Paul concludes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; none is righteous. But God's righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and people are justified freely by his grace.
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 .