²⁵For example, circumcision is valuable if you follow the laws in Moses’ Teachings. If you don’t follow those laws, your circumcision amounts to uncircumcision. ²⁶So if a man does what those laws demand, won’t he be considered circumcised even if he is uncircumcised? ²⁷The uncircumcised man who carries out what those laws say will condemn you for not following them. He will condemn you in spite of the fact that you are circumcised and have those laws in writing. ²⁸A person is not a Jew because of his appearance, nor is circumcision a matter of how the body looks. ²⁹Rather, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is something that happens in a person’s heart. Circumcision is spiritual, not just a written rule. That person’s praise will come from God, not from people.

3RD CHAPTER

Everyone Is a Sinner

¹Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised? ²There are all kinds of advantages. First of all, God entrusted them with his word.

³What if some of them were unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness? ⁴That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says,

“So you hand down justice when you speak,

and you win your case in court.”

⁵But if what we do wrong shows that God is fair, what should we say? Is God unfair when he vents his anger on us? (I’m arguing the way humans would.) ⁶That’s unthinkable! Otherwise, how would God be able to judge the world? ⁷If my lie increases the glory that God receives by showing that God is truthful, why am I still judged as a sinner? ⁸Or can we say, “Let’s do evil so that good will come from it”? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. They are condemned, and that’s what they deserve.

⁹What, then, is the situation? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. We have already accused everyone (both Jews and Greeks) of being under the power of sin,

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