Justified by Faith in Christ

¹⁵ We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, ¹⁶ but knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, if not by faith in Jesus Christ,^[a] and we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ^[b] and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified^[c]. ¹⁷ But if while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also have been found to be sinners, then is Christ an agent of sin? May it never be! ¹⁸ For if I build up again these things which I destroyed, I show myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, in order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, ²⁰ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not declare invalid the grace of God, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.