For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, ¹  nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers,

who risked their own necks for my life. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them!

But I ask, have they ¹  not heard? ²  Yes, they have: ³  Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. ⁴ 

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³ 

For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience ¹  of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ²  – which is your reasonable service.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ¹  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ²  (I am speaking in human terms.) ³ 

But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, ¹  that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, ¹  did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel ²  jealous.

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters ¹  (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person ²  as long as he lives?

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹ 

just as it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, ¹  yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ² 

But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, ¹  so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel ²  until the full number ³  of the Gentiles has come in.

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve ¹  the gospel of God ²  like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, ³  sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

(as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ¹  He is our father ²  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ³  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ⁴