Romans chapter 3
The advantage of the Jew
1 What advantage then has the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much in every way. Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
4 May it never be. Let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written: “That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man.)
6 May it never be. For then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say. Their condemnation is just.
All under sin
9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we have already charged both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin,1
10 as it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips;
14 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 and the way of peace they have not known.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The righteousness of God by faith
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed,2 being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ3 to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to demonstrate his righteousness, because of the passing over of sins previously committed, in the forbearance of God,
26 to demonstrate at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
29 Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law.
Reading Key — Romans as a legal case
Word Study — μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito)
1 Note — v. 9, both under sin, by opposite roads. Verse 9 is the verdict of chapters 1–3: both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. They get there by opposite roads.
The Gentile in chapter 1 had no law and no covenant. That did not excuse him. The truth of God was already available in creation (1:19–20). Not having the law did not free anyone from sin. It only took away one excuse.
The Jew in chapter 2 has the opposite problem: he has the law. The oracles were committed to him. He can rest in them and teach them. None of that changes the heart underneath. Knowing the standard is not meeting it. In 2:17–24 the knowing made the failure worse, because it came with boasting.
So v. 9 does not average two small problems. It names one condition — under sin — that neither ignorance nor information can cure from the outside. The law was never given as that cure. Both groups arrive at the same place by roads that look opposite and were never going anywhere else.
2 Note — v. 21, righteousness apart from the law is now revealed. Verse 21 is the turn of the argument. From 1:18 through 3:20 the case has been one: Jew and Gentile alike stand guilty, and “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified” (3:20). That is the diagnosis. v. 21 is the remedy. But now (νυνὶ δέ) cuts off what was just said.
The righteousness named here is apart from the law (χωρὶς νόμου). Not against the law, and not a novelty outside Scripture: the next clause says it is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. It does not come through keeping the law. It comes by the faith of Jesus Christ (v. 22). This is the first place in the letter where Paul stops describing the problem and names the way out. The rest of Romans unpacks what this righteousness is and does.
3 Note — v. 22, “faith of Jesus Christ.” The Greek is πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. There is no ἐν (in). It is a genitive: faith of Jesus Christ. English in decides the sense too soon. Of leaves the grammar visible.
Two hearings of the same letters: the faith or faithfulness that is Christ’s; and faith directed toward Christ. v. 26 still says the one who believes in Jesus. That is our trust. v. 22 names the righteousness as coming by faith of Jesus Christ. Keep both lines. Do not flatten them into one preposition.
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