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I want to learn only this from you:(A) did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard?[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 3:2 Faith in what you heard: Paul’s message received with faith. The Greek can also mean “the proclamation of the faith” or “a hearing that comes from faith.”

11 And that no one is justified before God by the law is clear, for “the one who is righteous by faith will live.”(A)

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Psalm 143[a]

A Prayer in Distress

A psalm of David.

Lord, hear my prayer;
    in your faithfulness listen to my pleading;
    answer me in your righteousness.
Do not enter into judgment with your servant;
    before you no one can be just.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 143 One of the Church’s seven Penitential Psalms, this lament is a prayer to be freed from death-dealing enemies. The psalmist addresses God, aware that there is no equality between God and human beings; salvation is a gift (Ps 143:1–2). Victimized by evil people (Ps 143:3–4), the psalmist recites (“remembers”) God’s past actions on behalf of the innocent (Ps 143:5–6). The Psalm continues with fervent prayer (Ps 143:7–9) and a strong desire for guidance and protection (Ps 143:10–12).

20 since no human being will be justified in his sight[a] by observing the law; for through the law comes consciousness of sin.(A)

III. Justification Through Faith in Christ

Justification Apart from the Law.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 3:20 No human being will be justified in his sight: these words are freely cited from Ps 143:2. In place of the psalmist’s “no living person,” Paul substitutes “no human being” (literally “no flesh,” a Hebraism), and he adds “by observing the law.”
  2. 3:21–31 These verses provide a clear statement of Paul’s “gospel,” i.e., the principle of justification by faith in Christ. God has found a means of rescuing humanity from its desperate plight: Paul’s general term for this divine initiative is the righteousness of God (Rom 3:21). Divine mercy declares the guilty innocent and makes them so. God does this not as a result of the law but apart from it (Rom 3:21), and not because of any merit in human beings but through forgiveness of their sins (Rom 3:24), in virtue of the redemption wrought in Christ Jesus for all who believe (Rom 3:22, 24–25). God has manifested his righteousness in the coming of Jesus Christ, whose saving activity inaugurates a new era in human history.

28 For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.(A)

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But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

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But if by grace, it is no longer because of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.(A)

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;(A) it is not from works, so no one may boast.(B)

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and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ,(A) the righteousness from God, depending on faith

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