Romans 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul asks what advantage there is in being a Jew and answers that the Jews were entrusted with God's own words, and that human unfaithfulness does not cancel God's faithfulness. He then strings together quotations from the Scriptures to support the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin, so that no one is made right with God by doing what the law says, since the law brings awareness of sin. He states that God has now shown a way to be right with him apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ, given freely to all who believe, and says this leaves no room for bragging and upholds the law rather than canceling it.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • There is a question of what advantage the Jew has
   • There is a question of what profit circumcision provides
2. 3:2
   • The advantage is much in every way
   • The chief advantage is that the oracles of God were committed to them
3. 3:3
   • Some did not believe
   • There is a question whether the unbelief of some makes the faithfulness of God without effect
4. 3:4
   • The unbelief of some does not nullify God's faithfulness
   • God is to be held true
   • Every man is to be held a liar
   • It is written that God might be justified in his words
   • It is written that God might overcome when he is judged
5. 3:5
   • A question is raised: if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say
   • A question is raised whether God is unrighteous when he inflicts wrath
   • Paul says this as a man speaks
6. 3:6
   • God is not unrighteous in inflicting wrath
   • If God were unrighteous, he could not judge the world
   • God judges the world
7. 3:7
   • A question is raised: if the truth of God abounded to his glory through Paul's lie, why is Paul still judged as a sinner
8. 3:8
   • Some slanderously report that Paul and those with him say evil should be done so that good may come
   • Some affirm that Paul and those with him say this
   • Paul and those with him do not say evil should be done so that good may come
   • The condemnation of those who say such things is just
9. 3:9
   • A question is raised whether we are better than they
   • The answer is that we are not better in any way
   • Paul has already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin
10. 3:10
    • It is written that there is none righteous
    • Not even one is righteous
11. 3:11
    • There is none that understands
    • There is none that seeks after God
12. 3:12
    • All have turned aside
    • All together have become unprofitable
    • There is none that does good
    • Not even one does good
13. 3:13
    • Their throat is an open grave
    • They have used deceit with their tongues
    • The poison of asps is under their lips
14. 3:14
    • Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness
15. 3:15
    • Their feet are swift to shed blood
16. 3:16
    • Destruction and misery are in their ways
17. 3:17
    • They have not known the way of peace
18. 3:18
    • There is no fear of God before their eyes
19. 3:19
    • We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law
    • The purpose is that every mouth may be stopped
    • The purpose is that all the world may become guilty before God
20. 3:20
    • No flesh will be justified in God's sight by the deeds of the law
    • Knowledge of sin comes by the law
21. 3:21
    • The righteousness of God apart from the law has now been manifested
    • The law and the prophets bear witness to this righteousness
22. 3:22
    • The righteousness of God comes by faith of Jesus Christ
    • This righteousness is to all and upon all who believe
    • There is no difference between people
23. 3:23
    • All have sinned
    • All come short of the glory of God
24. 3:24
    • Those who believe are justified freely by God's grace
    • This justification is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
25. 3:25
    • God set forth Christ Jesus to be a propitiation
    • The propitiation is through faith in his blood
    • God did this to declare his righteousness
    • This was for the remission of sins that are past
    • This was through the forbearance of God
26. 3:26
    • God did this to declare his righteousness at the present time
    • The purpose is that God might be just
    • The purpose is that God might be the justifier of him who believes in Jesus
27. 3:27
    • A question is raised where boasting is
    • Boasting is excluded
    • A question is raised by what law boasting is excluded
    • Boasting is not excluded by the law of works
    • Boasting is excluded by the law of faith
28. 3:28
    • We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law
29. 3:29
    • A question is raised whether God is the God of the Jews only
    • A question is raised whether God is also the God of the Gentiles
    • God is the God of the Gentiles also
30. 3:30
    • God is one
    • God will justify the circumcision by faith
    • God will justify the uncircumcision through faith
31. 3:31
    • A question is raised whether we make the law void through faith
    • We do not make the law void through faith
    • We establish the law

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

Circumcision was the cutting away of the foreskin, done to Jewish boys on the eighth day after birth. It was the physical mark of Israel's covenant with God, traced back to Abraham, which is why "the circumcision" can stand as plain shorthand for "the Jews," as it does in verse 30.

3:2

"Oracles" translates a Greek word for divine utterances or pronouncements. Paul means the Scriptures of Israel, and "committed" is the language of a valuable deposit handed over to a trustee for safekeeping.

3:3

"The faith of God" in 1611 English means God's own faithfulness, his reliability in keeping his word, not anyone's faith in him. "Without effect" renders a verb meaning to cancel or put out of operation. The Greek turns on a single root throughout the verse: some proved unfaithful, but that does not undo God's faithfulness.

3:4

"God forbid" is how the KJV renders the Greek idiom me genoito, literally "may it not be," a sharp "absolutely not." God is not actually named in it. It recurs at verses 6 and 31 and all through Romans. The quotation is from Psalm 51:4, where "justified" means proved right or cleared, as a defendant is cleared in court. That courtroom sense of "justify" runs through this entire chapter.

3:5

"Commend" here does not mean praise. In 1611 it could mean to set off or show to advantage, the way a dark background makes a bright color stand out. "Taketh vengeance" renders a phrase about inflicting wrath, a judge imposing a penalty, not personal revenge. "I speak as a man" flags that Paul is voicing an objection the way ordinary people argue, not stating his own view.

3:8

"Damnation" in 1611 meant condemnation, the sentence a judge hands down. It had not yet narrowed to mean eternal punishment specifically.

3:9

The Greek verb here is genuinely disputed: it can be read as "are we better off?", "are we worse off?", or "do we have an excuse?" Translators divide. "We have before proved" means we have already brought the charge, in the legal sense, over the course of the preceding argument. "Gentiles" renders a word literally meaning Greeks, used broadly for everyone who is not Jewish.

3:10

Verses 10 to 18 are a chain of quotations strung end to end, a recognized Jewish way of building a scriptural case. They come from Psalm 14:1-3 (nearly identical to Psalm 53:1-3), Psalm 5:9, Psalm 140:3, Psalm 10:7, Isaiah 59:7-8, and Psalm 36:1. Paul quotes them in their Greek form, which differs here and there from the Hebrew.

3:12

"Gone out of the way" translates a word for turning aside off a road. "Become unprofitable" translates a verb used of milk going sour or food spoiling: gone useless, gone bad.

3:13

A "sepulchre" is a tomb cut into rock and closed with a stone. The picture is of a grave left standing open, with the stench of what is inside coming out of it. An "asp" is a venomous snake, most likely the Egyptian cobra.

3:18

"Fear of God" in the Hebrew Scriptures means reverence and awe that actually shapes conduct, the working assumption that God sees and will call people to account. It is closer to regard than to fright.

3:19

"Under the law" means inside the law's jurisdiction, among the people it addresses and holds answerable. "That every mouth may be stopped" is a courtroom image: the accused stands there with nothing left to say in his own defense.

3:20

"No flesh" is a Hebrew way of saying "no human being," with "flesh" standing for mortal, creaturely humanity. "The deeds of the law" renders a phrase usually given as "works of the law," and its scope is debated: some read it as everything the law commands, others as particularly the observances that marked Jews off from everyone else, such as circumcision, food rules, and sabbath keeping.

3:21

"Without the law" means apart from the law, independently of it, not in defiance of it. "Manifested" means brought out into the open, made visible. "The law and the prophets" is a standard name for the Jewish Scriptures as a whole. "The righteousness of God" is a phrase readers have long taken more than one way: God's own just character, God's action to set things right, or the standing of being right with God that he grants. The Greek permits each, and the phrase recurs through this chapter.

3:22

"The faith of Jesus Christ" is among the most argued-over phrases in Paul. The Greek construction can mean "faith in Jesus Christ," which is the reading the plain rendering follows, or "the faithfulness of Jesus Christ," meaning his own faithful obedience. The grammar by itself does not decide it.

3:23

"Come short" translates a verb meaning to lack, to fall behind, to fail to reach a mark. "Glory" here carries its Hebrew background of weight, splendor, and visible honor.

3:24

"Freely" means as a gift, at no cost to the one receiving it, not "generously." "Grace" translates a word for favor shown to someone with no claim to it. "Redemption" translates a word for buying a person out of slavery or captivity by paying a ransom; it carries both the idea of a price paid and of the release that follows.

3:25

"Propitiation" translates the Greek hilasterion, a word with two live senses that scholars still weigh against each other. It can mean a sacrifice that turns away anger, and it is also the Greek name for the gold cover of the ark of the covenant in the innermost room of the sanctuary, where blood was sprinkled once a year on the Day of Atonement (older English Bibles call that the mercy seat). "Through faith in his blood" is also ambiguous in Greek: "in his blood" may attach to "faith" or to "set forth." "Remission of sins that are past" uses a noun meaning passing over or letting go unpunished for the time being, which is not the ordinary word for forgiveness. "Forbearance" means holding back, restraint in not acting.

3:26

In Greek "just" and "justifier" are built from one root, dikaios and the verb formed from it. English cannot hold the wordplay: God is himself in the right, and he is the one who puts others in the right.

3:27

"Boasting" here means having grounds to claim standing before God, not merely talking big. "By what law?" uses "law" in the sense of rule or operating principle rather than the law of Moses; the same Greek word does both jobs, and Paul is trading on that.

3:30

"The circumcision" and "uncircumcision" are shorthand for Jews and non-Jews. Paul switches prepositions, "by faith" for the one and "through faith" for the other; most read this as stylistic variation reinforcing that the route is one and the same for both.

3:31

"Make void" translates a verb meaning to cancel or put out of operation, the same verb used of God's faithfulness in verse 3. "Establish" is its opposite here: to set upright, confirm, keep in force.