2 So you can see there are no excuses for any of us. If your eyes shift their focus from yourselves to others—to judge how they are doing—you have already condemned yourselves! You don’t realize that you are pointing your fingers at others for the exact things you do as well. ² There’s no doubt that the judgment of God will justly fall upon hypocrites who practice such things. ³ Here’s what is happening: you attack and criticize others and then turn around to commit the same offenses yourselves! Do you think you will somehow dodge God’s judgment? ⁴ Do you take the kindness of God for granted? Do you see His patience and tolerance as signs that He is a pushover when it comes to sin? How could you not know that His kindness is guiding our hearts to turn away from distractions and habitual sin to walk a new path?^[a]

⁵ But because your heart is obstinate and shameless, you’re storing up wrath that will count against you. On the day of His choosing, God’s wrath and judgment will be unleashed to make things right. ⁶ As it goes, everyone will receive what his actions in life have cultivated. ⁷ Whoever has labored diligently and patiently to do what is right—seeking glory, honor, and immortality—God will grant him endless joy in life eternal. ⁸ But selfish individuals who make trouble, resist the truth, or sell out to wickedness will meet a very different fate—they will find fury and indignation as the fruit of living in the wrong. ⁹ Suffering and pain await everyone whose life is marked by evil living (first for the Jew, and next for the non-Jew). ¹⁰ But if you do what is right, you will receive glory, admiration, and peace (again, first for the Jew, then for the non-Jew). ¹¹ God has no favorites.

¹² If one lives life without knowledge of the law—the teachings of the Torah—he will sin and die apart from the law. If someone else lives life under the law, his sin will be judged by what the law teaches. ¹³ Here’s my point: just because a person hears the law read or recited does not mean he is right before the one True God; it is following the law that makes one right, not just hearing it. ^14-15 For instance, some outsiders who are not required to follow the law often live quite naturally by its teachings. Even though the law wasn’t given to them, in themselves they have the law. Here’s the thing: their lives demonstrate that God has inscribed the law’s teachings on their hearts. On judgment day, their consciences will testify for them, and their thoughts will both accuse and defend them. ¹⁶ This good news given to me declares that this affirmation and accusation will take place on that day when God, through Jesus, the Anointed One, judges every person’s life secrets.

¹⁷ Listen, if you claim to be a Jew, count on the law, and boast in your relationship with God; ¹⁸ if you know His will and can determine what is essential (because you have been instructed in the law); and ¹⁹ if you stand convinced that you are chosen to be a guide to the blind, a light to those who live in darkness, ²⁰ a teacher of foolish wanderers and children, and have in the law what is essentially the form of knowledge and truth— ²¹ then tell me, why don’t you practice what you preach? If you are going to sermonize against stealing, then stop stealing. ²² If you are going to teach others not to commit adultery, then be completely faithful to your spouse. If you hate idolatry, then stop robbing the temples! ²³ If you pride yourself in having God’s law, then stop dishonoring God by failing to keep its teaching. ²⁴ Here’s what it says: “Because of you, God’s reputation is slandered by those outside the covenant.”^[b]

²⁵ You see, circumcision is of value only if you keep the law’s teachings. But if you keep breaking God’s rules, you are no different than those without the mark. ²⁶ So if an uncircumcised man abides by God’s just precepts, doesn’t that make his standing before God the same as one who is circumcised? ²⁷ The man who is physically uncircumcised but still keeps the law, he will stand in judgment over the person who is circumcised and yet continually breaks God’s law. ²⁸ A mark that is evident doesn’t necessarily make one a Jew, and circumcision that is evident only in the flesh is not true. ²⁹ But the true Jew is Jewish on the inside—in secret places no one but God can see—and true circumcision involves the heart; it comes from the Spirit, not from some written code. The praise and reputation of that kind of Jew come from God, not from man.

3 So then, do the Jews have an advantage over the other nations? Does circumcision do anything for you? ² The answer is yes, in every way. To begin with, God spoke to and through the Jewish people. ³ But what if some Jews have been unfaithful? Does the fact that they abandoned their faith zero out God’s faithfulness? ⁴ Absolutely not! If every person on the planet were a liar and thief, God would still be true. It stands written:

⁵ If our perpetual injustice and corruption merely accentuate the purity of God’s justice, what can we say? Is God unjust for unleashing His fury against us? (I am speaking from our limited human perspective.) ⁶ Again, absolutely not! If this were so, how could God stand as Judge over the world? ⁷ But if my lie serves only to point out God’s truth and bring Him glory, then why am I being judged for my sin? ⁸ There are slanderous charges out there that we are saying things like, “Let’s be as wicked as possible so that something good will come from it.” Those malicious gossips will get what they deserve.

⁹ So what then? Are we Jews better off? Not at all. We have made it clear that people everywhere, Jews and non-Jews, are living under the power of sin. ¹⁰ Here’s what Scripture says:

¹⁹ We want to be clear that whatever the law says, it says to everyone who is under its authority. Its purpose is to muzzle every mouth, to silence idle talk, and to bring the whole world under the standard of God’s justice. ²⁰ Therefore, doing what the law prescribes will not make anyone right in the eyes of God—that’s not its purpose—but the law is capable of exposing the true nature of sin.

²¹ But now for the good news: God’s restorative justice has entered the world, independent of the law. Both the law and the prophets told us this day would come. ²² This redeeming justice comes through the faithfulness of Jesus,^[j] the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who makes salvation a reality for all who believe—without the slightest partiality. ²³ You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. ²⁴ Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed. ²⁵ When God set Him up to be the sacrifice—the seat of mercy where sins are atoned through faith—His blood became the demonstration of God’s own restorative justice. All of this confirms His faithfulness to the promise, for over the course of human history God patiently held back as He dealt with the sins being committed. ²⁶ This expression of God’s restorative justice displays in the present that He is just and righteous and that He makes right those who trust and commit themselves to Jesus.

²⁷ So is there any place left for boasting? No. It’s been shut out completely. And how? By what sort of law? The law of works perhaps? No! By the law of faith. ²⁸ We hold that people are justified, that is, made right with God through faith, which has nothing to do with the deeds the law prescribes.

²⁹ Is God the God of the Jews only? If He created all things, then doesn’t that make Him the God of all people? Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders alike? Yes, He is also the God of all the outsiders. ³⁰ So since God is one, there is one way for Jews and outsiders, circumcised and uncircumcised, to be right with Him. That is the way of faith. ³¹ So are we trying to use faith to abolish the law? Absolutely not! In fact, we now are free to uphold the law as God intended.