The biblical teaching on man's Total Depravity, meaning that every person is inherently a sinner in the eyes of God conflicts with the contemporary worldview which asserts that man is essentially good.
If you went out on to our streets and asked, "Do you agree that you are sinful by nature?" this question would be received with, “Well, I am basically a decent, BECAUSE I don't do this or that...". We tend to think of ourselves as being better than we are in the estimation of God. Our text summarizes the truth about us, and it is really important and helpful to see ourselves from God's perspective. Being informed by a doctor that a person's tumor is malignant might not be nice news, but it is important to appreciate the honesty of that doctor when they communicate the reality of that patient's medical state. Besides that, effective treatment cannot commence without an accurate diagnosis. Aspirin will not cure a brain tumor, and sin will not be cured by shedding crocodile tears. Something more radical is needed.
Thank God then for the honesty of His Word when it makes an accurate assessment of the true state of our immortal souls. Thank God for His honest diagnosis which informs us of the fact that we all are depraved sinners – so depraved that no human cure may be found for our souls. And thank God, that there is a cure for the cancer of the soul. The Bible, the book of Romans, reveals the antidote for the spiritual rot of mankind!
ROMANS 3:9-18 UNDER SIN
This section is Paul's summary diagnosis of the thoughts begun in 1:18. Here he is drawing his thoughts to a conclusion. All people – Jews and Greeks (i.e. the whole world) are under sin (3:9).
We have seen that the Jews, with all their spiritual privileges (which are very significant) are not better off than the gentiles, if they ignore God's Word. This is the point that the apostle Paul has been making all along, from 1:18 to 3:8.
“We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin”.
Note: “under sin”! The picture here is the same as when we get behind in our work, or behind in our payments. It is that feeling when we have lost our sense of being on top of things. When this happens, we talk about being swamped. Being ‘under’ suggests that we are weighed down by a huge burden. I am thinking here of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. This is the story of a man called Christian, who leaves his city, the city of destruction for the eternal city. We find him at first with a huge burden on his back. This sin burden under which he labours only lifts, when directed by Evangelist, he enters by the narrow gate and comes to the foot of the cross, where he is able to leave his burden. This is the burden with which we all must wrestle.
What is the implication of being "Under Sin"?
Two observations
A ruined relationship with God
A ruined relationship with people
1. A Ruined Relationship with God
Being "under sin" is the result of a ruined relation with God. It begins there - not with people. It is remarkable that 3:10-18 begin and ends with this point.
3:10-11: "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God."
3:18: "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Everything sandwiched between these verses speaks about man’s primary problem with God. Against Him and Him alone do we always sin in the first instance. And the big problem is this:
"There is no fear of God before their eyes (3:18).
Remember this: All sin is primarily rebellion against God; of seeing God as not holy and not weighty. Therefore, being under sin is not primarily a matter of the bad things we do to other people. It ends there, but it always begins with a rebellious mindset against God. In Psalm 51:4 David helps us to understand this. Although the sin is that which he commits with Bathsheba, yet the root is found in his rebellion against God.
This is why it is so pointless when people argue that they are basically good people, simply because they treat other people so decently; because they don't steal, kill, lie or curse, and therefore say, “We don't need the Gospel."
But they deceive themselves with respect to the main issue. Do you do all this for self- glory, or because you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength?
Do you love his Son, Jesus Christ who has died to make you good? It may seem to be virtuous to be a philanthropist – to care for people in this world in different ways (and we do not criticize that), but these are all empty works without a love or reverence or passion for God.
So, the mind that is "under sin" does not seek God and does not know God and does not fear God. And it doesn't matter what we do for people; if we treat the King of the universe with such disdain, we may know that we are profoundly "under sin."
2. Ruined Relationships with People
Being "under sin" means that our relations with people are ruined, even though God's common grace may restrain us from treating people as badly as we might.
In 3:13-14, Paul describes the way sin ruins our relationships mainly through words! See this …. "throat ...tongue ... lips . . . mouth." "Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." God gave us our mouths to give life. But sin turns our mouths into a vehicle for poison and death. Graves have to do with death. Venom is poison that leads to death. Deception and cursing produce death.
Then, in 3: 15-17 we find how sinful words and attitudes turn into action: "their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known."
This describes the progression of sin when God is not sought or revered. Human relationships are ruined.
RETURNING TO THE BIG POINT: Not One Is Righteous
Note then that Paul supports his summary argument of this doctrine from the Old Testament:
He begins in 3:10: “As it is written..."
Written where?
Written in the Old Testament. He quotes six different Old Testament portions to support his summary statement in 3:9.
Rom. 3:10-12: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." He begins with Psalm 14:1-3 (this is also in Ps. 53:1-3) – A Psalm of David. David has a profound sense of understanding in terms of how it is with this world, and it is not good. It is not an optimistic view of mankind (14:2)
In that same Psalm 14:5 we find a reference: “God is with the generation of the righteous."
The righteous are not those that consider themselves as righteous. We know from the general teaching of Scripture that no one is righteous without God's enabling or intervention.
Without the special revelation of God's saving work revealed to Israel they could never have achieved a righteousness that could please God. God alone can issue forgiveness through a substitutionary sacrifice (supremely so in Jesus the Lamb of God) can anyone be right with God. Only then can one be called considered righteous. Only then one escapes from being under the burden of sin.
So then when Paul quotes from the Old Testament that "there is none righteous, no not one," he means that, by nature, apart from God's intervention all people are unrighteous.
Wherever you have someone called "righteous" in the Old Testament it is not because they were not sinners, but because God had intervened in their lives, giving them the grace of faith and forgiveness at the same time.
And so, David quotes Psalm 5:9 (cf. Rom. 3:13 a) and Psalm 140:3 (cf. Rom.3:13b) and Psalm 10:7 (cf.Rom.3:14) to show that the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth is that instrument which always gives us away.
See James' comments on the devastating abilities of the tongue in Jas. 3:1-12.
Listen to this week's comments of politicians worldwide and of the social media and you will see how David's words apply. Words spoken have done great harm this past week. Many people have died this past week because of harmful spoken words.
Rom.3:15-17 are a quote from Isa. 59:7-8 which in that context refers entirely to the Jewish people, but in truth it applies to everyone. It is just very sad, when those that have received such special revelation, sin blatantly and knowingly in the face of that revelation. Truly, we who have received the Word of God and who sin willingly have more to answer for.
The point is: The message of the Old Testament is that not only the pagans or gentiles are sinners. The Jews sinned equally – the law that they fail to keep condemns them (3:19) , and so the WHOLE WORLD may be held accountable to God, and so we find that the texts all taken together support Paul’s universal claim of human sinfulness.
Good News for Those "Under Sin"
All this begs us to cry out– what must we do to be saved? (Acts 2:37 – the crowd at Pentecost; and the Philippian Jailer- Acts 16:30).
When we analyze the situation in terms of the fallenness of mankind, then we know that this begs the question, what can be done?
Take heart! We are just a few words away from Jesus, the solution in Romans 3:21: “But now...!
