| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. | 1From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. |
| 2God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. | 2This gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, |
| 3The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, | 3concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, |
| 4and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. | 4who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. |
| 5Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. | 5Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. |
| 6And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. | 6You also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ. |
| 7I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. God’s Good News | 7To all those loved by God in Rome, called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! |
| 8Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. | 8First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. |
| 9God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son. | 9For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you |
| 10One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. | 10and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God. |
| 11For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. | 11For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, |
| 12When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. | 12that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another's faith, both yours and mine. |
| 13I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. | 13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, 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. |
| 14For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike. | 14I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. |
| 15So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. | 15Thus I am eager also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. |
| 16For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. | 16For 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. |
| 17This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” God’s Anger at Sin | 17For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, "The righteous by faith will live." |
| 18But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. | 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, |
| 19They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. | 19because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. |
| 20For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. | 20For 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 are without excuse. |
| 21Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. | 21For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. |
| 22Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. | 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools |
| 23And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. | 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. |
| 24So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. | 24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. |
| 25They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. | 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. |
| 26That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. | 26For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, |
| 27And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. | 27and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. |
| 28Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. | 28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. |
| 29Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. | 29They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, |
| 30They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. | 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, |
| 31They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. | 31senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. |
| 32They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. | 32Although they fully know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them. |
|
