9 If someone would ask, “ Shall we conclude that God will treat us Jews more favorably and will treat the non-Jews less favorably RHQ?” I would reply that we can certainly not conclude that! I have already shown you that all people, the Jews and also the non-Jews, have sinned and so they deserve to be punished { that God will punish them} PRS.
10 The following words that are written {prophets have written} in the Scriptures support this, No person is righteous. There is not even one righteous person!
11 There is no one who understands how to live properly (OR, about God). There is no one who seeks/desires to know God!
12 Absolutely everyone has turned away MET from God. God considers them depraved (OR, Everyone has become useless to God). There is no one who acts righteously; no, there is not even one!
13 What people say MTY is foul/bad, like the smell that comes from a grave that has been {that people have} opened MET. By what people say MTY, they deceive people. By what they say MTY they injure people, just like the poison of snakes injures people MET.
14 They are continually ◄cursing/asking God to do harmful things to► others and saying ◄cruel/harsh/hateful► things MTY.
15 They ◄go quickly/are eager► to murder people MTY.
16 Wherever they go, they ruin everything and make people miserable MTY.
17 They have not/never known how to live peacefully with other people.
18 They absolutely refuse to fear/reverence God SYN!
19 Furthermore, we know that it is to Jewish people, who are required to obey God's laws, that Moses wrote those laws PRS. We can infer from this that there are no Jews or non-Jews SYN who are able to say anything in reply to God's saying that he will punish them for having sinned. God has declared everyone in the world MTY guilty!
20 It is not because people have done the things that God's laws require that God will ◄erase the record of their sins/declare them no longer guilty for sin►, because no one has done those things completely. In fact, the result of our knowing God's laws is that we know clearly that we have sinned (OR, are sinful).
21 But God's ◄erasing the record of our sins/declaring us no longer guilty► does not depend on our obeying the laws that he gave Moses. It has now been { God has now} revealed to us how he erases the record of our sins by a different way. It was written about by Moses { Moses wrote about it} in the laws PRS God gave him, and it was also written about by the prophets {the prophets also wrote about it}.
22 God erases the record of our sins because we trust in what Jesus Christ has done for us. God does this for every person who trusts in Christ, because he considers that there is no difference between Jews and non-Jews.
23 All people have done evil, and all people have failed to accomplish the glorious goals that God set for them.
24 Our record of sins has been erased {God erased the record of our sins} by God acting kindly to forgive our sins, without our doing anything to earn it. Christ Jesus accomplished this by dying for us.
25 God showed that Christ was the one who would atone for (OR, forgive) our sins with the blood that flowed from his body when he died. God redeems/forgives us because of our trusting in Christ's having died for us. God wanted to show that he acts justly. He wanted to do that because, before Jesus came, God did not punish everyone who sinned. So it seemed as though he was not being just. But he was overlooking people's sins during that time,
26 because he is patient. God arranged for Jesus to die for us. By doing that, God now shows that he is just, and he shows that he is justly able to erase the record of sins for everyone who trusts/believes in Jesus.
27 It is not at all RHQ because of our obeying the laws of Moses that God erases the record of our sins. So, ◄there is no way that we can boast that God does that because of our obeying those laws./how can we boast about God erasing the record of our sins because of our obeying those laws?► RHQ Instead, it is because of our believing/trusting in Christ that God erases the record of our sins.
28 We cannot boast about that, because we conclude that the record of our sins is erased {God erases the record of our sins} because of our trusting in Christ. God does not erase the record of our sins because of our obeying the laws that he gave to Moses, because it is impossible for us to completely obey them.
29 ◄You who are Jews certainly should not think that you are the only ones whom God will accept!/Do you Jews think it is you alone whom God will accept?► RHQ You certainly should realize that he will accept non-Jews, too. RHQ Of course, he will accept non-Jews also,
30 because, as you firmly believe, there is only one God, who will erase the record of Jews' MTY sins if they trust in what Christ has done, and who will similarly erase the record of non-Jews' MTY sins if they trust in Christ.
31 So, if someone should ask concerning the laws that God gave Moses, “By saying that God erases the record of our sins because of our trusting in Christ, does that mean that those laws now are useless?”, I would reply, “Certainly not. Instead, we truly fulfill the laws that God gave Moses.”