Romans 2:25-3:8

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁵ Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.^{(A) 26} So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{(B) 29} Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^(C)

3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ² Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews^[a] were entrusted with the oracles of God.^{(D) 3} What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?^{(E) 4} By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,

⁵ But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)^{(G) 6} By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!^(H)