Psalms 94:14

94:14 Certainly ¹  the Lord does not forsake his people;

he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him. ² 

Jeremiah 32:39-41

32:39 I will give them a single-minded purpose to live in a way that always shows respect for me. They will want to do that for ³  their own good and the good of the children who descend from them. 32:40 I will make a lasting covenant ⁴  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ⁵  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ⁶  they will never again turn ⁷  away from me. 32:41 I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them ⁸  firmly in the land.’

Ezekiel 14:23

14:23 They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Romans 5:8-10

5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous ⁹  by his blood, ¹⁰  we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. ¹¹  5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

Romans 8:29-31

8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son ¹²  would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ¹³  8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:2

8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit ¹⁴  in Christ Jesus has set you ¹⁵  free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 2:13-14

2:13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous. ¹⁶  2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, ¹⁷  who do not have the law, do by nature ¹⁸  the things required by the law, ¹⁹  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ²⁰ Therefore ²¹  you are without excuse, ²²  whoever you are, ²³  when you judge someone else. ²⁴  For on whatever grounds ²⁵  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Romans 1:3-5

1:3 concerning his Son who was a descendant ²⁶  of David with reference to the flesh, ²⁷  1:4 who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power ²⁸  according to the Holy Spirit ²⁹  by the resurrection ³⁰  from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1:5 Through him ³¹  we have received grace and our apostleship ³²  to bring about the obedience ³³  of faith ³⁴  among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.

Hebrews 13:5

13:5 Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” ³⁵ 

[94:14]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[94:14]  ² tn Or “his inheritance.”

[32:39]  ³ tn Heb “I will give to them one heart and one way to [= in order that they may] fear me all the days for good to them.” The phrase “one heart” refers both to unanimity of will and accord (cf. 1 Chr 12:38 [12:39 HT]; 2 Chr 30:12) and to singleness of purpose or intent (cf. Ezek 11:19 and see BDB 525 s.v. ֵלב 4 where reference is made to “inclinations, resolutions, and determinations of the will”). The phrase “one way” refers to one way of life or conduct (cf. BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a where reference is made to moral action and character), a way of life that is further qualified by the goal of showing “fear, reverence, respect” for the Lord. The Hebrew sentence has been broken up to avoid a long complex sentence in English which is contrary to contemporary English style. However, an attempt has been made to preserve all the connections of the original.

[32:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.

[32:40]  ⁵ tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”

[32:40]  ⁶ tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.

[32:40]  ⁷ tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.

[32:41]  ⁸ tn Heb “will plant them in the land with faithfulness with all my heart and with all my soul.” The latter expressions are, of course, anthropomorphisms (see Deut 6:5).

[5:9]  ⁹ tn Grk “having now been declared righteous.” The participle δικαιωθέντες (dikaiwqente") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[5:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or, according to BDF §219.3, “at the price of his blood.”

[5:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as v. 10 shows.

[8:29]  ¹² tn Grk “he”; the referent (God’s Son) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:29]  ¹³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[8:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”

[8:2]  ¹⁵ tc Most mss read the first person singular pronoun με (me) here (A D 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa). The second person singular pronoun σε (se) is superior because of external support (א B {F which reads σαι} G 1506* 1739*) and internal support (it is the harder reading since ch. 7 was narrated in the first person). At the same time, it could have arisen via dittography from the final syllable of the verb preceding it (ἠλευθέρωσεν, hleuqerwsen; “has set free”). But for this to happen in such early and diverse witnesses is unlikely, especially as it depends on various scribes repeatedly overlooking either the nu or the nu-bar at the end of the verb.

[2:13]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek sentence expresses this contrast more succinctly than is possible in English. Grk “For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.”

[2:14]  ¹⁷ sn Gentile is a NT term for a non-Jew.

[2:14]  ¹⁸ tn Some (e.g. C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:135-37) take the phrase φύσει (fusei, “by nature”) to go with the preceding “do not have the law,” thus: “the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature,” that is, by virtue of not being born Jewish.

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “do by nature the things of the law.”

[2:1]  ²⁰ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²² tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[1:3]  ²⁶ tn Grk “born of the seed” (an idiom).

[1:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “according to the flesh,” indicating Jesus’ earthly life, a reference to its weakness. This phrase implies that Jesus was more than human; otherwise it would have been sufficient to say that he was a descendant of David, cf. L. Morris, Romans, 44.

[1:4]  ²⁸ sn Appointed the Son-of-God-in-power. Most translations render the Greek participle ὁρισθέντος (Jorisqentos, from ὁρίζω, Jorizw) “declared” or “designated” in order to avoid the possible interpretation that Jesus was appointed the Son of God by the resurrection. However, the Greek term ὁρίζω is used eight times in the NT, and it always has the meaning “to determine, appoint.” Paul is not saying that Jesus was appointed the “Son of God by the resurrection” but “Son-of-God-in-power by the resurrection,” as indicated by the hyphenation. He was born in weakness in human flesh (with respect to the flesh, v. 3) and he was raised with power. This is similar to Matt 28:18 where Jesus told his disciples after the resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn Grk “spirit of holiness.” Some interpreters take the phrase to refer to Christ’s own inner spirit, which was characterized by holiness.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tn Or “by his resurrection.” Most interpreters see this as a reference to Jesus’ own resurrection, although some take it to refer to the general resurrection at the end of the age, of which Jesus’ resurrection is the first installment (cf. 1 Cor 15:23).

[1:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “through whom.”

[1:5]  ³² tn Some interpreters understand the phrase “grace and apostleship” as a hendiadys, translating “grace [i.e., gift] of apostleship.” The pronoun “our” is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of the statement.

[1:5]  ³³ tn Grk “and apostleship for obedience.”

[1:5]  ³⁴ tn The phrase ὑπακοὴν πίστεως has been variously understood as (1) an objective genitive (a reference to the Christian faith, “obedience to [the] faith”); (2) a subjective genitive (“the obedience faith produces [or requires]”); (3) an attributive genitive (“believing obedience”); or (4) as a genitive of apposition (“obedience, [namely] faith”) in which “faith” further defines “obedience.” These options are discussed by C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC), 1:66. Others take the phrase as deliberately ambiguous; see D. B. Garlington, “The Obedience of Faith in the Letter to the Romans: Part I: The Meaning of ὑπακοὴ πίστεως (Rom 1:5; 16:26),” WTJ 52 (1990): 201-24.

[13:5]  ³⁵ sn A quotation from Deut 31:6, 8.