For those who sinned outside the law will also perish outside the law: and those who sinned while within the law will be judged according to the law. For it is not those who listen to the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but it is those who do what is in the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature what is in the law, they, without having the law, are their own law; and they display the work of the law engraved on their hearts; with their conscience bearing them witness, as their arguments attack or defend each other, on that day when God will judge the secrets of men, as it is said in my gospel, through Jesus Christ.
But if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and glory in God and know his will, and pass judgment on what is important, being educated in the law; and are confident that you are the guide of the blind, light for those in the dark, instructor of the ignorant, teacher of the simple, possessing, in the law, the shape of knowledge and truth; do you then, who teach someone else, not teach yourself? You who preach no stealing, do you steal? You, who forbid adultery, do you commit it? And you, who loathe idols, do you steal from temples? Do you, who glory in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law? Because, as it is written, the name of God is ill spoken of among the Gentiles, because of you.
Circumcision is helpful if you do obey the law, but if you transgress the law, your circumcision becomes un- circumcision. If, then, the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, shall not that uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And the uncircumcised, who by nature fulfill the law, shall judge you who have the circumcision and the letter of the law, but break it. For one is not a Jew by what can be seen, nor is circumcision in what can be seen in the flesh; but one is a Jew in what cannot be seen, and circumcision is a thing of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, for one whose approval comes not from men but from God.
1 What then is the Jew's advantage, and what is the use of circumcision? Great, in every way. In the first place, to them were entrusted the oracles of God. But what then? If some were unfaithful, will not their unfaithfulness make void the good faith of God? Never! God must be truthful and every man a liar, as it is written: So that you may be justified in your words and triumph when you are brought to judgment. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what are we to say? Can God be unfair in visiting his anger? (I speak in human terms.) Never: since then how shall God judge the world? But if, through my falseness, God's truthfulness redounds to his glory, why am I condemned as a sinner? Am I not what my detractors call me, when certain people say that I say: Let us do evil so that good may come of it? Their condemnation is just.
What then? Are we Jews better? Not altogether, for we have already charged all Jews and Greeks with being subject to sin, as it is written: There is not one righteous man, not one, there is not one who understands, not one who seeks out God. They have all gone off the course, and with that they have become useless; there is none
ROMANS: 3.12-31
who practices honesty, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they are deceitful; the poison of asps is on their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift toward bloodshed. Ruin and wretchedness are in their ways, and they have not learned the way of peace. Their eyes know no fear of God.
We know that the law says what it says to those who are within the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be subject to the judgment of God; because it is not from the works of the law that all flesh will be justified in his presence, since through the law comes consciousness of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been made evident apart from the law. It was testified to by the law and the prophets, but the righteousness of God is through belief in Jesus Christ; for all who believe, for there is no distinction. For all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but are justified by the gift of his grace through their redemption by Christ Jesus, whom God put forward for propitiation through faith in his blood, for the demonstration of his righteousness by the forgiveness of sins committed before, through the indulgence of God; for the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, that he is righteous himself and justifies one who believes in Jesus.
Where then is the exultation? It is excluded. By what law? The law of actions? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a man is justified through faith without the actions of the law. Is God the God of the Jews alone? Not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised from faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Are we then making the law void through faith? Never. We are confirming the law.
11 What then shall we say of Abraham, our forefather in the way of the flesh? If Abraham was justified because of his actions, he has reason for glorying; but not before God, since what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness in him. For one who does something, repayment is counted not as grace but as his due; but for one who does nothing, but believes in him who justifies the impious man, his faith is counted as righteousness. So David also says of the blessedness of the man whom God counts as righteous, apart from his actions: Blessed are they whose lawless acts have been forgiven and whose sins have been hidden away. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count.
Now, is this blessedness for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Since we say the faith of Abraham was counted as righteousness. How then was it counted? in his circumcised or uncircumcised state? It was when he was not yet circumcised, but still uncircumcised. And he received the mark of circumcision, the seal upon the righteousness of that faith he had when he was still un- circumcised; to be the father of all those who are believers through their uncircumcised state so that righteousness could be counted for them, and also to be the father of the circumcised for those who not only have been circumcised but also walk in his footsteps through the faith, which our father Abraham had when he was still uncir- cumcised. For the promise to Abraham, or his seed, that he should be the inheritor of the world, was not on account of the law, but of the righteousness of his faith. For if the inheritors are those who belong to the law, then the faith is made void and the promise is gone; for the law causes anger, but where there is no law there is no lawbreaking.
Thus (it is) because of faith, and thus by grace, that the promise should hold good for all his seed; not only for him who has the law but for him who has the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. It held good in the sight of God, in whom he believed, the God who puts life into the dead and summons into existence the things that do not exist. He against hope believed in the hope that he would become the father of many nations according to what had been said, that is: Thus shall your seed be. And Abraham, without weakening in his faith, knew that his own body was that of a dead man, since he was about a hundred years old, and he knew the dead state of Sarah's womb, but he was not distracted with unbelief in God's promise but was strengthened in his belief, giving glory to God and assured that God was able to do as he had promised.