Romans 3
3
Everyone Is a Sinner
1Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised? 2There are all kinds of advantages. First of all, God entrusted them with his word.
3What if some of them were unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness? 4That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says,
“So you hand down justice when you speak,
and you win your case in court.”
5But if what we do wrong shows that God is fair, what should we say? Is God unfair when he vents his anger on us? (I’m arguing the way humans would.) 6That’s unthinkable! Otherwise, how would God be able to judge the world? 7If my lie increases the glory that God receives by showing that God is truthful, why am I still judged as a sinner? 8Or can we say, “Let’s do evil so that good will come from it”? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. They are condemned, and that’s what they deserve.
9What, then, is the situation? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. We have already accused everyone (both Jews and Greeks) of being under the power of sin, 10as Scripture says,
“Not one person has God’s approval.
11No one understands.
No one searches for God.
12Everyone has turned away.
Together they have become rotten to the core.
No one does anything good,
not even one person.
13Their throats are open graves.
Their tongues practice deception.
Their lips hide the venom of poisonous snakes.
14Their mouths are full of curses and bitter resentment.
15They run quickly to murder people.
16There is ruin and suffering wherever they go.
17They have not learned to live in peace.
18They are not terrified of God.”
19We know that whatever the Scriptures say applies to everyone under their influence, and no one can say a thing. The whole world is brought under the judgment of God. 20Not one person can have God’s approval by any effort to follow the laws in the Scriptures. These laws show what sin is.
God Gives Us His Approval as a Gift
21Now, the way to receive God’s approval has been made plain in a way other than the laws in the Scriptures. Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets tell us this. 22Everyone who believes has God’s approval through faith in Jesus Christ.
There is no difference between people. 23Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God’s glory. 24They receive God’s approval freely by an act of his kindness #3:24 Or “grace.” through the price Christ Jesus paid to set us free ⌞from sin⌟. 25God showed that Christ is the throne of mercy where God’s approval is given through faith in Christ’s blood. In his patience God waited to deal with sins committed in the past. 26He waited so that he could display his approval at the present time. This shows that he is a God of justice, a God who approves of people who believe in Jesus.
27So, do we have anything to brag about? Bragging has been eliminated. On what basis was it eliminated? On the basis of our own efforts? No, indeed! Rather, it is eliminated on the basis of faith. 28We conclude that a person has God’s approval by faith, not by his own efforts.
29Is God only the God of the Jews? Isn’t he also the God of people who are not Jewish? Certainly, he is, 30since it is the same God who approves circumcised people by faith and uncircumcised people through this same faith.
31Are we abolishing the laws in the Scriptures by this faith? That’s unthinkable! Rather, we are supporting these laws.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission 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.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.