Chapter III

GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH SAVES BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES.

1 [3:21]BUT now God's righteousness has been made manifest without the law, being testified to by the law and the prophets, [3:22]but God's righteousness is through the faith of Jesus Christ, in all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference; [3:23]for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, [3:24]being justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, [3:25]whom God set forth [to be] a propitiator through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing by of the errors committed previously in the forbearance of God, [3:26]to show his righteousness at the present time, that he may be righteous and justify him that is of faith.

2 [3:27]Where then is the boasting [of the Jew]? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith. [3:28]We conclude then that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. [3:29]Is God [a God] of the Jews alone? and not also of the gentiles? Yes, also of the gentiles, [3:30] since there is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through the [same] faith. [3:31]Do we then abrogate the law by the faith? By no means; but we establish the law.

3 [4:1]What shall we say then that Abraham our father found according to the flesh? [4:2]For if Abraham was justified by works he has [occasion for] boasting, but not before God. [4:3]For what says the Scripture? And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. [4:4]But to one that works the reward is not accounted by grace but by debt. [4:5]But to one that works not, but believes on him that justifies the wicked, his faith is [accounted] for righteousness. [4:6]As David describes the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord accounts righteousness without works, [4:7]Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered; [4:8]blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not account sin.

4 [4:9]Is this blessedness then on the circumcision? or also on the uncircumcision? [Also on the uncircumcision.] For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. [4:10]How then was it accounted? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. [4:11]And he received the symbol of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which was in uncircumcision, so that he became the father of all that believe in uncircumcision, that righteousness may also be accounted to them, [4:12]and a father of circumcision not to those of the circumcision only, but to those also who walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which was in uncircumcision.

5 [4:13]For the promise to Abraham and his posterity that he should inherit the world was not through the law but through the righteousness of faith. [4:14]For if the subjects of the law are heirs, the faith is done away and the promise abrogated. [4:15]For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. [4:16]Therefore it is by faith that it may be by grace, that the promise may be sure to all the posterity, not to that of the law only but to that of the faith of Abraham, who is a father of us all, [4:17]as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations before God in whom he believed, who makes the dead alive and calls things which do not exist as existing.-- [4:18]who against hope believed in hope that he should become a father of many nations according to the saying shall your posterity be. [4:19] And being not weak in faith, he did not regard himself as dead, being now about a hundred years old, nor Sarah's incapacity for child-bearing, [4:20]and he did not doubt the promise of God by unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, [4:21]being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform. [4:22]Wherefore also it was accounted to him for righteousness. [4:23] But it was not written for his sake alone, that it was accounted to him, [4:24] but also for our sakes, to whom it is about to be accounted if we believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, [4:25]who was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification.

6 [5:1]Having been justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [5:2]through whom also we have been introduced into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. [5:3]And not only [this], but we rejoice also in afflictions, knowing that affliction works out patience, [5:4]and patience, experience, and experience, hope; [5:5] and the hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given us. [5:6]For when we were yet weak, in due time Christ died for the wicked; [5:7]for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, but for a good man some one perhaps would even dare to die; [5:8]but God commends his love to us, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; [5:9]much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved through him from wrath. [5:10]For if when enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having become reconciled we shall be saved in his life. [5:11]And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we received the present reconciliation.

7 [5:12]Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so came upon all men because all sinned,-- [5:13]for till the law there was sin in the world, but sin is not accounted where there is no law [5:14]but death reigned from Adam till Moses even over those that sinned not after the similitude Adam's transgression, who is a type of him that was to come; [5:15]but not as the fall so also is the gift; for if by the fall of one the many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is of the one man Jesus Christ, abounded to the many; [5:16]and not as through one that sinned is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the gift was from many sins to a righteous ordinance; [5:17]for if by one fall death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ;-- [5:18]therefore, as through the fall of one [judgment came] on all men to condemnation, so also through the righteous ordinance of one [the gift comes] on all men to justification of life; [5:19]for as through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous. [5:20]For the law supervened that the fall might abound; but where the sin abounded the grace was superabundant, [5:21]that as sin reigned in death, so the grace shall reign through righteousness in life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord.