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Romanos 3

VBL · Chapter 3/16

1¿Tienen entonces los judíos alguna ventaja? ¿Tiene algún beneficio la circuncisión?

2Sí. ¡Hay muchos beneficios! En primer lugar, el mensaje de Dios fue confiado a los judíos.

3¿Qué pasaría si alguno de ellos no creyera en Dios? ¿Acaso su falta de fe en Dios anula la fidelidad de Dios?

4¡Claro que no! Incluso si todos los demás mienten, Dios siempre dice la verdad. Como dice la Escritura: “Quedará demostrado que tienes la razón en lo que dices, y ganarás tu caso cuando seas juzgado”

5Pero si el hecho de que estamos equivocados ayuda a demostrar que Dios está en lo correcto, ¿qué debemos concluir? ¿Que Dios se equivoca al pronunciar juicio sobre nosotros? (Aquí estoy hablando desde una perspectiva humana).

6¡Por supuesto que no! ¿De qué otra manera podría Dios juzgar al mundo?

7Alguno podría decir: “¿Por qué sigo siendo condenado como pecador si mis mentiras hacen que la verdad de Dios y su gloria sean más obvias al contrastarlas?”

8¿Acaso se trata de “Vamos a pecar para dar lugar al bien”? Algunos con calumnia nos acusan de decir eso. ¡Tales personas deberían ser condenadas!

9Entonces, ¿son los judíos mejores que los demás? ¡Ciertamente no! Recordemos que ya hemos demostrado que tanto judíos como extranjeros estamos bajo el control del pecado.

10Como dice la Escritura: “Nadie hace lo recto, ni siquiera uno.

11Nadie entiende, nadie busca a Dios.

12Todos le han dado la espalda, todos hacen lo que es malo. Nadie hace lo que es bueno, ni siquiera uno.

13Sus gargantas son como una tumba abierta; sus lenguas esparcen engaño; sus labios rebosan veneno de serpientes.

14Sus bocas están llenas de amargura y maldiciones,

15y están prestos para causar dolor y muerte.

16Su camino los lleva al desastre y la miseria;

17no saben cómo vivir en paz.

18No les importa en absoluto respetar a Dios”.

19Está claro que todo lo que dice la ley se aplica a aquellos que viven bajo la ley, para que nadie pueda tener excusa alguna, y para asegurar que todos en el mundo sean responsables ante Dios.

20Porque nadie es justificado ante Dios por hacer lo que la ley exige. La ley solo nos ayuda a reconocer lo que es realmente el pecado.

21Pero ahora se ha demostrado el carácter bondadoso y recto de Dios. Y no tiene nada que ver con el cumplimiento de la ley, aunque ya se habló de él por medio de la ley y los profetas.

22Este carácter recto de Dios viene a todo aquél que cree en Jesucristo, aquellos que ponen su confianza en él. No importa quienes seamos:

23Todos hemos pecado y hemos fallado en alcanzar el ideal glorioso de Dios.

24Sin embargo, por medio del regalo de su gracia, Dios nos hace justos, a través de Jesucristo, quien nos hace libres.

25Dios presentó abiertamente a Jesús como el don que trae paz a aquellos que creen en él, quien derramó su sangre. Hizo esto con el fin de demostrar que él es verdaderamente recto, porque anteriormente se contuvo y pasó por alto los pecados,

26pero ahora, en el presente, Dios demuestra que es justo y hace lo recto, y que hace justos a los que creen en Jesús.

27¿Acaso tenemos algo de qué jactarnos? Por supuesto que no, ¡no hay lugar para ello! ¿Por qué? ¿Acaso es porque seguimos la ley de guardar los requisitos? No, nosotros seguimos la ley de la fe en Dios.

28Entonces concluimos que somos hechos justos por Dios por medio de nuestra fe en él, y no por la observancia de la ley.

29¿Acaso Dios es solamente Dios de los judíos? ¿Acaso él no es el Dios de los demás pueblos también? ¡Por supuesto que sí!

30Solo hay un Dios, y él nos justifica por nuestra fe en él, quienesquiera que seamos, judíos o extranjeros.

31¿Significa eso que por creer en Dios desechamos la ley? ¡Por supuesto que no! De hecho, afirmamos la importancia de la ley.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul states that Jews and Gentiles are equally under sin, citing several Old Testament passages. He then announces the solution: the righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, available to all who believe.

Explanation

This chapter contains one of the most densely packed summaries of Paul's gospel: 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,' but also 'are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' Paul uses a chain of Old Testament quotations (from the Psalms, Isaiah) to prove that the universal sinful condition was already known in the Hebrew Scriptures. Justification by faith, not by works of the law, is the heart of the message: no one becomes acceptable to God by keeping rules, but by trusting in what Christ has already done. It is a message of hope for anyone who feels they could never be 'good enough.'

Fun facts

  • The term 'propitiation' used by Paul (verse 25) was a concept from the Jewish temple, linked to the 'mercy seat,' the cover of the ark of the covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement — Paul applies this image to Jesus.
  • The Old Testament quotations in verses 10-18 come from several Psalms and from Isaiah, strung together by Paul using a common rabbinic technique called a 'string of pearls,' gathering texts with a similar theme.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Romanos 3:1Paul uses a technique common in the rhetoric of the time, dialogue with an imaginary interlocutor: he himself raises the obvious objection after chapter 2 — if being an outward Jew doesn’t count for that much, then what advantage is there in being a Jew?
  2. Romanos 3:2The first answer to the previous question: the central advantage is having received the scriptures directly, the oracles of God, something no other people had.
  3. Romanos 3:3A new objection in the same dialogue style: if part of the Jewish people did not believe, would that cancel out God’s faithfulness to the promises he made? Paul will answer no in the next verse.
  4. Romanos 3:4"God forbid" is Paul’s standard answer for forcefully rejecting an objection; here he quotes Psalm 51 to reinforce that human unfaithfulness never compromises God’s truthfulness.
  5. Romanos 3:5This continues the same back-and-forth of questions and answers: if human wrongdoing only makes God’s righteousness stand out more by contrast, would it be unfair for him to judge us for it? Paul notes that he is "speaking as a man," that is, phrasing the objection the way a critic would.
  6. Romanos 3:6Paul’s answer is practical: if that logic held up, God would have no basis at all for judging anyone in the world, which he considers absurd.
  7. Romanos 3:7This repeats the same objection from verse 5 in other words, lie and truth in place of unrighteousness and righteousness, showing this was the kind of argument Paul had already heard used against him.
  8. Romanos 3:8Paul reveals that he had already been slandered for supposedly saying something like "let us do evil, that good may come" — he denies teaching that and dismisses that reasoning as deserving condemnation, without spending more time answering it in detail (he returns to this topic more carefully in chapter 6).
  9. Romanos 3:9This closes the series of questions with the section’s conclusion: Jews are not "better," because the verdict already given is that Jews and Greeks, everyone, are equally under sin.
  10. Romanos 3:10This begins a sequence of Old Testament quotations, mainly from the Psalms, strung one after another as biblical proof of the indictment: none is righteous, no, not one.
  11. Romanos 3:11This continues the same sequence of quotations, now about the inability to understand and to seek God on one’s own.
  12. Romanos 3:12One more linked quotation, probably from Psalm 14, summing up the idea that all have turned aside and no one does good, not even one.
  13. Romanos 3:13The image of a "throat as an open sepulchre" comes from the Psalms and describes words that give off corruption, like an exposed corpse; "the poison of asps" reinforces the comparison of deceitful speech to snake venom.
  14. Romanos 3:14Another piece of the mosaic of quotations, now about a mouth full of cursing and bitterness, continuing the portrait of corrupted human speech.
  15. Romanos 3:15The quotation shifts focus, from speech to action: feet swift to shed blood, probably echoing Isaiah about a people who run to do evil.
  16. Romanos 3:16This continues the same quotation from Isaiah about the ways of these people, marked by destruction and misery wherever they go.
  17. Romanos 3:17This closes the quotation from Isaiah: these people never learned the way of peace, the opposite of everything Paul listed in the previous verses.
  18. Romanos 3:18The last piece of the chain of quotations, probably from Psalm 36: the root of all this is the absence of the fear of God, no one taking his existence seriously.
  19. Romanos 3:19Paul explains the role of this mosaic of quotations: they were spoken for those who live under the law, serving to silence any defense and make clear that the whole world, not just the Gentiles of chapter 1, is guilty before God.
  20. Romanos 3:20The law functions here like a mirror: it has no power to make anyone good, it only shows clearly where a person is going wrong. Without a ruler to measure by, no one would know exactly what counts as crooked.
  21. Romanos 3:21"But now" marks the most important turning point in the letter so far: after three chapters of indictment, Paul introduces the solution, a way of being made right with God that does not depend on the law, but that the law and the prophets themselves had already announced.
  22. Romanos 3:22This explains how this new kind of righteousness works: through faith in Jesus Christ, available to anyone who believes, with no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
  23. Romanos 3:23This sums up in one sentence the argument of chapters 1 through 3: all have sinned, without exception, and therefore fall short of the standard God set.
  24. Romanos 3:24"Justified" is a courtroom term — it means being declared not guilty before a judge. "Redemption" comes from the world of slavery: it was the payment that bought a captive’s freedom; here the image describes a liberation that costs nothing to the one who receives it.
  25. Romanos 3:25"Propitiation" is sacrificial language, used for the act of making God favorable by covering the offense committed, as happened in the temple sacrifices. Paul is saying that Christ’s death fulfills the role of reconciliation that animal sacrifices used to perform.
  26. Romanos 3:26This sentence resolves the tension Paul himself raised back in verse 5, about God seeming unjust: now he explains how God can be just and, at the same time, declare righteous the person who trusts in Jesus.
  27. Romanos 3:27"Boasting" is the right to brag, to display one’s own merit. If God’s approval depends on trusting him and not on accumulating good deeds, there is no reason left for anyone to boast of being better than someone else.
  28. Romanos 3:28This is the direct conclusion of the whole chapter’s argument: a person is declared righteous by faith, without depending on keeping the law of Moses.
  29. Romanos 3:29A new rhetorical question: if justification no longer depends on the Jewish law, would that mean God belongs only to the Jews? Paul rejects that idea, affirming that he is the God of the Gentiles too.
  30. Romanos 3:30The theological basis for this answer is the oneness of God, a central idea in Judaism ("the Lord is one"): a single God cannot have two different paths of justification for Jews and Gentiles, so both are justified by the same faith.
  31. Romanos 3:31The chapter’s last question: does this whole argument about faith cancel out the law of Moses? Paul says no — on the contrary, the law’s proper role, pointing out sin and pointing toward Christ, only becomes clearer through this argument, not destroyed by it.

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