Pray<n id="1" /> that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my ministry in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus,<n id="1" /> who was the first convert<n id="2" /> to Christ in the province of Asia.<n id="3" />

They<n id="1" /> exchanged the truth of God for a lie<n id="2" /> and worshiped and served the creation<n id="3" /> rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.p>

This was<n id="1" /> also to demonstrate<n id="2" /> his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just<n id="3" /> and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus&#8217; faithfulness.<n id="4" />p>

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace,<n id="1" /> with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants &#8211; not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham,<n id="2" /> who is the father of us all

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.<n id="1" />p>

So, my brothers and sisters,<n id="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.<n id="2" />

For when we were in the flesh,<n id="1" /> the sinful desires,<n id="2" /> aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body<n id="3" /> to bear fruit for death.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh:<n id="1" /> &#8220;<i><b>For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in youb>, <b>and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earthb>i>.&#8221;<n id="2" />

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?p>

Do not be conformed<n id="1" /> to this present world,<n id="2" /> but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve<n id="3" /> what is the will of God &#8211; what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you<n id="1" /> a measure of faith.<n id="2" />

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him,<n id="1" /> so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.p>

and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women<n id="1" /> and were inflamed in their passions<n id="2" /> for one another. Men<n id="3" /> committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.p>

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression.<n id="1" /> For if the many died through the transgression of the one man,<n id="2" /> how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!