Romans 1

1

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

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which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

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the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

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and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

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through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

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including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;

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

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

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For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers,

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asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

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For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

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that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

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I want you to know, brethren, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

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I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish:

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so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

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For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live."

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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth.

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For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

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Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;

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for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.

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Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

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and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.

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Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

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because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.

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For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,

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and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

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And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.

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They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips,

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slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

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foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

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Though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.

Romans 2

1

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

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We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things.

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Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?

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Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

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But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

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For he will render to every man according to his works:

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to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

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but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

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There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,

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but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

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For God shows no partiality.

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All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

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For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

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When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

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They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them

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on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

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But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God

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and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed in the law,

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and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

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a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--

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you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

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You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

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You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

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For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

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Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

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So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

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Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

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For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical.

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He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God.

Romans 3

1

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

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Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God.

3

What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

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By no means! Let God be true though every man be false, as it is written, "That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and prevail when thou art judged."

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But if our wickedness serves to show the justice of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

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By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

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But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

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And why not do evil that good may come? --as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

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What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,

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as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;

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no one understands, no one seeks for God.

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All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one."

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"Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."

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"Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

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"Their feet are swift to shed blood,

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in their paths are ruin and misery,

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and the way of peace they do not know."

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"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

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Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

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But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,

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the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction;

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since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

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they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,

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whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins;

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it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.

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Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith.

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For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.

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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

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since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith.

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Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Romans 7

1

Do you not know, brethren--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only during his life?

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Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.

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Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

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Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

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While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

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But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

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What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

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But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.

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I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;

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the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me.

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For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me.

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So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

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Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

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We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.

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I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

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Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.

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So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

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For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

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Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

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So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

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For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self,

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but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

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Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

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Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 8

1

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

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For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

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in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

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For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

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To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

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For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot;

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and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

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But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.

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If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

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So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--

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for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

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For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

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For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"

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it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

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and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

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I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;

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for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope;

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because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.

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We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;

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and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

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For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

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But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

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Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.

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And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

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For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.

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And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

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What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?

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He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies;

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who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

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As it is written, "For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

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No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

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nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 3

1

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

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Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

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Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

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Did you experience so many things in vain? --if it really is in vain.

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Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

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Thus Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."

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So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."

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So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.

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For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them."

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Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for "He who through faith is righteous shall live";

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but the law does not rest on faith, for "He who does them shall live by them."

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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree" --

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that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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To give a human example, brethren: no one annuls even a man's will, or adds to it, once it has been ratified.

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Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many; but, referring to one, "And to your offspring," which is Christ.

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This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.

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For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

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Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained by angels through an intermediary.

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Now an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one.

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Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

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But the scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed.

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So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith.

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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian;

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for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

1 Corinthians 1

1

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sos'thenes,

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To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

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that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge--

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even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you--

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so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ;

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who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10

I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

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For it has been reported to me by Chlo'e's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren.

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What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apol'los," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ."

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Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

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I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Ga'ius;

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lest any one should say that you were baptized in my name.

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(I did baptize also the household of Steph'anas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any one else.)

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For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

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For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart."

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Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

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For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

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For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

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but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

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but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

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For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;

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but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,

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God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

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so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

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He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption;

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therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord."

1 Corinthians 2

1

When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom.

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For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

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And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling;

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and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

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that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

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Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

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But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.

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None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

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But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,"

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God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

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For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

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Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

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And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

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The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

15

The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

16

"For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Revelation 5

1

And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals;

2

and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

3

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it,

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and I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to into into it.

5

Then one of the elders said to me, "Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."

6

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth;

7

and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

8

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints;

9

and they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,

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and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth."

11

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,

12

saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"

13

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!"

14

And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation 6