Paul, a slave of Messiah Jesus, called to be an managing messenger set apart for the good-news-of-victory of God – this good news which was promised beforehand through God’s prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his son, who, according to human reckoning was a descendant of David, and was declared with power to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and commissioning [to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Nations] on his behalf, in his name, including you yourselves who are called “Jesus Christ’s own,”

To all those loved by God in Rome, those called to be his chosen people,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

First, [on the one hand] I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith has been proclaimed throughout the entire world.  I say this because God, whom I serve with my spirit in the good-news-of-victory-project of his son, is my witness how ceaselessly I make remembrance of you always in my prayers asking that somehow by the will of God the way may be opened for me to come to you.  I say this because I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, or rather this: that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 

[On the other hand] I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that I have tried many times to come to you, and have been prevented until now.  I have tried to come so that I may receive some [of your] fruit just like I have among the rest of the Nations.  I am a debtor to both Greeks and even barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish – thus I am eager to proclaim this good news to you who are at Rome.

[Despite what it might seem?] I am not ashamed of the Good News, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Greek.  For in it the justice of God is revealed from faith for faith, just as it is written, “The just will live from faith.” 

[I say this because] the passionate anger of God is being revealed from heaven upon all the ungodliness and injustice of people who bind up the truth in injustice, since what is known about God is plain to them – because God has made it plain to them.  [And how has he made it plain?]  The unseen aspects of God are discernable, and have been seen clearly since the creation of the world – namely, his eternal power and divinity, with the result that those people’s behavior is inexcusable, because even though they knew God, they neither praised [glorified] him nor gave thanks to him, but they became fools in their calculations and their stupid hearts were darkened.  Purporting to be as wise as philosophers, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the image and likeness of corruptible humanity and birds and four-legged beasts, snakes and their ilk. 

Therefore, God handed them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity: degrading their bodies with each other.  They exchanged the truth of God for The Lie, and gave honor and service to the creation rather than the creator, who is blessed forever: Amen!  For this reason God handed them over to shameful passions, for even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for unnatural intercourse, and the same for the males: giving up natural relations with women, they became consumed by their appetite for each other, men committing shameful actions among [or in] other men, and receiving back payment due for their error in themselves. 

And since they did not think it worthwhile to hold on to the knowledge of God, God handed them over to a worthless mind, to do the things that should not be done, becoming filled with all injustice, sexual immorality, avarice, evil; full of jealousy, murder, quarreling, deceit and malignant intent; slanderers, gossips, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, charlatans; inventers of evil, disobedient to their fathers; void of understanding, keeping no agreements, inhumane, merciless: although they know God’s decree promulgated to set everything right, namely, that those who do such things are worthy of death, not only to they do those things but they even approve of those who do those things.