Romans 2:12-24; Romans 3:1-8

Romans 2:12-24

12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

14 When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves.

15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them

16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God

18 and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law,

19 and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,

21 you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

22 You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples?

23 You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

24 For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Romans 3:1-8

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

2 Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

4 By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging."

5 But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

7 But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

8 And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is deserved!