Romans 3, side by side

¹What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

¹What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

²Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

²Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

³What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?

³For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

⁴Certainly 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.”

⁴God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

⁵But 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.

⁵But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

⁶Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

⁶God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

⁷However, if my falsehood accentuates God’s truthfulness, to the increase of His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?

⁷For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

⁸Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

⁸And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

⁹What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

⁹What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

¹⁰As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

¹¹There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

¹²All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

¹³“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”

¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

¹⁴“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood:

¹⁶ruin and misery lie in their wake,

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways:

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”

¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known:

¹⁸“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now 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.

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets.

²¹But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

²²And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,

²²Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

²⁴and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁴Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

²⁵God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

²⁵Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

²⁶He 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.

²⁶To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

²⁷Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁸Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

²⁹Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

³⁰Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

³¹Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.