Romans 3b

Rom 3:10-18 ESV
(10) as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;
(11) no one understands; no one seeks for God.
(12) All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
(13) "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."
(14) "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
(15) "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
(16) in their paths are ruin and misery,
(17) and the way of peace they have not known."
(18) "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

[Notice Paul quotes from David, Solomon and Isaiah on the character of human beings. It is a broad generalisation, and therefore cannot be translated in an absolute way - that a person at any point in time is full of curses and bitterness, for example. in other words, all a person seek to do intentionally is...evil, like the Joker.
rather, these OT authors seek to establish the fallen nature of man, and note Paul arranges it with a progression, starting from the being of seeking the true God.
failing to understand and to identify the image of God, their inner being is expressed in their actions. 1st the mouth which destroys others by words and deception.
then increased in severity - shedding blood (which taking Isaiah's definition, will not only be the physical murder of a person, but murdering a being, in that a person feels less than a normal human, ie slavery.). their actions lead to a path full of destruction and misery, that indeed we can all identify the vanity in life when it is shrouded with strive, misery and destruction.
And all these happens until 'the way of peace they have not known.'
There is no fear of God before their eyes - a point where even God is not at all recognize as the Supreme Sovereign Being that all men are accountable to.

Considering that it is a broad generalisation, I am not saying that a Buddhist or whoever for that matter, can never do good and hence their strive for merits is plain vanity. Rather, consider Solomon's Eccesiastes:
'Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.'
Yes, people DO good, but like Earl in 'My Name is Earl', his list of correcting the wrong things just lengthens as he seeks to correct the wrongs.
Afterall, who can REALLY track all the good and bad things he has done? what assurance can one depend on good works, when every action (even as I type now), leads to a reaction that may result in something beneficial or not.
Paul establishes this assurance... read on.]

Rom 3:19 ESV
(19) Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

[Paul begins his explanation by somewhat recalling:
Rom 2:12 ESV
(12) For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

and that all will be judged/held accountable to God - only 1 God, no one escapes from this process.]

Rom 3:20 ESV
(20) For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

[Indeed, seeking deep in ourselves, neither of us can have a strong assurance that our small act of love for others outweighs the bad stuff we have done along the way in life.
Afterall, good deeds won't render us escape the verdict of a human judge - if a law was broken, you still are a law breaker, how can you justify yourself?

since through the law comes knowledge of sin -
Rom 7:7 ESV
(7) What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

Since the Law comes from God:
Is it that God decided which was good and which was evil? and if yes, by what basis did God decided? But perhaps, he did NOT need any basis to decide, for in so doing, there exists something higher than God or relative to God, which will be a double-whammy-contradiction. Therefore, God, in His fulness and all glory already defined which was good or evil in all circumstances as God continues to Live in all eternity. then the next question is, did God and Moral Law came into the picture together? (this is actually plausible because the Moral Law stems out from Who God (Being) is, and God without the Being, doesn't sound like that is God at all) *Brain juice squeezed dry, another day* But whatever it is, it is fair to say that all natural laws governing the universe did not define the Law, but rather this Law is unchanging and hence murder would be wrong in another set of universe where there is no gravity, if there is any.

But perhaps God plays the role of affirming which was good and which was evil. So, it's kinda like a trial and error game which all humans play. Maybe I should always give, and let's see if God thinks that is good or not. But by doing that, then God is like slowly building up His Laws, and perhaps with some salesmen's skills, 1 can convince God to think that your murder was good. Then how can God judge?

I think the former is more plausible.]

Rom 3:21-25 ESV
(21) But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--
(22) the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
(23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(24) and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
(25) whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

[So, we have a big problem...
v21-25:
In order for God to intervene that all men may be saved, a righteousness has to be apart from the law, for if it is a righteousness that is from the works of the law, God has to somehow cause us to immediately become like Him, totally perfect from birth.
Therefore, God imputes His righteousness unto all who believe in Christ Jesus through faith, and anyone can be the believer of this faith and is opened to all -
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This righteousness apart from the law works as so:
all our terrible works have been justified by the price Jesus paid by the shedding of His blood and by His death (in that the ceremony of sin offering is the shadow of which was come).
and Christ in His ressurection redeems all men (who beleives) who were undoubtedly destined for destruction, for the work of the Law in sinful men is death.
and the wrath of God which was resulted in His subject's foolishness and rebellion, was satisfied in the shedding of Christ's blood and in Christ's death, that we may be reconciled to God.]

Rom 3:26 ESV
(26) It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[God displays His righteousness that:
God is 100% intolerable of sin
but yet, He justifies sinners through His son (grace and love)
God defines that justice cannot be tempered with, or inviolate.
"The attribute of justice must be preserved inviolate; and inviolate it is preserved, if there was a real infliction of punishment on our Saviour. On this plan all the attributes harmonize; every attribute is glorified, and not one superseded no, nor so much as clouded." - Wesley's commentary.]

Rom 3:27 ESV
(27) Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

[That would render us not able to boast in our flesh anymore. "I saved Perak from falling the hands of BN!", would be a short-term glorification of men, but it doesn't bring 1 to eternity.
therefore, our boasting is excluded, or our basis of entering heaven is excluded, not by our works, but indeed by faith in Christ Jesus.
hence, a righteousness apart from the law.]

Rom 3:28-30 ESV
(28) For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
(29) Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
(30) since God is one--who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

[v29-30:
God is God of all...otherwise, it's kinda like polytheism.
'by' - origin is 'ek' means "A primary preposition denoting origin" (Strong's Hebrew and Greek dictionary)
'through' - origin is 'dia' means "A primary preposition denoting a channel of an act"

'...circumcised BY faith...' - in that God made a Covenant with Abraham, and hence all Jews who already have these revelations will be saved by faith in Christ Jesus, who was prophesied by the Law and the Prophets.
'...uncircumcised through faith...' - faith is a channel for the Gentiles did not receive the revelations from God, and hence required a channel to be saved.

*need more evaluation...I'm rushing for time*]

Rom 3:31 ESV
(31) Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

[Hmm....So it is righteousness apart from the law...

then, we don't need the law?

Read on to see Paul's argument that the law is upheld by this righteousness.]