Romans 3

1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit [is there] of circumcision?

What is the advantage, then, of being a Jew? or what is the good of circumcision?

2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Great in every way. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God’s utterances.

3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

What follows then? Some, no doubt, showed a want of faith; but will their want of faith make God break faith? Heaven forbid!

4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

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.’

5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? [Is] God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

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!

6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

Otherwise how can God judge the world?

7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

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?

8 And not [rather], (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, ) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

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!

9 What then? are we better [than they]? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

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.

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

As Scripture says — ‘There is not even one who is righteous,

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

not one who understands, not one who is searching for God!

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good — no, not one!’

13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips:

‘Their throats are like opened graves; they deceive with their tongues.’ ‘The venom of serpents lies behind their lips,’

14 Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness:

‘And their mouths are full of bitter curses.’

15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood:

‘Swift are their feet to shed blood.

16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways:

Distress and trouble dog their steps,

17 And the way of peace have they not known:

and the path of peace they do not know.’

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

‘The fear of God is not before their eyes.’

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

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.

20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.

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.

21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

But now, quite apart from Law, the Divine Righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the Prophets bear witness —

22 Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

the Divine Righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, upon all, without distinction, who believe in him.

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God’s glorious ideal,

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

but, in his loving-kindness, are being freely pronounced righteous through the deliverance found in Christ Jesus.

25 Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

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;

26 To declare, [I say], at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

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.

27 Where [is] boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

What, then, becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what sort of Law? A Law requiring obedience? No, a Law requiring faith.

28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

For we conclude that a man is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.

29 [Is he] the God of the Jews only? [is he] not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Is not he also the God of the Gentiles?

30 Seeing [it is] one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

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.

31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Do we, then, use this faith to abolish Law? Heaven forbid! No, we establish Law.