Romans 3

1 So does a Jew have any advantage? Does circumcision have any benefits?

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

2 Yes, there are many benefits! First of all, God's message was entrusted to them.

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

3 What if some of them didn't trust in God? Does their lack of trust in God obliterate the trustworthiness of God?

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

4 Of course not! Even if everyone else is proved to be lying, God always tells the truth. As Scripture says, “What you say will be proved right, and you will win your case when you are judged.”

God must prove true, though everyone prove a liar! As scripture says of God – ‘That you may be pronounced righteous in what you say, and gain your cause when people would judge you.’

5 But if the fact that we're wrong helps to show that God is right, what should we conclude? That God is wrong to pronounce judgment on us? (I'm talking from a human perspective here.)

But what if our wrongdoing makes God’s righteousness all the clearer? Will God be wrong in inflicting punishment? (I can but speak as a person.) Heaven forbid!

6 Of course not! How else could God judge the world?

Otherwise how can God judge the world?

7 Someone could say, “Why am I still condemned as a sinner if my lies make the truth of God and his glory more obvious in contrast?”

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 Is it a case of, “Let's sin to bring about good”? That's what some people have slanderously accused us of saying. They should be rightly condemned!

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 people is indeed just!

9 So then, are we Jews better than others? Definitely not! Remember that we've already argued that both Jews and foreigners are under the control of 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 Scripture says, “No one does what is right, not even one.

As scripture says – ‘There is not even one who is righteous,

11 No one understands; no one seeks God.

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

12 Everyone has turned their backs on him; everyone does what is totally wrong. No one does what is good, not a single 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 throats are like an open grave; their tongues spread deceit; their lips ooze with the venom of snakes.

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

14 Their mouths are full of bitterness and curses,

‘And their mouths are full of bitter curses.’

15 and they are quick to cause pain and death.

‘Swift are their feet to shed blood.

16 Their way leads to disaster and misery;

Distress and trouble dog their steps,

17 they don't know how to live in peace.

and the path of peace they do not know.’

18 They don't care about respecting God at all.”

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

19 It's clear that everything in the law applies to those who live under the law so that no one could have any excuses, and to make sure everyone in the whole world is answerable to 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 to bring the whole world under God’s judgment.

20 For no one is made right before God by doing what the law requires. The law only helps us recognize what sin really is.

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 God's character of goodness and right has been demonstrated. It has nothing to do with law-keeping, even though it was spoken of 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 This character of God that is good and right comes to everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ, those who place their confidence in him. It doesn't matter who we are:

the divine righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, on all, without distinction, who believe in him.

23 We have all sinned, and we fall far short of God's glorious ideal.

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

24 Yet through the free gift of his grace God makes us right through Christ Jesus who sets us free.

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

25 God openly presented Jesus as the gift that brings peace to those trusting in him, the one who shed his blood. God did this to demonstrate he is truly good and right, for previously he would hold back and pass over sins,

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 people had previously committed;

26 but now at this present time God proves he is fair and does what is right, and that he makes right those who trust 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 person who takes their stand on faith in Jesus.

27 So do we have anything to boast about then? Absolutely not, there's no place for that! And why's that? Is it because we follow the law of observing requirements? No, we follow the law of trusting in God.

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

28 We conclude that people are made right with God through their trust in him, and not from legal observance.

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

29 Is God only the God of the Jews? Isn't he the God of other people as well? Of course he is!

Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles?

30 There is only one God, and he makes us morally right through our trust in him, whoever we are, Jew or foreigner.

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 Does that mean that by trusting in God we do away with the law? Of course not! In fact we affirm the importance of the law.

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