Romans 3

1Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what benefit comes from circumcision?

2A great deal, in every respect. First of all, God’s own words were entrusted to them.

3What does it matter if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness?

4By no means! Let God prove to be true, even if every human being proves a liar. As it is written, “So that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.”

5But if our unrighteousness puts God’s righteousness on display, what are we to conclude? God is not unrighteous for bringing wrath, is he? I am arguing in human terms.

6By no means! If he were, how would God judge the world?

7But if God’s truthfulness overflows to his glory by means of my falsehood, why am I myself still put on trial as a sinner?

8Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? That is the slander some spread about us, claiming that we say it. The judgment against them is deserved.

9What follows, then? Do we have the upper hand? Not in any way. For we have already brought the charge that all people, Jews and Greeks alike, are under sin,

10as it is written, “There is no one righteous, not even one;

11there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

12They have all turned away; together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

13Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of vipers is under their lips.

14Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

15Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16ruin and misery are in their paths,

17and the way of peace they have not known.

18There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are subject to it, so that every mouth will be shut and the whole world will stand accountable before God.

20For no human being will be justified in his presence on the basis of works of the law, because the law brings the knowledge of sin.

21But now God’s righteousness has been disclosed apart from the law, attested by the Law and the Prophets—

22God’s righteousness, which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to everyone who believes. For there is no difference,

23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24yet they are justified as a free gift of his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

25God set him forth publicly as an atoning sacrifice, through faith, by his blood. This was to show his righteousness, because God, in his patience, had passed over the sins committed in the past.

26He did this to display his righteousness now, in the present age, so that he would be just and would also justify the person who has faith in Jesus.

27So what room is left for boasting? It has been shut out. On the basis of what kind of law? One of works? No, on the basis of a law of faith.

28For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

29Or does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the Gentiles as well? Certainly, to the Gentiles as well,

30since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

31Are we then cancelling the law through faith? By no means! Instead, we are establishing the law.