Romans 3

Romans 3 concludes the opening section of Romans, which indicts all humanity for sin, and declares the righteousness of God that comes by faith. Having argued in Romans 2 that even the Jews, who possess the law and circumcision, cannot escape judgment, the chapter opens by asking what advantage, then, the Jew has.

Outline

• Verses 1–8 Paul answers that the Jews have the advantage of having been entrusted with the oracles of God. He states that human unbelief does not make the faithfulness of God of none effect, and he rejects the slanderous charge that he teaches, "Let us do evil, that good may come."
• Verses 9–20 Paul declares that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, weaving together passages from the Psalms and Isaiah as evidence. No one will be justified by the deeds of the law; the law brings only the knowledge of sin.
• Verses 21–26 Paul declares that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ. God set forth Jesus as a propitiation through his blood.
• Verses 27–31 Paul states that there is no ground for human boasting. A person is justified by faith, and God is the God of the Gentiles as well. He concludes that faith does not make void the law but rather establishes it.

Key Verses

• Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, no, not one" — frequently cited in teaching that all people are sinners. See Romans 3:10–12.
• Romans 3:23–24 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" — a passage that joins the reality of sin with justification (God's declaring the sinner righteous) by grace. See Romans 3:21–26.
• Romans 3:28 "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" — the classic verse for the doctrine of justification by faith. See Romans 3:28.

People and Places

• Paul: The apostle who wrote the letter; he develops his argument using the word "we."
• Jews and Greeks: Paul uses "Greeks" as a term representing the Gentiles and builds his argument by comparing the two groups.
• No specific places are mentioned.

Points for Reflection

• The Greek expression rendered "by faith of Jesus Christ" in verse 22 can be read either as "faith in Christ" or as "the faithfulness of Christ," and scholars continue to debate the question. The Korean Revised Version renders it in the former sense.
• The word translated "propitiation" in verse 25 is used in the Septuagint for the cover of the ark of the covenant (the mercy seat). Understandings of the atonement divide over whether the term refers to a sacrifice that turns away God's wrath or to a means of wiping away sin.
• Martin Luther is known to have added the word "alone" when translating verse 28 into German. The verse became a foundation for the Reformation principle of "faith alone." Denominations differ, however, in how they explain reading it alongside James 2:21–24.
• The traditional interpretation takes "the works of the law" to mean law-keeping in general. By contrast, scholars who follow the "New Perspective on Paul" (such as N. T. Wright) read the phrase as referring to markers that set Jews apart, such as circumcision and the food laws.
• Paul continues this argument in Romans 4 with the example of Abraham, and a similar statement appears in Galatians 2:16.

In the Korean Church

• Romans 3:23 serves as the proof text for the second law in the "Four Spiritual Laws," the evangelistic booklet used by Korea Campus Crusade for Christ. As a result, it has been widely memorized through campus and street evangelism.
• On Reformation Sunday, verses 21–28 are frequently used as a sermon text.