Romans 3:9 : What then? are we better than they? Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. To prove that all were under sin had been the object of all that he had said from the eighteenth verse of chapter one. This he had done to prove that all were under condemna-tion and needed the gospel as God's power to save them. To further establish the sinfulness of man, he quotes extensively from the prophets. "What then? are we better than they?" These are questions a Jew would ask after hearing Paul's reasoning in the preceding verses. The Jew had so many advantages he would naturally think himself better than others. But he had made such poor use of these advantages that Paul unhesitatingly answers "No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin." The Jew had not lived up to the law, and therefore was not justified; the Gentile had also failed of justification, for he had not lived up to the light he had. So far as meriting justification was concerned, neither was superior to the other, for they were all sinners.