Paul Greets the Saints in Rome

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God—

²the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,

³regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,

⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁵Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

⁶And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unashamed of the Gospel

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world.

⁹God, whom I serve with my spiritin preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

¹⁰in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

¹³I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visitinguntil now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks,both to the wise and the foolish.

¹⁵That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

¹⁷For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish,just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

God’s Wrath against Sin

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

¹⁹For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise!Amen.

²⁶For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

²⁷Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man,and He will dwell with them.They will be His people,and God Himself will be with them as their God.

⁴‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’and there will be no more deathor mourning or crying or pain,for the former things have passed away.”

⁵And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.”

⁶And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.

⁷The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem

⁹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

¹¹shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal.

¹²The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates.

¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west.

¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls.

¹⁶The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal—12,000 stadiain length and width and height.

¹⁷And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits,by the human measure the angel was using.

¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone:The first foundation was jasper,the second sapphire,the third chalcedony,the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth sardonyx,the sixth carnelian,the seventh chrysolite,the eighth beryl,the ninth topaz,the tenth chrysoprase,the eleventh jacinth,and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.

²²But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

²⁴By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory.

²⁵Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.

²⁶And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations.

²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

God’s Fellow Workers

¹Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.

²I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,

³for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?

⁴For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?

⁵What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.

⁶I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

⁸He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose,and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

⁹For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Christ Our Foundation

¹⁰By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds.

¹¹For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

¹²If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

¹³his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom

¹⁶Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells inyou?

¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

²⁰And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

²¹Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephasor the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,

²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

The LORD Will Not Forget His People

¹O LORD, God of vengeance,O God of vengeance, shine forth.

²Rise up, O Judge of the earth;render a reward to the proud.

³How long will the wicked, O LORD,how long will the wicked exult?

⁴They pour out arrogant words;all workers of iniquity boast.

⁵They crush Your people, O LORD;they oppress Your heritage.

⁶They kill the widow and the foreigner;they murder the fatherless.

⁷They say, “The LORD does not see;the God of Jacob pays no heed.”

⁸Take notice, O senseless among the people!O fools, when will you be wise?

⁹He who affixed the ear, can He not hear?He who formed the eye, can He not see?

¹⁰He who admonishes the nations, does He not discipline?He who teaches man, does He lack knowledge?

¹¹The LORD knows the thoughts of man,that they are futile.

¹²Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD,and teach from Your law,

¹³to grant him relief from days of trouble,until a pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴For the LORD will not forsake His people;He will never abandon His heritage.

¹⁵Surely judgment will again be righteous,and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶Who will rise up for me against the wicked?Who will stand for me against the workers of iniquity?

¹⁷Unless the LORD had been my helper,I would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.

¹⁸If I say, “My foot is slipping,”Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me.

¹⁹When anxiety overwhelms me,Your consolation delights my soul.

²⁰Can a corrupt throne be Your ally—one devising mischief by decree?

²¹They band together against the righteousand condemn the innocent to death.

²²But the LORD has been my stronghold,and my God is my rock of refuge.

²³He will bring upon them their own iniquityand destroy them for their wickedness.The LORD our God will destroy them.