“And in the very place ¹  where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” ² 

who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power ¹  according to the Holy Spirit ²  by the resurrection ³  from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ¹  ‘My beloved.’” ² 

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, ¹  who was the first convert ²  to Christ in the province of Asia. ³ 

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.” ¹ 

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God ¹  has been poured out ²  in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

For the promise ¹  to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ¹ 

But what was the divine response ¹  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ²  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ³ 

We know that ¹  our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, ²  so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ ¹  is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.

And he is also the father of the circumcised, ¹  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ² 

So, my brothers and sisters, ¹  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ² 

For God achieved what the law could not do because ¹  it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

This was ¹  also to demonstrate ²  his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just ³  and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness. ⁴ 

God publicly displayed ¹  him ²  at his death ³  as the mercy seat ⁴  accessible through faith. ⁵  This was to demonstrate ⁶  his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. ⁷ 

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, ¹  so that he would become ²  the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, ³  that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

I do not want you to be unaware, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. ³ 

Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type ¹  of the coming one) transgressed. ² 

What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ¹  has discovered regarding this matter? ²