Romans 3

New American Standard Bible

All the World Guilty

3 Then what ^[a]advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? ²Great in every respect. First, that ^(A)they were entrusted with the ^(B)actual words of God. ³What then? If ^(C)some ^[b]did not believe, their ^[c]unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? ⁴^[d]^(D)Far from it! Rather, God must prove to be true, though every person be found ^(E)a liar, as it is written:

“^(F)So that You are justified in Your words,
And prevail ^[e]when You are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness ^[f]^(G)demonstrates the righteousness of God, ^(H)what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (^(I)I am speaking from a human viewpoint.) ⁶^(J)Far from it! For otherwise, how will ^(K)God judge the world? ⁷But if through my lie ^(L)the truth of God abounded to His glory, ^(M)why am I also still being judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say (just as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “^(N)Let’s do evil that good may come of it”? ^[g]Their condemnation is deserved.

⁹What then? ^[h]^(O)Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both ^(P)Jews and ^(Q)Greeks are ^(R)all under sin; ¹⁰as it is written:

“^(S)There is no righteous person, not even one;
¹¹There is no one who understands,
There is no one who seeks out God;
¹²They have all turned aside, together they have become ^[i]corrupt;
There is no one who does good,
There is not even one.”
¹³“^(T)Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“^(U)The venom of ^[j]asps is under their lips”;
¹⁴“^(V)Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
¹⁵“^(W)Their feet are swift to shed blood,
¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷And they have not known the way of peace.”
¹⁸“^(X)There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the ^(Y)Law says, it speaks to ^(Z)those who are ^[k]under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and ^(AA)all the world may become accountable to God; ²⁰because ^(AB)by the works ^[l]of the Law ^[m]none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for ^[n]^(AC)through the Law comes ^[o]knowledge of sin.

Justification by Faith

²¹But now apart ^[p]from the Law ^(AD)the righteousness of God has been revealed, being ^(AE)witnessed by the ^[q]Law and the Prophets, ²²but it is the ^(AF)righteousness of God through ^(AG)faith ^(AH)in Jesus Christ for ^(AI)all those ^[r]who believe; for ^(AJ)there is no distinction, ²³for all ^[s]^(AK)have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴being justified as a gift ^(AL)by His grace through ^(AM)the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God displayed publicly as ^(AN)a ^[t]propitiation ^[u]^(AO)in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, ^[v]because in God’s merciful ^(AP)restraint He ^(AQ)let the sins previously committed go unpunished; ²⁶for the demonstration, that is, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who ^[w]has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is ^(AR)boasting? It has been excluded. By ^(AS)what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ²⁸^[x]For ^(AT)we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works ^[y]of the Law. ²⁹Or ^(AU)is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since indeed ^(AV)God ^(AW)who will justify the ^[z]circumcised ^[aa]by faith and the ^[ab]uncircumcised through faith ^(AX)is one.

³¹Do we then nullify ^[ac]the Law through faith? ^(AY)Far from it! On the contrary, we ^(AZ)establish the Law.

Footnotes

Romans 3:1 Lit is the advantage of the Jew
Romans 3:3 Or were unfaithful
Romans 3:3 Or unfaithfulness
Romans 3:4 Lit May it never happen! And so throughout the ch
Romans 3:4 Or in Your judging
Romans 3:5 I.e., by requiring His judgment
Romans 3:8 Lit Whose
Romans 3:9 Or Are we worse
Romans 3:12 Or depraved
Romans 3:13 I.e., venomous snakes
Romans 3:19 Lit in
Romans 3:20 Or of law
Romans 3:20 Lit no flesh
Romans 3:20 Or through law
Romans 3:20 Or recognition
Romans 3:21 Or from law
Romans 3:21 I.e., the Old Testament
Romans 3:22 Or who believe. For there is
Romans 3:23 Or sinned
Romans 3:25 I.e., a means of reconciliation between God and mankind by paying the penalty for sin
Romans 3:25 Or by
Romans 3:25 Lit because of the passing over of the sins previously committed, in the restraint of God
Romans 3:26 Lit is of the faith of Jesus
Romans 3:28 One early ms Therefore
Romans 3:28 Or of law
Romans 3:30 Lit circumcision
Romans 3:30 Lit out of
Romans 3:30 Lit uncircumcision
Romans 3:31 Or law

Romans 3

The Message

3 ^1-2So what difference does it make who’s a Jew and who isn’t, who has been trained in God’s ways and who hasn’t? As it turns out, it makes a lot of difference—but not the difference so many have assumed.

^2-6First, there’s the matter of being put in charge of writing down and caring for God’s revelation, these Holy Scriptures. So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn’t abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:

Your words stand fast and true;
Rejection doesn’t faze you.

But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God’s rightdoing, shouldn’t we be commended for helping out? Since our lies don’t even make a dent in his truth, isn’t it wrong of God to back us to the wall and hold us to our word? These questions come up. The answer to such questions is no, a most emphatic No! How else would things ever get straightened out if God didn’t do the straightening?

^7-8It’s simply perverse to say, “If my lies serve to show off God’s truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I’m doing God a favor.” Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, “The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let’s just do it!” That’s pure slander, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat

^9-20So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

There’s nobody living right, not even one,
    nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
    they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right;
    I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
    their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
    They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
    litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others.
    They never give God the time of day.

This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.

God Has Set Things Right

^21-24But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

^25-26God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

^27-28So where does that leave our proud Jewish insider claims and counterclaims? Canceled? Yes, canceled. What we’ve learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

^29-30And where does that leave our proud Jewish claim of having a corner on God? Also canceled. God is the God of outsider non-Jews as well as insider Jews. How could it be otherwise since there is only one God? God sets right all who welcome his action and enter into it, both those who follow our religious system and those who have never heard of our religion.

³¹But by shifting our focus from what we do to what God does, don’t we cancel out all our careful keeping of the rules and ways God commanded? Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting that entire way of life in its proper place, we confirm it.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

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The Message (MSG)

Romans 3 New American Standard Bible