God's Faithfulness and Human Sinfulness
Study note
Paul anticipates the objection that his argument removes any advantage in being Jewish. He affirms that the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God, and human unfaithfulness cannot cancel God's faithfulness. He rejects the twisted logic that God is unjust for punishing sin or that people should do evil so that good may come, insisting that God's truthfulness and right to judge the world remain unshaken.
1 So does being Jewish matter at all? Is there any point to circumcision? What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Yes, it matters a lot! The biggest thing is that God trusted the Jewish people with his very own words. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
3 Some of them did not believe. Does that mean God stopped being faithful? Does their lack of trust cancel out what God promised? For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid! Yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, 'That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.' God 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.
5 But here is a tricky question: if our doing wrong makes God's goodness stand out even more, can we say it is unfair for God to punish us? (I know this sounds like a very human way of thinking.) But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 Of course not! If God could not punish wrongdoing, how could he ever judge the world? God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 Someone might say, 'My lies make God's truth shine brighter. They bring him more glory. So why am I still called a sinner?' For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 If that were true, we might as well say, 'Let us do evil so good things can come from it' -- which is exactly what some people wrongly claim we teach. Those people deserve what is coming to them. And 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.
No One Is Righteous
Study note
Paul delivers his devastating conclusion: Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. He strings together a chain of Old Testament quotations from the Psalms and Isaiah to paint a comprehensive portrait of human sinfulness, from throat to tongue to lips to mouth to feet to eyes. The law silences every mouth and holds the entire world accountable, for no one will be declared righteous by obeying it. The law's true purpose is to make us conscious of sin.
9 So where does this leave us? Are we Jewish people better off? Not one bit! We have already laid out the facts: everyone, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, is trapped under sin's control. What 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;
10 The scriptures spell it out: 'Not a single person is truly good and right with God. Not one. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 Nobody fully gets it. Nobody is out there searching for God on their own. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 Every last person has walked away from God. All together, they have become useless. Not a single one does what is good. Zero.' They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 'What comes out of their mouths is like the stench from an open grave. Their words are full of lies. Deadly poison drips from what they say.' Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 'Their speech is loaded with curses and hateful words.' Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 'They rush to hurt and kill people. Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Everywhere they go, they leave behind broken lives and pain. Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 They have never figured out how to live at peace with anyone.' And the way of peace have they not known:
18 'They do not have even a tiny bit of respect for God.' There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now, everything the law says is aimed at the people who live under it. The point is to stop every excuse and make the whole world answer to God. Now 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.
20 No one gets right with God by checking off all the rules in the law. The law's real job is to show us how far we have missed the mark. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Righteousness Through Faith in Christ
Study note
Having established universal guilt, Paul now unveils God's solution. A righteousness apart from law has been revealed, witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, without distinction. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory, but all are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ, whom God offered as a atoning sacrifice. This eliminates boasting, establishes faith as the basis for a right relationship with God, and shows that God is the God of Gentiles as well as Jews.
21 But now God has done something new. He has shown a way to be made right with him that has nothing to do with following the law -- even though both the law and the prophets pointed to it all along. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 This gift of being made right with God comes through trusting in Jesus Christ. It is available to every person who believes. There is no difference, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 But God makes us right with him as a free gift. He does it out of pure kindness, through what Jesus Christ did to set us free. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God has 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. Whom 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;
26 He did it to show that he is perfectly fair. He is also the one who makes people right with him when they trust in Jesus. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27 So is there anything left for us to brag about? Nothing at all! What kind of system shuts out bragging? Trying harder to keep rules? No. Trusting God -- that is what shuts out bragging. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 We have concluded: a person is made right with God by trusting him, not by trying to earn it through the law. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is God only the God of Jewish people? Is he not also the God of everyone else? -- he is God of everyone. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 There is only one God. He makes Jewish people right with him through faith, and he makes non-Jewish people right with him through that very same faith. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31 Does trusting God mean we throw out the law? Not at all! Faith supports what the law was always about. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.