New Testament · Letter

Romans 3

All Have Sinned

The courtroom falls silent. Every mouth is stopped. Then Paul introduces a righteousness that comes not from the law but through faith.

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

2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

3For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

4God 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.

5But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

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

7For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

8And 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.

9What 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;

10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not 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 saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

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

25Whom 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;

26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

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

28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

29Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

30Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Understand This

Romans 3, explained

What Romans 3 is saying

Paul addresses Jewish objections—if circumcision doesn't save, what advantage does Israel have?—affirming the value of the oracles entrusted to them while insisting that God's faithfulness is not negated by human unfaithfulness. He then delivers the letter's devastating verdict: 'all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin' (3:9), supported by a catena of Old Testament quotations. The chapter culminates in the revelation of God's righteousness apart from law, through faith in Jesus Christ, whose atoning death (hilastērion) demonstrates both God's justice and His justification of believers.

The background behind it

The term hilastērion (3:25) is the Septuagint word for the mercy seat (kapporet) atop the Ark of the Covenant where sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). Paul's use deliberately evokes Israel's most sacred ritual, recasting Jesus's death as the definitive atonement. The chain of scriptural quotations in 3:10–18 draws from Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah.

Themes running underneath

Romans 3:21–26 is widely regarded as the theological center of the epistle and perhaps of Pauline theology. The phrase 'righteousness of God apart from law' (dikaiosynē theou chōris nomou) does not negate the law but reveals a righteousness that the law pointed to but could not produce. The concept of justification by faith (dikaioō dia pisteōs) establishes that right standing before God is received, not achieved. The unity of Jew and Gentile is grounded in their common need and God's singular solution.

Why it still matters

The doctrine of universal sinfulness is not designed to produce despair but to eliminate boasting and establish the radical equality of all persons before God. Paul's conclusion—'where then is boasting? It is excluded'—challenges every form of spiritual elitism.

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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.