Romans 3
3
1What good is it to be a Jew? What good is it to be circumcised? 2It is good in a lot of ways! First of all, God's messages were spoken to the Jews. 3It is true that some of them did not believe the message. But does this mean that God cannot be trusted, just because they did not have faith? 4#Ps 51.4 (LXX). No, indeed! God tells the truth, even if everyone else is a liar. The Scriptures say about God,
“Your words
will be proven true,
and in court
you will win your case.”
5If our evil deeds show how right God is, then what can we say? Is it wrong for God to become angry and punish us? What a foolish thing to ask. 6But the answer is, “No.” Otherwise, how could God judge the world? 7Since your lies bring great honor to God by showing how truthful he is, you may ask why God still says you are a sinner. 8You might as well say, “Let's do something evil, so that something good will come of it!” Some people even claim that we are saying this. But God is fair and will judge them as well.
No One Is Good
9What does all this mean? Does it mean that we Jews are better off#3.9 better off: Or “worse off.” than the Gentiles? No, it doesn't! Jews, as well as Gentiles, are ruled by sin, just as I have said. 10#Ps 14.1-3 (LXX); Ps 53.1-3 (LXX). The Scriptures tell us,
“No one is acceptable to God!
11Not one of them understands
or even searches for God.
12They have all turned away
and are worthless.
There isn't one person
who does right.
13 # Ps 5.9 (LXX);
Ps 140.3. Their words are like
an open pit,
and their tongues are good
only for telling lies.
Each word is as deadly
as the fangs of a snake,
14 # Ps 10.7 (LXX). and they say nothing
but bitter curses.
15 #
Is 59.7,8. These people quickly
become violent.
16Wherever they go,
they leave ruin
and destruction.
17They don't know how
to live in peace.
18 #
Ps 36.1. They don't even fear God.”
19We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty. 20#Ps 143.2; Ga 2.16. God doesn't accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.
God's Way of Accepting People
21Now we see how God does make us acceptable to him. The Law and the Prophets#3.21 The Law and the Prophets: The Jewish Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. tell how we become acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. 22#Ga 2.16. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. 23All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. 24But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. 25-26#4 Macc 17.21. God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.
27What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith. 28We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law. 29Does God belong only to the Jews? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is! 30#Dt 6.4; Ga 3.20. There is only one God, and he accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, simply because of their faith. 31Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful.
Currently Selected:
Romans 3: CEV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Romans 3
3
1WHAT advantage then hath the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2Much every way. First indeed, because the words of God were committed to them.
3For what if some of them have not believed? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.
4But God is true; and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.
5But if our injustice commend the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who executeth wrath?
6(I speak according to man.) God forbid: otherwise how shall God judge this world?
7For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie, unto his glory, why am I also yet judged as a sinner?
8And not rather (as we are slandered, and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil, that there may come good? whose damnation is just.
9What then? Do we excel them? No, not so. For we have charged both Jews, and Greeks, that they are all under sin.
10As it is written: There is not any man just.
11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12All have turned out of the way; they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, there is not so much as one.
13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully. The venom of asps is under their lips.
14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15Their feet swift to shed blood:
16Destruction and misery in their ways:
17And the way of peace they have not known:
18There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19Now we know, that what things soever the law speaketh, it speaketh to them that are in the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be made subject to God.
20Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before him. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21But now without the law the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
22Even the justice of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe in him: for there is no distinction:
23For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God.
24Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus,
25Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of former sins,
26Through the forbearance of God, for the shewing of his justice in this time; that he himself may be just, and the justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ.
27Where is then thy boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28For we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law.
29Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.
30For it is one God, that justifieth circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31Do we, then, destroy the law through faith? God forbid: but we establish the law.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.