Holman Christian Standard Bible (333 page)

Romans

Paul Answers an Objection

3
So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
2
 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the spoken words of God. 
3
 What then? If some did not believe, will their unbelief cancel God's faithfulness?
4
 Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:

5
 But if our unrighteousness highlights God's righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument:Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?
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 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? 
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 But if by my lie God's truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 
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 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

The Whole World Guilty before God

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 What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,
10
 as it is written: 

19
 Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God's judgment.
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 For no one will be
•justified
 in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law. 

God's Righteousness through Faith

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 But now, apart from the law, God's righteousness has been revealed  — attested by the Law and the Prophets
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 — that is, God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 
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 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
24
 They are justified freely by His grace through the
•redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. 
25
 God presented Him as a
•propitiation
through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 
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 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.

Boasting Excluded

27
 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.
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 For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 
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 Or is God for Jews only? Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too,
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 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
31
 Do we then cancel the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law. 

Romans

Abraham Justified by Faith

4
What then can we say that Abraham, our physical ancestor, has found?
2
 If Abraham was
•justified
 by works, he has something to brag about — but not before God. 
3
 For what does the Scripture say?

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 Now to the one who works, pay is not considered as a gift, but as something owed.
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 But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

David Celebrating the Same Truth

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 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the man God credits righteousness to apart from works:

Abraham Justified before Circumcision

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 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say,
Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.
10
 In what way then was it credited — while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.
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 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.
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 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.

The Promise Granted through Faith

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 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 
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 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise is canceled.
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 For the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

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 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants  — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham's faith. He is the father of us all
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 in God's sight. As it is written:
I have made you the father of many nations.
He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. 
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 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became
the father of many nations
according to what had been spoken:
So will your descendants be.
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 He considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about 100 years old) and also considered the deadness of Sarah's womb, without weakening in the faith.
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 He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 
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 because he was fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 
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 Therefore,
it was credited to him for righteousness.
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 Now
it was credited to him
was not written for Abraham alone, 
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 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 
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 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans

Faith Triumphs

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Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
2
 We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
3
 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 
4
 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
5
 This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Those Declared Righteous Are Reconciled

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 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.
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 For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
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 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
9
 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 
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 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! 
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 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him. 

Death through Adam and Life through Christ

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 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned. 
13
 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person's account when there is no law. 
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 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression. He is a prototype of the Coming One. 

15
 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man's trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
16
 And the gift is not like the one man's sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in
•justification
. 
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 Since by the one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

18
 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is life-giving justification for everyone.
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 For just as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
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 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 
21
 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans

The New Life in Christ

6
What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 
2
 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3
 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 
4
 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may
•walk
in a new way of life. 
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 For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.
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 For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,
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 since a person who has died is freed from sin's claims. 
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 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him,
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 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. 
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 For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God.
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 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

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 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
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 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
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 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace. 

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

15
 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 
16
 Don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient
•slaves
, you are slaves of that one you obey  — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?
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 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, 
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 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
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 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in
•sanctification
.
20
 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness.
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 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 
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 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification — and the end is eternal life! 
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 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.