Romans 3:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

NIV: What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?

NASB: What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

CSB: What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?

NLT: True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful?

KJV: For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

NKJV: For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?

Paul is staging a question-and-answer session between himself and an imagined critic of his words in chapter 2. Now he asks the next logical question: "What if some were unfaithful?" By this, Paul seems to be pointing to what he said in the previous chapter. The Jewish people were given God's law, but they did not keep it. As a nation and as individuals, every Jewish person had sinned. Nobody can keep the law perfectly, and even those who had been "entrusted with the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2) were not immune to sin.

Paul's questioner follows by asking, does the unfaithfulness of some of the Jewish people nullify God's faithfulness to His people? Does their sin make His faithfulness pointless? In other words, does the fact that those under the law broke the law, that they sinned as all people do, mean that God will no longer be faithful to them?

In the following verse, Paul will answer this question with a loud and emphatic "no."

Romans 3:1–8 contains a series of questions which might have come from someone opposed to Paul's teaching in Romans 2. Using this challenge-response structure, Paul clarifies that being Jewish and circumcised still comes with great advantages. He also points out that God remains faithful to the Jewish people in spite of their sin. In fact, His faithfulness in the face of unfaithfulness increases His glory. That does not mean, however, that God wants human beings to continue to sin, as some were accusing Paul of teaching.

Romans 3 begins with a question-and-answer scheme. These are responses one might expect from someone opposed to what Paul wrote in Romans 2. Next, Paul quotes from a series of Old Testament passages. These Scriptures show that those writers also agreed that nobody, not one person, deserves to be called righteous. Paul declares emphatically that no one will be justified by following the works of the law. Finally, though, he arrives at the good news: righteousness before God is available apart from the law through faith in Christ's death for our sin on the cross.

The prior chapter explained that God's judgment on sin will come to all men, whether or not they understand the literal law. Faith in God, in the heart, matters more to God than rote obedience. At the start of this chapter, Paul answers a series of questions from an imagined objector to those teachings. Next, he quotes a series of Old Testament passages which support His teaching that human beings are by nature sinful. Each of us turns away from God. Nobody can be justified by the law, Paul insists. Fortunately, it is possible to attain God's righteousness: but only by His grace, through faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice for our sin on the cross. We must come to this by faith, and it is available to Jews and Gentiles alike.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.

Accessed 5/4/2024 11:17:22 PM