Romans 3–4

Chapter 3

All the World Guilty

¹Then what ¹advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

²Great in every respect. First of all, that ^athey were entrusted with the ^boracles of God.

³What then? If ^asome ¹did not believe, their ²unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

^4aMay it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found ^ba liar, as it is written,

“^cThat You may be justified in Your words,

And prevail when You ¹are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness ^1ademonstrates the righteousness of God, ^bwhat shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (^cI am speaking in human terms.)

^6aMay it never be! For otherwise, how will ^bGod judge the world?

⁷But if through my lie ^athe truth of God abounded to His glory, ^bwhy am I also still being judged as a sinner?

⁸And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “^aLet us do evil that good may come”? ¹Their condemnation is just.

⁹What then? ^1aAre we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both ^bJews and ^cGreeks are ^dall under sin;

¹⁰as it is written,

“^aThere is none righteous, not even one;

¹¹There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God;

¹²All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one.”

¹³“^aTheir throat is an open grave,

With their tongues they keep deceiving,”

“^bThe poison of asps is under their lips”;

¹⁴“^aWhose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;

¹⁵“^aTheir feet are swift to shed blood,

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their paths,

¹⁷And the path of peace they have not known.”

¹⁸“^aThere is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the ^aLaw says, it speaks to ^bthose who are ¹under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and ^call the world may become accountable to God;

²⁰because ^aby the works ¹of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for ^2bthrough the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Justification by Faith

²¹But now apart ¹from the Law ^athe righteousness of God has been manifested, being ^bwitnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

²²even the ^arighteousness of God through ^bfaith ^cin Jesus Christ for ^dall those ¹who believe; for ^ethere is no distinction;

²³for all ^1ahave sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁴being justified as a gift ^aby His grace through ^bthe redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

²⁵whom God displayed publicly as ^aa ¹propitiation ^2bin His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, ³because in the ^cforbearance of God He ^dpassed over the sins previously committed;

²⁶for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who ¹has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is ^aboasting? It is excluded. By ^bwhat kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

²⁸¹For ^awe maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works ²of the Law.

²⁹Or ^ais God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰since indeed ^aGod ^bwho will justify the ¹circumcised ²by faith and the ³uncircumcised through faith ^cis one.

³¹Do we then nullify ¹the Law through faith? ^aMay it never be! On the contrary, we ^bestablish the Law.

Chapter 4

Justification by Faith Evidenced in Old Testament

¹What then shall we say that Abraham, ¹our forefather ^aaccording to the flesh, has found?

²For if Abraham was justified ¹by works, he has something to boast about, but ^anot ²before God.

³For what does the Scripture say? “^aAbraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴Now to the one who ^aworks, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

⁵But to the one who does not work, but ^abelieves in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

⁶just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷“^aBlessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,

And whose sins have been covered.

⁸“^aBlessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not ^btake into account.”

⁹Is this blessing then on ^1athe circumcised, or on ²the uncircumcised also? For ^bwe say, “^cFaith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”

¹⁰How then was it credited? While he was ¹circumcised, or ²uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;

¹¹and he ^areceived the sign of circumcision, ^ba seal of the righteousness of the faith which ¹he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be ^cthe father of ^dall who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,

¹²and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which ¹he had while uncircumcised.

¹³For ^athe promise to Abraham or to his ¹descendants ^bthat he would be heir of the world was not ²through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For ^aif those who are ¹of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified;

¹⁵for ^athe Law brings about wrath, but ^bwhere there is no law, there also is no violation.

¹⁶For this reason it is ¹by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with ^agrace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to ^ball the ²descendants, not only to ³those who are of the Law, but also to ^cthose who are of the faith of Abraham, who is ^dthe father of us all,

¹⁷(as it is written, “^aA father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, ^bwho gives life to the dead and ^1ccalls into being ^dthat which does not exist.

¹⁸In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become ^aa father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “^bSo shall your ¹descendants be.”

¹⁹Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now ^aas good as dead since ^bhe was about a hundred years old, and ^cthe deadness of Sarah’s womb;

²⁰yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, ^agiving glory to God,

²¹and ^abeing fully assured that ^bwhat God had promised, He was able also to perform.

²²Therefore ^ait was also credited to him as righteousness.

²³Now ^anot for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,

²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those ^awho believe in Him who ^braised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵He who was ^adelivered over because of our transgressions, and was ^braised because of our justification.