Paul Answers an Objection
1So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God. 3What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written:
That you may be justified in your words
and triumph when you judge.
5But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!
The Whole World Guilty before God
9What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one.
11There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.
13Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
14Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
15Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
17and the path of peace they have not known.
18There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. 20For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
The Righteousness of God through Faith
21But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Boasting Excluded
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.