Chapter 2

006:008 But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him;

006:009 because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die.

006:010 Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God.

006:011 In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus.

006:012 Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;

006:013 and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.

006:014 For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of Law, but of grace.

006:015 Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed!

006:016 Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result) or of Duty (resulting in righteousness)?

006:017 But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed.

006:018 You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness--

006:019 your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures-- and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness.

006:020 For when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no sort of subjection to Righteousness.

006:021 At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death.

006:022 But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result.

006:023 For the wages paid by Sin are death; but God's free gift is the Life of the Ages bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

007:001 Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law?

007:002 A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her.

007:003 This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress.

007:004 So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God.

007:005 For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions--made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

007:006 But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual.

007:007 What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing? No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin. For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is, if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet."

007:008 Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

007:009 Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died;

007:010 and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death.

007:011 For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death.

007:012 So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.

007:013 Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown.

007:014 For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual-- the slave, bought and sold, of sin.

007:015 For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do.

007:016 But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law,

007:017 and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them.

007:018 For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not.

007:019 For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.

007:020 But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it.

007:021 I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me.

007:022 For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God;

007:023 but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin.

007:024 (Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body?

007:025 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!) To sum up then, with my understanding, I--my true self--am in servitude to the Law of God, but with my lower nature I am in servitude to the Law of sin.

008:001 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus;

008:002 for the Spirit's Law--telling of Life in Christ Jesus-- has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death.

008:003 For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

008:004 in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

008:005 For if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. If they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things.

008:006 Because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means Life and peace.

008:007 Abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to God. Such a mind does not submit to God's Law, and indeed cannot do so.

008:008 And those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things cannot please God.

008:009 You, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the Spirit of God is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, such a one does not belong to Him.

008:010 But if Christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has Life because of righteousness.

008:011 And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give Life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who dwells in you.

008:012 Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule.

008:013 For if you so live, death is near; but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live.

008:014 For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.

008:015 You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!"

008:016 The Spirit Himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of God;

008:017 and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

008:018 Why, what we now suffer I count as nothing in comparison with the glory which is soon to be manifested in us.

008:019 For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.

008:020 For the Creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality (not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who so subjected it).

008:021 Yet there was always the hope that at last the Creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of God.

008:022 For we know that the whole of Creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour.

008:023 And more than that, we ourselves, though we possess the Spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies.

008:024 It is *in hope* that we have been saved. But an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it?

008:025 But if we hope for something which we do not see, then we eagerly and patiently wait for it.

008:026 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. But the Spirit Himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words,

008:027 and the Searcher of hearts knows what the Spirit's meaning is, because His intercessions for God's people are in harmony with God's will.

008:028 Now we know that for those who love God all things are working together for good--for those, I mean, whom with deliberate purpose He has called.

008:029 For those whom He has known beforehand He has also pre-destined to bear the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Eldest in a vast family of brothers;

008:030 and those whom He has pre-destined He also has called; and those whom He has called He has also declared free from guilt; and those whom He has declared free from guilt He has also crowned with glory.

008:031 What then shall we say to this? If God is on our side, who is there to appear against us?

008:032 He who did not withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

008:033 Who shall impeach those whom God has chosen? God declares them free from guilt.

008:034 Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.

008:035 Who shall separate us from Christ's love? Shall affliction or distress, persecution or hunger, nakedness or danger or the sword?

008:036 As it stands written in the Scripture, "For Thy sake they are, all day long, trying to kill us. We have been looked upon as sheep destined for slaughter."

008:037 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us.

008:038 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present nor things future, nor the forces of nature,

008:039 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

009:001 I am telling you the truth as a Christian man--it is no falsehood, for my conscience enlightened, as it is, by the Holy Spirit adds its testimony to mine--

009:002 when I declare that I have deep grief and unceasing anguish of heart.

009:003 For I could pray to be accursed from Christ on behalf of my brethren, my human kinsfolk--for such the Israelites are.

009:004 To them belongs recognition as God's sons, and they have His glorious Presence and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the Temple service, and the ancient Promises.

009:005 To them the Patriarchs belong, and from them in respect of His human lineage came the Christ, who is exalted above all, God blessed throughout the Ages. Amen.

009:006 Not however that God's word has failed; for all who have sprung from Israel do not count as Israel,

009:007 nor because they are Abraham's true children. But the promise was "Through Isaac shall your posterity be reckoned."

009:008 In other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as God's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.

009:009 For the words are the language of promise and run thus, "About this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."

009:010 Nor is that all: later on there was Rebecca too. She was soon to bear two children to her husband, our forefather Isaac--

009:011 and even then, though they were not then born and had not done anything either good or evil, yet in order that God's electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was, not on their actions but on the will of Him who called them, she was told,

009:012 "The elder of them will be bondservant to the younger."

009:013 This agrees with the other Scripture which says, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

009:014 What then are we to infer? That there is injustice in God?

009:015 No, indeed; the solution is found in His words to Moses, "Wherever I show mercy it shall be nothing but mercy, and wherever I show compassion it shall be simply compassion."

009:016 And from this we learn that everything is dependent not on man's will or endeavour, but upon God who has mercy. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,

009:017 "It is for this very purpose that I have lifted you so high-- that I may make manifest in you My power, and that My name may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth."

009:018 This is a proof that wherever He chooses He shows mercy, and wherever he chooses He hardens the heart.

009:019 "Why then does God still find fault?" you will ask; "for who is resisting His will?"

009:020 Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "Why have you made me thus?"

009:021 Or has not the potter rightful power over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for more honourable and another for less honourable uses?

009:022 And what if God, while choosing to make manifest the terrors of His anger and to show what is possible with Him, has yet borne with long-forbearing patience with the subjects of His anger who stand ready for destruction,

009:023 in order to make known His infinite goodness towards the subjects of His mercy whom He has prepared beforehand for glory,

009:024 even towards us whom He has called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

009:025 So also in Hosea He says, "I will call that nation My People which was not My People, and I will call her beloved who was not beloved.

009:026 And in the place where it was said to them, `No people of Mine are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving God."

009:027 And Isaiah cries aloud concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved;

009:028 for the Lord will hold a reckoning upon the earth, making it efficacious and brief."

009:029 Even as Isaiah says in an earlier place, "Were it not that the Lord, the God of Hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and have come to resemble Gomorrah."

009:030 To what conclusion does this bring us? Why, that the Gentiles, who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it-- a righteousness, however, which arises from faith;

009:031 while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one.

009:032 And why? Because they were pursuing a righteousness which should arise not from faith, but from what they regarded as merit. They stuck their foot against the stone which lay in their way;

009:033 in agreement with the statement of Scripture, "See, I am placing on Mount Zion a stone for people to stumble at, and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed."

010:001 Brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God, on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation.

010:002 For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm.

010:003 Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to God's righteousness.

010:004 For as a means of righteousness Christ is the termination of Law to every believer.

010:005 Moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness required by the Law shall live by that righteousness.

010:006 But the righteousness which is based on faith speaks in a different tone. "Say not in your heart," it declares, "`Who shall ascend to Heaven?'"--that is, to bring Christ down;

010:007 "nor `Who shall go down into the abyss?'"--that is, to bring Christ up again from the grave.

010:008 But what does it say? "The Message is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart;" that is, the Message which we are publishing about the faith--

010:009 that if with your mouth you confess Jesus as Lord and in your heart believe that God brought Him back to life, you shall be saved.

010:010 For with the heart men believe and obtain righteousness, and with the mouth they make confession and obtain salvation.

010:011 The Scripture says, "No one who believes in Him shall have reason to feel ashamed."

010:012 Jew and Gentile are on precisely the same footing; for the same Lord is Lord over all, and is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him for deliverance.

010:013 For "every one, without exception, who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

010:014 But how are they to call on One in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in One whose voice they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?

010:015 And how are men to preach unless they have been sent to do so? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good!"

010:016 But, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed the Message they have heard from us?"

010:017 And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard, and that the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ.

010:018 But, I ask, have they not heard? Yes, indeed: "To the whole world the preachers' voices have sounded forth, and their words to the remotest parts of the earth."

010:019 But again, did Israel fail to understand? Listen to Moses first. He says, "I will fire you with jealousy against a nation which is no nation, and with fury against a nation devoid of understanding."

010:020 And Isaiah, with strange boldness, exclaims, "I have been found by those who were not looking for Me, I have revealed Myself to those who were not inquiring of Me."

010:021 While as to Israel he says, "All day long I have stretched out My arms to a self-willed and fault-finding people."

011:001 I ask then, Has God cast off His People? No, indeed. Why, I myself am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin.

011:002 God has not cast off His People whom He knew beforehand. Or are you ignorant of what Scripture says in speaking of Elijah-- how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

011:003 "Lord, they have put Thy Prophets to death, and have overthrown Thy altars; and, now that I alone remain, they are thirsting for my blood"?

011:004 But what did God say to him in reply? "I have reserved for Myself 7,000 men who have never bent the knee to Baal."

011:005 In the same way also at the present time there has come to be a remnant whom God in His grace has selected.

011:006 But if it is in His grace that He has selected them, then His choice is no longer determined by human actions. Otherwise grace would be grace no longer.

011:007 How then does the matter stand? It stands thus. That which Israel are in earnest pursuit of, they have not obtained; but God's chosen servants have obtained it, and the rest have become hardened.

011:008 And so Scripture says, "God has given them a spirit of drowsiness-- eyes to see nothing with and ears to hear nothing with-- even until now."

011:009 And David says, "Let their very food become a snare and a trap to them, a stumbling-block and a retribution.

011:010 Let darkness come over their eyes that they may be unable to see, and make Thou their backs continually to stoop."