Romans
Chapter 3
God Is Faithful
Then, what are the advantages of being a Jew? And what is the purpose of circumcision?
It is important from any perspective. First of all, God entrusted his word to the Jews.
Well, now, if some of them were not faithful, does their unfaithfulness cancel out God’s faithfulness? Of course not!
Instead, it will be demonstrated that God is truthful, while every human is a liar, as the scripture says:
It will be shown that your words are sincere, and you will be the winner if they seek to judge you.
If our wickedness demonstrates that God is just, would it then be correct to say that God is unjust when he becomes angry and punishes us? (I speak in human terms.)
Not at all; otherwise, how could God judge the world?
But if my lie makes God’s truth clearer and increases his glory, is it correct to call me a sinner?
Then your only option would be to sin so that good can result from it. Some slanderers claim this is my teaching, but they will have to answer for those words.
All Are Sinners
Do we, then, have any advantage? Not really. For we have just shown that everyone, Jews and non-Jews, is under the power of sin,
as the scripture says:
Nobody is good, not even one,
no one understands;
no one searches for God.
Everyone has gone astray
and become corrupt.
There is no one doing what is good,
not even one.
Their throats are like open tombs,
and their words are lies.
Their lips conceal the venom of vipers;
bitter curses escape from their mouths.
They run to places where they can shed blood,
leaving behind destruction and suffering.
They are unaware of the path to peace.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now, we understand that whatever the scripture says is addressed to the people of the law, meaning the Jews. Let everyone remain silent, then, and acknowledge that the entire world stands guilty before God.
Still more: no mortal will be worthy before God by fulfilling the demands of the law. What results from the law is the awareness of sin.
Now the Righteousness of God Is Revealed
But now, apart from the law and as was already foretold in the law and the prophets, it has been revealed:
God makes us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, and this is available to everyone who believes, without distinction.
For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory;
yet, all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption in Christ Jesus.
For God has given him as the atoning sacrifice whose blood grants us forgiveness through faith.
So God shows us how he makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven, which God has overlooked until now.
For now, he wants to reveal his way of righteousness: how he is just and how he makes us righteous through faith in Jesus.
Then, what happens to our pride? It is set aside. How? Not through the law and its rules, but through another law, which is faith.
For we believe that people are in God’s grace by faith, not because of all the things commanded by the law.
Otherwise, God would only be the God of the Jews; but isn’t he also the God of pagan nations?
Of course, he is, since there is only one God, and he will save both the circumcised Jews and the uncircumcised nations through faith.
Do we, then, dismiss the importance of the law because of what we say about faith? Certainly not; instead, we place the Law in its proper context.
Commentaries
God Is Faithful.
The reaction is immediate. If all this is true, his interlocutor seems to reproach him: what is God’s faithfulness to his people reduced to if he has allowed them to fall so low? What is the point of being Jewish? Was it all a mockery of God? And what is more serious, almost Machiavellian—if our sins, after all, serve to show God’s goodness, are we not doing God a favor by sinning? Is it not unjust for God to allow our sins and then use them, even if it is for salvific purposes? Paul reduces all this possible argumentation to absurdity. These existential questions that human beings ask themselves about their freedom in relation to God’s freedom, about sin and punishment, about good and evil, had already found an answer in the Bible—an answer tailored to human capacity and which can only be grasped in the darkness of faith (cf. Job 40:7-14; Wis 12:13; Ex 9:16).
All Are Sinners.
Paul correctly appeals to Scripture to conclude that both Jews and Gentiles, whether they have the law or not, are all under the power of sin. The Apostle sets aside the Jews and their sins and, now addressing all of humanity, he views it under the dominion of Sin—in the singular and with a capital S—as if personifying that evil force that reaches into the deepest parts of a person and corrupts all of human history. His diagnosis of the human condition, based on biblical metaphors, is accurate. He is like a doctor thoroughly examining a terminally ill patient, assessing how the disease has caused widespread damage, affecting the entire system, destroying each part of the body one by one. It is within this bleak picture that the Gospel of salvation will shine with all its power.
Now the Righteousness of God Is Revealed.
This is a crucial and dense passage that proclaims the righteousness—salvation—of God unveiled through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the core message of all Paul’s teachings. He begins his Gospel of salvation by affirming that “now” (21), this saving purpose of God is revealed and fulfilled “through faith in Jesus Christ” (22). It is now available to everyone without distinction, based solely on belief. The wrath of God—his absence—is being transformed into the presence of saving love for those who accept Jesus by faith. No one can claim merit or demand rights because it is a gift from God, completely free. The Apostle clarifies that the “Jewish law” has been replaced by the “law of faith,” through which we see the true nature of God—an infinite love Father who loves all equally, Jews and non-Jews alike. The divisions and barriers that separate and discriminate against people have been torn down. Faith opens us to the Gospel of universal salvation revealed in Jesus, the Messiah.