were not mine

I will call ‘My People.’

The nation that I did not love

I will call ‘My Beloved.’

26 And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called the children of the living God.”

27 And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: “Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved;

28 for the Lord will quickly settle his full account with the world.”

29 It is as Isaiah had said before, “If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”

Israel and the Gospel

30 So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

31 while God’s people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

32 And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the “stumbling stone”

33 that the scripture speaks of:

“Look, I place in Zion a stone

that will make people stumble,

a rock that will make them fall.

But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/9-28e665d2b6c820cb66cf2096af2f590b.mp3?version_id=68—

1 My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them!

2 I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God; but their devotion is not based on true knowledge.

3 They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God’s way of putting people right.

4 For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

Salvation Is for All

5 Moses wrote this about being put right with God by obeying the Law: “Whoever obeys the commands of the Law will live.”

6 But what the scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this: “You are not to ask yourself, Who will go up into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down).

7 “Nor are you to ask, Who will go down into the world below?” (that is, to bring Christ up from death).

8 What it says is this: “God’s message is near you, on your lips and in your heart”—that is, the message of faith that we preach.

9 If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.

10 For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

11 The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

12 This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him.

13 As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”

14 But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?

15 And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, “How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!”

16 But not all have accepted the Good News. Isaiah himself said, “Lord, who believed our message?”

17 So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.

18 But I ask: Is it true that they did not hear the message? Of course they did—for as the scripture says:

“The sound of their voice went out to all the world;

their words reached the ends of the earth.”

19 Again I ask: Did the people of Israel not understand? Moses himself is the first one to answer:

“I will use a so-called nation

to make my people jealous;

and by means of a nation of fools

I will make my people angry.”

20 And Isaiah is even bolder when he says,

“I was found by those who were not looking for me;

I appeared to those who were not asking for me.”

21 But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to welcome a disobedient and rebellious people.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/10-ca73d6e769ee7109cc070975c8b1e84f.mp3?version_id=68—

God’s Mercy on Israel

1 I ask, then: Did God reject his own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

2 God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the beginning. You know what the scripture says in the passage where Elijah pleads with God against Israel:

3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me.”

4 What answer did God give him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not worshiped the false god Baal.”

5 It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

6 His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God’s choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.

7 What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God’s call.

8 As the scripture says, “God made their minds and hearts dull; to this very day they cannot see or hear.”

9 And David says,

“May they be caught and trapped at their feasts;

may they fall, may they be punished!

10 May their eyes be blinded so that they cannot see;

and make them bend under their troubles at all times.”

11 I ask, then: When the Jews stumbled, did they fall to their ruin? By no means! Because they sinned, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous of them.

12 The sin of the Jews brought rich blessings to the world, and their spiritual poverty brought rich blessings to the Gentiles. Then, how much greater the blessings will be when the complete number of Jews is included!

The Salvation of the Gentiles

13 I am speaking now to you Gentiles: As long as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I will take pride in my work.

14 Perhaps I can make the people of my own race jealous, and so be able to save some of them.

15 For when they were rejected, all other people were changed from God’s enemies into his friends. What will it be, then, when they are accepted? It will be life for the dead!

16 If the first piece of bread is given to God, then the whole loaf is his also; and if the roots of a tree are offered to God, the branches are his also.

17 Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews.

18 So then, you must not despise those who were broken off like branches. How can you be proud? You are just a branch; you don’t support the roots—the roots support you.

19 But you will say, “Yes, but the branches were broken off to make room for me.”

20 That is true. They were broken off because they did not believe, while you remain in place because you do believe. But do not be proud of it; instead, be afraid.

21 God did not spare the Jews, who are like natural branches; do you think he will spare you?

22 Here we see how kind and how severe God is. He is severe toward those who have fallen, but kind to you—if you continue in his kindness. But if you do not, you too will be broken off.

23 And if the Jews abandon their unbelief, they will be put back in the place where they were; for God is able to do that.

24 You Gentiles are like the branch of a wild olive tree that is broken off and then, contrary to nature, is joined to a cultivated olive tree. The Jews are like this cultivated tree; and it will be much easier for God to join these broken-off branches to their own tree again.

God’s Mercy on All

25 There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

26 And this is how all Israel will be saved. As the scripture says,

“The Savior will come from Zion

and remove all wickedness from the descendants of Jacob.

27 I will make this covenant with them

when I take away their sins.”

28 Because they reject the Good News, the Jews are God’s enemies for the sake of you Gentiles. But because of God’s choice, they are his friends because of their ancestors.

29 For God does not change his mind about whom he chooses and blesses.

30 As for you Gentiles, you disobeyed God in the past; but now you have received God’s mercy because the Jews were disobedient.

31 In the same way, because of the mercy that you have received, the Jews now disobey God, in order that they also may nowreceive God’s mercy.

32 For God has made all people prisoners of disobedience, so that he might show mercy to them all.

Praise to God

33 How great are God’s riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways?

34 As the scripture says,

“Who knows the mind of the Lord?

Who is able to give him advice?

35 Who has ever given him anything,

so that he had to pay it back?”

36 For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory forever! Amen.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/11-29fe0d4388a4787bf0fcb6c15447e98c.mp3?version_id=68—

Life in God’s Service

1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

3 And because of God’s gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you.

4 We have many parts in the one body, and all these parts have different functions.

5 In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body.

6 So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God’s message, we should do it according to the faith that we have;

7 if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach;

8 if it is to encourage others, we should do so. Whoever shares with others should do it generously; whoever has authority should work hard; whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.

9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.

10 Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another.

11 Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion.

12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times.

13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers.

14 Ask God to bless those who persecute you—yes, ask him to bless, not to curse.

15 Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep.

16 Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties.Do not think of yourselves as wise.

17 If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good.

18 Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody.

19 Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God’s anger do it. For the scripture says, “I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.”

20 Instead, as the scripture says: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink; for by doing this you will make them burn with shame.”

21 Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ROM/12-2a2212f6eba60e328be4d88492b4c7e4.mp3?version_id=68—