| Greeting | 1:1-15 |
| Righteousness only by faith | 1:16-5:21 |
| Thesis | 1:16-17 |
| No one righteous | 1:18-3:20 |
| Pagans ignore God | 1:18-32 |
| Don't think your righteous because you condemn wicked practices | 2:1-11 |
| Knowing the right teachings (the law) doesn't make you righteous | 2:12-24 |
| The right religious rituals (circumcision) don't make you righteous | 2:25-29 |
| Being in the right religion (Jewish) is good, even if not all are faithful | 3:1-5 |
| God still right to judge even if wrong acts show God' goodness | 3:6-8 |
| The religious (Jews) are not better: all are unrighteous | 3:9-20 |
| Righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ | 3:21-5:21 |
| Righteousness for both religious (Jews) and non-religious (Gentiles) | 3:21-3:31 |
| Righteousness by faith, not works (the law); example: Abraham | 4 |
| Being right with God | 5:1-11 |
| Adam contrasted with Jesus | 5:12-19 |
| Rules (the law) which leads to death verses grace which leads to life | 5:20-21 |
| Dealing with sin | 6:1-8:17 |
| Dead to sin | 6:1-14 |
| No longer a slave to sin, which leads to death, but a slave to God, which leads to life | 6:15-23 |
| Free from living under rules we can't keep to living by following God's Spirit | 7:1-6 |
| The rules (the law) weren't bad | 7:7-13 |
| Will power not enough to live right | 7:14-25 |
| Living by God's Spirit verse living our natural way (by our sinful nature) | 8:1-17 |
| Miscellaneous | 8:18-39 |
| Restoration of all creation | 8:18-25 |
| Spirit's role in prayer | 8:26-27 |
| God's love for us | 8:28-39 |
| Non-religious (Gentiles) accepted by God while many religious (Jews) are rejected | 9:1-11:32 |
| The true people of God (Jews) are determined by God's promise, not by ancestry | 9:1-13 |
| As creator, God can use people how he wishes | 9:14-24 |
| Religious people (Jews) missed God's righteousness, which is by faith, by trying to be righteous through following rules (the law) (or "works", i.e. actions) | 9:25-10:13 |
| Religious people (Jews) heard the message but rejected it; God sought the non-religious (Gentiles) | 10:14-21 |
| Religious people (Jews) not rejected | 11:1-11:10 |
| Non-religious people (Gentiles) accepted in hopes of making religious people (Jews) jealous | 11:11-16 |
| Illustration of in-grafted branches | 11:17-24 |
| Religious people (Jews) rejected temporarily to allow non-religious people (Gentiles) in | 11:25-32 |
| Praise | 11:33-36 |
| Our response | 12:1-13:14 |
| Live life focused on God | 12:1-3 |
| Gifts, the body as a metaphor | 12:4-8 |
| Instructions | 12:9-13:14 |
| Love others | 12:9-21 |
| Government | 13:1-7 |
| Love | 13:8-10 |
| Be ready presently! | 13:11-14 |
| "Gray areas" | 14-15:13 |
| Don't condemn others followers of Christ | 14:1-12 |
| Don't tempt others to violate their conscience | 14:13-21 |
| Your beliefs and actions in "gray areas" | 14:22-23 |
| Accept one another | 15:1-13 |
| Personal greetings | 15:14-16:27 |
| Paul's personal message | 15:14-33 |
| Greeting specific people | 16:1-16 |
| People to watch out for | 16:17-21 |
| Greetings from specific people | 16:21-23 |
| Benediction | 16:25-27 |
Righteousness: the state of being in right standing; i.e. being on "good terms" with God.
References to Judaism in the text are put in general terms in this outline (with the specific Jewish matter being included in parenthesis). While Paul debated matters of Jew verses Gentile (non-Jew), the arguments apply more broadly to those who are in the "right religion" against those who are not.