The nature of sin Romans 3:1-18
An old man got his wallet stolen while on a bus. When he realized, he started warning everyone: "Whoever stole my wallet better give it back or I’m warning you that what happened in 1983 is going to be repeated."
The old man kept ranting this warning every minute until the bus got to the next city. A young man jumped off the bus, threw the wallet in the window and started running away. The old man picked the wallet.
Stunned by the incident, a small kid walked to the man and asked, "What happened in 1983." The old man said, "In 1983, someone stole my wallet and I had to go hungry for three days."
“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. 3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
“5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”
“9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” 13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Paul continues to argue that the Jews are the same as anyone else when it comes to the issues of sin and righteousness and this is the progression of my message today.
I The advantage and disadvantage of the Jew v 1-4
II The righteousness of God v 5-8
III The sinfulness of all mankind v 9-18
I The advantage and disadvantage of the Jew v 1-4
A Paul begins by asking and then answering his own question when he says, “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”
The Jews were blessed beyond belief because they had been entrusted with the word of God and they took this responsibility very seriously. They had a group who were known as the scribes and the scribe’s responsibility was to copy, transcribe, translate and protect the scriptures. Most of them may have been priests and in Jesus day they were often associated with both the Pharisees and the High Priests.
The responsibility of the scribes was to translate the biblical texts and they quickly became the authorities on what the scripture said and what it was supposed to mean. In the Old Testament the best-known scribe was Ezra; and he was not only a scribe but also a priest, and in his day, he was considered to be a very powerful religious leader.
In Jesus day, the scribes seemed to have lost any spiritual authority and they simply became puppets of the religious establishment. Many of them had depended on the wealthy for both their training and their positions.
Jesus said of them in Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” In other words, they were people who were more pre-occupied with the little things than they were with the major doctrines of the faith.
In the news a few years ago there was a couple whose baby had starved to death and when the authorities had searched their home, they found several thousand dollars. When they were asked, “Why didn’t you buy some baby food?” They answered, “That money was our tithe.” They had majored in the minors.
So, Paul says the Jews were blessed because they were circumcised, and that indicated they were part of God’s people and had been guardians of the word of God.
The Jews were not only the keepers of the Old Testament but many of them were the first believers in the early church. In Mark 12:37 it says of Jesus, "the common people heard him gladly" and of course, the common people were all Jewish.
When the church began in the book of Acts the early church was almost entirely Jews. We see this in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, the miracle had attracted the attention of the Jews who had been in Jerusalem for the festival and had come from all over the known world. They came running when they heard the sound of the Holy Spirit and the number of Jewish converts that day was 3000. And then in chapter four the number of Jewish converts was 5000. And then in chapter five it says they were increasingly added to the Lord. And these were all Jews.
As a matter of fact, for over three years the gospel went throughout Jerusalem and Judea before it ever went to the Gentiles. And don’t forget, Jesus was Jewish and so were all twelve of His disciples.
As time went on, God used various people and means to reach out beyond the Jews and the gentiles were accepted into the church the same as the Jews.
Of course, Jesus was the first to reach the gentiles. He spoke to a Samaritan woman in Sychar about her salvation and although she tried to change the subject by speaking about the correct place to worship; Jesus answered her plainly and said, "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." So, He not only saved her that day but also clarified that the Jews were God’s first choice.
One of the absurdities of our day is the various groups who claim they’re Christians but hate the Jews. How can any who claims to have faith in Jesus say they hate the Jews when their Saviour is a Jew?
Not only that but God’s word has come through the Jews. The end of verse 2 says, “Unto them were committed the oracles of God." The oracles were the spoken and written words of God. Without the Jews we would have neither the Old nor the New Testament because God not only used them to write it but He also used them to kept it safe all through history.
On top of that, many of God’s gifts have come to us from the Jews. Besides the gifts of salvation and the word of God; Paul speaks in Romans 9:4-5 and he says Israel was given the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the service of God, the promises and the fathers. And even though God gave all these things specifically to them we have been the beneficiaries as well.
There is a teaching going around that the Old Testament is over and done with and that we who believe are New Testament believers. That sounds good except much of the New Testament is meaningless without the old. Genesis gives us creation, the first sin and the offerings. The New Testament teaches us that we’re sinners but it doesn’t explain where sin comes from. Daniel, Zephaniah and Malachi gave us pieces of prophecy but the gospels and the book of Revelation make them clear. The books of Proverbs and Job give us wisdom by which we understand life and much of Israel’s history teaches us ignoring God, is the pathway to destruction.
When I was a young Christian someone quoted Augustine who said, "The New is in the Old Concealed, the Old is in the New Revealed". Scripture is not meant to be approached like a television series: “I liked season 1 much better than season 2.” But the prophecies of the birth, death and resurrection of the Messiah were all written in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament. “All scripture,” not just some of it, “is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.”
We believe this and yet, there are people in our church who will read everything but the Bible, and they can tell you all the names of everyone on every TV show and a few of them can even name all the players of every professional sports team; but they couldn’t find the book of Lamentations if there was a cash reward.
The Wall Street Journal had an article about an exhibit that was coming to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It will be an eighty-six page Bible, which was created by Thomas Jefferson. In this severely abridged version, Jefferson says that he sought to remove passages “of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, or superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications.” Stories of angels, wise men, and the resurrection did not survive Jefferson’s scissors.
But after Jefferson completed his editing of the Bible, he wrote to a friend about his version of the scriptures and said, “It is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” The only proof is that he was a heretic. There are very few today who are so crass in their criticism of the Scriptures; they simply ignore what they don’t like.
I remember when I was seven or eight, I was sent to live with my grandmother in Cape Breton. She had a little table by the front door and on this table were three Bibles and later a Gideon’s New Testament that I received when I was in grade five. As far as I remember, no one ever opened any of these Bibles; but they were dusted every week out of respect. Within the pages were obituaries of family members who died and other than that, they were never opened. And yet, if someone asked if we were Christians, we’d say, “Of course, we even have several Bibles sitting by our front door.”
R C Sproul addresses the question of why we don't study the Word of God - "Here then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy." If you're too busy to read the Bible, you're too busy.
As an old evangelist used to say, “Read it through, write it down, pray it in, work it out, and then pass it on.”
B So, the Jew had a great advantage because he had been entrusted with the word of God and yet, while many of them had been raised with the teaching of scriptures in their synagogue, they claim to be Jewish; but most of them no longer follow the religious aspect of Judaism.
One Jewish man said, “I believe Judaism allows you to connect with people, gives you an automatic community to fall back on, and teaches family and friend values.” In other words, his faith was completely social.
So, the disadvantage of being Jewish is the same today as it was when Paul wrote to the Romans. They know they’ve been given the word of God but they’ve decided the things of the world are more important.
One of Aesop’s fables says, “One day a dog was walking along with his bone in his mouth but as he was walking across a bridge he happened to look down and in the water he saw his own reflection. Thinking it was another dog with another bone, he began to bark, dropping his bone in the water and losing it.” And so, many of the Jews have gained the world but lost their soul in the process.
II The righteousness of God v 5-8
But then Paul expands on the idea of sin and applies it to all of us. “5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”
He begins with an absurd argument when he says, “if my wicked behavior actually demonstrates how good God is, why should He punish me? I’m actually doing him a favor.” Or as one put it, “If our unrighteousness causes the righteousness of God to shine more gloriously, how can God visit us with wrath?” Or to put it simply, if my being bad makes God look good, where’s the problem?
Paul is using this argument to build his case for the sinfulness of sin and he’s using the absurd position of someone trying to justify themselves in order to prove we’re all in the same boat and our sinfulness actually highlights God’s perfection, so why is He so upset?
But listen, neither my sinfulness nor my righteousness does anything to glorify God. God is perfect, and in His perfection, He doesn’t need me or anyone else to prove how good He is and man’s sin only serves to demonstrate far short he is of the holiness of God.
First, sin dominates our minds. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” So, we aren’t just bad but desperately wicked.
Second, sin also dominates our will. Jeremiah 44:24-25 says, “Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” In other words, they were saying, we’re going to do whatever it is we want to do. This is a perfect demonstration of how sin dominates not only how we think, but also what we do.
And then third, sin even dominates our affections or the things we love. That’s why John had to say, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” Because it’s so easy for our hearts and minds to be dominated by sin. John 3:19 says, “that light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
It’s so common today to see people doing things in public that the previous generation wouldn’t even think of. From the gay parades to the talk shows that glorify perversion. People are no longer content to sin privately now they feel as though they have the right to display their perversion everywhere. The reason for this is simple, they think if everyone is doing it or if we do it in public then it can’t be all that bad. What they’re really doing is seeking approval for sin.
So, today we think, “Am I really all that bad?” If you haven’t said this, you’ve probably thought it and with good reason, you can always find someone worse than you and they can make your sin seem like peanuts in comparison. But listen, David said, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” Sin rules our hearts and those who die in childbirth, heart disease, cancer, murder, accidents, old age, or whatever, die as victims of sin. “For the wages of sin is death.” We’ve all been infected with the virus of sin and eventually it will kill us all.
There used to be a big argument about the nature of sin and Pelagius one of the earlier theologians said, “We all come into the world with a neutral situation and we choose to be a sinner or not.” And Augustine answered him, “Find me one who didn’t choose sin and I might believe it.”
Every broken marriage, every disrupted home, every shattered friendship, every argument, every disagreement, every pain, every tear can be attributed to sin. In fact, in Joshua 7:13 it’s called “the accursed thing.” In 2 Corinthians 7:1 the apostle Paul calls it “filthiness of the flesh and spirit.”
The Bible presents a horrific picture of the manifestation and devastation of sin. Sin is idolatry, rebellion, missing the mark, straying from the path, treachery, lust, ungodliness and wickedness. Sin lusts, perverts and breaks the law. Sin is overstepping a boundary and a failure to reach it, it’s a transgression and a shortcoming. Genesis 4:7 says, “Sin is like a beast crouching at the door.” Sinners are not merely sick or morally weak but we are as Ephesians 2:5 says, “Fallen, dead in our sins and trespasses.
Paul utters a scathing indictment of humanity in Romans 1:18–3:20, telling us we are so radically corrupt that sin affects not only our behavior but our very thinking. So, it’s not that we’re sinners because we sin but we sin because we are sinners. Our corruption precedes our actions. Since the fall of Adam sin has been and is a “normal” part of human life.
Sin is living on your terms, according to your own desires. Did you know that Jesse James; the bank robber and his gang committed 26 holdups, where they stole around $200,000 and killed at least 17 men, (many of them were killed by Jesse’s own hand).
Jesse James was one of the West’s most notorious outlaws. And yet, very few people know this but Jesse James father was a Baptist minister; and Jesse himself also considered himself a very devout Baptist. He was married and he and his wife had two boys.
Shortly after Jesse had killed a man in a bank robbery, he was baptized at the Kearney Baptist Church in Kearney, Missouri. Then during a robbery, he killed another man, a bank cashier, after which he went home and joined the choir, where eventually he became the choir director and taught the people of the church how to sing.
They said Jessie loved to go to church but he couldn’t always be there because sometimes, he just had to catch a train.
Listen, he was the classic example of someone who had all the right moves but all the wrong motives. And like most sinners he probably thought of himself as a pretty good guy.
There’s only one person who ever entered this world and passed through it without any stain of sin, and that was Jesus Christ.
III The sinfulness of all mankind v 9-18
This is an indictment of all mankind and in legal terms, an indictment is a formal, written charge and every indictment must have at least one count or one specific charge to it. The more serious the crime, the more counts to the indictment. Paul follows this pattern by quoting from a series of Old Testament passages which demonstrate, in no less than fourteen counts, how perverse and depraved the people of this world are.
“10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” 13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This section is a scriptural description and demonstration of why all men are condemned, both Jews and Gentiles. The big question is, are there any exceptions? Paul answers in verses 10, 11, 12 with a barrage of negatives, “There is none … not even one… none … none … not even one.”
What we have in verses 10-18 is a statement of total depravity. This doesn’t mean that man is as depraved as he could be, but there’s always room for each of us to get worse because of the nature of sin.
Total depravity means there is nothing in us that would commend us to a holy and a righteous God. We don’t measure our depravity by comparing ourselves to other people but against God’s holiness. After all, you can always find someone who is worse than you.
I’m sure we’ve all done things for others and some of us might even have received an award or two but compared to God, we all fall short. A Russian poet once said, “I don’t know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it is terrible.”
Someone once wrote to Dear Abby and said, “Dear Abby: I am 44 and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits. And Abby wrote back and said, “So would I.” Listen, none of us are perfect.
God’s standard of righteousness is the righteousness that He alone possesses, and this was demonstrated by Jesus. That’s why He would say in Matt 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The righteousness that’s demanded by God must be given by God.
The sum and force of Paul’s argument is this: everyone has sinned and none of us has any right to lay claim to any of God’s blessings. The Jew and the Gentile are equal in this, they’re both lost and both are in need of salvation. Let’s look at these verses.
Verse 10 – “There is none righteous” - The word "none" means absolutely none, there could never be even one. Then to emphasize it he says, "not even one." So, God is looking down from heaven to see if there was anyone who wanted a personal relationship with Him and He could not find one soul.
I have met a few people in churches who gave me the impression they had been saved but for the life of them they couldn’t remember any specific sin. But they could certainly see not only mine but everyone elses.
We try to live for the Lord and do the best we can but we all fall short. It’s like washing my hands with strong soap and the hottest water I can stand, but then if I examined my hands under a microscope, I’d be amazed at how much dirt and bacteria still remains. My life can seem so clean and pure compared to others, but God compares me to Himself.
Verse 12 – “They are all gone out of the way” – It’s easy to say, oh, we’re not that bad. But the Bible says, “They are together become unprofitable” or as the Hebrew says, they are putrid. God sees the whole of mankind as people who are dead and piled together putrefying in heaps. This is the state of mankind, we are both infected and infectious. “There is none that doeth good” Since none of us are righteousness, then none of us has any right to stand before God and tell Him how good we are.
Verse 13, “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”, “The poison of asps is under their lips.” This is describing the asp which is a species of serpent whose poison is so deadly that it kills almost the instant it penetrates the skin, and there is no remedy for this poison.
I think this is describing those who will say anything to anyone, regardless of whether it hurts their feelings or destroys their reputation. I’ve heard people in church say things like, “I really don’t want to say anything but I think you need to hear this, so you can be in prayer about it.” When you hear that, keep in mind the person isn’t saying, “Let’s pray about this right now.” Because their intention isn’t to pray it’s to gossip while they’re appearing spiritual.
The malicious and wicked words are meant to ruin the reputation of anyone who dares to appear better than them.
Verse 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” – This is a reference to their attitude to God. They curse Him either with their mouths or in their hearts in spite of everything He has provided for them. They never speak of Him without blaming Him for everything that’s ever happened. So, the cursing refers to God while the bitterness is toward their neighbor.
Someone defined bitterness as anger and disappointment at being treated unfairly. It is an attitude of intense and prolonged anger and hostility which is synonymous with resentment and envy and it often involves feelings of resentment and a desire for revenge. Someone described bitterness as, "Drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Doctors tell us that what eats us is much more dangerous than what we eat. Someone wisely said, “There’s no such thing as a bitter person who keeps the bitterness to himself.”
There’s was a man who was bitten by a dog, which was later discovered to be rabid. He was rushed to the hospital where tests revealed that he had contracted rabies. At this particular time, medical science had no solution for his problem, and the doctor faced the difficult situation of telling him of his condition and informing him that what he had was incurable, that it was terminal.
"Sir," he said, "we will do all we can to make you comfortable, but we cannot give you any false hope. There's nothing we can really do. My best advice is to put your affairs in order as soon as possible".
The dying man sank into his bed in depression and shock but then he rallied enough to ask for a pen and some paper, and he began to write with great energy. An hour later when the doctor returned, the man was still writing vigorously and the doctor said to him, "Well, I'm glad you've taken my advice. You must be working on your will". "This ain't no will, Doc," he said, "This is a list of people I'm gonna bite before I die". And that is what resentment and bitterness will do to you, it will turn you into an angry, bitter person.
Verse 15, “Their feet are swift to shed blood” - People hurt others thinking somehow, it’s going to help themselves. In doing so, they use of every means available to destroy the reputation of the other person. Look at our legal system today, two people go to court to settle an issue but rather than deal with the matter at hand they do their best to try and make the other person’s character the issue.
Verse 16, “Destruction and misery are in their ways;” In many ways, destruction is what they hope for; but the result is often misery to themselves. They hope to destroy the happiness of others but they simply end up bitter and miserable.
Verse 17, “And the way of peace have they not known” – Not only do they not have peace with God, but they don’t want anyone else to have it either. As Isaiah 57:21 says, "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
Verse 18, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” They’ve made up their minds, there is no God, so I can do anything I want as long as I want because there’s no one to stop me. This sums up attitude, they either see themselves as total atheists, or just spend their lives living like they are.
We tend to think this is overstating the case, but not too long ago we had World War Two and the holocaust. There’s a place called Auschwitz where over a million Jews were killed. There had shower rooms where the Jewish people would be sent to get clean but there they’d be gassed to death and then their bodies were hauled off to incinerators where they were burned. Many of those who were killed had also been starved and sad to say it but many of their torturers actually enjoyed what they were doing.
They had a room where eyeglasses were stacked 20 feet high and another with piles of human hair. The hair was used to make rugs and people paid dearly for them in Germany at the time. There was another room where gold from people’s teeth was melted it down and sent to a factory where they made jewelry.
The strange thing is, the people who were guards were very ordinary people. I’m sure many of them had joined the army to get a paycheck while they led people to the gas ovens, and collected all the glasses, teeth and hair.
Before the war, these people probably had other kinds of menial jobs but because the economy was so bad, they did what they could to get by, and then after the war, they all went back and did whatever it was they had done before. They were ordinary people who had done horrific things but when the war was over, they simply forgot about what they had done and went on with their lives. These were people who had no fear of God or they wouldn’t have done what they did.
So, Paul has been laying out his case like a lawyer.
Romans 3:9 -THE CHARGE -- All are under sin.
Romans 3:10-18 -THE INDICTMENT. Here is a list of the sins you’ve committed.
Romans 3:19 - THE VERDICT - GUILTY!
In the early 20th century a major newspaper invited several famous authors to respond to the question, “What is wrong with the world today?” G.K. Chesterton’s response was by far the shortest. His reply: “Dear Sir, I am.” And he was right. We all are, because we’re sinners living in a sin-cursed world. But if you’ve received the Lord as your Savior you have the hope of going to a home where sin will no longer be remembered.
