Romans 1:1-17

Greeting

1 From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for God’s good news. ^2-3 God promised this good news about his Son ahead of time through his prophets in the holy scriptures. His Son was descended from David. ⁴ He was publicly identified as God’s Son with power through his resurrection from the dead, which was based on the Spirit of holiness. This Son is Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him we have received God’s grace and our appointment to be apostles. This was to bring all Gentiles to faithful obedience for his name’s sake. ⁶ You who are called by Jesus Christ are also included among these Gentiles.

⁷ To those in Rome who are dearly loved by God and called to be God’s people.

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

Thanksgiving and Paul’s plans to visit

⁸ First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the news about your faithfulness is being spread throughout the whole world. ⁹ I serve God in my spirit by preaching the good news about God’s Son, and God is my witness that I continually mention you ¹⁰ in all my prayers. I’m always asking that somehow, by God’s will, I might succeed in visiting you at last. ¹¹ I really want to see you to pass along some spiritual gift to you so that you can be strengthened. ¹² What I mean is that we can mutually encourage each other while I am with you. We can be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, both your faithfulness and mine.

¹³ I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I planned to visit you many times, although I have been prevented from coming until now. I want to harvest some fruit among you, just as I have done among the other Gentiles. ¹⁴ I have a responsibility both to Greeks and to those who don’t speak Greek, both to the wise and to the foolish.

God’s righteousness is revealed

¹⁵ That’s why I’m ready to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. ¹⁶ I’m not ashamed of the gospel: it is God’s own power for salvation to all who have faith in God, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, The righteous person will live by faith.