Romans
1
{I,} Paul, {am writing this letter}. I serve the Messiah Jesus. He called me to be an apostle and specially chose me to proclaim God’s good news. 2 God previously promised this good news by means of his spokesmen who prophesied about it {and wrote it down} in the sacred writings. 3 {This good news is} about God’s Son. He was born a natural descendant of King David. 4 In accordance with the Holy Spirit, God powerfully demonstrated that Jesus is his Son by causing him to live again after he had died. {God’s Son is} Jesus the Messiah, {who is} our Lord. 5 Jesus favored us apostles and authorized us to represent him on his behalf in order that all the nations would obey {God} by trusting {in Jesus the Messiah}. 6 Jesus the Messiah has also called you who are {living} among the nations. 7 {I am writing this letter} to all of you {believers} who dwell in the city of Rome. God loves you and has called you to be people who belong to him. {May} God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah {continue to} be kind to you and make you peaceful.8 Now, {the} first {thing I want to tell you, is that} I am constantly thanking my God through Jesus the Messiah for all of you {believers in the Messiah}. {I thank him} because {people} throughout the known world are proclaiming how you trust {in Jesus}. 9 {I can say this truthfully} because God testifies for me that I frequently pray for you. I serve him devotedly by proclaiming the good news about his Son{, Jesus}. 10 {When} I pray, I very often request that I might finally succeed in coming to {visit} you because God wants {me to}. 11 {I pray for this} because I deeply desire to see you {in person} in order to share some kind of gracious gift with you from the Holy Spirit in order to help you become spiritually stronger. 12 In other words, {I want to share some gracious gift with you} in order to mutually encourage one other. Both you and I can help each other by sharing how we mutually trust in God. 13 My fellow believers, I certainly want you to know that I planned to visit you many times. But {God} has prevented me from visiting you until the present time. {I planned to visit you} in order to lead some people to believe in Christ among you as well, just like {how I have} also {done so} among the other nations. 14 I am obligated {to proclaim the good news} to all non-Jewish people, whether or not they are {culturally} Greek and whether or not they are educated. 15 So then, if it was my choice, I would gladly proclaim the good news to you who dwell in Rome.
16 {I would gladly do this} because I am deeply honored to proclaim the good news because it is the powerful way that God uses to save anyone who believes {it}. {This is true for} both the Jews {who} first {heard the good news} and then everyone else. 17 {This is true} because whenever {people proclaim} the good news, they reveal how God makes people righteous, which is entirely through trusting {in the Messiah}. This is what {the prophet Habakkuk meant when} he wrote {in the Scriptures}, “But the person whom God makes righteous will live forever by trusting {in God}.”
18 {This is true} because from where God dwells he is revealing how he is furious toward {and will judge} every person who does ungodly and unrighteous things. These people suppress the things that God says are true by living in an unrighteous manner.
19 {God will judge them} because what anyone can know about God is obvious to these people since God has made it obvious to them. 20 {This is true} because people can clearly perceive those things about God that they cannot see {with their eyes}. {These things are} how powerful God is and the fact that he is God. {People could perceive these things} since the time God created the universe. The things that God has made have understood {these things}. For this reason, people cannot excuse themselves {from acknowledging that God exists}. 21 {People cannot excuse themselves} because they do not honor him as God, even though they know that he exists. They also refuse to thank him. In contrast, they think about worthless things, and they are unable to understand spiritual things. 22 {Although} they assert that they are wise, they are {actually} fools. 23 They stop glorifying the God who is immortal, and instead they glorify idols that resemble mortal people, birds, four-legged animals, and animals that crawl {on the ground}.
24 Consequently, God lets these people do the lustful things that they desire to do, so that they become {spiritually} impure and they disgrace their bodies with one another {by doing sexually immoral acts}. 25 These people stop believing what is true about God and instead believe what is false {about idols}. They reverently worship things that God has created, instead of {worshiping} {the God} who created those things. {He is the one} whom people should bless forever! May it be so!
26 Because {these people do that}, God lets them do the dishonorable things they strongly desire {to do}. For example, their women stop doing natural {sexual} acts {with men} and instead do unnatural {sexual} acts {with women}. 27 Similarly, the men also stop doing natural {sexual} acts with women {and} lust intensely for other men. These men do shameless {sexual} acts with each other. They experience God penalizing them in their own bodies. {God must penalize them} because they pervert {God’s natural sexual acts}.
28 Like how these people think that acknowledging God is worthless, God lets their minds become worthless. As a result, they do inappropriate things. 29 {These people} are completely controlled by all kinds of unrighteous, wicked, covetous, and malicious {thoughts}. They are completely willing to envy, murder, argue, deceive, and commit evil deeds {against others}. They gossip {about others}. 30 They slander {other people}. They hate God. They act violently. They are arrogant. They boast {about themselves}. They invent {new kinds of} evil things {to do}. They disobey their parents. 31 These people are {morally} foolish. They do not do what they promise to do. They do not care {about other people}. They do not show mercy {to others}. 32 These people fully understand that God has righteously decreed that people who keep doing such {inappropriate} things deserve to die {spiritually}. {Nevertheless,} they not only continue to do those {inappropriate} things, but they even happily approve of people who practice such things!