Romanschapter 3

Speaks with:Galatians 3×8 Galatians 2×5 Romans 3×5 Romans 6×4 Psalms 14×3 Titus 3×3

Summary

Chapter summary

What advantage, then, hath the Jew? Much every way. Chiefly, the oracles of God. Yet every mouth is stopped. Paul catalogues the Psalms and Prophets to show Jew and Greek alike under sin. Then the pivot: a righteousness of God manifested apart from the law, witnessed by the law and prophets, by faith in Jesus Christ. Boasting is excluded, not by the law of works but by the law of faith. Calvin marks this as the heart of the letter. Justification by faith, impartial to the two peoples.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Romans overview

A. 1–8 What Advantage Then Hath the Jew?
B. 9–20 There Is None Righteous, No, Not One
C. 21–31 Justified Freely by His Grace Through the Redemption

The outline

A.What Advantage Then Hath the Jew?vv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →
B.There Is None Righteous, No, Not Onevv. 9 to 20
Read vv. 9 to 20 →
C.Justified Freely by His Grace Through the Redemptionvv. 21 to 31
Read vv. 21 to 31 →

The world behind this chapter

Romans 3

When

Nero's early reign · c. AD 57

Where

The close of the argument that everyone stands guilty, and the turn to how God puts people right.

Who first heard it

House churches in Rome holding Jews and Gentiles together, needing to know that neither group entered on better terms.

The history

The chain of Scripture quotations in the middle of the chapter is drawn mostly from the Psalms and Isaiah, strung together the way Jewish teachers argued — a series of texts on a theme, expected to be recognized rather than looked up. None is invented for the occasion.

The image Paul reaches for at the turning point is the mercy seat: the gold lid of the ark in the innermost room of the sanctuary, where blood was sprinkled once a year on the Day of Atonement. To anyone who knew the temple, saying that God publicly set Jesus forth as that place of atonement moved the holiest hidden thing in Israel out into the open street.

The word translated "redemption" came from the world of slavery and captivity, where a price bought a person's freedom. Rome was full of freedmen who had been bought out, and many of the believers in these house churches were slaves or former slaves. The metaphor was not abstract to them.

What it meant to them

The first hearers were being handed the letter's central claim: a righteousness from God, apart from law, for all who believe, because there is no distinction — all have sinned.

The practical result lands in the last lines. If everyone is justified as a gift, then boasting is excluded, and the God of the Jews is the God of the Gentiles too. Two groups who had every social reason to rank themselves were left with nothing to rank.

Sources cited

F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free
John Calvin, Commentary on Romans

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Romans 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 10 · Quoted with a formula: 'it is written'

one kathos-gegraptai governs Paul's 6-verse sin-catena (Ps 14, 5, 140, 10, 36): a psalm-quotation sidebar, not messianic.

Psalms 14:1→

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.

v. 15 · Quoted in a chain of verses

Paul's chain of Old Testament indictments in Romans 3 draws “their feet are swift to shed blood” from Isaiah 59:7, the same chapter that later shows the LORD arming himself, breastplate and helmet, when no man will stand (Isa 59:17). The chapter runs from feet swift to shed blood to God putting on armour, and Paul and the armour of Ephesians 6 both draw from it.

Isaiah 59:7→

Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 25 · A picture of Christ · The Greek Old Testament reads it this way

H3727 kapporet 'mercy seat' -> LXX hilasterion (G2435); recurs only twice in NT: Heb 9:5 (literal) and Rom 3:25 (Christ).

Exodus 25:17→

And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

Rom 3:25; Heb 9:5; Exod 25:17

v. 25 · A rare word, used again

hilasterion (G2435, 2x in NT): Christ set forth as the propitiation / the golden mercy seat over the ark.

Hebrews 9:5→

Above the ark were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

STEPBible TAGNT

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

Study this chapter

What

Salvation Grace Redemption Justice

Galatians 36 verses
- Galatians 3:8The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
- Galatians 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Galatians 3:15Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended.
- Galatians 3:20A mediator is unnecessary, however, for only one party; but God is one.
- Galatians 3:22But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.
- Galatians 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Read Galatians 3 →
Galatians 23 verses
- Galatians 2:16know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
- Galatians 2:17But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!
- Galatians 2:21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing.
- Read Galatians 2 →
Romans 33 verses
- Romans 3:9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.
- Romans 3:23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
- Romans 3:28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
- Read Romans 3 →
Romans 63 verses
- Romans 6:1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?
- Romans 6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
- Romans 6:19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
- Read Romans 6 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Psalms 143 verses
- Psalms 14:1The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.
- Psalms 14:2The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.
- Psalms 14:3All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
- Read Psalms 14 →
Titus 33 verses
- Titus 3:3For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Titus 3:5He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Titus 3:7so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
- Read Titus 3 →
Romans 92 verses
- Romans 9:4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
- Romans 9:6It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
- Read Romans 9 →
Psalms 532 verses
- Psalms 53:1The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good.
- Psalms 53:2God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.
- Read Psalms 53 →