7. To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.
9. For God, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about His Son, is my witness that I constantly mention you,
10. always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
11. For I want very much to see you, so I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,
12. that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13. Now I want you to know, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now ) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14. I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish.
15. So I am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in Rome.
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
17. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
18. For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
19. since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
20. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
21. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.
22. Claiming to be wise, they became fools
23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.