1. Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised?
2. There are all kinds of advantages. First of all, God entrusted them with his word.
3. What if some of them were unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness?
4. That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says,“So you hand down justice when you speak,and you win your case in court.”
5. But if what we do wrong shows that God is fair, what should we say? Is God unfair when he vents his anger on us? (I’m arguing the way humans would.)
6. That’s unthinkable! Otherwise, how would God be able to judge the world?
7. If my lie increases the glory that God receives by showing that God is truthful, why am I still judged as a sinner?
8. Or can we say, “Let’s do evil so that good will come from it”? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. They are condemned, and that’s what they deserve.
9. What, then, is the situation? Do we have any advantage? Not at all. We have already accused everyone (both Jews and Greeks) of being under the power of sin,
10. as Scripture says,“Not one person has God’s approval.
11. No one understands.No one searches for God.
12. Everyone has turned away.Together they have become rotten to the core.No one does anything good,not even one person.
13. Their throats are open graves.Their tongues practice deception.Their lips hide the venom of poisonous snakes.
14. Their mouths are full of curses and bitter resentment.