For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised ¹  on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ² 

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!

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 ¹  are without excuse.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ¹  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For if, by the transgression of the one man, ¹  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

But who indeed are you – a mere human being ¹  – to talk back to God? ²  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ³ 

But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand? ¹  First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.” ² 

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.

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but ¹  God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; ²  otherwise you also will be cut off.

(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