The Living Bible (355 page)

Romans
3

Then what’s the use of being a Jew? Are there any special benefits for them from God? Is there any value in the Jewish circumcision ceremony?
²
 Yes, being a Jew has many advantages.

    
First of all, God trusted them with his laws so that they could know and do his will.
*
³
 True, some of them were unfaithful, but just because they broke their promises to God, does that mean God will break his promises?
⁴
 Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is not. Do you remember what the book of Psalms says about this?
*
That God’s words will always prove true and right, no matter who questions them.

    
⁵
 “But,” some say, “our breaking faith with God is good, our sins serve a good purpose, for people will notice how good God is when they see how bad we are. Is it fair, then, for him to punish us when our sins are helping him?” (That is the way some people talk.)
⁶
 God forbid! Then what kind of God would he be, to overlook sin? How could he ever condemn anyone?
⁷
 For he could not judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty brought him glory by pointing up his honesty in contrast to my lies.
⁸
 If you follow through with that idea you come to this: the worse we are, the better God likes it! But the damnation of those who say such things is just. Yet some claim that this is what I preach!

    
⁹
 Well, then, are we Jews
better
than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all men alike are sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles.
¹⁰
 As the Scriptures say,

    
“No one is good—no one in all the world is innocent.”
*

    
¹¹
 No one has ever really followed God’s paths or even truly wanted to.

    
¹²
 Every one has turned away; all have gone wrong. No one anywhere has kept on doing what is right; not one.

    
¹³
 Their talk is foul and filthy like the stench from an open grave.
*
Their tongues are loaded with lies. Everything they say has in it the sting and poison of deadly snakes.

    
¹⁴
 Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

    
¹⁵
 They are quick to kill, hating anyone who disagrees with them.
*

    
¹⁶
 Wherever they go they leave misery and trouble behind them,
¹⁷
 and they have never known what it is to feel secure or enjoy God’s blessing.

    
¹⁸
 They care nothing about God nor what he thinks of them.

    
¹⁹
 So the judgment of God lies very heavily upon the Jews, for they are responsible to keep God’s laws instead of doing all these evil things; not one of them has any excuse; in fact, all the world stands hushed and guilty before Almighty God.

    
²⁰
 Now do you see it? No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what the law commands. For the more we know of God’s laws, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying them; his laws serve only to make us see that we are sinners.

    
^21-22
 But now God has shown us a different way to heaven
*
—not by “being good enough” and trying to keep his laws, but by a new way (though not new, really, for the Scriptures told about it long ago). Now God says he will accept and acquit us—declare us “not guilty”—if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like.
²³
 Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal;
²⁴
 yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.

    
²⁵
 For God sent Christ Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to end all God’s anger against us. He used Christ’s blood and our faith as the means of saving us from his wrath.
*
In this way he was being entirely fair, even though he did not punish those who sinned in former times. For he was looking forward to the time when Christ would come and take away those sins.
²⁶
 And now in these days also he can receive sinners in this same way because Jesus took away their sins.

    
But isn’t this unfair for God to let criminals go free, and say that they are innocent? No, for he does it on the basis of their trust in Jesus who took away their sins.

    
²⁷
 Then what can we boast about doing to earn our salvation? Nothing at all. Why? Because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds; it is based on what Christ has done and our faith in him.
²⁸
 So it is that we are saved
*
by faith in Christ and not by the good things we do.

    
²⁹
 And does God save only the Jews in this way? No, the Gentiles, too, may come to him in this same manner.
³⁰
 God treats us all the same; all, whether Jews or Gentiles, are acquitted if they have faith.
³¹
 Well then, if we are saved by faith, does this mean that we no longer need obey God’s laws? Just the opposite! In fact, only when we trust Jesus can we truly obey him.

Romans
4

Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith? Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? If so, then he would have something to boast about. But from God’s point of view Abraham had no basis at all for pride.
³
 For the Scriptures tell us Abraham
believed God,
and that is why God canceled his sins and declared him “not guilty.”

    
^4-5
 But didn’t he earn his right to heaven by all the good things he did? No, for being saved is a gift; if a person could earn it by being good, then it wouldn’t be free—but it is! It is
given
to those who do
not
work for it. For God declares sinners to be good in his sight if they have faith in Christ to save them from God’s wrath.
*

    
⁶
 King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared “not guilty”
*
by God.
⁷
 “Blessed and to be envied,” he said, “are those whose sins are forgiven and put out of sight.
⁸
 Yes, what joy there is for anyone whose sins are no longer counted against him by the Lord.”
*

    
⁹
 Now then, the question: Is this blessing given only to those who have faith in Christ but also keep the Jewish laws, or is the blessing also given to those who do not keep the Jewish rules but only trust in Christ? Well, what about Abraham? We say that he received these blessings through his faith. Was it by faith alone, or because he also kept the Jewish rules?

    
¹⁰
 For the answer to that question, answer this one:
When
did God give this blessing to Abraham? It was
before he became a Jew
—before he went through the Jewish initiation ceremony of circumcision.

    
¹¹
 It wasn’t until later on,
after
God had promised to bless him
because of his faith,
that he was circumcised. The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him just and good in his sight—before the ceremony took place. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who believe and are saved without obeying Jewish laws. We see, then, that those who do not keep these rules are justified by God through faith.
¹²
 And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those Jews who have been circumcised. They can see from his example that it is not this ceremony that saves them, for Abraham found favor with God by faith alone
before he was circumcised.

    
¹³
 It is clear, then, that God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not because Abraham obeyed God’s laws but because he trusted God to keep his promise.
¹⁴
 So if you still claim that God’s blessings go to those who are “good enough,” then you are saying that God’s promises to those who have faith are meaningless, and faith is foolish.
¹⁵
 But the fact of the matter is this: when we try to gain God’s blessing and salvation by keeping his laws we always end up under his anger, for we always fail to keep them. The only way we can keep from breaking laws is not to have any to break!

    
¹⁶
 So God’s blessings are given to us by faith, as a free gift; we are certain to get them whether or not we follow Jewish customs if we have faith like Abraham’s, for Abraham is the father of us all when it comes to these matters of faith.
¹⁷
 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say that God made Abraham the father of many nations. God will accept all people in every nation who trust God as Abraham did. And this promise is from God himself, who makes the dead live again and speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past.

    
¹⁸
 So, when God told Abraham that he would give him a son who would have many descendants and become a great nation, Abraham believed God even though such a promise just couldn’t come to pass!
¹⁹
 And because his faith was strong, he didn’t worry about the fact that he was too old to be a father at the age of one hundred, and that Sarah his wife, at ninety,
*
was also much too old to have a baby.

    
²⁰
 But Abraham never doubted. He believed God, for his faith and trust grew ever stronger, and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened.
²¹
 He was completely sure that God was well able to do anything he promised.
²²
 And because of Abraham’s faith God forgave his sins and declared him “not guilty.”

    
²³
 Now this wonderful statement—that he was accepted and approved through his faith—wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit.
²⁴
 It was for us, too, assuring us that God will accept us in the same way he accepted Abraham—when we believe the promises of God who brought back Jesus our Lord from the dead.
²⁵
 He died for our sins and rose again to make us right with God,
*
filling us with God’s goodness.