Romans 3-4

Romans 3

¹What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?

²Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.

³For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?

⁴God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment.

⁵But if our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (I speak after the manner of men.)

⁶God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

⁷But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

⁸and why not (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just.

⁹What then? are we in worse case than they? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin;

¹⁰as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one;

¹¹There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God;

¹²They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one:

¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips:

¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways;

¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known:

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:

²⁰because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.

²¹But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction;

²³for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

²⁴being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

²⁵whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;

²⁶for the shewing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith.

²⁸We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also:

³⁰if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.

³¹Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law.

Romans 4

¹What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, hath found?

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God.

³For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.

⁴Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.

⁵But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

⁶Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works,

⁷saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.

⁹Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness.

¹⁰How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision:

¹¹and 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 them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them;

¹²and the father of circumcision to them 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.

¹³For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect:

¹⁵for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.

¹⁶For 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 seed; 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, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.

¹⁸Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be.

¹⁹And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

²⁰yea, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹and being fully assured that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

²²Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.

²³Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him;

²⁴but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.