Romans 1:8-26

⁸As I begin this letter, I thank my God for all you believers in Rome. It is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us that I am able to do that. I thank him because your trusting in Jesus Christ is something that people all over the Roman Empire HYP are talking about.

⁹God, whom I devotedly serve as I proclaim to people the gospel concerning his Son, knows that I tell the truth when I say that I always mention you whenever DOU I pray to God HYP.

¹⁰I especially ask God that if he desires me to visit you, somehow at last I shall be able to do so.

¹¹I pray this because I long to visit you to help you spiritually, in order that you will become stronger spiritually.

¹²I long to visit you in order that you and I might encourage each other by means of our sharing with each other how each of us trusts in Jesus.

¹³My fellow believers, many times I planned to visit you. I certainly want you to know LIT that. But I have not been able to come to you because I have been hindered { things have always prevented me} until the present time. I have wanted to come in order that I might help you to mature spiritually IDM, as I have helped people to mature spiritually in many other non-Jewish groups HYP.

¹⁴I feel obliged to proclaim the gospel to all non-Jewish people, specifically to people who know the Greek language and culture and to those who do not know it, to people who are educated and to those who are uneducated.

¹⁵So what I have eagerly desired is that I might proclaim this good message to you who are living in Rome also.

¹⁶That leads me to say that I very confidently proclaim LIT the good message about what Christ has done, because this good message is the powerful means that God uses to save from the guilt of their sins all people who trust in what Christ has done for them. Specifically, God first has saved the Jews who believe the good message, and then he has saved non-Jews.

¹⁷By means of this good message God reveals how he erases the record of people's sins (OR, declares people no longer guilty for having sinned); and his doing this is entirely because IDM they trust in Christ. This is confirmed by what a prophet long ago wrote that God said, “Those ◄whose record of sin I have erased/whom I have declared no longer guilty for sin► because they trust in me will live forever.”

¹⁸From where God rules in heaven he is making it clear to all non-Jewish people who show no respect for God and who do wicked things, that he is angry with them and that they deserve to be punished { that he would punish them} MTY. By means of their behaving wickedly, they keep other people from believing what they know to be true about God.

¹⁹Everyone can clearly know what God is like, because God himself has revealed to everyone what he is like.

²⁰People cannot see what God is like. But ever since he created the world, by means of what he created he has clearly revealed what he is like. He has made clear to everyone that he has always been able to do very powerful things. Therefore, we should recognize that God is powerful, completely different from all that he created. So no one has a basis for saying, “We never knew about God.”

²¹Although the non-Jews knew what God is like, they did not honor him as God, nor did they thank him for what he had done. But instead, they began to think foolish things about him, and they became unable to understand MET what he wanted them to know.

²²Although they claimed that they were wise, they became foolish,

²³and they refused to admit that God is glorious and will never die. Instead, they made and worshipped idols that resembled people who will some day die, and then they made other idols that resembled birds and four-footed animals, and finally they made idols that resembled reptiles.

²⁴So God allowed the non-Jews do immoral sexual things that they SYN strongly desired, things that their desires were compelling them to do. As a result, they began to dishonor each other's bodies by their sexual actions.

²⁵Also, they chose to worship false gods instead ◄of admitting/of choosing to believe► what is true about God. They worshipped and served things that God created instead of worshipping and serving God himself, the one who created everything. They did this even though he deserves that those he created would forever praise him. Amen!/May it be so!

²⁶So, God allowed the non-Jews to do shameful sexual things that they strongly desired. As a result, many women did not have natural sexual relations with their husbands EUP. Instead, they were doing sexual actions with other women EUP.