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.”
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.
- BSB 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.”
- 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.”
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, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
- Ps 116:11I said in my haste, “All men are liars.”
- Gal 2:17But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
- Heb 6:18that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
- Titus 1:2in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;
- Deut 32:4The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
- John 3:33He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
- Job 36:3I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
- Rev 3:7“To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:
- Ps 119:160All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever. SIN AND SHIN
- Ps 138:2I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted your Name and your Word above all.
- Rom 9:14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
- 1 Jn 5:20We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
- Gal 2:21I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
- Job 40:8Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
- 1 Jn 5:10He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.
- Mic 7:20You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
- Ps 100:5For Yahweh is good. His loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.
- Rom 3:31Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
- Matt 11:19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
- Gal 6:14But far be it from me to 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? May it never be!
- Rom 11:1I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
- Rom 11:11I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
- Rom 3:6–7May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
- Rom 7:7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
- Rom 6:2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
- Luke 20:16He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!”
- 2 Cor 1:18But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.”
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Rom 7:13Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
- 1 Cor 6:15Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:4 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.