ROM 3
3
The Faithfulness and Righteousness of God
1 What then is the advantage or benefit of being Jewish? Or what is the practical value of the covenant sign of circumcision?
2 Much advantage in every respect! First and foremost, the Jewish people were entrusted with the very words and revelations of God—the Holy Scriptures and His divine promises.
3 For what does it matter if some Jewish people did not believe and remained faithless to God's promises? Does their unbelief nullify or make ineffective God's faithfulness to His covenant promises?
4 Absolutely not! Let it never be suggested that God is unfaithful! Rather, let God be acknowledged as true and faithful even if every human being proves to be a liar and unfaithful, just as the Scripture declares:
"So that You may be proved righteous in Your words,
and prevail as victor when You are brought into judgment."*
5 But if our human unrighteousness and sin actually serves to demonstrate and highlight the righteousness of God by contrast, what shall we conclude? Is God acting unrighteously when He inflicts His wrath upon us as punishment? (I am using a human way of reasoning here to anticipate an objection.)
6 May it never be! God is never unrighteous! For if that were true, how could God possibly judge the world with justice and righteousness?
7 But someone might argue: If God's truth is magnified and His glory increased through my falsehood and sin by way of contrast, why am I still judged and condemned as a sinner?
8 Why not go so far as to say—as some maliciously misrepresent us as teaching—“Let us deliberately practise evil so that good outcomes may come from it”? Those who promote it rightly deserve the judgment they incur.
The Sinfulness of Both Jews and Greeks
9 What then is our conclusion? Do we Jews possess any moral superiority or advantage over Gentiles? Not at all! For we have already made the charge and established the case that both Jews and Gentiles alike are all enslaved under the power and guilt of sin.
10 Just as the Scriptures declare:
"There is no one who is righteous before God, not even a single person;
11 there is no one who truly understands spiritual truth;
there is no one who genuinely seeks after God on their own initiative.
12 All have turned away from God and gone astray;
together the entire human race has become spiritually worthless and unprofitable;
there is no one who practises true goodness and kindness,
not even one person."*
13 "Their throat is like an open grave ready to swallow victims;
they continuously practise deceit with their tongues."*
"The deadly venom of poisonous snakes lies hidden under their lips,"*
14 "their mouth is constantly full of cursing against others and bitter resentment."*
15 "Their feet are swift and eager to shed blood and commit violence;
16 destruction, ruin, and misery mark the paths they travel,
17 and they have not known or experienced the way of peace with God or others."*
18 "There is no reverential fear of God before their eyes or in their hearts."*
19 Now we know with certainty that whatever the Law declares, it speaks directly to those who are under its authority—the Jewish people—so that every mouth may be stopped from self-justification and excuse-making, and the whole world may be brought under accountability and judgment before God.
20 Therefore, on the basis of performing works prescribed by the Law, no human being will be justified or declared righteous and acceptable before God, for the true function of the Law is to bring full awareness and deep knowledge of sin, not to provide salvation.
The Righteousness of God and Propitiation through Faith in Jesus Christ
21 But now, in this present age of gospel revelation, a righteousness that comes from God has been made known and manifested completely apart from keeping the Law, though this righteousness was testified to and foreshadowed by the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament.
22 This is the righteousness that comes from God and is received through faith in Jesus Christ, available to all who believe. For there is no distinction or difference in how people receive salvation:
23 For all people have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God—missing the mark of His holy standard and failing to reflect His image as originally intended.
24 Yet believers are justified or declared righteous as a completely free gift, not earned but given by His unmerited grace, through the redemption—the payment of a ransom price—that is accomplished in Christ Jesus.
25 God publicly set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation—a sacrifice that satisfies God's wrath and turns away His righteous anger against sin—effective through His shed blood, to be appropriated through faith. God did this to demonstrate His own righteousness and justice, because in His patient forbearance during past ages, He had passed over sins previously committed without immediate full punishment.
26 This demonstration of righteousness continues at the present time, so that God might be shown to be both perfectly just in His own character and the one who justifies or declares righteous the person who places his faith in Jesus.
No Room for Boasting
27 Where then is there any room for human boasting and self-congratulation? It has been completely excluded and shut out. On what basis or principle? By the principle of performing works to earn salvation? No, absolutely not! But rather by the principle of faith alone.
28 For we firmly conclude and maintain that a person is justified or declared righteous by God through faith alone, completely apart from performing the works required by the Law.
29 Or is God exclusively the God of the Jewish people only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, most certainly He is the God of the Gentiles as well!
30 Since there is only one God, who will justify or declare righteous the circumcised Jewish person on the basis of faith, and the uncircumcised Gentile person through that same faith.
31 Do we then nullify, abolish, or undermine the Law through this teaching of justification by faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish, uphold, and confirm the true purpose and meaning of the Law.
Notes
4 Quoted from Ps. 51:4
10-12 Quoted from Ps. 14:1-3
13 Quoted from Ps. 5:9
13 Quoted from Ps. 140:3
14 Quoted from Ps. 10:7
15-17 Quoted from Is. 59:7-8
18 Quoted from Ps. 36:1
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ROM 3: AFINT
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
ROM 3
3
The Faithfulness and Righteousness of God
1 What then is the advantage or benefit of being Jewish? Or what is the practical value of the covenant sign of circumcision?
2 Much advantage in every respect! First and foremost, the Jewish people were entrusted with the very words and revelations of God—the Holy Scriptures and His divine promises.
3 For what does it matter if some Jewish people did not believe and remained faithless to God's promises? Does their unbelief nullify or make ineffective God's faithfulness to His covenant promises?
4 Absolutely not! Let it never be suggested that God is unfaithful! Rather, let God be acknowledged as true and faithful even if every human being proves to be a liar and unfaithful, just as the Scripture declares:
"So that You may be proved righteous in Your words,
and prevail as victor when You are brought into judgment."*
5 But if our human unrighteousness and sin actually serves to demonstrate and highlight the righteousness of God by contrast, what shall we conclude? Is God acting unrighteously when He inflicts His wrath upon us as punishment? (I am using a human way of reasoning here to anticipate an objection.)
6 May it never be! God is never unrighteous! For if that were true, how could God possibly judge the world with justice and righteousness?
7 But someone might argue: If God's truth is magnified and His glory increased through my falsehood and sin by way of contrast, why am I still judged and condemned as a sinner?
8 Why not go so far as to say—as some maliciously misrepresent us as teaching—“Let us deliberately practise evil so that good outcomes may come from it”? Those who promote it rightly deserve the judgment they incur.
The Sinfulness of Both Jews and Greeks
9 What then is our conclusion? Do we Jews possess any moral superiority or advantage over Gentiles? Not at all! For we have already made the charge and established the case that both Jews and Gentiles alike are all enslaved under the power and guilt of sin.
10 Just as the Scriptures declare:
"There is no one who is righteous before God, not even a single person;
11 there is no one who truly understands spiritual truth;
there is no one who genuinely seeks after God on their own initiative.
12 All have turned away from God and gone astray;
together the entire human race has become spiritually worthless and unprofitable;
there is no one who practises true goodness and kindness,
not even one person."*
13 "Their throat is like an open grave ready to swallow victims;
they continuously practise deceit with their tongues."*
"The deadly venom of poisonous snakes lies hidden under their lips,"*
14 "their mouth is constantly full of cursing against others and bitter resentment."*
15 "Their feet are swift and eager to shed blood and commit violence;
16 destruction, ruin, and misery mark the paths they travel,
17 and they have not known or experienced the way of peace with God or others."*
18 "There is no reverential fear of God before their eyes or in their hearts."*
19 Now we know with certainty that whatever the Law declares, it speaks directly to those who are under its authority—the Jewish people—so that every mouth may be stopped from self-justification and excuse-making, and the whole world may be brought under accountability and judgment before God.
20 Therefore, on the basis of performing works prescribed by the Law, no human being will be justified or declared righteous and acceptable before God, for the true function of the Law is to bring full awareness and deep knowledge of sin, not to provide salvation.
The Righteousness of God and Propitiation through Faith in Jesus Christ
21 But now, in this present age of gospel revelation, a righteousness that comes from God has been made known and manifested completely apart from keeping the Law, though this righteousness was testified to and foreshadowed by the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament.
22 This is the righteousness that comes from God and is received through faith in Jesus Christ, available to all who believe. For there is no distinction or difference in how people receive salvation:
23 For all people have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God—missing the mark of His holy standard and failing to reflect His image as originally intended.
24 Yet believers are justified or declared righteous as a completely free gift, not earned but given by His unmerited grace, through the redemption—the payment of a ransom price—that is accomplished in Christ Jesus.
25 God publicly set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation—a sacrifice that satisfies God's wrath and turns away His righteous anger against sin—effective through His shed blood, to be appropriated through faith. God did this to demonstrate His own righteousness and justice, because in His patient forbearance during past ages, He had passed over sins previously committed without immediate full punishment.
26 This demonstration of righteousness continues at the present time, so that God might be shown to be both perfectly just in His own character and the one who justifies or declares righteous the person who places his faith in Jesus.
No Room for Boasting
27 Where then is there any room for human boasting and self-congratulation? It has been completely excluded and shut out. On what basis or principle? By the principle of performing works to earn salvation? No, absolutely not! But rather by the principle of faith alone.
28 For we firmly conclude and maintain that a person is justified or declared righteous by God through faith alone, completely apart from performing the works required by the Law.
29 Or is God exclusively the God of the Jewish people only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, most certainly He is the God of the Gentiles as well!
30 Since there is only one God, who will justify or declare righteous the circumcised Jewish person on the basis of faith, and the uncircumcised Gentile person through that same faith.
31 Do we then nullify, abolish, or undermine the Law through this teaching of justification by faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish, uphold, and confirm the true purpose and meaning of the Law.
Notes
4 Quoted from Ps. 51:4
10-12 Quoted from Ps. 14:1-3
13 Quoted from Ps. 5:9
13 Quoted from Ps. 140:3
14 Quoted from Ps. 10:7
15-17 Quoted from Is. 59:7-8
18 Quoted from Ps. 36:1
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).