Passage

Romans 3

• Doctrine

  Grace

  Unmerited favor, not a blessing earned through correct ritual observance toward uNkulunkulu or the ancestors.

  ROM.3.24

• Glossary Term

  Grace

  Well-established Nguni Bible term for unmerited favor.

  ROM.3.24

• Doctrine

  Humanity's Sinfulness

  Moral transgression before a personal God; distinguish from ritual impurity or an offense against the ancestors requiring appeasement.

  ROM.3.23

• Glossary Term

  Imputed Righteousness

  Righteousness credited by faith (Romans 4:3), not earned; must not be rendered as moral achievement or ritual merit accumulated toward uNkulunkulu or the ancestors.

  ROM.3.21-26

• Glossary Term

  Israel

  Proper name; the covenant people, central to Romans 9-11's argument.

  ROM.3.9-20

• Glossary Term

  Justification

  Being made/declared righteous; must be kept distinct from general moral improvement, since this is a forensic, credited status.

  ROM.3.21-26

• Doctrine

  Justification by Faith

  A forensic declaration of right standing, credited by faith, not earned through moral conduct or ritual correctness.

  ROM.3.21-26

• Glossary Term

  Sin

  Moral transgression before a personal God; distinguish from ritual impurity or an offense against the ancestors requiring appeasement.

  ROM.3.23

• Doctrine

  The Law

  The Mosaic Law specifically; must not be rendered with a term for customary law or ancestral taboo, which carry distinct enforcement logic in Ndebele culture.

  ROM.3.19-20

• Doctrine

  Universal Need for Salvation

  Both Jew and Gentile stand equally in need of salvation; Romans 9-11's argument about Israel requires care not to be read as ethnic favoritism or its opposite, a sensitivity heightened by Zimbabwe's own history of ethnic tension between Ndebele and Shona communities.

  ROM.3.9-20