Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
Parallel translations
- WEB Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- KJV Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- NKJV Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- NASB because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin.
- NLT For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No one is justified by keeping the law; instead the law reveals our sin. It shows the law cannot save, only diagnose.
Overview
Paul states a central truth of the gospel: human effort to keep the law cannot make anyone right with God. Rather, the law's role is to bring 'the knowledge of sin,' exposing our guilt. This closes off works-righteousness and opens the way for the justifying righteousness of God revealed in the verses that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Gal 2:16know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
- Acts 13:39Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
- Rom 3:28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
- Gal 2:19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- Rom 4:15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- Rom 4:13For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
- Rom 5:20The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- Rom 9:32Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
- Gal 3:10–13All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Rom 7:7–9What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
- Ps 143:2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Eph 2:8–9For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
- Gal 5:4You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
- Titus 3:5–7He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Ps 130:3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- Job 25:4–5How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
- Rom 5:13For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
- Jas 2:20–26O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless?
- Jas 2:9–10But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
- Rom 2:13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.
- Job 15:15If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 3:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.