May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
Parallel translations
- KJV God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
- BSB Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?
- NKJV Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
- NASB Far from it! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?
- NLT Of course not! If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world?
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
Certainly not — if that objection held, God could not judge the world at all. God's role as righteous judge of all is bedrock truth.
Overview
Paul dismisses the objection with 'May it never be!' If God were unjust to punish sin that serves His glory, He could never judge anyone, since all sin ultimately occasions His glory. But that God will judge the world is an unshakable assumption of Scripture. Therefore the objection collapses, and God remains the just judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gen 18:25Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
- Acts 17:31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
- Job 8:3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
- Ps 98:9Let them sing before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
- Ps 9:8He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.
- Rom 2:16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
- Ps 50:6The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
- Job 34:17–19Shall even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty? —
- Ps 96:13before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
- Ps 11:5–7Yahweh examines the righteous, but the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates.
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 3:6 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.