“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'” (Romans 3:4).
Paul the Apostle was appalled by the implication that God could not be trusted simply because others lacked faith in Him (Romans 3:3). Various translations have characterized Paul’s vehement opposition to that idea with phrases such as “Absolutely not!” (GNT), “By no means.” (AMPC), and, “That would be unthinkable!” (GW) here in verse four.
One commentator expands upon Paul’s response by cleverly recasting this portion of Scripture as a question and answer session between Paul and an unnamed objector…
The objector: “…But what if some of the Jews disobeyed these commandments and were unfaithful to God and came under his condemnation? You have just said that God gave the Jews a special position and a special promise. Now you go on to say that at least some of them are under the condemnation of God. Does that mean that God has broken his promise and shown himself to be unjust and unreliable?
Paul: Far from it! What it does show is that there is no favouritism with God and that he punishes sin wherever he sees it. The very fact that he condemns the unfaithful Jews is the best possible proof of his absolute justice. He might have been expected to overlook the sins of this special people of his but he does not.” (1)
Paul went on to support this assertion with an allusion to Numbers 23:19: “let God be true but every man a liar.” The underlying message behind that statement is unmistakable: even if every member of the human race promoted a falsehood, we can depend upon God’s commitment to the truth. In commenting on this passage, another source offers some valuable counsel: “Whenever there is a question whether God or man is right, always proceed on the basis that God is right and every man is a liar.” (2)
Our author then reached back to the Old Testament Scriptures once again to present another supporting reference: “That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:4). Our final commentator ties these references together with an important observation: “The fact that the Jews, who were given the Word of God did not obey the Word of God, in no way invalidates the Word but simply confirms the purpose of the Word, which is to convict all men of the undeniable reality that they are sinners.” (3)
(1) Barclay, William. “Commentary on Romans 3”. “William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/romans-3.html. 1956-1959.
(2) William Macdonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary Edited by Arthur Farstad. Thomas Nelson Publishers [Romans 3:1-20]
(3) Dick Woodward, Mini Bible College Booklet Twenty-Nine The Book Of Romans Verse By Verse (part one) [pg.26] https://mbc.icm.org/