CHAPTER 1
and who
through
the Spirit
of holiness
was declared
with
power
to be the Son
of God
by
His resurrection
from the dead:
Jesus
Christ
our
Lord.
Through
Him
and on behalf of
His
name,
we received
grace
and
apostleship
to call
all those
among
the
Gentiles
to the obedience
that comes from faith.
To all
in
Rome
who are loved
by God
and called to be
saints:
Grace
and
peace
to you
from
God
our
Father
and
the Lord
Jesus
Christ.
First,
I thank
my
God
through
Jesus
Christ
for
all
of you,
because
your
faith
is being proclaimed
all
over
the
world.
God,
whom
I serve
with
my
spirit
in preaching
the
gospel
of
His
Son,
is
my
witness
how
constantly
I remember
you
in
my
prayers
at all times,
asking
that
now
at last
by
God’s
will
I may succeed
in coming
to
you.
I do not want
you
to be unaware,
brothers,
how
often
I planned
to come
to
you
(but
have been prevented from visiting
until
now),
in order that
I might have
a
harvest
among
you,
just
as
I have had among
the
other
Gentiles.
I am not ashamed of
the
gospel,
because
it is
the power
of God
for
salvation
to everyone
who
believes,
first
to the Jew,
then
to the Greek.
For
the gospel
reveals
the righteousness
of God
that comes by
faith from start
to
finish,
just as
it is written:
“The
righteous
will live
by
faith.”
The wrath
of God
is being revealed
from
heaven
against
all
the godlessness
and
wickedness
of men
who
suppress
the
truth
by
their wickedness.
For
since
the creation
of the world
God’s
invisible qualities,
His
eternal
power
and
divine nature,
have been clearly seen,
being understood
from
His workmanship,
so that
men
are
without excuse.
For
although they knew
God,
they neither glorified Him
as
God
nor
gave thanks to Him,
but
they became futile
in
their
thinking
and
darkened
in their
foolish
hearts.
and
exchanged
the
glory
of the
immortal
God
for
images
of mortal
man
and
birds
and
animals
and
reptiles.
Therefore
God
gave them over
in
the
desires
of
their
hearts
to
impurity
for the
dishonoring
of their
bodies
with
one another.
They
exchanged
the
truth
of God
for
a lie,
and
worshiped
and
served
created things
rather than
the
Creator,
who
is
forever
worthy of praise!
Amen.
For this reason
God
gave them over
to
dishonorable
passions.
Even
their
women
exchanged
natural
relations
for
unnatural
ones.
Likewise,
the
men
abandoned
natural
relations
with
women
and burned
with
lust
for
one another.
Men
committed
indecent acts
with
other men,
and
received
in
themselves
the
due
penalty
for
their
error.
Furthermore,
since
they did not see fit
to acknowledge
God,
He
gave them up
to
a depraved
mind,
to do
what
ought not to be done.
They have become filled with
every kind of
wickedness,
evil,
greed,
and hatred.
They are full
of envy,
murder,
strife,
deceit,
and malice.
They are gossips,
slanderers,
God-haters,
insolent,
arrogant,
and boastful.
They invent
new forms of evil;
they disobey
their parents.
Although they
know
God’s
righteous decree
that
those who
do
such
things
are
worthy
of death,
they not
only
continue to do
these things,
but
also
approve of
those who
practice them.