The Jews Guilty as the Gentiles

17 4Indeed syou are called a Jew, and trest 5on the law, uand make your boast in God, 18 and vknow His will, and wapprove the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and xare confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, yhaving the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 21 zYou, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, ado you rob temples? 23 You who bmake your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For c“the name of God is dblasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

Circumcision of No Avail

25 eFor circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, fif an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, gjudge you who, even with your 6written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For hhe is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew iwho is one inwardly; and jcircumcision is that of the heart, kin the Spirit, not in the letter; lwhose 7praise is not from men but from God.

God’s Judgment Defended

3 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because ato them were committed the 1oracles of God. 3 For what if bsome did not believe? cWill their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 dCertainly not! Indeed, let eGod be 2true but fevery man a liar. As it is written:

g“That You may be justified in Your words,

And may overcome when You are judged.”

5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? h(I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then ihow will God judge the world?

7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, j“Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their 3condemnation is just.