Study Desk

because this people's minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.'"

He preached about the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking with all boldness and freedom.

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach his Good News.

The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets, as written in the Holy Scriptures.

as to his divine holiness, he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death.

Through him God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey.

This also includes you who are in Rome, whom God has called to belong to Jesus Christ.

And so I write to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his own people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the whole world is hearing about your faith.

God is my witness that what I say is true—the God whom I serve with all my heart by preaching the Good News about his Son. God knows that I remember you

every time I pray. I ask that God in his good will may at last make it possible for me to visit you now.

For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, "The person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain.

Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all!

They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness.

instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles.

And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other.

They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen.

Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts.

Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.