Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all.

But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.)

God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known.

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 say they are wise, but they are fools;

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

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.

and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents;

They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.

He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

And Isaiah is even bolder when he says, "I was found by those who were not looking for me; I appeared to those who were not asking for me."

The LORD said, "I was ready to answer my people's prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I was always ready to answer, 'Here I am; I will help you.'

I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way.

Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God's Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts

Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God.

In the Lord's name, then, I warn you: do not continue to live like the heathen, whose thoughts are worthless

They have lost all feeling of shame; they give themselves over to vice and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint.

You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

The LORD hates the ways of evil people, but loves those who do what is right.

Be kind and honest and you will live a long life; others will respect you and treat you fairly.

The LORD says, "Listen to me, you that want to be saved, you that come to me for help. Think of the rock from which you came, the quarry from which you were cut.

But you, man of God, avoid all these things. Strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

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 puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

Does this happiness that David spoke of belong only to those who are circumcised? No indeed! It belongs also to those who are not circumcised. For we have quoted the scripture, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

That is why Abraham, through faith, "was accepted as righteous by God."

Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."

As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith.

and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

It was faith that made Noah hear God's warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.