Romans 4; Romans 5; Romans 6; Romans 7

Romans 4

1 So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy?

2 Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God.

3 What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

4 Workers' salaries aren't credited to them on the basis of an employer's grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve.

5 But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don't work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous.

6 In the same way, David also pronounces a blessing on the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from actions:

7 Happy are those whose actions outside the Law are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

8 Happy are those whose sin isn't counted against them by the Lord.

9 Is this state of happiness only for the circumcised or is it also for those who aren't circumcised? We say, "Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness."

10 So how was it credited? When he was circumcised, or when he wasn't circumcised? In fact, it was credited while he still wasn't circumcised, not after he was circumcised.

11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that comes from the faith he had while he still wasn't circumcised. It happened this way so that Abraham could be the ancestor of all those people who aren't circumcised, who have faith in God, and so are counted as righteous.

12 He could also be the ancestor of those circumcised people, who aren't only circumcised but who also walk in the path of faith, like our ancestor Abraham did while he wasn't circumcised.

13 The promise to Abraham and to his descendants, that he would inherit the world, didn't come through the Law but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

14 If they inherit because of the Law, then faith has no effect and the promise has been canceled.

15 The Law brings about wrath. But when there isn't any law, there isn't any violation of the law.

16 That's why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God's grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham's descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us.

17 As it is written: I have appointed you to be the father of many nations. So Abraham is our father in the eyes of God in whom he had faith, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don't exist into existence.

18 When it was beyond hope, he had faith in the hope that he would become the father of many nations, in keeping with the promise God spoke to him: That's how many descendants you will have.

19 Without losing faith, Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old, took into account his own body, which was as good as dead, and Sarah's womb, which was dead.

20 He didn't hesitate with a lack of faith in God's promise, but he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God.

21 He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised.

22 Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.

23 But the scripture that says it was credited to him wasn't written only for Abraham's sake.

24 It was written also for our sake, because it is going to be credited to us too. It will be credited to those of us who have faith in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

25 He was handed over because of our mistakes, and he was raised to meet the requirements of righteousness for us.

Romans 5

1 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God's glory.

3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance,

4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

5 This hope doesn't put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people.

7 It isn't often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person.

8 But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

9 So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him.

10 If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life?

11 And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God.

12 So, in the same way that sin entered the world through one person, and death came through sin, so death spread to all human beings with the result that all sinned.

13 Although sin was in the world, since there was no Law, it wasn't taken into account until the Law came.

14 But death ruled from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn't sin in the same way Adam did—Adam was a type of the one who was coming.

15 But the free gift of Christ isn't like Adam's failure. If many people died through what one person did wrong, God's grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift—of the one person Jesus Christ—that comes through grace.

16 The gift isn't like the consequences of one person's sin. The judgment that came from one person's sin led to punishment, but the free gift that came out of many failures led to the verdict of acquittal.

17 If death ruled because of one person's failure, those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

18 So now the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person, just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person.

19 Many people were made righteous through the obedience of one person, just as many people were made sinners through the disobedience of one person.

20 The Law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more.

21 The result is that grace will rule through God's righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, just as sin ruled in death.

Romans 6

1 So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply?

2 Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it?

3 Or don't you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life.

5 If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his.

6 This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn't be slaves to sin anymore,

7 because a person who has died has been freed from sin's power.

8 But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him.

9 We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has power over him.

10 He died to sin once and for all with his death, but he lives for God with his life.

11 In the same way, you also should consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

12 So then, don't let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants.

13 Don't offer parts of your body to sin, to be used as weapons to do wrong. Instead, present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead, and offer all the parts of your body to God to be used as weapons to do right.

14 Sin will have no power over you, because you aren't under Law but under grace.

15 So what? Should we sin because we aren't under Law but under grace? Absolutely not!

16 Don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, that you are slaves of the one whom you obey? That's true whether you serve as slaves of sin, which leads to death, or as slaves of the kind of obedience that leads to righteousness.

17 But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you gave wholehearted obedience to the teaching that was handed down to you, which provides a pattern.

18 Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

19 (I'm speaking with ordinary metaphors because of your limitations.) Once, you offered the parts of your body to be used as slaves to impurity and to lawless behavior that leads to still more lawless behavior. Now, you should present the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness, which makes your lives holy.

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

21 What consequences did you get from doing things that you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life.

23 The wages that sin pays are death, but God's gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 7

1 Brothers and sisters, I'm talking to you as people who know the Law. Don't you know that the Law has power over someone only as long as he or she lives?

2 A married woman is united with her husband under the Law while he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband.

3 So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she's committing adultery. But if her husband dies, she's free from the Law, so she won't be committing adultery if she marries someone else.

4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also died with respect to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you could be united with someone else. You are united with the one who was raised from the dead so that we can bear fruit for God.

5 When we were self-centered, the sinful passions aroused through the Law were at work in all the parts of our body, so that we bore fruit for death.

6 But now we have been released from the Law. We have died with respect to the thing that controlled us, so that we can be slaves in the new life under the Spirit, not in the old life under the written Law.

7 So what are we going to say? That the Law is sin? Absolutely not! But I wouldn't have known sin except through the Law. I wouldn't have known the desire for what others have if the Law had not said, Don't desire to take what others have.

8 But sin seized the opportunity and used this commandment to produce all kinds of desires in me. Sin is dead without the Law.

9 I used to be alive without the Law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

10 and I died. So the commandment that was intended to give life brought death.

11 Sin seized the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and killed me.

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

13 So did something good bring death to me? Absolutely not! But sin caused my death through something good so that sin would be exposed as sin. That way sin would become even more thoroughly sinful through the commandment.

14 We know that the Law is spiritual, but I'm made of flesh and blood, and I'm sold as a slave to sin.

15 I don't know what I'm doing, because I don't do what I want to do. Instead, I do the thing that I hate.

16 But if I'm doing the thing that I don't want to do, I'm agreeing that the Law is right.

17 But now I'm not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it's sin that lives in me.

18 I know that good doesn't live in me—that is, in my body. The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can't do it.

19 I don't do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don't want to do.

20 But if I do the very thing that I don't want to do, then I'm not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it is sin that lives in me that is doing it.

21 So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me.

22 I gladly agree with the Law on the inside,

23 but I see a different law at work in my body. It wages a war against the law of my mind and takes me prisoner with the law of sin that is in my body.

24 I'm a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse?

25 Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I'm a slave to God's Law in my mind, but I'm a slave to sin's law in my body.