Chapter 1

Produced by Martin Ward

Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Romans

Third Edition 1913

R. F. Weymouth

Book 45 Romans

001:001 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart to proclaim God's Good News,

001:002 which God had already promised through His Prophets in Holy Writ, concerning His Son,

001:003 who, as regards His human descent, belonged to the posterity of David,

001:004 but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

001:005 through whom we have received grace and Apostleship in His service in order to win men to obedience to the faith, among all Gentile peoples,

001:006 among whom you also, called, as you have been, to belong to Jesus Christ, are numbered:

001:007 To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

001:008 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

001:009 I call God to witness--to whom I render priestly and spiritual service by telling the Good News about His Son--how unceasingly I make mention of you in His presence,

001:010 always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such be His will, the way may by some means be made clear for me to come to you.

001:011 For I am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened;

001:012 in other words that while I am among you we may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine.

001:013 And I desire you to know, brethren, that I have many a time intended to come to you--though until now I have been disappointed-- in order that among you also I might gather some fruit from my labours, as I have already done among the rest of the Gentile nations.

001:014 I am already under obligations alike to Greek-speaking races and to others, to cultured and to uncultured people:

001:015 so that for my part I am willing and eager to proclaim the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

001:016 For I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is God's power which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes-- the Jew first, and then the Gentile.

001:017 For in the Good News a righteousness which comes from God is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the Scripture has it, "The righteous man shall live by faith."

001:018 For God's anger is being revealed from Heaven against all impiety and against the iniquity of men who through iniquity suppress the truth. God is angry:

001:019 because what may be known about Him is plain to their inmost consciousness; for He Himself has made it plain to them.

001:020 For, from the very creation of the world, His invisible perfections-- namely His eternal power and divine nature--have been rendered intelligible and clearly visible by His works, so that these men are without excuse.

001:021 For when they had come to know God, they did not give Him glory as God nor render Him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened.

001:022 While boasting of their wisdom they became utter fools,

001:023 and, instead of worshipping the imperishable God, they worshipped images resembling perishable man or resembling birds or beasts or reptiles.

001:024 For this reason, in accordance with their own depraved cravings, God gave them up to uncleanness, allowing them to dishonour their bodies among themselves with impurity.

001:025 For they had bartered the reality of God for what is unreal, and had offered divine honours and religious service to created things, rather than to the Creator--He who is for ever blessed. Amen.

001:026 This then is the reason why God gave them up to vile passions. For not only did the women among them exchange the natural use of their bodies for one which is contrary to nature, but the men also,

001:027 in just the same way--neglecting that for which nature intends women-- burned with passion towards one another, men practising shameful vice with men, and receiving in their own selves the reward which necessarily followed their misconduct.

001:028 And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done.

001:029 Their hearts overflowed with all sorts of dishonesty, mischief, greed, malice. They were full of envy and murder, and were quarrelsome, crafty, and spiteful.

001:030 They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense,

001:031 faithless to their promises, without natural affection, without human pity.

001:032 In short, though knowing full well the sentence which God pronounces against actions such as theirs, as things which deserve death, they not only practise them, but even encourage and applaud others who do them.

002:001 You are therefore without excuse, O man, whoever you are who sit in judgement upon others. For when you pass judgement on your fellow man, you condemn yourself; for you who sit in judgement upon others are guilty of the same misdeeds;

002:002 and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth.

002:003 And you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs-- do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when God judges?

002:004 Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance?

002:005 The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed.

002:006 To each man He will make an award corresponding to his actions;

002:007 to those on the one hand who, by lives of persistent right-doing, are striving for glory, honour and immortality, the Life of the Ages;

002:008 while on the other hand upon the self-willed who disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness will fall anger and fury, affliction and awful distress,

002:009 coming upon the soul of every man and woman who deliberately does wrong--upon the Jew first, and then upon the Gentile;

002:010 whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right--to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

002:011 For God pays no attention to this world's distinctions.

002:012 For all who have sinned apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who have sinned whilst living under the Law, will be judged by the Law.

002:013 It is not those that merely hear the Law read who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those that obey the Law who will be pronounced righteous.

002:014 For when Gentiles who have no Law obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they, without having a Law, are a Law to themselves;

002:015 since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the Law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence--

002:016 on the day when God will judge the secrets of men's lives by Jesus Christ, as declared in the Good News as I have taught it.

002:017 And since you claim the name of Jew, and find rest and satisfaction in the Law, and make your boast in God,

002:018 and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ-- being a man who receives instruction from the Law--

002:019 and have persuaded yourself that, as for you, you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

002:020 a schoolmaster for the dull and ignorant, a teacher of the young, because in the Law you possess an outline of real knowledge and an outline of the truth:

002:021 you then who teach your fellow man, do you refuse to teach yourself? You who cry out against stealing, are you yourself a thief?

002:022 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you plunder their temples?

002:023 You who make your boast in the Law, do you offend against its commands and so dishonour God?

002:024 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile nations because of you, as Holy Writ declares.

002:025 Circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the Law; but if you are a Law-breaker, the fact that you have been circumcised counts for nothing.

002:026 In the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just requirements of the Law, shall not his lack of circumcision be overlooked, and,

002:027 although he is a Gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the Law, shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do, a written Law and circumcision, are yet a Law-breaker?

002:028 For the true Jew is not the man who is simply a Jew outwardly, and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily.

002:029 But the true Jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual; and such people receive praise not from men, but from God.

003:001 What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or what benefit is to be derived from circumcision?

003:002 The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.

003:003 For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?

003:004 No, indeed; let us hold God to be true, though every man should prove to be false. As it stands written, "That Thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence Thou pronouncest, and gain Thy cause when Thou contendest."

003:005 But if our unrighteousness sets God's righteousness in a clearer light, what shall we say? (Is God unrighteous-- I speak in our everyday language--when He inflicts punishment?

003:006 No indeed; for in that case how shall He judge all mankind?)

003:007 If, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made God's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to His glory, why am I judged all the same as a sinner?

003:008 And why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"Let us do evil that good may come"? The condemnation of those who would so argue is just.

003:009 What then? Are we Jews more highly estimated than they? Not in the least; for we have already charged all Jews and Gentiles alike with being in thraldom to sin.

003:010 Thus it stands written, "There is not one righteous man.

003:011 There is not one who is really wise, nor one who is a diligent seeker after God.

003:012 All have turned aside from the right path; they have every one of them become corrupt. There is no one who does what is right--no, not so much as one."

003:013 "Their throats resemble an opened grave; with their tongues they have been talking deceitfully." "The venom of vipers lies hidden behind their lips."

003:014 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."

003:015 "Their feet move swiftly to shed blood.

003:016 Ruin and misery mark their path;

003:017 and the way to peace they have not known."

003:018 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

003:019 But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

003:020 For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

003:021 But now a righteousness coming from God has been brought to light apart from any Law, both Law and Prophets bearing witness to it--

003:022 a righteousness coming from God, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ and extends to all who believe. No distinction is made;

003:023 for all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of God,

003:024 gaining acquittal from guilt by His free unpurchased grace through the deliverance which is found in Christ Jesus.

003:025 He it is whom God put forward as a Mercy-seat, rendered efficacious through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness--because of the passing over, in God's forbearance, of the sins previously committed--

003:026 with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.

003:027 Where then is there room for your boasting? It is for ever shut out. On what principle? On the ground of merit? No, but on the ground of faith.

003:028 For we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to Law.

003:029 Is God simply the God of the Jews, and not of the Gentiles also? He is certainly the God of the Gentiles also,

003:030 unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith.

003:031 Do we then by means of this faith abolish the Law? No, indeed; we give the Law a firmer footing.

004:001 What then shall we say that Abraham, our earthly forefather, has gained?

004:002 For if he was held to be righteous on the ground of his actions, he has something to boast of; but not in the presence of God.

004:003 For what says the Scripture? "And Abraham believed God, and this was placed to his credit as righteousness."

004:004 But in the case of a man who works, pay is not reckoned a favour but a debt;

004:005 whereas in the case of a man who pleads no actions of his own, but simply believes in Him who declares the ungodly free from guilt, his faith is placed to his credit as righteousness.

004:006 In this way David also tells of the blessedness of the man to whose credit God places righteousness, apart from his actions.

004:007 "Blessed," he says, "are those whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over.

004:008 Blessed is the man of whose sin the Lord will not take account."

004:009 This declaration of blessedness, then, does it come simply to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? For Abraham's faith--so we affirm--was placed to his credit as righteousness.

004:010 What then were the circumstances under which this took place? Was it after he had been circumcised, or before?

004:011 Before, not after. And he received circumcision as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of the faith-righteousness which was his while still uncircumcised, that he might be the forefather of all those who believe even though they are uncircumcised-- in order that this righteousness might be placed to their credit;

004:012 and the forefather of the circumcised, namely of those who not merely are circumcised, but also walk in the steps of the faith which our forefather Abraham had while he was as yet uncircumcised.

004:013 Again, the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his posterity conditioned by Law, but by faith-righteousness.

004:014 For if it is the righteous through Law who are heirs, then faith is useless and the promise counts for nothing.

004:015 For the Law inflicts punishment; but where no Law exists, there can be no violation of Law.

004:016 All depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance with God might be an act of pure grace,

004:017 so that the promise should be made sure to all Abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the Law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of Abraham. Thus in the sight of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, Abraham is the forefather of all of us. As it is written, "I have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations."

004:018 Under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed, so that he might become the forefather of many nations, in agreement with the words "Equally numerous shall your posterity be."

004:019 And, without growing weak in faith, he could contemplate his own vital powers which had now decayed--for he was nearly 100 years old--and Sarah's barrenness.

004:020 Nor did he in unbelief stagger at God's promise, but became mighty in faith, giving glory to God,

004:021 and being absolutely certain that whatever promise He is bound by He is able also to make good.

004:022 For this reason also his faith was placed to his credit as righteousness.

004:023 Nor was the fact of its being placed to his credit put on record for his sake only;

004:024 it was for our sakes too. Faith, before long, will be placed to the credit of us also who are believers in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

004:025 who was surrendered to death because of the offences we had committed, and was raised to life because of the acquittal secured for us.

005:001 Standing then acquitted as the result of faith, let us enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

005:002 through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.

005:003 And not only so: we also exult in our sufferings, knowing as we do, that suffering produces fortitude;

005:004 fortitude, ripeness of character; and ripeness of character, hope;

005:005 and that this hope never disappoints, because God's love for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

005:006 For already, while we were still helpless, Christ at the right moment died for the ungodly.

005:007 Why, it is scarcely conceivable that any one would die for a simply just man, although for a good and lovable man perhaps some one, here and there, will have the courage even to lay down his life.

005:008 But God gives proof of His love to us in Christ's dying for us while we were still sinners.

005:009 If therefore we have now been pronounced free from guilt through His blood, much more shall we be delivered from God's anger through Him.

005:010 For if while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is still more certain that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation through Christ's life.

005:011 And not only so, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now obtained that reconciliation.

005:012 What follows? This comparison. Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned.

005:013 For prior to the Law sin was already in the world; only it is not entered in the account against us when no Law exists.

005:014 Yet Death reigned as king from Adam to Moses even over those who had not sinned, as Adam did, against Law. And in Adam we have a type of Him whose coming was still future.

005:015 But God's free gift immeasurably outweighs the transgression. For if through the transgression of the one individual the mass of mankind have died, infinitely greater is the generosity with which God's grace, and the gift given in His grace which found expression in the one man Jesus Christ, have been bestowed on the mass of mankind.

005:016 And it is not with the gift as it was with the results of one individual's sin; for the judgement which one individual provoked resulted in condemnation, whereas the free gift after a multitude of transgressions results in acquittal.

005:017 For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ.

005:018 It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race.

005:019 For as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous.

005:020 Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed;

005:021 in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

006:001 To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?

006:002 No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?

006:003 And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

006:004 Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life.

006:005 For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.

006:006 This we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;

006:007 for he who has paid the penalty of death stands absolved from his sin.