Romans 7:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Law

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters ¹  (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person ²  as long as he lives?

Romans 7:4

7:4 So, my brothers and sisters, ³  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ⁴ 

Romans 8:29

8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son ⁵  would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ⁶ 

Romans 11:25

11:25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, ⁷  so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel ⁸  until the full number ⁹  of the Gentiles has come in.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁰  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ¹¹  – which is your reasonable service.

Romans 15:14

Paul’s Motivation for Writing the Letter

15:14 But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, ¹²  that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Romans 15:30

15:30 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹³  through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf.

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¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

² sn Here person refers to a human being.

³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

⁴ tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”

⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God’s Son) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

⁸ tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”

⁹ tn Grk “fullness.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

¹¹ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

sn Taken as predicate adjectives, the terms alive, holy, and pleasing are showing how unusual is the sacrifice that believers can now offer, for OT sacrifices were dead. As has often been quipped about this text, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”

¹² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

¹³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.