For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.

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

For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers,

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.

but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith –

But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

(as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.

and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

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

For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.”

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened,

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.

For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope