Paul Answers an Objection
1 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrustedwith the spoken words of God.
3 What then? If some did not believe,will their unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness?
4 Absolutely not!God must be true, even if everyone is a liar,as it is written:
That You may be justified in Your words
and triumph when You judge.
5 But if our unrighteousness highlightsGod’s righteousness,what are we to say?I use a human argument:Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?
6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?
7 But if by my lie God’s truth is amplified to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 And 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
9 What then? Are we any better?Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jewsand Gentilesare all under sin,
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 useless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.
13 Their throat is an open grave;
they deceive with their tongues.
Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
14 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
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.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that whatever the law saysspeaks 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.
20 For no one will be justifiedin His sight by the works of the law,because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
God’s Righteousness through Faith
21 But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed— attested by the Law and the Prophets
22 — that is, God’s righteousness through faithin Jesus Christ,to all who believe,since there is no distinction.
23 For all have sinnedand fall short of theglory of God.
24 They are justified freely by His gracethrough the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
25 God presented Him as a propitiationthrough faith in His blood,to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint Godpassed over the sins previously committed.
26 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteousthe one who has faith in Jesus.
Boasting Excluded
27 Where then is boasting?It is excluded. By what kind of law?By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a lawof faith.
28 For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
29 Or is God for Jews only?Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too,
30 since there is one Godwho will justify the circumcised by faithand the uncircumcised through faith.
31 Do we then cancel the law through faith? Absolutely not!On the contrary, we uphold the law.
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