Romans 3:1-9:33 Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

WEB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God. ³ For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴ May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.” ⁵ But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. ⁶ May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? ⁷ For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸ Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let’s do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned. ⁹ What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. ¹⁰ As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. ¹¹ There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. ¹² They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.” ¹³ “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.” ¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” ¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood. ¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways. ¹⁷ The way of peace, they haven’t known.” ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. ²⁰ Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; ²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 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 sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; ²⁶ to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ²⁸ We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law. ⁴ ¹ What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” ⁴ Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. ⁵ But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. ⁶ Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, ⁷ “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.” ⁹ Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. ¹⁰ How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. ¹² He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. ¹³ For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. ¹⁵ For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. ¹⁶ For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. ¹⁸ Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” ¹⁹ Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, ²¹ and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. ²² Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” ²³ Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. ⁵ ¹ Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; ² through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: ⁵ and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. ⁶ For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. ¹¹ Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. ¹² Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. ¹³ For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ¹⁶ The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. ¹⁷ For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. ¹⁹ For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. ²⁰ The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; ²¹ that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁶ ¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ² May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. ⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; ⁹ knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! ¹⁰ For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. ¹⁸ Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. ¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. ²¹ What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ⁷ ¹ Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? ² For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. ³ So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. ⁶ But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. ⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ¹⁰ The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; ¹¹ for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. ¹² Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. ¹³ Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good. ¹⁹ For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. ²⁰ But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. ²¹ I find then the law that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. ²² For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, ²³ but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? ²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law. ⁸ ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; ⁴ that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh can’t please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. ¹⁰ If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. ¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. ¹³ For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. ¹⁵ For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. ²³ Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. ²⁷ He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God. ²⁸ We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? ³³ Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” ³⁷ No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ⁹ ¹ I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh ⁴ who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵ of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. ⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. ⁷ Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.” ⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. ⁹ For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰ Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. ¹¹ For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, ¹² it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” ¹³ Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! ¹⁵ For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. ¹⁹ You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹ Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²² What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³ and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴ us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” ²⁶ “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” ²⁷ Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; ²⁸ for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” ²⁹ As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.” ³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹ but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; ³³ even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”