²⁹ As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

⁷ For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

¹⁷ So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.

²⁷ Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.

¹⁹ Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.

⁶ Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?

³¹ Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”^[a]

² If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way.