No One is Righteous!

⁹ What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 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.”

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. ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:9-20

There are a lot of citations in this passage.  Nine quotations from the Old Testament just in these successive 9 verses.

Verses 10-12    : cited from Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3

Verse 13          : cited from Psalm 5:9; Jeremiah 5:16; Psalm 140:3

Verse 14          : cited from Psalm 10:7

Verse 15          : cited from Proverbs 1:16

Verses 15-17    : cited from Isaiah 59:7-8

Verse 18          : cited from Psalm 36:1

Paul was very serious when he wrote this.  His argument was right and center.  Not a single human being is free of sin, except Jesus Christ (which Paul explained later in chapter 5).  The doctrine of man and sin is very foundational in our Christian faith.  Without this understanding, our faith will not be different than other belief systems.  This particular understanding is what makes Christianity totally unique.  But not merely for its uniqueness that the apostle Paul worked very hard to explain to his readers in Rome, but most importantly it was because without this foundational knowledge our faith in Jesus Christ would be futile.

            The entire world is under the spell of “our good works save” kind of belief.  And because good works is believed to have the capacity to save, then consequently man must do good work in order to earn salvation.  In this kind of system, sin is not considered depraving everything.  Some parts of humanity are considered holy or even acceptable to the gods.  And so by doing those holy parts accordingly, man can be saved.  In the book of Romans, Paul argued against the Jewish belief system in the Law of Moses.  They believed that by doing the Law, they can earn salvation.  So they strive to do the Law as spotless as they can be.  The Jews then worked so hard in keeping all the requirements of the Law with the sole purpose of achieving salvation.  Their concentration was on the works of the Law.  Things such as the animal sacrifice, the purification ritual, the worship, and so on and so forth.  All they cared about was that they had to stay away from making any mistake in relation to the requirements of the Law, which was pretty remarkable actually, by human standard.  However, the one big flaw of their system was that they essentially put their faith in their works, which was very shaky and unpredictable.  Why was this a big flaw?  Simply because God is perfect and He demands perfection.  Even one tiny mistake is enough to send man to eternal punishment.  And since we know that no one is actually spotless whatsoever, therefore no one actually was able to fulfill the perfect demand of God through doing the Law of Moses.

            For sure this reality begs the question: “Then what is the use of the Law?”  For this Paul gave a short yet definite answer: “through the law comes knowledge of sin.”  In other words, without the Law man would not know that what they do is sin.  Without the Law no one would know that stealing is sin.  Without the Law no one would know that adultery is sin.  Without the Law no one would know that murder is sin.  The list goes on.  So, Law was given for the purpose of confronting the human race that what they do is sin.  The consequence is then eternal punishment for all man.  This knowledge brings us to hopelessness.

            Through the Law we are looking at ourselves like in the mirror.  We see ourselves as we truly are.  We see our spots, ugliness, flaws, sins.  We cannot hide from it.  Because the Law corresponds quite deeply with the conscience God reserves in our heart of hearts.  As we see our true self we are desperate.  Yet we want salvation.  Our soul yearns for redemption.  We want to be saved from the eternal punishment.  The dread of death depresses our soul.  If the guilty feeling after making even a small mistake is unbearable, how much more the threat of hell.  In that desperation we cry out to God, who is the Judge of the entire world.  We ask for leniency.  We ask for His forgiveness.  But such realization can’t spark in our mind without first we know that all we do is sin before God and that all sin even the tiniest is punishable by eternal death in hell.  We can only know that what we do is sin when we are face to face with the Law.

            And so, in that regard, especially of how foundational and important this doctrine is, Paul had to start his entire doctrinal epistle to the Romans with the reality of our sinfulness as the fallen man descended from Adam and Eve.  This is what is caught and understood deeply by the Reformed theology.  One of the reformers, John Calvin argued strongly about the concept of “Total Depravity.”  Total Depravity does not mean that man does evil as evil as it can be.  But instead it means that every single area of our life is contaminated by sin and therefore whatever we do has a trace of sin in it, or is depraved.  Therefore total depravity.

            The consequence of this doctrine is then we can’t please God by what we do.  No good work done by sinful man is ever good enough to be accepted by God.  Therefore, there is no salvation by doing good works as long as we are in this state of being totally depraved.  The only way for our works to be acceptable to God is when our status is transformed into an acceptable status before God.  There is no other way.  Verses 10-18 in Romans 3 are the proof of our total depravity.

            We then naturally ask the question: “If good works are out of the question, how then can we be saved?”  The answer lies in the following verses of Romans 3.  Paul summarized it in 3:28 that says: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”  Salvation is a gift.  It is not something that anyone can earn.  Salvation is impossible to earn for man under sin.  Out of His good pleasure and will God has decided to save some.  He saves through faith in Jesus Christ.  This is God’s grace.  Why Christ?  Because Christ is the only One that can satisfy the complete requirements of the Law.  Because Christ is the perfect sacrifice that substitute us in receiving God’s eternal judgment and wrath.  His quality of being 100% God and 100% man is the sole reason that there is no other way to salvation except through Him.

            The guilty party is man, so the judgment must be done to man.  God can’t bear it.  Angels can’t take it.  Animals, for sure, can’t handle it.  Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, blood for blood, life for life, man for man.  But everyone has sinned and lost the glory of God.  So no one on earth descended from Adam and Eve can substitute anybody.  Only Christ can because He is sinless.  He was born without sin and He lived His entire life without sin.  There is no other person that can take His place.  He is the only one.  But then someone asks: “But Jesus is only one person, how can He substitute many?  For one can only replace one.”  The answer again lies in the two natures of Christ.  And this time the secret lies in His divine nature.  His quality of being equal to God, because He is God Himself, has the absolute capacity to substitute an infinite number of man and more.  The value of God is infinitely more than the value of countless man.  And so in His taking the punishment of sin on our behalf He is more than enough.

            Now, Jesus Christ is 100% man, that is why He can take the punishment of sin on our behalf.  And Jesus Christ is 100% God, that is why He can take the place of countless man as He is suffering the eternal punishment of God.  Thus faith in Him taking the eternal punishment for our sin is what saves us.  Because Christ is doing it for us.  No longer does the wrath of God is poured out on us.  It has been taken by Christ.  And the quality of His salvation is eternal.  Once saved we are saved.  This is the good news of the gospel.

            This is why Paul adamantly argued to the church in Rome that we can only be justified by faith.  The way of the world that says “good works save” besieged the Christians in Rome, be it in the inside or in the outside.  The truth of the gospel must be proclaimed so the mind can be renewed.  If the mind is not renewed, the Christians in Rome would remain in their futile ways of doing good works to achieve salvation.  The way of the world must be rejected.  Paul said in Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  This statement was true then and is true now and will continue to be true.

            Similar to the Christians in Rome, we too today are besieged by the way of the world.  In terms of salvation, we too are many times lured to believe that our good works will save us.  So we actively serve the Lord in the church or anywhere else, secretly believing that we will be saved by our service.  Negatively, we also believe that if we do not serve in the church we will not be saved.  And we apply such belief in everything.  We must pray so we can be saved.  We must go to church every week so we can be saved.  We must read the Bible daily so we can be saved.  We must be nice to other people like Jesus told us to so we can be saved.  We must evangelize so we can be saved.  And the list never ends.  Thus we got caught in the web or “good works save” model of salvation.  Let me tell you that that system is not the Christian one.  Your good work, no matter how marvelous it is, will not save you.  For we are totally depraved.

            We serve because we are saved already.  We are in the right status.  We are returned to the original design and more.  Our status is now elevated into the status of children.  As children we work in His house, just like He is still working, and just like Jesus continues to work.  Our good work is not because we want to be saved, therefore, but because it is our natural and original state as children of the good God of heaven and earth.  In our work we follow the line of the Law.  But no longer have we upheld the Law so we may receive salvation.  For salvation is a gift from God in His grace and mercy and love.  We uphold the Law so we may learn how to live according to His will.  Through the Law we may know God’s will for our life.  This is why we study the Scripture.  We learn to live up to our status as children of God who have been saved in Jesus Christ our Lord.

            So, when you treat others nicely, it is not because you want to gain that 1 point in heaven to be stored in your salvation pouch.  But we treat others nicely because it is who we are as God’s child.  Just like God is always nice, even to unbelievers.  For God gives rain both to the believers and unbelievers.  He does not start charging the unbelievers for the free oxygen He gives.  He does not start charging the unbelievers for taking up space on the earth that He created.  He does not start charging the unbelievers for borrowing the body He manufactures.  God is nice, so we too must be nice.  But do not mistake God’s niceness with Him being a God who would allow people to do whatever they want.  God is also a just God.  He repays people for the evil they do.  So don’t you start doing evil thinking that God is nice.  On that department, you must understand that He will hold you accountable.  This is precisely why we need the Law.  So we may walk in the way He wants us to be.  I pray that God will bless you continually.  Amen.