Romans 3:10-23

10This is written in the Bible: ‘There is nobody who is right with God. There is not even one person who is like that.

11There is nobody who understands what is true. There is nobody who wants to worship God.

12Everyone has turned away from God. All people have become completely bad. Nobody does what is good or kind. There is not even one person who is like that.

13Bad words come out of their mouth, like a very bad smell. They tell lies all the time, so that people do wrong things. The things that they say hurt people, like a snake's poison.

14They are always saying bad things against people, because they want to cause trouble for them.

15They hurry to kill people.

16Everywhere they go, they destroy things. They only make people very sad.

17They have never known how to live in peace.

18They refuse to respect God in any way.’

19So, we know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘God should not punish me.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them.

20God's Law shows people clearly that they have done wrong things. Nobody can become right with God because they obey that Law.

21But now we know how to become right with God. God has shown us the way that he will accept people as right with himself. This way is not part of the Law that he gave to Moses. But God's Law and the messages of his prophets have told us about it.

22God accepts people as right with himself because Jesus Christ did what God wanted. God accepts every person who believes in Christ. It is the same way for everyone, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

23All people have done wrong things. Nobody can be good and great, as God wanted them to be.