Romans 2:17-3:20

New King James Version

The Jews Guilty as the Gentiles

¹⁷^[a]Indeed ^(A)you are called a Jew, and ^(B)rest^[b] on the law, ^(C)and make your boast in God, ¹⁸and ^(D)know His will, and ^(E)approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ¹⁹and ^(F)are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, ^(G)having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. ²¹^(H)You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ²²You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, ^(I)do you rob temples? ²³You who ^(J)make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? ²⁴For ^(K)“the name of God is ^(L)blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

Circumcision of No Avail

²⁵^(M)For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶Therefore, ^(N)if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, ^(O)judge you who, even with your ^[c]written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸For ^(P)he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹but he is a Jew ^(Q)who is one inwardly; and ^(R)circumcision is that of the heart, ^(S)in the Spirit, not in the letter; ^(T)whose ^[d]praise is not from men but from God.

God’s Judgment Defended

3 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? ²Much in every way! Chiefly because ^(U)to them were committed the ^[e]oracles of God. ³For what if ^(V)some did not believe? ^(W)Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? ⁴^(X)Certainly not! Indeed, let ^(Y)God be ^[f]true but ^(Z)every man a liar. As it is written:

^(AA)“That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? ^(AB)(I speak as a man.) ⁶Certainly not! For then ^(AC)how will God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say, ^(AD)“Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their ^[g]condemnation is just.

All Have Sinned^(AE)

⁹What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that ^(AF)they are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written:

^(AG)“There is none righteous, no, not one;
¹¹There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
¹²They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
¹³“Their^(AH) throat is an open ^[h]tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
^(AI)“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
¹⁴“Whose^(AJ) mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
¹⁵“Their^(AK) feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways;
¹⁷And the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸“There^(AL) is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever ^(AM)the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that ^(AN)every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become ^[i]guilty before God. ²⁰Therefore ^(AO)by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.