1 What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.” 5 But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms. 6 Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world? 7 For if my falsehood accentuates God’s truthfulness, to the increase of His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? 8 Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved! 9 What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery lie in their wake, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin. 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe. There is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. 26 He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith. 28 Therefore we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.
Romans · Majority Standard Bible
Romans 3 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 2:25–29; Genesis 25:32; Ecclesiastes 6:8; Ecclesiastes 6:11; Hebrews 13:9
- 2 Romans 9:4; Acts 7:38; Psalm 147:19–20; Nehemiah 9:13–14; 1 Corinthians 9:17
- 3 2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 4:2; Romans 9:6; Titus 1:1–2; Isaiah 55:11
- 4 Psalm 51:4; Psalm 116:11; Galatians 2:17; Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2
- 5 Romans 6:19; Galatians 3:15; 1 Corinthians 9:8; Romans 2:5; Romans 9:18–20
- 6 Genesis 18:25; Acts 17:31; Job 8:3; Psalm 98:9; Psalm 50:6
- 7 Romans 3:4; Romans 9:19–20; Acts 13:27–29; 2 Kings 8:10–15; Isaiah 10:6–7
- 8 Romans 6:1; Romans 6:15; Romans 5:20; Romans 7:7; 1 Peter 3:16–17
- 9 Galatians 3:22; Romans 6:15; Isaiah 65:5; Romans 11:32; Romans 3:22–23
- 10 Psalm 53:1–3; Psalm 14:1–3; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8–10; Job 15:14
- 11 Psalm 14:2–4; Psalm 53:2; Titus 3:3; Hosea 4:6; Romans 8:7
- 12 Psalm 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 59:8; Isaiah 64:6; Isaiah 53:6
- 13 Psalm 5:9; Psalm 140:3; Matthew 23:27–28; Jeremiah 9:3–5; Psalm 57:4
- 14 Psalm 10:7; Psalm 109:17–18; Psalm 59:12; James 3:10
- 15 Isaiah 59:7–8; Proverbs 1:16; Proverbs 6:18
- 17 Isaiah 59:8; Romans 5:1; Luke 1:79; Matthew 7:14; Isaiah 57:21
- 18 Psalm 36:1; Proverbs 23:17; Proverbs 16:6; Proverbs 8:13; Revelation 19:5
- 19 Galatians 3:10; Galatians 3:22–23; Romans 2:12–18; Romans 3:9; Galatians 5:18
- 20 Galatians 2:16; Acts 13:39; Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:19; Romans 4:15
- 21 Acts 10:43; Jeremiah 33:16; Philippians 3:9; Jeremiah 23:5–6; Galatians 3:8
- 22 Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Romans 8:1; Galatians 2:16; Romans 5:1–11
- 23 Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8–10; Romans 3:9; Galatians 3:22; Romans 11:32
- 24 1 Peter 1:18–19; Titus 3:5–7; Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 1:6–7; Romans 5:9
- 25 Romans 3:23–24; 1 Peter 1:18–20; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 2:2; Colossians 1:20–23
- 26 Deuteronomy 32:4; Romans 4:5; Acts 13:38–39; Romans 3:30; Zephaniah 3:5
- 27 Romans 4:2; Romans 2:23; 1 Corinthians 1:29–31; Galatians 3:22; Romans 2:17
- 28 Titus 3:7; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:24; Galatians 3:8; Romans 3:26
- 29 Colossians 3:11; Zechariah 2:11; Ephesians 3:6; Galatians 3:14; Galatians 3:25–29
- 30 Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:20; Philippians 3:3; Colossians 2:10–11; Galatians 5:6
- 31 Galatians 2:21; Matthew 5:17; Romans 13:8–10; Romans 10:4; Romans 8:4
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
He had accused the Gentiles, he had accused the Jews; it came next in order to mention the righteousness which is by faith.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
And, "There is none that understandeth, or that seeketh after God: they have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable," they maintain to be said concerning ignorance of Bythus.
… in many other significations; and among these various usages, a frequent one is to use flesh for man himself, the nature of man taking the part for the whole, as in the words, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;" for what does he mean here by "no flesh" but "no man?" And this, indeed, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
God forbid! yea, we establish the law." For since the law was laboring at this, to make man righteous, but had not power, He came and brought in the way of righteousness by faith, and so established that which the law desired: and what the law could not by letters, this He accomplished by faith.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
for the godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none that doeth right among men: and again, They are all gone out of the way, they are together became unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one: and again, Cursing and stealing, and adultery, and murder are poured out upon the land.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)