Romans 3–4

3Have the Jews then any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised? ²Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews. ³But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful? ^4*Certainly not! God must be true, even though every human being is a liar. As the scripture says,

“You must be shown to be right when you speak;

you must win your case when you are being tried.”

⁵But 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.) ⁶By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?

⁷But what if my untruth serves God’s glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner? ⁸Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.

No One Is Righteous

⁹Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all!^c I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ^10*As the Scriptures say:

“There is no one who is righteous,

^11*no one who is wise

or who worships God.

^12*All have turned away from God;

they have all gone wrong;

no one does what is right, not even one.

^13*Their words are full of deadly deceit;

wicked lies roll off their tongues,

and dangerous threats, like snake’s poison, from their lips;

^14*their speech is filled with bitter curses.

^15*They are quick to hurt and kill;

^16*they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go.

^17*They have not known the path of peace,

^18*nor have they learnt reverence for God.”

¹⁹Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgement. ^20*For no one is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make people know that they have sinned.

How God Puts Us Right with Him

²¹But now God’s way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. ^22*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: ²³everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. ²⁴But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. ^25–26God offered him, so that by his blood^d he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

²⁷What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe. ²⁸For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. ²⁹Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is. ^30*God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith. ³¹Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

The Example of Abraham

4What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience? ²If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God’s sight. ^3*The scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” ⁴Those who work are paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. ⁵But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself. ⁶This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

^7*“Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven,

whose sins are pardoned!

^8*Happy is the person whose sins the Lord

will not keep account of!”

⁹Does 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.” ¹⁰When did this take place? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? It was before, not after. ^11*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. ¹²He is also the father of those who are circumcised, that is, of those who, in addition to being circumcised, also live the same life of faith that our father Abraham lived before he was circumcised.

God’s Promise Is Received through Faith

^13*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. ^14*For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God’s promise is worthless. ¹⁵The Law brings down God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law. ^16*And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God’s free gift to all of Abraham’s descendants—not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all; ^17*as the scripture says, “I have made you father of many nations.” So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed—the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist. ^18*Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became “the father of many nations.” Just as the scripture says, “Your descendants will be as many as the stars.” ^19*He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children. ²⁰His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God’s promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God. ²¹He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised. ²²That is why Abraham, through faith, “was accepted as righteous by God”. ²³The words “he was accepted as righteous” were not written for him alone. ²⁴They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death. ^25*Because of our sins he was handed over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.