Romans 3:9-31

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.

²²This character of God that is good and right comes to everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ, those who place their confidence in him. It doesn't matter who we are:

²³We have all sinned, and we fall far short of God's glorious ideal.

²⁴Yet through the free gift of his grace God makes us right through Christ Jesus who sets us free.

²⁵God openly presented Jesus as the gift that brings peace to those trusting in him, the one who shed his blood. God did this to demonstrate he is truly good and right, for previously he would hold back and pass over sins,

²⁶but now at this present time God proves he is fair and does what is right, and that he makes right those who trust in Jesus.

²⁷So do we have anything to boast about then? Absolutely not, there's no place for that! And why's that? Is it because we follow the law of observing requirements? No, we follow the law of trusting in God.

²⁸We conclude that people are made right with God through their trust in him, and not from legal observance.

²⁹Is God only the God of the Jews? Isn't he the God of other people as well? Of course he is!

³⁰There is only one God, and he makes us morally right through our trust in him, whoever we are, Jew or foreigner.

³¹Does that mean that by trusting in God we do away with the law? Of course not! In fact we affirm the importance of the law.