The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans

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- Chapter 1 -

I, Paul, who serve Messiah Jesus, am writing this letter to all of you believers in the city of Rome. God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me in order that I should proclaim the good news that comes from him.

Long before Jesus came to earth, God promised that he would reveal this good news by means of what his prophets wrote in the sacred scriptures.

This good news is about his Son. As to his Son’s physical nature, he was born a descendant of King David.

As to his divine nature, it was powerfully shown that he is God’s own Son. God showed this when his Holy Spirit caused him to become alive again after he died. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

He has shown us great kindness and appointed us to be apostles. He did that in order that many among all the people groups would believe in him and obey him.

You believers who are living in Rome are included among those whom God has chosen to belong to Jesus Christ.

I am writing this letter to all of you in Rome whom God loves and whom he has chosen to become his people. I pray that God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord may continue to act kindly toward you and will continue to cause you to have peace.

Unashamed of the Gospel

As I begin this letter, I thank God for all you believers in Rome. It is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us that I am able to do that. I thank him because people all over the Roman Empire are talking about how you are trusting in him.

God, whom I devotedly serve as I proclaim to people the good news concerning his Son, knows that I tell the truth when I say that I always mention you whenever I pray to God.

I especially ask God that if he desires me to visit you, somehow at last I shall be able to do so.

I pray this because I long to visit you to help you in order that you may trust and honor Messiah more and more.

I mean that I want us to encourage each other by telling each other how we trust in Jesus.

My fellow believers, many times I planned to visit you. I certainly want you to know that. But I have not been able to come to you because something has always stopped me. I have wanted to come in order that more people among you might trust in Jesus, just as in other places among the non-Jews.

I feel obliged to proclaim the good news to all non-Jewish people, to those who speak Greek and to those who do not, to people who are smart and to those who are unintelligent.

As a result, what I have eagerly desired is that I might proclaim this good news to you who are living in Rome also.

I very confidently proclaim the good news about what Messiah has done, because this good news is the powerful way in which God saves those who trust in what Messiah has done for them. Specifically, God first saves the Jews who believe the good news, and then he saves non-Jews.

By means of this good news God reveals how he puts people right with himself. This is like what a prophet wrote long ago in the scriptures: “Those whom God puts right with himself will live because they trust him.”

God’s Wrath against Sin

God in heaven makes it clear that he is angry with all who show no respect for him and who do wicked things. He shows them that they deserve for him to punish them. Because they do wicked things, they also keep other people from knowing what is true about God.

All non-Jews can clearly know what God is like, because God himself has revealed this to everyone.

People cannot actually see with their eyes what God is like. But ever since he created the world, the things in it make us understand things about him, for example, he has always been able to do powerful things. Another example is that everyone knows that he is completely different from all that he has created. So no one is able to say truthfully, “We never knew about God.”

Although non-Jews knew what God is like, they did not honor him as God, nor did they thank him for what he had done. But instead, they began to think foolish things about him, and they were no longer able to understand what he wanted them to know about himself.

Although they claimed that they were wise, they became foolish,

and they refused to admit that God is glorious and will never die. Instead, they made and worshiped idols that resembled people who will some day die, and then they made other idols that resembled birds and four-footed animals, and finally they made idols that resembled reptiles.

So God allowed the non-Jews to do immoral sexual things that they strongly desired, things that they thought they had to do, because they wanted so much to do them. As a result, they began to dishonor each other’s bodies by their sexual actions.

Also, they chose to worship false gods instead of admitting what is true about God. They worshiped things that God created instead of worshiping him, the one who created everything, the one whom we should all praise forever! Amen.

So God allowed the non-Jews to do shameful sexual things that they strongly desired. As a result, many women began having sex with other women, something that goes against nature.

Similarly, many men abandoned their natural relationships with women. Instead, they developed strong sexual desire for each other. They committed homosexual acts with other men, acts that were shameful. As a result, God has punished them by sicknesses in their bodies, which is the direct consequence of that kind of sin.

Furthermore, because they decided that it was not worthwhile to know God, he allowed their own worthless thoughts to completely control them. As a result, they began doing evil things that no one should do.

They strongly desire to do all kinds of unrighteous deeds and evil things to others and take things that belong to others and harm others in various ways. Many constantly envy other people and desire to murder people and to cause arguments and quarrels between people and deceive others and speak hatefully about others.

Many say evil things about others and slander others. Many act especially hatefully toward God and violently toward others and treat others contemptuously and boast about themselves to others and invent new ways to do evil deeds. Many children disobey their parents.

Many act in other foolish ways that offend God and do not do what they promised others that they would do and do not even love their own family members and do not act mercifully toward other people.

Although they know that God has declared that those who do such things deserve to be killed, they not only do these kinds of evil things, but they also approve of others who do them.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,(a) called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,

which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring(b) of David according to the flesh,

who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

through whom we received grace and apostleship for obedience of faith among all the nations for his name’s sake;

among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;

to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unashamed of the Gospel

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established;

that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (and was hindered so far), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

So as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”(c)

God’s Wrath against Sin

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse.

Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;

who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,

backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;

who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Footnotes

(a)1:1 “Christ” means “Anointed One”.

(b)1:3 or, seed