Paul Answers an Objection

So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted(A) with the very words of God.(B) What then? If some were unfaithful,(C) will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not!(D) Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar,(E) as it is written:

That you may be justified in your words
and triumph when you judge.[a](F)

But if our unrighteousness highlights[b] God’s righteousness,(G) what are we to say?(H) I am using a human argument:[c](I) Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?(J) But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?(K) And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”?(L) Their condemnation is deserved!

The Whole World Guilty before God

What then? Are we any better off?[d] Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews(M) and Greeks(N) are all under sin,[e](O) 10 as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one.
11 There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.[f](P)
13 Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.[g](Q)
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.[h](R)
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.[i](S)
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17 and the path of peace they have not known.[j](T)
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.[k](U)

19 Now we know that whatever the law says,(V) it speaks to those who are subject to the law,[l](W) so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.[m](X) 20 For no one will be justified[n] in his sight by the works of the law,(Y) because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.(Z)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:4 Ps 51:4
  2. 3:5 Or shows, or demonstrates
  3. 3:5 Lit I speak as a man
  4. 3:9 Are we Jews any better than the Gentiles?
  5. 3:9 Under sin’s power or dominion
  6. 3:10–12 Ps 14:1–3; 53:1–3; Ec 7:20
  7. 3:13 Ps 5:9
  8. 3:13 Ps 140:3
  9. 3:14 Ps 10:7
  10. 3:15–17 Is 59:7–8
  11. 3:18 Ps 36:1
  12. 3:19 Lit those in the law
  13. 3:19 Or become guilty before God, or may be accountable to God
  14. 3:20 Or will be declared righteous, or will be acquitted

The Ten Commandments

20 Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.(A)

Do not have other gods besides me.(B)

Do not make an idol(C) for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,(D) bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations(E) of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.(F)

Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.(G)

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:(H) You are to labor six days and do all your work,(I) 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.(J) 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

12 Honor your father and your mother(K) so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 Do not murder.(L)

14 Do not commit adultery.(M)

15 Do not steal.(N)

16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.(O)

17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.(P)

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