Romans 3

(1)  What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
(2)  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
(3)  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
(4)  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 if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
(6)  God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
(7)  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)  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.
(9)  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)  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
(11)  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
(12)  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
(13)  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used 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 have they not known:
(18)  There is no fear of God before their eyes.
(19)  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)  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.
(21)  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
(22)  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 come short of the glory of God;
(24)  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
(25)  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)  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
(27)  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
(28)  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
(29)  Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
(30)  Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
(31)  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Study Questions

read more

1. As Paul anticipates three objections of the Jewish mind to the idea of justification by faith, what was the first? Verse 1.

2. What was the chief advantage of being a Jew and why was it an advantage? Verse 2.

3. What was the second anticipated objection? Verse 3.

4. What is the answer to this objection? Verse 4.

5. What is the third anticipated objection? Verse 5.

6. How is the third objection answered? Verse 6.

7. If their sins only displayed God’s righteousness, what would Paul’s “lie” do, according to their reasoning? Verse 7.

8. What would be the conclusion to the idea of doing evil that good may come? Verse 8.

9. With all his advantages, was the Jew better than the Gentile? How does Paul propose to show that they were not? Verse 9.

10. According to Paul, how does the Old Testament describe both Jew and Gentile? Verses 10-12.

11. What sinful practices are pointed out? Verses 13-18.

12. Since the sins mentioned were designated as such by the Old Testament, the Jews were guilty. When the Gentiles committed the same sins, what does Paul conclude about the whole world? Verse 19.

13. What would have been the only way the Jews could have been justified by the law? Verse 20.

14. Why should the Jews have not been surprised that a plan of righteousness was made known in the present dispensation? Verse 21.

15. How is the righteousness apart from law attained? Verse 22.

16. What deep-seated idea among the Jews is Paul correcting by reminding them that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles? Verse 23.

17. How are sinners justified, that is, pronounced not guilty? Verse 24.

18. How can God justify sinners and show that he was just in doing so? What is the meaning of “propitiation”? Verse 25.

19. What made it possible for God to be just while justifying sinners who believe in Christ? Verse 26.

20. What would be the only grounds for boasting? What does Paul call depending on the innocent to justify the guilty “excluding boasting”? Verse 27.

21. Why could a sinner never be justified by works of law? Verse 28.

22. How does Paul show the error of the Jews who considered God a tribal or national God? What did Jews think Gentiles had to do to be saved? Verse 29.

23. To whom do the terms circumcision and un-circumcision refer? Verse 30.

24. Why is it an error to argue that this passage shows that “the law” is NOT abolished in Christ, but established? Verse 31.