Romans 3:10–31

¹⁰As it is written:

“There is no one righteous,

not even one.

¹¹There is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

¹²All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”^c

¹³“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”^d

“The venom of vipers is on their lips.”^e

¹⁴“Their mouths are full

of cursing and bitterness.”^f

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ruin and misery lie in their wake,

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”^g

¹⁸“There is no fear of God

before their eyes.”^h

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. ²²And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁵God presented Him as an atoning sacrificeⁱ in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. ²⁶He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.