Romans 2:25–3:9

Circumcision of No Avail

^25eFor circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶Therefore, ^fif an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, ^gjudge you who, even with your ⁶written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸For ^hhe is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹but he is a Jew ⁱwho is one inwardly; and ^jcircumcision is that of the heart, ^kin the Spirit, not in the letter; ^lwhose ⁷praise is not from men but from God.

God’s Judgment Defended

3What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? ²Much in every way! Chiefly because ^ato them were committed the ¹oracles of God. ³For what if ^bsome did not believe? ^cWill their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? ^4dCertainly not! Indeed, let ^eGod be ²true but ^fevery man a liar. As it is written:

^g“That You may be justified in Your words,

And may overcome when You are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? ^h(I speak as a man.) ⁶Certainly not! For then ⁱhow will God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say, ^j“Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their ³condemnation is just.

All Have Sinned

⁹What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that ^kthey are all under sin.