Limitless Word
Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
Romans 3:4 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”
  • KJV God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
  • NKJV Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”
  • NASB Far from it! Rather, God must prove to be true, though every person be found a liar, as it is written: “So that You are justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.”
  • NLT Of course not! Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the Scriptures say about him, “You will be proved right in what you say, and you will win your case in court.”

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

By no means may God be made false; let God be true though every person is a liar, as Scripture says of His being justified. God's truthfulness stands even when all humanity fails.

Overview

Paul emphatically rejects any thought of God being unfaithful: 'May it never be!' He affirms that God must be held true even if every human is shown a liar. Quoting Psalm 51:4, he shows that when God judges, He is proven right and just. God's righteousness and truthfulness are vindicated precisely in His dealings with sinful people.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 32

  • Ps 51:4Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
  • Ps 116:11In my alarm I said, “All men are liars!”
  • Gal 2:17But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!
  • Heb 6:18Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
  • Titus 1:2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
  • Deut 32:4He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
  • John 3:33Whoever accepts His testimony has certified that God is truthful.
  • Job 36:3I get my knowledge from afar, and I will ascribe justice to my Maker.
  • Rev 3:7To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.
  • Ps 119:160The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.
  • Ps 138:2I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else.
  • Rom 9:14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!
  • 1 Jn 5:20And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
  • Gal 2:21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing.
  • Job 40:8Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
  • 1 Jn 5:10Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.
  • Mic 7:20You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.
  • Ps 100:5For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.
  • Rom 3:31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.
  • Matt 11:19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”
  • Gal 6:14But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
  • Rom 6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
  • Rom 11:1I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
  • Rom 11:11I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
  • Rom 3:6–7Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?
  • Rom 7:7What 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.”
  • Rom 6:2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
  • Luke 20:16He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!”
  • 2 Cor 1:18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”
  • Ps 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
  • Rom 7:13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
  • 1 Cor 6:15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 3:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 3:4 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.