ROMANS.
3.
 Someone may object to this, saying, “ If being circumcised does not cause God to accept us Jews, ◄there is no advantage in being a Jew  over being a non-Jew./is there any advantage in being a Jew  over being a non-Jew?► RHQ Being circumcised does not benefit  us Jews at all!” 
 I would reply that being Jews benefits  us in many ways HYP. First of all, it benefits us because it was to  our ancestors that God’s words,  words that contain his promises, were given {that  God gave his words,  words that contain his promises}. 
Many  Jews did not obey God as they promised that they would. So someone might ask, “Does their not being faithful mean that God will not  bless us Jews as he promised  that he would?” 
 I would reply, “No, it certainly does not mean that! God always does  what he has promised, even though  people do not. All those who accuse God  of not keeping his promises to us Jews are very mistaken.”  What King David wrote about God’s justly saying that he would punish him for his sins is also true of those who accuse God of not keeping his promises. What he said to God was, “So everyone must acknowledge that what you (sg) have said  about them (OR,  their sin) is true, and you will always win the case when you are accused {when  people accuse you}.” 
So if we  Jews’ being wicked PRS shows that it is right that God  does not bless us, what shall we say/conclude? Shall we conclude that it is not right for God to be angry  and punish us Jews MTY? I  should not be saying these things,  but I am speaking as ordinary humans  speak. 
We should certainly not  conclude that God should not judge us, because if God  did not judge us Jews, ◄it would not possibly be right for him to judge  anyone in the world MTY!/how could he judge  anyone in the world?► MTY, RHQ 
But  someone might object and say to me, “The fact that God truly  keeps his promises becomes very clear/evident because of my not doing  what God has commanded. But the result is that people praise God! So ◄God should no longer say that I should be punished {that  he should punish me} on account of my having sinned!/why should God still say that I should be punished {that  he should punish me} on account of my having sinned?► RHQ 
 If what you, Paul, say is true, then ◄we might as well/it is all right for us to► do evil things in order that good things  like that will result! For example,  then people will praise God!” Some people speak evil about me by their  falsely saying that I say  such things. God will fairly/justly punish  people who say such things about me! 
 If someone would ask, “ Shall we conclude that God will treat us  Jews more favorably  and will treat the non-Jews less  favorably RHQ?”  I would reply that we can certainly not conclude that! I have already shown you that all people, the Jews and also the non-Jews, have sinned and  so they deserve to be punished { that God will punish them} PRS. 
 The following words that are written {prophets have written}  in the Scriptures support this, No person is righteous. There is not even one righteous person! 
There is no one who understands  how to live properly (OR,  about God). There is no one who seeks/desires  to know God! 
Absolutely everyone has turned away MET  from God. God considers them depraved (OR, Everyone has become useless  to God). There is no one who acts righteously; no, there is not even one! 
What people say MTY  is foul/bad, like the smell that comes from a grave that has been {that  people have} opened MET.  By what people say MTY, they deceive people.  By what they say MTY  they injure people, just like the poison of snakes  injures people MET. 
They are continually ◄cursing/asking God to do harmful things to► others and saying ◄cruel/harsh/hateful► things MTY. 
They ◄go quickly/are eager► to murder people MTY. 
Wherever they go, they ruin everything and make  people miserable MTY. 
They have not/never known how  to live peacefully  with other people. 
They absolutely refuse to fear/reverence God SYN! 
Furthermore, we know that it is to  Jewish people,  who are required to obey  God’s laws, that Moses wrote those laws PRS.  We can infer from this that there are no  Jews or non-Jews SYN who are able to say anything  in reply to God’s saying that he will punish them for having sinned. God has declared everyone in the world MTY guilty! 
It is not because people have done the things that God’s laws  require that  God will ◄erase the record of their sins/declare them no longer guilty for sin►,  because no one has done those things completely. In fact, the result of  our knowing God’s laws is that we know clearly that we have sinned (OR, are sinful). 
But God’s ◄erasing the record of our sins/declaring us no longer guilty► does not depend on  our obeying the laws  that he gave Moses. It has now been { God has now} revealed  to us how he erases the record of our sins  by a different way. It was written about  by Moses { Moses wrote about it} in the laws PRS  God gave him, and it was also written about by the prophets {the prophets also wrote about it}. 
God erases the record of our sins because we trust in  what Jesus Christ  has done for us. God does this for every person who trusts  in Christ, because  he considers that there is no difference  between Jews and non-Jews. 
All people have done evil, and all people have failed to accomplish the glorious goals that God  set for them. 
Our record of sins has been erased {God erased the record of our sins} by God acting kindly  to forgive our sins, without our doing anything to earn it. Christ Jesus accomplished this  by dying for us. 
God showed that Christ was the one who would atone for (OR, forgive) our sins  with the blood  that flowed from his body when he died. God redeems/forgives us because of our trusting  in Christ’s having died for us. God wanted to show that he acts justly.  He wanted to do that because, before Jesus came, God did not punish  everyone who sinned. So it seemed as though he was not being just. But he was overlooking people’s sins during  that time, 
because he is patient.  God arranged for Jesus to die for us. By doing that, God now shows that he is just, and he shows that he is justly able to erase the record of sins for everyone who trusts/believes in Jesus. 
It is not at all RHQ because of  our obeying the laws  of Moses that God erases the record of our sins. So, ◄there is no way that we can boast  that God does that because of our obeying those laws./how can we boast  about God erasing the record of our sins because of our obeying those laws?► RHQ Instead,  it is because of our believing/trusting  in Christ that God erases the record of our sins. 
 We cannot boast about that, because we conclude that the record of our sins is erased {God erases the record of our sins} because of our trusting  in Christ. God does not erase the record of our sins because of our obeying the laws  that he gave to Moses, because it is impossible for us to completely obey them. 
◄You who are Jews certainly should not  think that you are the only ones whom God  will accept!/Do you Jews  think it is you alone whom God  will accept?► RHQ You certainly should  realize that he will accept non-Jews, too. RHQ Of course,  he will accept non-Jews also, 
because,  as you firmly believe, there is only one God, who will erase the record of Jews’ MTY sins if they trust  in what Christ has done, and who will similarly erase the record of non-Jews’ MTY sins if they trust  in Christ. 
So,  if someone should ask concerning the laws that God gave Moses, “By saying  that God erases the record of our sins because of our trusting  in Christ, does that mean that those laws now are useless?”,  I would reply, “Certainly not. Instead, we truly fulfill the laws  that God gave Moses.”