Romans 3 - 4 — Legacy Standard Bible

There Is None Righteous

3Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²Great in every respect. First of all, that ^athey were entrusted with the ^boracles of God. ³What then? If ^asome ¹did not believe, does their ²unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God? ⁴^aMay it never be! Rather, let God be true and every man ^ba liar, as it is written, “^cThat You may be justified in Your words,And overcome when You ¹are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness ¹^,^ademonstrates the righteousness of God, ^bwhat shall we say? Is the God who inflicts wrath unrighteous? (^cI am speaking in human terms.) ⁶^aMay it never be! For otherwise, how will ^bGod judge the world? ⁷But if through my lie ^athe truth of God abounded to His glory, ^bwhy am I also still being judged as a sinner? ⁸And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “^aLet us do evil that good may come”? ¹Their condemnation is just.

⁹What then? ^aAre we ¹better? Not at all; for we have already charged that both ^bJews and ^cGreeks are ^dall under sin; ¹⁰as it is written, “^aThere is none righteous, not even one;

¹¹There is none who understands,There is none who seeks for God;¹²All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;There is none who does good,There is not even one.”¹³“^aTheir throat is an open tomb,With their tongues they keep deceiving,”“^bThe poison of asps is under their lips”;¹⁴“^aWhose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;¹⁵“^aTheir feet are swift to shed blood,¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their paths,¹⁷And the path of peace they have not known.”¹⁸“^aThere is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the ^aLaw says, it speaks to ^bthose who are in the Law, so that every mouth may be shut and ^call the world may become accountable to God; ²⁰because ^aby the works ¹of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for ²^,^bthrough the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

The Righteousness of God through Faith

²¹But now apart ¹from the Law ^athe righteousness of God has been manifested, being ^bwitnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²²even the ^arighteousness of God through ^bfaith ^cin Jesus Christ for ^dall those ¹who believe; for ^ethere is no distinction; ²³for all ¹^,^ahave sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴being justified as a gift ^aby His grace through ^bthe redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵whom God displayed publicly as ^aa ¹propitiation ²^,^bin His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, ³because in the ^cforbearance of God He ^dpassed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who ¹has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is ^aboasting? It is excluded. By ^bwhat kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ²⁸¹For ^awe maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works ²of the Law. ²⁹Or ^ais God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since indeed ^aGod, ^bwho will justify the ¹circumcised ²by faith and the ³uncircumcised through that faith, ^cis one.

³¹Do we then abolish ¹the Law through faith? ^aMay it never be! On the contrary, we ^bestablish the Law.

Abraham and David’s Faith Counted as Righteousness

4What then shall we say that Abraham, ¹our forefather ^aaccording to the flesh, has found? ²For if Abraham was justified ¹by works, he has something to boast about—but ^anot ²before God! ³For what does the Scripture say? “^aAbraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” ⁴Now to the one who ^aworks, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due. ⁵But to the one who does not work, but ^abelieves upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, ⁶just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

⁷“^aBlessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,And whose sins have been covered.⁸“^aBlessed is the man whose sin the ¹Lord will not ^btake into account.”

⁹Therefore, is this blessing on ¹^,^athe circumcised, or on ²the uncircumcised also? For ^bwe say, “^cFaith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.” ¹⁰How then was it counted? While he was ¹circumcised, or ²uncircumcised? Not while ³circumcised, but while ⁴uncircumcised; ¹¹and he ^areceived the sign of circumcision, ^ba seal of the righteousness of the faith which ¹he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be ^cthe father of ^dall who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be counted to them, ¹²and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which ¹he had while uncircumcised.

¹³For ^athe promise to Abraham or to his seed ^bthat he would be heir of the world was not ¹through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴For ^aif those who are ¹of the Law are heirs, faith has been made empty and the promise has been abolished; ¹⁵for ^athe Law brings about wrath, but ^bwhere there is no law, there also is no trespass.

¹⁶For this reason it is ¹by faith, in order that it may be according to ^agrace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to ^ball the seed, not only to ²those who are of the Law, but also to ³^,^cthose who are of the faith of Abraham, who is ^dthe father of us all— ¹⁷as it is written, “^aA father of many nations have I made you”—in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, ^bwho gives life to the dead and ¹^,^ccalls into being ^dthat which does not exist. ¹⁸In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become ^aa father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “^bSo shall your seed be.” ¹⁹And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now ^aas good as dead since ^bhe was about a hundred years old, and ^cthe deadness of Sarah’s womb; ²⁰yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, ^agiving glory to God, ²¹and ^abeing fully assured that ^bwhat God had promised, He was able also to do. ²²Therefore ^ait was also counted to him as righteousness. ²³Now ^anot for his sake only was it written that it was counted to him, ²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be counted, as those ^awho believe upon Him who ^braised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵He who was ^adelivered over on account of our transgressions, and was ^braised on account of our justification.