Romans 3:4-8

3:4 Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being ¹  shown up as a liar, ²  just as it is written: “so that you will be justified ³  in your words and will prevail when you are judged.” ⁴ 

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ⁵  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ⁶  (I am speaking in human terms.) ⁷  3:6 Absolutely not! For otherwise how could God judge the world? 3:7 For if by my lie the truth of God enhances ⁸  his glory, why am I still actually being judged as a sinner? 3:8 And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? – as some who slander us allege that we say. ⁹  (Their ¹⁰  condemnation is deserved!)

[3:4]  ¹ tn Grk “every man”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to stress humanity rather than masculinity.

[3:4]  ² tn Grk “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” The words “proven” and “shown up” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning.

[3:4]  ³ tn Grk “might be justified,” a subjunctive verb, but in this type of clause it carries the same sense as the future indicative verb in the latter part. “Will” is more idiomatic in contemporary English.

[3:4]  ⁴ tn Or “prevail when you judge.” A quotation from Ps 51:4.

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ⁷ sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.

[3:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “abounded unto.”

[3:8]  ¹³ tn Grk “(as we are slandered and some affirm that we say…).”

[3:8]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “whose.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, this relative clause was rendered as a new sentence in the translation.