Romans 1 - 5
1:1-6 Paul, servant of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, having been set apart, marked by boundaries, into the good news of God, which He promised beforehand, out from Himself, through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, [the good news] around [or concerning] His Son, having come out of the sperm of David according to the flesh, having been determined a Son of God inside of power, down to the finest details of the Spirit of holiness out from the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord; through whom we have received grace and apostleship into submission to the word of faith among all the peoples for the sake of His name, among whom also you are called of Jesus Christ.7 To all those being in Rome, beloved of God, called holy ones: grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8-12 First, indeed, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world. God indeed is my witness, whom I serve inside my spirit inside the good news of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always upon my prayers, asking if perhaps now at last I will make a prosperous journey inside the desire of God, to come to you. I long, indeed, to see you, that I might impart some spiritual gift to you, into your strengthening. And more than that, to be encouraged together among you, through faith inside of one another, both of you and of me.
13-17 I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that many times I purposed to come to you, and was hindered for now, that I might have fruit also among you, as even among other people. I am a debtor to both Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish. So I am ready also to preach the good news to you who are at Rome. For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is the power of God into salvation to all who are actively believing, to Judeans first, and also to the Greek. For inside of the good news the righteousness of God is unveiled out of faith into faith; as it has been written, “The righteous will live out of faith.”
18-23 Indeed, the anger of God is unveiled {speaking directly of the cross} from heaven upon all disrespect and injustice of men suppressing the truth inside of injustice. Because the knowing of God is made visible among them, God indeed has made it visible to them. Indeed, His invisible qualities of unending power and divine Personhood are clearly perceived from the creation of the cosmos, being understood by the things made, so that they are without excuse. For having known God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but they became pointless in their thinking {a false story of self}, and their non-comprehending heart was darkened, asserting themselves to be wise, they became foolish. And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God {which they were – the likeness of God} for the likeness and image of dying man, and birds, and quadrupeds, and creeping things {the serpent as the image of God.}
24-27 Therefore, God gave them over into impurity in the desires of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies in themselves. Who exchanged the truth of God with falsehood and reverenced and served the created instead of the Creator, who is blessed [spoken well of] into the ages. Let it be so. Because of this, God gave them over into passions of disgrace for their women, exchanging the natural sexual use into that alongside nature. In the same way also the men, having left the natural sexual use of the women, were inflamed in their lusts into one another – males in males – producing indecency and receiving inside themselves the consequence which fitted their delusion.
28-32 And, just as they did not approve having God in their knowledge, so God gave them over into an unapproved mind, to do things not proper; being filled with all injustice, wickedness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, slanderers, defamers, God-haters, hubristic, arrogant, boastful; inventers of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, untrustworthy, heartless, unmerciful, who, having known the righteous judgment of God, that those practicing such things are worthy of death, not only are practicing them, but are also approving of others who are practicing them.
2:1 Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, everyone who judges, in that very thing by which you judge another, you are condemning yourself; indeed, you are practicing the very same things you are judging. {Paul is slamming every single reader here. All who want to point out how wicked all those people are out there doing all this stuff – you do the same and you know it.}
2-11 We know, however, that the judgment of God upon those practicing such things is according to truth. Suppose this, you, oh man, who are judging those practicing such things and are doing them yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise [think little of] the riches of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you into repentance? Moreover, because of your hardness and unrepentant heart, you are treasuring up to yourself anger inside the day of anger and the unveiling of the righteous judgment of God, who will return to each according to his works. To those that with endurance in good works are seeking glory, honor, and immortality – age-unfolding life; to those, however, out of mercenary refusal of the truth have confidence in injustice – impulse and passion. Pressure and distress upon every soul of man producing evil, of Judeans first, and also of Greeks. Glory, honor, and peace to everyone producing good, to Judeans fist and also to Greeks. Indeed, there is no partiality with God.
12-16 For as many as have sinned [fallen short of the mark] with law, without law also will perish; and as many as have sinned in law, through law will be judged. Indeed, not the hearers of law are righteous alongside of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. Indeed, when peoples not having law, do the things of law, these not having law are law to themselves, who prove the work of law written in their hearts, their consciousness bearing witness and between one another, in their thoughts either accusing or defending themselves, inside the day, when God will judge the secrets of men, down to the finest details of my gospel through Christ Jesus.
17-24 More than that, If you name yourself a Judean and rely on law and boast in God, and know His desire and approve superior things being carried through, being instructed out of the law, being persuaded that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law – you, then, teaching another, do you not teach yourself? You preaching not to steal, do you steal? You saying not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who are abhorring idols, do commit sacrilege? You who boast in law, through the transgression of law, do you dishonor God? Indeed, the name of God through you is blasphemed among the peoples, as it has been written.
25-29 Circumcision benefits you if you practice law; if, however, you are a transgressor of law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcised watches over the righteousness of law, will not his uncircumcision be reckoned into circumcision? And will not those who are by nature uncircumcised yet fulfilling the law, judge you who with the written [Scripture] and with circumcision are a transgressor of law? For he is not Judean who is one visibly, neither is circumcision that which is visible in the flesh; but he is a Judean who is one secretly, and circumcision is that of heart, in Spirit, not letter, of whom the praise is not out of men, but out of God.
3:1-4 What, then, is the advantage of the Judean? Or what is the usefulness of circumcision? Much in every way, first, for indeed they were entrusted with the statements of God. So what if some did not believe? Does their unbelief negate the faith of God? It may never be! Let God be true and every man a liar [a fake], as it has been written, “That You may be justified inside Your words, and will overcome inside Your being judged.”
5-8 More than that, if our unrighteousness stands together with God’s righteousness, what will we say? Is God unjust in bringing anger upon? (I speak according to man.) It may never be! Otherwise how will God judge the cosmos? More than that, if the truth of God abounded to His glory inside of my falseness, why yet am I also judged as a sinner, as one always falling short? And not, as we are slandered and as some claim that we say, “Let us do evil things so that good things might come.” Their judgment is just.
9-18 What then? Are we better? Not at all. For we have already charged both Judeans and Greeks to be all under sin [to be all disconnected from God]. As it has been written, – None is righteous, not even one. There is none who is understanding; there is none seeking after God. All have fallen away, together they have become useless and worthless. There is none who is doing good; not so much as one. Their throat is a grave having been opened; with their tongues they practice deceit and fraud; the poison of vipers is under their lips. Of whom their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their ways; and the path of peace they have not known. The fear of God is not in their sight.
19-20 We know, moreover, that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are inside the law, that every mouth might be closed, and the entire cosmos brought under judgment before God. Therefore, no flesh will be justified in His sight out from works of law; indeed, through law is the knowledge of sin, [the knowledge of full disconnection from God.] {Since the law says, “You break one tiny law once, and you are executed,” God’s purpose in the law is to show you that you cannot, of yourself, connect with God.}
21-26 Now, however, God’s righteousness has been made visible completely separate from law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ into all those believing, indeed, there is no separation [no present disconnection from God]. Indeed all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God—being justified, made pure and righteous, utterly without sin or any falling short of God, by His grace and favor through the redemption that is inside of Christ Jesus, whom God set forth [pro-tithemi – always coming out from the core being of God] as the Mercy Seat through faith inside of His blood, into the demonstration and proof of His righteousness through the bearing of all prior sins inside the carrying of God, towards the demonstration and proof of His righteousness inside the present time, into His being just [in Himself] as well as justifying [making as never having sinned] the one [who is] out from the faith of Jesus.
27-31 Where then is boasting {in self-righteousness}? It has been excluded. Through what law? That of works? NO, but through the law of faith. We reckon [give account, declare it to be so] therefore [that] a man is to be justified by faith completely separate from works of law. Is He the God of Judeans only, and not also of the peoples? Yes, also of the peoples. For God is the One who will justify the circumcision [only] out from faith and the uncircumcision through the [same] faith. Do we nullify the law, then, through our faith? It may never be! But we establish the law {in its purpose}.
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a. Keeping the law to perfection connects no one
6 In the same way, David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God credits justice, making it to be so completely separate from works, that is, completely separate from what a person does or does not do. 7 Blessed are those whose lawlessness is sent away, that is, made to vanish, and whose failures to connect with God are covered, that is, are entirely blanked out. 8 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon or consider or count any falling short.
9 Is this blessing, then, upon those circumcised, or is it also upon those not circumcised? For we are saying that faith was credited to Abraham as just innocence. 10 How then was it credited, that is, spoken inside of God? Was it when he was circumcised or before he was circumcised? It was before Abraham was circumcised, not after he was circumcised. 11 Abraham then received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the justice of his faith before he was circumcised, so that he became the father of all those believing into just innocence also being credited that is, spoken inside of God, to them, even though they are not circumcised. 12 And he is the father of circumcision, not to the circumcised only, but also to those walking in the steps of our father Abraham’s faith when he was not circumcised.
13 Indeed, the promise to Abraham or to his seed, to be heir of the cosmos, did not come through law, but through justice of faith. 14 If those out of law are heirs, then faith is unreal, and the promise is abolished. 15 The law accomplishes only anger [every individual breaks the law and must be executed by the command of the law]; but where there is no law, neither is there anything contrary.
16 Therefore it is out from faith and according to grace that is, the gift of God Himself, into being certain and sure, that the promise is sure to all the seed, not just to those out of the law, but also to those coming out of the faith of Abraham, who is father of all of us. 17 (As it has been written, “I have made you a father of many peoples.”) Before God whom he believed, this One who is continuously giving life to the dead and calling into existence things not existing. 18 Alongside of hope, Abraham believed upon hope for the purpose of becoming father of many peoples, according to what God spoke, “So will your seed be.” 19 And not having become weak in faith, he perceived his own body already having become dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not judge that deadness through unbelief, however, but he was filled with power in faith, into the promise of God, giving God glory. 21 Abraham was convinced to full measure and completion that what God had promised, He is also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was also credited, that is, spoken inside of God, to him into just innocence.
b. This word, “through” indicates that Jesus passes through us, takes our sin as Himself and places His just innocence as ourselves.
5:1 Having been made just and innocent out from faith [declared never to have sinned], therefore, we have peace towards God through our Lord, Jesus Christ {the words “towards” and “through” continue to refer to a Jesus always connecting us with Father}, 2 through whom also we have the access or entrance through faith into this grace in which we stand, that is, God Himself; and we boast upon hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we also exult boastfully now inside the pressures of travail within and without, knowing that such pressures bring forth steadfastness, 4 and steadfastness, proof, and proof, hope. 5 Now hope does not leave us ashamed or confused, because the love of God has already been poured out and shed abroad inside of our hearts through Spirit Holy, the One having been given to us.
6 Yet, when we were without strength, still, in the right time, Christ died for the sake of the disrespectful [those not giving thanks]. 7 Rarely, though, will the just die for the sake of anyone; though on behalf of a good person, perhaps, someone would dare to die. 8 God, however, establishes Himself as love into us, that when we were still sinners, that is, disconnected from God, Christ died for us, for our sakes. 9 Much more, therefore, having now been made just, that is, declared as never having sinned, inside of His blood, we will be saved far away from anger through Him. 10 For if when we were hostile, we were reconciled, that is, exchanged – life for life, to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been exchanged, we will be saved and made whole inside of His life. 11 Not only that, be we also are exulting boastfully inside of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation and are completely restored to God inside of favor.
12 For this reason, just as through one man, sin and falling short of God entered into the cosmos, and through falling short, death; also, then, death spread into all men, for all have disconnected themselves from God. 13 Indeed, falling short was inside the cosmos before the law; but falling short of the target is not put to account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death ruled from Adam until Moses, even upon those who did not fall short in the precise way that Adam stepped aside from God, who is a pattern of the One about to act. 15 But the grace is not like the stepping aside. Indeed, if many died by the one stepping aside, how much more the grace that is God and the gift inside of grace, which is of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounds into the many. 16 Yet the gift is not the same as the one having fallen short, for truly the judgment of that one was into condemnation, but grace is into being made just and innocent, in spite of many such stepping asides, 17 Indeed, if by one stepping aside, death ruled through the one, how much more those receiving the abundance and full measure of grace and the gift of being made just and innocent will rule inside of life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18 So then, just as one act of stepping aside brought all men into condemnation, so also one act of justice brings all men into that just innocence that comes out of life. 19 For as indeed through the one man not listening, that is, not connecting with the speaking of God, the many were set forth as sinners disconnected from God, so also through the submission of the One, that is, the embracing of what is spoken, the many will be set forth as just and innocent.
20 More than that, the law entered so that walking contrary might abound, to be shown for what it is, yet, where sin and falling short of God abounded, grace hyper-abounded, 21 such that, as disconnection once ruled inside of death, so now grace, that is, God in us, might rule through our being made just and innocent into age-unfolding life through Jesus Christ our Lord.