3:1 So what is the advantage in being a Judean, or what is the benefit of circumcision?

3:2 Much in every way! Above all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

3:3 But what if some didn’t believe; wouldn’t that nullify the faithfulness of God?

3:4 Absolutely not! God is always true, so everyone who opposes is a liar; as it has been written, “So that you were justified in your words and will be awarded the verdict when you go to court.”

3:5 But if our injustice makes God’s justice look even better, can’t we say that it is wrong for God to release his rage on us? (I’m using a human argument.)

3:6 Absolutely not! How else would God judge the world?

3:7 Yet if my falsehood made the truth of God even clearer, why am I still being judged as a failure?

3:8 And why not say (as some falsely accuse us of saying) that we should do evil so that good will come of it? They will get the judgment they deserve!

3:9 So then, does this mean we are exempt? Of course not, because we have already shown that both Judeans and Greeks are all failures,

3:10 just as it is written: “No one is righteous, not even one.

3:11 Not one understands, not one seeks out God.

3:12 They all turned away from him and became useless; no one shows kindness; not even one!

3:13 “Their throats are open graves; with their tongues they deceive. The venom of asps is behind their lips;

3:14 Their mouths are crammed full of curses and bitterness;

3:15 “Their feet are quick to shed blood;

3:16 bone-crushing labor is in their paths,

3:17 and they do not know the way of peace.

3:18 “There is no respect for God in their eyes.”

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under it, so that every mouth will be silenced and the entire world will stand trial before God.

3:20 After all, no one will be justified in his sight by keeping the law, since its purpose is to expose failures.

3:21 Instead, a justice outside of law has appeared, to which the Law and the Prophets attest.

3:22 This justice from God comes through faith in Jesus the Anointed and is for all believers, with no exceptions.

3:23 For all failed and lack God’s honor,

3:24 and all are justified by his generous gift, being ransomed by Anointed Jesus.

3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice to remove our failures by means of faith in his spilled blood. This demonstrated his justice, because he had written off the penalty for failures committed beforehand.

3:26 This happened in order to demonstrate his justice at the right time, the current age, showing him to be fair and making things right with those who put their trust in Jesus.

3:27 So then, what basis is there for bragging? It was thrown out of court! And by what law, of good deeds? No! It was excluded by the law of faith.

3:28 For we argue that a person is justified by faith apart from legal performance.

3:29 It is ridiculous to think God is only the God of the Judeans! Is he not also the God of the non-Judeans? Yes, also of the non-Judeans!

3:30 There is but one God, and he will justify both the circumcised and the uncircumcised by faith.

3:31 Then do we nullify law by means of faith? Absolutely not! Rather, we uphold law.