Romans 3:10
Romans 3:1010As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.
Watchtower commentary takes as confirming the universal sinfulness of humanity. "There is not a righteous man, not even one" is read as describing the condition prior to receiving the ransom and entering the JW community. Through Christ's sacrifice and faithful obedience to Jehovah's organisation, members move from "not righteous" to the standing of Jehovah's friends.
Paul cites / 53:1-3 / to settle the matter: not one righteous human being. Pair this with ("the doers of the law will be justified") and the contradiction collapses unless the doers are an empty class. They are. is Paul's catena of OT citations precisely to prove the class is empty. So the conditional promises of Romans 2 (life to those who do good perfectly) cannot be a salvation pathway — there are no qualifiers. This is the verse that forces the gospel pivot in 3:21 ("but now"). Christ's righteousness, credited to the ungodly through faith, is the only path through .