Romans 3:5-20

New American Standard Bible

⁵But if our unrighteousness ^[a]^(A)demonstrates the righteousness of God, ^(B)what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (^(C)I am speaking from a human viewpoint.) ⁶^(D)Far from it! For otherwise, how will ^(E)God judge the world? ⁷But if through my lie ^(F)the truth of God abounded to His glory, ^(G)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), “^(H)Let’s do evil that good may come of it”? ^[b]Their condemnation is deserved.

⁹What then? ^[c]^(I)Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both ^(J)Jews and ^(K)Greeks are ^(L)all under sin; ¹⁰as it is written:

“^(M)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 ^[d]corrupt;
There is no one who does good,
There is not even one.”
¹³“^(N)Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“^(O)The venom of ^[e]asps is under their lips”;
¹⁴“^(P)Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
¹⁵“^(Q)Their feet are swift to shed blood,
¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷And they have not known the way of peace.”
¹⁸“^(R)There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the ^(S)Law says, it speaks to ^(T)those who are ^[f]under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and ^(U)all the world may become accountable to God; ²⁰because ^(V)by the works ^[g]of the Law ^[h]none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for ^[i]^(W)through the Law comes ^[j]knowledge of sin.