Day 328 of 364

^2:1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. ^2:2We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ^2:3Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ^2:4Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ^2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God, ^2:6who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” ^2:7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; ^2:8but to those who are self-seeking and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, ^2:9oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ^2:10But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ^2:11For there is no partiality with God. ^2:12For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ^2:13For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified ^2:14(for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, ^2:15in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) ^2:16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ. ^2:17Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God, ^2:18know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ^2:19and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ^2:20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. ^2:21You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? ^2:22You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ^2:23You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law? ^2:24For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. ^2:25For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ^2:26If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? ^2:27Won’t those who are physically uncircumcised, but fulfill the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? ^2:28For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; ^2:29but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God. ^3:1Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? ^3:2Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God. ^3:3For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? ^3:4May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.” ^3:5But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. ^3:6May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? ^3:7For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ^3:8Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let’s do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned. ^3:9What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. ^3:10As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. ^3:11There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. ^3:12They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.” ^3:13“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.” ^3:14“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” ^3:15“Their feet are swift to shed blood. ^3:16Destruction and misery are in their ways. ^3:17The way of peace, they haven’t known.” ^3:18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ^3:19Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. ^3:20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ^3:21But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; ^3:22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, ^3:23for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; ^3:24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ^3:25whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; ^3:26to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. ^3:27Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ^3:28We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. ^3:29Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ^3:30since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ^3:31Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law. ^4:1What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? ^4:2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. ^4:3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” ^4:4Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. ^4:5But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. ^4:6Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ^4:7“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ^4:8Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.” ^4:9Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. ^4:10How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. ^4:11He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. ^4:12He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. ^4:13For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ^4:14For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. ^4:15For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. ^4:16For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. ^4:17As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. ^4:18Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” ^4:19Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ^4:20Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, ^4:21and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. ^4:22Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” ^4:23Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, ^4:24but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ^4:25who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.