Romans 3:9-20

Nobody is right with God

9 So then, what do we learn from that? We cannot say that we Jews are better than other people. No, certainly we cannot say that! I have said already that sin has power over everyone. That is true for both Jews and Gentiles. 10 This is written in the Bible:

‘There is nobody who is right with God.

There is not even one person who is like that.

11 There is nobody who understands what is true.

There is nobody who wants to worship God.

12 Everyone has turned away from God.

All people have become completely bad.

Nobody does what is good or kind.

There is not even one person who is like that.

13 Bad words come out of their mouth, like a very bad smell.

They tell lies all the time,

so that people do wrong things.

The things that they say hurt people, like a snake's poison.

3:13See Psalm 5:9; 140:3.

14 They are always saying bad things against people,

because they want to cause trouble for them.

3:14See Psalm 10:7.

15 They hurry to kill people.

16 Everywhere they go, they destroy things.

They only make people very sad.

17 They have never known how to live in peace.

3:17See Isaiah 59:7-8.

18 They refuse to respect God in any way.’

3:18See Psalm 36:1.

19 So, we know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘God should not punish me.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them. 20 God's Law shows people clearly that they have done wrong things. Nobody can become right with God because they obey that Law.