Romans 3

1So what advantage is there in being a Jew? Or what good is circumcision?

2There is great advantage in every way! First of all, the Jews were trusted with the very words of God.

3What if some of them were not faithful? Will their lack of faith cancel God's faithfulness?

4No, never! Let God be true, even if everyone else is a liar. As the Scripture says: So you will be shown right when you speak, and you will win when you are judged.

5But if our wrong brings out how right God is, what should we say? That God is unfair to punish us? (I am speaking the way people do.)

6No, never! If that were so, how could God judge the world?

7Someone might argue: If my lie makes God's truth shine even more, to His glory, then why am I still judged as a sinner?

8Why not just say: Let us do evil so that good may come? Some people slander us by claiming we say this. They deserve to be judged.

9So what then? Are we Jews any better? Not at all. We have already shown that everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike, is under the power of sin.

10As the Scripture says: There is no one who is right with God, not even one.

11There is no one who understands; there is no one who looks for God.

12Everyone has turned away; together they have become useless. There is no one who does good, not even one.

13Their throats are like open graves; their tongues tell lies. The poison of snakes is on their lips.

14Their mouths are full of curses and bitter words.

15They are quick to kill.

16They leave ruin and misery wherever they go,

17and they do not know the way of peace.

18They have no fear of God at all.

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. So no one can make any excuse, and the whole world is held guilty before God.

20No one will be made right with God by obeying the law. The law only makes us aware of our sin.

21But now, apart from the law, God has shown how He makes people right with Himself. The law and the prophets pointed to this.

22God makes people right with Himself through faith in Jesus Christ. This is for everyone who believes; there is no difference between people,

23because everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God.

24Yet by His grace, as a free gift, God makes them right with Himself, through Christ Jesus, who set them free.

25God offered Christ as the sacrifice that takes away sin, through faith in His blood. God did this to show that He is right, because in His patience He had let earlier sins go unpunished.

26He did it to show His rightness at the present time, so that He could be both fair and the One who makes right anyone who has faith in Jesus.

27So where is there any room for bragging? There is none. On what basis is it shut out? On the basis of obeying the law? No, but on the basis of faith.

28For we hold that a person is made right with God by faith, apart from obeying the law.

29Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the other nations? Yes, of them too,

30since there is only one God. He will make the circumcised right by faith, and the uncircumcised right through that same faith.

31So do we cancel the law by this faith? No, never! Instead, we uphold the law.