Romans 2; Romans 3; Romans 4; Romans 5; Romans 6

Romans 2

1 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, passing judgment; for when you judge someone else, you are passing judgment against yourself; since you who are judging do the same things he does.

2 We know that God's judgment lands impartially on those who do such things;

3 do you think that you, a mere man passing judgment on others who do such things, yet doing them yourself, will escape the judgment of God?

4 Or perhaps you despise the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience; because you don't realize that God's kindness is intended to lead you to turn from your sins.

5 But by your stubbornness, by your unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself on the Day of Anger, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed;

6 for he will pay back each one according to his deeds.

7 To those who seek glory, honor and immortality by perseverance in doing good, he will pay back eternal life.

8 But to those who are self-seeking, who disobey the truth and obey evil, he will pay back wrath and anger.

9 Yes, he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile;

10 but glory and honor and shalom to everyone who keeps doing what is good, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.

11 For God does not show favoritism.

12 All who have sinned outside the framework of Torah will die outside the framework of Torah; and all who have sinned within the framework of Torah will be judged by Torah.

13 For it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God's sight.

14 For whenever Gentiles, who have no Torah, do naturally what the Torah requires, then these, even though they don't have Torah, for themselves are Torah!

15 For their lives show that the conduct the Torah dictates is written in their hearts. Their consciences also bear witness to this, for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them

16 on a day when God passes judgment on people's inmost secrets. (According to the Good News as I proclaim it, he does this through the Messiah Yeshua.)

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God

18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah;

19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness,

20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth;

21 then, you who teach others, don't you teach yourself? Preaching, "Thou shalt not steal," do you steal?

22 Saying, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts?

23 You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? -

24 as it says in the Tanakh, "For it is because of you that God's name is blasphemed by the Goyim."

25 For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!

26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won't his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?

27 Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b'rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it!

28 For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.

29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.

Romans 3

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being circumcised?

2 Much in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God.

3 If some of them were unfaithful, so what? Does their faithlessness cancel God's faithfulness?

4 Heaven forbid! God would be true even if everyone were a liar! - as the Tanakh says, "so that you, God, may be proved right in your words and win the verdict when you are put on trial."g

5 Now if our unrighteousness highlights God's righteousness, what should we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict his anger on us? (I am speaking here the way people commonly do.)

6 Heaven forbid! Else, how could God judge the world?

7 "But," you say, "if, through my lie, God's truth is enhanced and brings him greater glory, why am I still judged merely for being a sinner?"

8 Indeed! Why not say (as some people slander us by claiming we do say), "Let us do evil, so that good may come of it"? Against them the judgment is a just one!

9 So are we Jews better off? Not entirely; for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are controlled by sin.

10 As the Tanakh puts it, "There is no one righteous, not even one! No one understands,

11 no one seeks God,

12 all have turned away and at the same time become useless; there is no one who shows kindness, not a single one!

13 "Their throats are open graves, they use their tongues to deceive. Vipers' venom is under their lips.

14 Their mouths are full of curses and bitterness.

15 "Their feet rush to shed blood,

16 in their ways are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of shalom they do not know.

18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

19 Moreover, we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those living within the framework of the Torah, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God's adverse judgment.

20 For in his sight no one alive will be considered righteousn on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, because what Torah really does is show people how sinful they are.

21 But now, quite apart from Torah, God's way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear - although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well -

22 and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile,

23 since all have sinned and come short of earning God's praise.

24 By God's grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua.

25 God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God's righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past;

26 and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua's faithfulness.

27 So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting.

28 Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands.

29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles;

30 because, as you will admit, God is one. Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting.

31 Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.

Romans 4

1 Then what should we say Avraham, our forefather, obtained by his own efforts?

2 For if Avraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances, then he has something to boast about. But this is not how it is before God!

3 For what does the Tanakh say? "Avraham put his trust in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness."p

4 Now the account of someone who is working is credited not on the ground of grace but on the ground of what is owed him.

5 However, in the case of one who is not working but rather is trusting in him who makes ungodly people righteous, his trust is credited to him as righteousness.

6 In the same way, the blessing which David pronounces is on those whom God credits with righteousness apart from legalistic observances:

7 "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered over;

8 Blessed is the man whose sin ADONAI will not reckon against his account."

9 Now is this blessing for the circumcised only? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say that Avraham's trust was credited to his account as righteousness;

10 but what state was he in when it was so credited - circumcision or uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision!

11 In fact, he received circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness he had been credited with on the ground of the trust he had while he was still uncircumcised. This happened so that he could be the father of every uncircumcised person who trusts and thus has righteousness credited to him,

12 and at the same time be the father of every circumcised person who not only has had a b'rit-milah, but also follows in the footsteps of the trust which Avraham avinu had when he was still uncircumcised.

13 For the promise to Avraham and his seedr that he would inherit the world did not come through legalism but through the righteousness that trust produces.

14 For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless.

15 For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation.

16 The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as God's free gift, a promise that can be relied on by all the seed, not only those who live within the framework of the Torah, but also those with the kind of trust Avraham had - Avraham avinu for all of us.

17 This accords with the Tanakh, where it says, "I have appointed you to be a father to many nations." Avraham is our father in God's sight because he trusted God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls nonexistent things into existence.

18 For he was past hope, yet in hope he trusted that he would indeed become a father to many nations, in keeping with what he had been told, "So many will your seed be."

19 His trust did not waver when he considered his own body - which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old - or when he considered that Sarah's womb was dead too.

20 He did not by lack of trust decide against God's promises. On the contrary, by trust he was given power as he gave glory to God,

21 for he was fully convinced that what God had promised he could also accomplish.

22 This is why it was credited to his account as righteousness.

23 But the words, "it was credited to his account . . . ," were not written for him only.

24 They were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited too, because we have trusted in him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead -

25 Yeshua, who was delivered over to death because of our offences and raised to life in order to make us righteous.

Romans 5

1 So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

2 Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God's glory.

3 But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance,

4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope;

5 and this hope does not let us down, because God's love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people.

7 Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die.

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners.

9 Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God's judgment!

10 For if we were reconciled with God through his Son's death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled!

11 And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.

12 Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned.

13 Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.

14 Nevertheless death ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam's violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the offence. For if, because of one man's offence, many died, then how much more has God's grace, that is, the gracious gift of one man, Yeshua the Messiah, overflowed to many!

16 No, the free gift is not like what resulted from one man's sinning; for from one sinner came judgment that brought condemnation; but the free gift came after many offences and brought acquittal.

17 For if, because of the offence of one man, death ruled through that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one man Yeshua the Messiah!

18 In other words, just as it was through one offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one righteous act that all people come to be considered righteous.

19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the other man, many will be made righteous.

20 And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more.

21 All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.

Romans 6

1 So then, are we to say, "Let's keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace"?

2 Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?

3 Don't you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death?

4 Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 We know that our old self was put to death on the execution-stake with him, so that the entire body of our sinful propensities might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

7 For someone who has died has been cleared from sin.

8 Now since we died with the Messiah, we trust that we will also live with him.

9 We know that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, never to die again; death has no authority over him.

10 For his death was a unique event that need not be repeated; but his life, he keeps on living for God.

11 In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua.

12 Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires;

13 and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead, and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness.

14 For sin will not have authority over you; because you are not under legalism but under grace.

15 Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? "Let's go on sinning, because we're not under legalism but under grace"? Heaven forbid!

16 Don't you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves - whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous?

17 By God's grace, you, who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed;

18 and after you had been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

19 (I am using popular language because your human nature is so weak.) For just as you used to offer your various parts as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more lawlessness; so now offer your various parts as slaves to righteousness, which leads to being made holy, set apart for God.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relationship to righteousness;

21 but what benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end result of those things was death.

22 However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you do get the benefit - it consists in being made holy, set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life.

23 For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.