Romans 2–3

The Righteous Judgment of God

²Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.^{* 2}We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth. ³Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^{* 5}But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.^{* 6}He will repay according to each one’s deeds:^{* 7}to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, ⁸while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury.^{* 9}There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek,^{* 10}but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the Greek. ¹¹For God shows no partiality.^*

¹²All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified.^{* 14}When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do^h what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. ¹⁵They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.^*

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God^{* 18}and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,^{* 21}you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^{* 22}You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? ²⁴For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemedⁱ among the gentiles because of you.”^*

²⁵Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.^{* 26}So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{* 29}Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^*

³Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews^j were entrusted with the oracles of God.^{* 3}What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?^{* 4}By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,

“So that you may be justified in your words

and you will prevail^k when you go to trial.”^*

⁵But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)^{* 6}By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!^*

None Is Righteous

⁹What then? Are we any better off?^l No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,^{* 10}as it is written:

“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;^*

¹¹there is no one who has understanding;

there is no one who seeks God.

¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness;

there is not even one.”

¹³“Their throats are opened graves;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”^*

¹⁴“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;^*

¹⁶ruin and misery are in their paths,

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”

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

¹⁹Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.^{* 20}For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^*

Righteousness through Faith

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets,^{* 22}the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ^m for all who believe.ⁿ For there is no distinction,^{* 23}since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;^{* 24}they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,^{* 25}whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement^o by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;^{* 26}it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.^p

²⁷Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith.^{* 28}For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.^{* 29}Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, ³⁰since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.^{* 31}Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.