Romans 3:22,23

Vv. 22 b, 23. “ For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and are deprived of the glory of God. ”

By denying all difference, the apostle means here that there are not two ways by which men can be justified, the one that of works, the other of faith. The first is closed against all, even the Jews, by the fact of universal condemnation, which has just been demonstrated. The second, therefore, alone remains open. The old Genevan version, Ostervald, and Martin put all Romans 3:23 into Romans 3:22, and thus reckon only thirty verses instead of thirty-one in the chapter. The object of this change was to make Romans 3:23 a simple parenthesis, that the participle being justified might be directly connected with Romans 3:22. But this grammatical connection is certainly incorrect, and we should preserve the reckoning of the verses as it stands in the Greek text.