comes not by striving to do good works to please God but by resting in the finished work of God for us in Jesus Christ. An analysis of the depravity of human beings and an explanation of the work of Christ as the provision for that need (1:18–4:25). This is the first major section of the letter, and it contains the most penetrating and perceptive analysis of human nature in its relationship to God ever written. The first thing Paul shows is that, although people have knowledge of the existence of