Romans 3:9-31

⁹What follows, then? Are we Jews in any way superior to others? Not at all. Our indictment against both Jews and Greeks was that all alike were in subjection to sin.

¹⁰As scripture says — ‘There is not even one who is righteous,

¹¹not one who understands, not one who is searching for God!

¹²They have all gone astray; they have one and all become depraved; there is no one who is doing good — no, not one!’

¹³‘Their throats are like opened graves; they deceive with their tongues.’ ‘The venom of snakes lies behind their lips,’

¹⁴‘And their mouths are full of bitter curses.’

¹⁵‘Swift are their feet to shed blood.

¹⁶Distress and trouble dog their steps,

¹⁷and the path of peace they do not know.’

¹⁸‘The fear of God is not before their eyes.’

¹⁹Now we know that everything said in the Law is addressed to those who are under its authority, in order that every mouth may be closed, and to bring the whole world under God's judgement.

²⁰For no human being will be pronounced righteous before God as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

²¹But now, quite apart from Law, the divine righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the prophets bear witness —

²²the divine righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, on all, without distinction, who believe in him.

²³For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

²⁴but, in his loving kindness, are being freely pronounced righteous through the deliverance found in Christ Jesus.

²⁵For God set him before the world, to be, by the shedding of his blood, a means of reconciliation through faith. And this God did to prove his righteousness, and because, in his forbearance, he had passed over the sins that people had previously committed;

²⁶as a proof, I repeat, at the present time, of his own righteousness, that he might be righteous in our eyes, and might pronounce righteous the person who takes their stand on faith in Jesus.

²⁷What, then, becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what sort of Law? A Law requiring obedience? No, a Law requiring faith.

²⁸For we conclude that a person is pronounced righteous on the ground of faith, quite apart from obedience to Law.

²⁹Or can it be that God is the God only of the Jews? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles?

³⁰Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is only one God, and he will pronounce those who are circumcised righteous as the result of faith, and also those who are uncircumcised on their showing the same faith.

³¹Do we, then, use this faith to abolish Law? Heaven forbid! No, we establish Law.