Romans 3: 9 - 20

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰ As it is written:

‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.’
¹³ ‘Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practise deceit.’
‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’
¹⁴     ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’
¹⁵ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know.’
¹⁸     ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

There is No-one Righteous, not Even One.

These early chapters of Romans read like a legal argument being made by a barrister. Paul is building up his case and heading towards a conclusion. In chapter 2 he was talking about the fact that having all the outward appearance of being a good Jew is not enough – it is what goes on inside the heart that counts. Indeed, a Gentile who truly obeys the law of Moses is in a better position than a Jew who doesn’t. Then in the first half of Romans 3, Pauls addressed some ‘counter-arguments’ – a bit like responding to questions and comments by someone in the crowd heckling.

And now, in verse 9, Paul reaches the point where he says that as far as sin goes, it doesn’t actually matter whether a person is a Jew or a Gentile – because we are all sinners. Verses 10 to 18 read like a quote from the Jewish Scriptures (what we know as the Old Testament), but actually it is not a single quote, but a whole string of separate quotations. Paul is using several verses, mainly from the Psalms, but also from Ecclesiastes and Isaiah, to put together a proof of the point he has made.

The first three verses of the quotes (v. 10 to 12) come from Psalms 14 and 53 (two very similar Psalms). Both of those Psalms begin with the sentence, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” Paul takes that idea from the Psalms and expands it, using as many verses as he can find that talk about how human beings, in their natural state, turn their backs on God and on his laws. It makes difficult reading, and it sounds a very harsh description of people who go their own way instead of going God’s way.

In this country there was a time when preachers focused a lot on the evils of sin, and would speak hard, condemning words to their congregations. Nowadays that kind of preaching is rare, but we might ask whether we have gone too far away from it. Paul has no problems with listing here how bad sin is, and how far we (all people) have gone away from God, as sinners. How often do we pause and really consider how powerful sin is? Have we become complacent about it?

Jesus came as the perfect man, to carry the weight of all our sin on his body. He carried it to the cross – and he carried it throughout his earthly life. And when it came to his trial before Pilate, he stood in silence, not saying a word. How will we stand before the Lord on the day of judgement?

As we have read these opening chapters of Romans, we have found Paul stating the case that we are sinners, and how bad sin is. It is painful reading. But tomorrow’s reading begins with two wonderful, uplifting words: “But now….” So hold on, and keep faith!

 

Prayer

Lord, I come to you as a sinner. I come as a forgiven sinner in Christ, but also asking for forgiveness for my tendency to be complacent about sin and not recognise the seriousness of it. There is only one way out of the results of my sin – and I rejoice in Jesus who has paid the price! Amen.