Romans 3:4-21

⁴Of course not! Even if everyone else is proved to be lying, God always tells the truth. As Scripture says, “What you say will be proved right, and you will win your case when you are judged.”

⁵But if the fact that we're wrong helps to show that God is right, what should we conclude? That God is wrong to pronounce judgment on us? (I'm talking from a human perspective here.)

⁶Of course not! How else could God judge the world?

⁷Someone could say, “Why am I still condemned as a sinner if my lies make the truth of God and his glory more obvious in contrast?”

⁸Is it a case of, “Let's sin to bring about good”? That's what some people have slanderously accused us of saying. They should be rightly condemned!

⁹So then, are we Jews better than others? Definitely not! Remember that we've already argued that both Jews and foreigners are under the control of sin.

¹⁰As Scripture says, “No one does what is right, not even one.

¹¹No one understands; no one seeks God.

¹²Everyone has turned their backs on him; everyone does what is totally wrong. No one does what is good, not a single one.

¹³Their throats are like an open grave; their tongues spread deceit; their lips ooze with the venom of snakes.

¹⁴Their mouths are full of bitterness and curses,

¹⁵and they are quick to cause pain and death.

¹⁶Their way leads to disaster and misery;

¹⁷they don't know how to live in peace.

¹⁸They don't care about respecting God at all.”

¹⁹It's clear that everything in the law applies to those who live under the law so that no one could have any excuses, and to make sure everyone in the whole world is answerable to God.

²⁰For no one is made right before God by doing what the law requires. The law only helps us recognize what sin really is.

²¹But now God's character of goodness and right has been demonstrated. It has nothing to do with law-keeping, even though it was spoken of by the law and the prophets.