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25 Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. ²⁹Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.

3Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews^* were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,
‘So that you may be justified in your words,
   and prevail in your judging.’^*
5But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ⁶By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), ‘Let us do evil so that good may come’? Their condemnation is deserved!

None Is Righteous

9 What then? Are we any better off?^* No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, ¹⁰as it is written:
‘There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
¹¹   there is no one who has understanding,
     there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
   there is no one who shows kindness,
     there is not even one.’
¹³ ‘Their throats are opened graves;
   they use their tongues to deceive.’
‘The venom of vipers is under their lips.’
¹⁴   ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’
¹⁵ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶   ruin and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.’
¹⁸   ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’