Romans 3
1 What is the advantage, then, of being a Jew? or what is the good of circumcision?
What then is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Great in every way. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God’s utterances.
Much, every way: chiefly, because they were intrusted with the oracles of God.
3 What follows then? Some, no doubt, showed a want of faith; but will their want of faith make God break faith? Heaven forbid!
For what if some did not believe? shall their incredulity make the faithfulness of God of no effect?
4 God must prove true, though every man prove a liar! As Scripture says of God — ‘That thou mayest be pronounced righteous in what thou sayest, and gain thy cause when men would judge thee.’
God forbid: yea, let God be acknowledged true, though every man be a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest overcome, when thou judgest.
5 But what if our wrong-doing makes God’s righteousness all the clearer? Will God be wrong in inflicting punishment? (I can but speak as a man.) Heaven forbid!
"But if our unrighteousness confirm the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is not God unrighteous, who inflicteth his wrath?" (I speak as a man) God forbid:
6 Otherwise how can God judge the world?
for then how shall God judge the world?
7 But, if my falsehood redounds to the glory of God, by making his truthfulness more apparent, why am I like others, still condemned as a sinner?
"But, say you, if the truth of God hath abounded unto his glory through my falshood, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 Why should we not say — as some people slanderously assert that we do say — ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!
and why may we not do evil that good may come?"---as we are injuriously charged, and as some affirm that we say; whose condemnation is just.
9 What follows, then? Are we Jews in any way superior to others? Not at all. Our indictment against both Jews and Greeks was that all alike were in subjection to sin.
"What then are we the better?" Not at all, in point of justification; for we have before proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin: as it is written,
10 As Scripture says — ‘There is not even one who is righteous,
"There is none righteous, no not one;
11 not one who understands, not one who is searching for God!
there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good — no, not one!’
They are all gone out of the way, they are become unprofitable, there is none that practiseth goodness, no not one.
13 ‘Their throats are like opened graves; they deceive with their tongues.’ ‘The venom of serpents lies behind their lips,’
Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 ‘And their mouths are full of bitter curses.’
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 ‘Swift are their feet to shed blood.
their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Distress and trouble dog their steps,
destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 and the path of peace they do not know.’
and the way of peace they have not known; and the fear of God is not before their eyes."
18 ‘The fear of God is not before their eyes.’
Now we know that whatsoever the law saith,
19 Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world become liable to the judgment of God.
it saith to those under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world obnoxious to the justice of God.
20 For ‘no human being will be pronounced righteous before God’ as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.
Wherefore by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now, quite apart from Law, the Divine Righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the Prophets bear witness —
But now, without the law, righteousness before God is manifested, being attested by the law and the prophets;
22 the Divine Righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, upon all, without distinction, who believe in him.
and this righteousness of God is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all believers; for there is no difference;
23 For all have sinned, and all fall short of God’s glorious ideal,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;
24 but, in his loving-kindness, are being freely pronounced righteous through the deliverance found in Christ Jesus.
being justified freely by his grace, because of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 For God set him before the world, to be, by the shedding of his blood, a means of reconciliation through faith. And this God did to prove his righteousness, and because, in his forbearance, he had passed over the sins that men had previously committed;
whom God hath appointed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, in the remission of past sins, according to the forbearance of God;
26 as a proof, I repeat, at the present time, of his own righteousness, that he might be righteous in our eyes, and might pronounce righteous the man who takes his stand on faith in Jesus.
for a demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at this time: that He might be just, and the justifier of him, that believeth in Jesus.
27 What, then, becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what sort of Law? A Law requiring obedience? No, a Law requiring faith.
Where then is boasting? it is excluded: by what law? of works? no: but by the law of faith.
28 For we conclude that a man is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.
Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law:
29 Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?
or is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles?
30 Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is only one God, and he will pronounce those who are circumcised righteous as the result of faith, and also those who are uncircumcised on their showing the same faith.
surely of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision also through faith.
31 Do we, then, use this faith to abolish Law? Heaven forbid! No, we establish Law.
Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: yea we establish the law.
