Romans 3

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.