Book of Romans (KJV)
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the fullest account of the gospel in the New Testament — sin, salvation, and the life that follows. Read all 16 chapters below in the King James Version, or jump straight to Romans 8. Looking for a particular phrase? Search all three translations.
Read Romans by Chapter
Most-Searched Verses in Romans
Three passages account for most of what people come to Romans looking for. Each links to its full chapter in the KJV.
Paul's assurance that nothing in a believer's life is wasted — written in the middle of a chapter about suffering, not in place of one.
Romans 8:28The verdict that levels every reader: Jew and Greek, moral and immoral, all stand in the same need.
Romans 3:23The clearest statement in Paul's letters of what saving faith looks like — believed in the heart, confessed with the mouth.
Romans 10:9-10Key Chapters
Romans 8 and Romans 12 are the two chapters most often read on their own — one for assurance, the other for how to live.
Romans 8 — No Condemnation, No Separation
The high point of the letter. Paul moves from life in the Spirit, through the groaning of creation and the Spirit's intercession when we do not know what to pray for, to a closing argument that nothing in creation can separate a believer from the love of God. It opens with “no condemnation” (8:1) and ends with “no separation” (8:38-39), and Romans 8:28 sits between them.
The letter's closing argument on assurance, given as a list of everything that cannot come between God and those in Christ.
Read Romans 8→Romans 12 — The Living Sacrifice
The hinge of the letter. After eleven chapters on what God has done, Paul turns to what it asks of us: present your body a living sacrifice, refuse the mould of this world, be transformed by a renewed mind. The rest of the chapter works that out in practice — sincere love, honest service, and the instruction to overcome evil with good (12:21).
The pivot from doctrine to daily life, and the source of the phrase “be not conformed to this world.”
Read Romans 12→Faith in Romans
Romans is where Paul argues that a person is set right with God by faith rather than by keeping the law. Faith is not a feeling here — it is trust placed in a promise, and it comes from hearing the word of God.
Paul's thesis statement for the whole letter, quoting Habakkuk: “The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17What faith produces — not merely a change of status, but peace with God.
Romans 5:1Where faith comes from. It is received, not manufactured.
Romans 10:17Grace in Romans
Grace is God's unearned favour, and Romans insists it cannot be earned without ceasing to be grace. Paul anticipates the obvious objection — if grace abounds where sin abounds, why not sin more? — and answers it flatly in Romans 6:2: “God forbid.”
Justification described as a gift, given freely, at a cost paid elsewhere.
Romans 3:24Grace is never merely sufficient for sin; it outruns it.
Romans 5:20Wages are earned and death is owed; eternal life is neither. The contrast is the whole doctrine in one sentence.
Romans 6:23Salvation in Romans
Because Romans states the problem and the remedy so plainly, its verses are often read in sequence as the “Romans Road” — a short path from the universality of sin to the confession of Christ as Lord.
The timing is the point: not after we improved, but while we were yet sinners.
Romans 5:8The result for the believer — the charge is not reduced but removed.
Romans 8:1The invitation, left deliberately without qualification: whosoever.
Romans 10:13About the Book of Romans
Author.The Apostle Paul, writing to a church in Rome he had never visited. He dictated the letter rather than writing it out himself; the scribe signs his own name in Romans 16:22 — “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.” Paul commends its likely carrier, Phebe of Cenchrea, in Romans 16:1.
Date.Romans is generally dated to the mid-to-late AD 50s, near the close of Paul’s third missionary journey, as he prepared to carry a collection to Jerusalem and hoped to travel on to Rome and Spain.
Structure.The argument runs in four movements: the universal problem of sin and judgement (chapters 1-3); justification by faith and the assurance it brings (4-8); God’s faithfulness to Israel (9-11); and the shape of a transformed life in the church, the state, and among the weak and strong (12-16).
Themes.The righteousness of God, revealed “from faith to faith” (1:17). Sin as a universal condition rather than a list of misdeeds. Justification as a gift received, not a wage earned. And the reasonable service that answers it — a living sacrifice, a renewed mind, and evil overcome with good.
Recommended reading
Study Bibles & devotionals
Go deeper than a single verse. These study Bibles and daily devotionals pair well with the topics here — adding context, commentary, and a rhythm for daily reading.
ESV Study Bible
Crossway
Over 20,000 study notes, maps, and articles — the go-to one-volume study Bible for understanding scripture in context.
Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
Tyndale / Zondervan
Notes that connect each passage to everyday life — ideal alongside the topical verses on this page.
Jesus Calling
Sarah Young
A year of short daily devotions written as if Jesus is speaking — a gentle companion to daily scripture reading.
My Utmost for His Highest
Oswald Chambers
The classic daily devotional — 365 readings that have shaped Christian devotion for over a century.
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Explore the scriptures by subject on the Topics index, or read on in the New Testament.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Book of Romans about?
Romans is Paul's most systematic explanation of the gospel. He argues that all people — religious and irreligious alike — have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), that no one is made right with God by keeping the law, and that righteousness comes as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. The letter moves from sin and judgement (chapters 1-3), to justification and assurance (4-8), to God's dealings with Israel (9-11), and finally to how the gospel reshapes ordinary life (12-16). It has 16 chapters.
Who wrote the Book of Romans and when?
The Apostle Paul wrote Romans to Christians in Rome, a church he had not yet visited. It is commonly dated to the mid-to-late AD 50s, near the end of his third missionary journey. Paul dictated the letter rather than writing it by hand — the scribe names himself in Romans 16:22: “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.”
What is the Romans Road to salvation?
The “Romans Road” is a way of reading a handful of verses from Romans in order, as a summary of the gospel: Romans 3:23 (all have sinned), Romans 6:23 (the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life), Romans 5:8 (Christ died for us while we were still sinners), and Romans 10:9-10 and 10:13 (confess, believe, and call on the name of the Lord). The phrase is not in the Bible; it is a name given to the sequence.
What does Romans 8:28 actually say?
Romans 8:28 reads: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” It appears in a chapter about present suffering and the groaning of creation — Paul is not claiming that all things are good, but that God works them together toward good for those who love him.