Romans 3:10-20

Tom Shrader concludes a multi-week summation of Romans 1–3, walking through Paul's blanket indictment of all humanity across three categories: character, speech, and conduct. Drawing on Psalms, Isaiah, and Paul's argument that no one is righteous, seeks God, or does good by God's standard, Shrader dismantles the human tendency to grade morality on a curve or compare oneself favorably to others. He closes by contrasting the hopelessness of human effort under the law with the hope found in Christ alone, whose death reconciles sinners who were helpless, guilty, and enemies of God.

“God's standard is not measured in comparison to one another. All have sinned, and all fall short, and consequently, all are in the same place.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Romans

Recorded: 2013 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 37 min

Themes: sin, guilt, judgment, grace, salvation, hope, human nature, righteousness, feeling self-righteous, struggling with pride, new believer, doubting salvation, feeling unworthy, comparing yourself to others, seeker, young adult

Scripture: Romans 3:10-20, Romans 3:23, Romans 1:18-20, Romans 2:1, Romans 3:9, Romans 5:6-10, Psalm 14:1, Psalm 51, Isaiah 53:6, Proverbs 14:12, Matthew 15:18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 4:15, John 3:16, John 14:6, John 10:10

Theological Themes: total depravity, original sin, justification, imputed righteousness, atonement, propitiation, biblical anthropology, law and gospel

Full Transcript

Introduction: Paul's Sweeping Conclusion

Romans chapter 3 is where we are. Paul is driving us in chapters 1, 2, and 3 to a conclusion — the conclusion Tim will deal with next week — Romans 3:23: that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. By "all," Paul means all. Everyone who has ever lived.

Beginning at Romans chapter 3, Paul picks up where he left off last week. He asks a question: "What then? Are we better off?" — speaking of the Jews — "Are we better off than the pagans?" No, we are not. He has already charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin.

Ray Stedman writes that it would be a little better to change the phrase "are we better off" to "do we have better standing at all," for that is what Paul is really saying. He looked over all mankind and asked a key question: Is there any ground by which a man or woman can please God apart from faith in Christ? Is there any way that you can try to be good and make it? Paul's answer is no. That is what he has been building toward, leading all the way back to chapter 1, verse 18.

The Pagan Who Suppresses the Truth

Paul has dealt with at least two, maybe three, groups of people. In chapter 1, verse 18, we read: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." That phrase "suppress the truth" describes an active holding down.

I have always used this illustration for it. When the kids were small, they had two particularly annoying toys. One was that popcorn popper — the clear dome with those bouncing pieces — and they would just run it everywhere. The other was a jack-in-the-box. But that toy was perfect in one way: once the clown came out, the kids didn't have the dexterity to get it back in. It would take them another hour — until one day Sarah discovered that if you held the top of the box, you could keep winding and winding and holding it down indefinitely, which was more annoying than the popcorn popper. But that is always the picture I have used for that verb in verse 18 — to suppress. It is that active holding down.

Paul tells you why: God has made Himself evident. Verse 20 tells us His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine nature are clearly seen and understood through creation, so mankind is without excuse. And yet, even though they knew God, they did not honor Him or give thanks to Him. They became futile in their speculation, their foolish hearts were hardened, and the rest of chapter 1 is that discussion of the blatantly sinful, pagan person. Paul's conclusion is straightforward: they are sinners.

The Moral Person Who Judges Others

When Paul gets to chapter 2, he speaks to another group. There is some debate about exactly who they are — whether they are Gentiles who are morally upright, or Jews — but whoever they are, most likely they are pagans who consider themselves good people. They look at the people in chapter 1 and say, "God, I don't blame You. Go get them." And Paul deals with them directly.

Chapter 2, verse 1: "Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." He is saying that the moment you start the process of judging, you are acknowledging that there are rules that apply — and Paul is saying that you fall short of them too.

Comparing yourself to others is one of our favorite things to do. "Well, I'm not that bad. Look at them." When Sandy was cleaning some things out of the house, she found a picture and said, "You look so thin and tall in this picture." Now, let me give you some context: it was me with a team of eight- and nine-year-olds I was coaching. I look big compared to eight- and nine-year-olds. Compared to Shaq? Not so much. Someone asked me the other day if I am a good golfer, and I said, "I am compared to you." Am I a good golfer? No — not based on a lot of the people I play with. It is all relative.

That is exactly what the people in chapter 2 are doing. They are saying, "God, get those guys — but we're okay." And God says, "No. The moment you start this game of judging them, you have judged yourself, because you have acknowledged that there is a law and a judgment." No one, not even the most upright person, lives up to the law of God perfectly. Not even anyone lives up perfectly to the cultural law of their own society. So they are condemned.

The Jews Who Fall Short

Then, when you get to chapter 3, in those first eight verses Paul looked at last week, Paul examines the Jews and concludes that they fall short as well. So here is where we pick up today: "Are we better than they are? No, not at all." The entire human race, without exception, is guilty before God.

The phrase "already charged" is a legal term used to designate a person who has been previously indicted. That is what Paul is doing here — declaring all mankind guilty. All mankind falls short. Verse 23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Paul's Blanket Indictment

Paul now moves to issue this blanket indictment in a systematic way, concluding his summation argument. Look at verse 10: "There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good, not

The Indictment of Human Character

"Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they keep deceiving; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their paths; and the path of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."

Paul begins to issue this indictment, and he breaks it out — John MacArthur breaks it this way, and most commentators do — into three categories. Verses 10 through 12 indict their character. Verses 13 and 14 address their speech, or conversation. Verses 15 through 17 address their conduct. So let's take some time and break it apart.

None Righteous

"There is none righteous" is a partial quote from Psalm 14, verse 1. Here is the full text: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good." There is not a single person on earth — not one. This is an amazing statement, and it challenges even our own perspective and, in a lot of ways, our own experience.

Some of you have been around Gilbert — maybe in the old East Valley Bible Church days — or have been around for the last couple of years, and you have been taught this passage and similar passages over and over again. To some degree it has lost some of its "wow" effect. But some of you may be encountering this for the very first time, and immediately you object. When you hear "none righteous, none understands, none seek for God," you say, "No way," and you begin to fire off a litany of people who seem to contradict it.

You have a neighbor who does good. A couple moved in next door to us after our house sat vacant for almost four years. I went over to introduce myself — not to be hospitable necessarily, but to find out what I was dealing with. I knocked on the door, the guy came out, introduced himself and his wife, and I said, "We live next door. Do you have any kids?" He said, "No. In fact, we live in Missouri. We're only going to be here one week a month." Good start. I asked, "Do you have any loud animals in the house?" He said, "We are quiet drunks." Perfect.

He asked what I was doing that day, and I said there was something wrong with the toilet in our master bedroom. He asked if I was fixing it. I said I was surveying it to figure out who was going to fix it. About twenty minutes later, there was my quiet neighbor with a tool belt, saying he came to fix my toilet. And you would stand back and say, "Certainly that's a good deed." He didn't even know us. If anything, all we had done was offend him by surveying him to see what we could get out of it — and there he was. We drive around town and we see car washes held to benefit someone, all sorts of things like that, and you say, "Wait a minute. I know people who do good."

None Who Understand

Paul goes on to say there is none who understand. Understand what? He means understand the depths of the attributes of God. Sin makes that impossible. He is not necessarily talking about comprehending even the basic truths of Christianity. I had heard this said before, but I never thought I would experience it myself — and yet I have. I have met many people who understand basic Christian doctrine as well as or better than many of you, but who do not believe it at all. They can repeat it back, but they do not comprehend it. They do not have the ability to grasp God's truths.

First Corinthians 2, verse 14 is a key verse here: the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. Ephesians 4:15 reinforces this — these unsaved people are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that sin has produced in them, the hardness of their heart.

None Who Seek for God

Then Paul says there is none who seek for God. You might say, "Wait a minute — there are religions everywhere. There are churches on every corner. There are people who aren't even part of churches who are on some sort of spiritual journey. Clearly they are seeking God." What Paul is saying is, no — what they are trying to find is a way to escape the one true God. They are seeking gods made in their own image, gods they have created. They are not looking for the true God, the truth of God, or the justice of God. They are seeking gods fashioned according to their own preferences.

Let me acknowledge the tension there on a human level, but this is one of those times where God is speaking to us not from our perspective but from His. There may be people doing what we would call good things, but even then, not doing them for the right reason. When Jesus was with His disciples teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, He pointed to the Pharisees and said, "Don't give like they give. Don't pray like they pray. Don't fast like they fast." He was not saying not to give, pray, or fast — they were doing all of those things. Is praying a good thing? In that case, God was saying no, because they were praying with the wrong heart.

God's Assessment, Not Paul's

This is Paul's assessment based not on his own impression or experience, but on the Word of God. What he does in verses 10 through 18 is quote from Psalm 14, Psalm 51, and the book of Isaiah. He is saying, this is God's assessment. As God looks down, He does not look at the action — He looks at the heart of the actor. He understands that the motives are different.

God saved me in 1980. Around that same time, He saved a man I knew, a man by the name of Tom Woods. Tommy was a wonderful man — big family, they played tennis together, he worked with his dad. Tommy was just a good guy. After about a year of being followers of Christ, we decided to have lunch and celebrate. We went to a place called Chubb's, which isn't there anymore —

The Reality of Human Nature Before God

Tommy taught me a great lesson over an incredible cheeseburger. He said he had experienced a radical change, but it was a change within his heart. He had been doing a lot of really nice things, so people would look at him and say, "Tommy does a lot of really nice things." That is exactly what Paul is speaking to here.

You may look at your life and have a different assessment, but God's assessment is that there is not one person who does good, not one who understands, not one who seeks for God. As a result, verse 12 says they have all turned aside. The basic meaning here is to lean in the wrong direction. In a military context, it refers to a soldier who is running away from the battle rather than toward it.

Isaiah 53:6 says, "All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way." Each of us has done what we think is right in our own minds. Proverbs 14:12 tells us that the way natural men operate seems right to them, but that way ends in destruction. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth. No one comes to the Father but through Me."

This is Paul's mini-conclusion based on verses 10 and 11: they have turned aside, they are headed in the wrong direction, and consequently they have become useless. That word is used to describe milk that has gone sour — no longer of any value. Bringing it all together, there is none who does good. Doing good means literally to do what is upright, morally upright, measured by God's standard. He has already said no one does what is righteous, and now he says there is no one who does good.

Grading on a Curve

I understand the flinch to this. What Paul is saying is that you and I stand guilty before God based on our actions, and God's standard is not measured in comparison to one another. I attended a very rigid Catholic high school. Ninety-three to one hundred was an A. If you got a 92.999, that was a B. There were clear, fixed thresholds all the way down.

When I got to college, I was not emotionally equipped for the freedom. In my psychology 101 class, the professor said on the first day that there were no tests, no quizzes, no attendance requirement — only a final. I went in, took the test, knew I had done poorly, and got it back marked 62, B. I was introduced to a concept we did not have in high school: grading on a curve.

What Paul is acknowledging is that humanly, we tend to turn to God and say, "I scored a 62, but I expect an A, I expect a B, because I am better than all these other people." What God is saying is that some act obviously worse than others, but all have sinned, all fall short, and consequently all are in the same place.

The Corruption of Speech

Paul then turns to speech, and notice the progression: he moves from the throat, to the tongue, to the lips, to the mouth. The basic principle, found in Matthew 15:18, is that things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. What comes out of your speech is evidence of what is deep down inside of you — it is an open window into the soul.

Sandy and I were on a cruise to Hawaii — a trip you all generously sent us on — and it was an amazing time, designed with many days at sea. Five days over, six days back. I wanted to see what that extended time at sea would be like. What stunned me was not the whales we saw at every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but the way people talked to one another.

The things that came out of their mouths, the way they treated each other — by the end of eleven days, there could have been a divorce lawyer passing out cards at the dock, because there were a great many people who could not sustain that time together with the person they had promised to love for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death. The character assassination, the caustic words, the cursing and the bitterness — that is what pours out when what is inside is brought to the surface.

The Devastation of Human Conduct

From speech, Paul moves to conduct, beginning in verse 15: "Their feet are swift to shed blood." Throughout the entire history of mankind, there have been only 268 years of worldwide peace. We say we want peace, yet we shed blood.

The word destruction here is a compound word that denotes the breaking up of something into pieces — complete shattering. Misery is a general term that denotes the resulting harm that is always left in the wake of man's acts of destruction. You look around and you see it everywhere.

Countries cannot speak to one another. Within nations you see person against person, race against race, economic group against economic group — class warfare, race warfare, conflicts among the intelligentsia. You see it within homeowner associations. You see it within families. That is who we are.

The Path to Peace and the Fear of God

The path to peace, as verse 17 describes, is not known to them. One author writes: "Peace has never been more highly extolled than in our day. But few would argue that peace, whether personal or international, actually characterizes our times. Nonetheless, as in Jeremiah's day, many modern leaders are trying to heal the brokenness of the people superficially, crying peace, peace, when there is no peace." The result of all of this is caused by verse 18: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

The motive for man's sinfulness is his built-in godlessness. There is no fear of God on either a positive or a negative side. On the positive side, there is not even the reverential awe of God that leads a person to do what is right as he perceives it to be.

I was talking to somebody this week. They were on vacation, meeting some friends, and those friends brought friends of their own. They were going to meet for dinner, and their friends called and said their other friends wanted to go to the five o'clock mass first and then go to dinner. My friend said they would love to go along, and so they did.

At dinner afterward, they were talking to the man who had wanted to attend mass, and the conversation turned to some social issues. He raised one particular issue, and my friend said, "But your church doesn't teach that." The man said, "It doesn't — I don't care what the church teaches, this is what I believe." And this is not a criticism of the Catholic Church; I am making a broader point. That response is the very definition of no fear of any authority. At that point, the man was essentially saying, "I am my own God."

There is no reverential awe, no real understanding of the Bible and who God is. As long as we talk in broad terms about spiritual things, everybody is fine. But the minute we begin to give those things definition, we get the pushback. That is the positive side of the fear of God — the reverential awe of God as He presents Himself in the Bible.

The Negative Side: Fear of Judgment

The other side is the negative side — the fear, dread, and terror of the punishment of God. It feels as though as a culture we have lost any sense of shame or fear of any sort of judgment. Even for those of us who are Christians, God says ideally He wants us to be motivated to live a holy life based on our love for Him, but even when we cannot manage that, He calls us to act at least out of duty and the fear of discipline. But even that is largely absent.

The Verdict: Every Mouth Closed

That is the blanket indictment. That is what Paul has been driving toward — in our case, over the thirteen weeks we have been studying this. Now here is his conclusion, the verdict, in verses 19 and 20.

"Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law no flesh can be justified in His sight. For through the law comes knowledge of sin."

Paul is saying all of you are under the law, and when you hear that, there is just dead silence. You do not even try to argue. You are guilty. Your head drops. Those who want to say they will be good enough, those who want to be judged by the law — they are condemned. There is no justification before God for pointing to what you did or did not do. God says here is the standard, and the standard is perfection. You fall short of that. By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. There is no salvation apart from grace — for anyone.

The Depth of Sin's Effect

Now, the good news is coming — and this is one of the downsides of the way we are teaching this material by breaking it into sections. What we end up doing is giving you bad news week after week. Someone said to me this week, "Well, I finally got the point — I'm a sinner." But you have not really gotten the point, because the point is bigger than that. The point is that we are all sinners, all in that same condition and standing before the same judgment of God.

About two months ago I had the chance to teach at Scottsdale Bible Church, a group of about one hundred men in their leadership training. I am starting to see a pattern. Dr. Grudem talked about the glory of God. Jamie talked about the love of God. My topic was sin. Tim called me about two months ago and said he wanted me to teach on June 30th. I said that works — it is my brother's birthday. Then he told me the passage: depravity. I am not sure whether I keep getting assigned this topic out of reputation, because I teach it well, or — more likely — because I lived it.

Here is the summary, and this is really important. This is how I ended the session at Scottsdale Bible Church: to talk about sin, how sin came into the world, what sin does, and specifically to talk about the depth of its effect on us. That is the central issue — how much does sin actually affect you?

There are arguments all over about this. Is man basically good? Is man basically good but he messes up a little? Is his soul just a little sick, like having the flu — serious, but as long as he is alive there is hope he can recover on his own? That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that man is dead in his sins and trespasses, that man is separated from God. This is God's point of view.

I can completely understand pushing back on this and saying, "That is not my experience." But I am not primarily concerned with your experience — I am concerned with what God says. When I say I understand, I mean it: it never occurred to me as a non-believer that there was truly no one who did good. But what God is doing here is giving us the accurate perspective — His perspective. He does not want us going with our hunches.

The Danger of Piecemeal Theology

God does not want you to assemble a piecemeal, favorite theology — a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little bit of Oprah and a little bit of Rush and a little bit of Billy Graham and a little bit of Joel Osteen and a little bit of R.C. Sproul. He wants you to know what He says. There is none righteous. There is not even one.

The True Condition of Man

It is not that we have a disease. When I became a believer in 1980, I was in church and church-related activities as often as I could be, and everything was new to me. There was an illustration they used about the condition of lost man. It went like this: it is as though he has fallen into the sea, hundreds of thousands of miles from shore, with nothing he can do — destined to drown. But along comes God, and He throws out a life preserver, and all you have to do is grab it and you will be saved.

That illustration is well-intentioned, but is it true? No. The Bible says no. It is not that you are flopping around in the water — you are dead. It is not that you are lying in a hospital bed, very sick, and here is the vaccine that will save you, all you have to do is open your mouth and swallow it. The Bible teaches that you are dead. Too late for a vaccine. You are dead. And if you were alive, the Bible says you would take that vaccine and spit it out.

Romans 5 — Helpless, Sinners, Enemies

Turn to chapter 5. Paul describes God saving us and actually begins the chapter by telling us we have been justified by faith, and therefore we have peace with God. Look at verse 6. Circle the phrase "while we were still helpless." Verse 8: "while we were yet sinners." Verse 10: "while we were enemies."

"While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." That is us. "God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And verse 10: "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." The condition of man is hopeless, and on your own you are helpless.

Desperation Without Despair

There should be a sense, as you listen to this, of an overwhelming desperation beginning to sink in — but do not let it become despair, because there is hope, and the hope is the person of Christ. No one has done good. That may be totally brand-new news to you, and you may be thinking you will come before God and He will simply approve of your record. It does not work that way.

Imagine if God said, "Why should I let you into heaven?" You would say, "Because I am basically a good person. I have done some good things. I am not perfect — I acknowledge that." I do not know anybody bold enough to say they are perfect. Virtually everyone will acknowledge they have fallen short. What God calls that is sin, and that sin has separated you from Him. The provision He has made for you is Jesus Christ, and Him alone.

The Law, the Spirit, and Grace

The law comes along and all the law does is point out this sin. But God seeks people. God takes the ability that is not naturally there — to understand spiritual things — and He puts the Holy Spirit in your life so you can understand these things. And He offers salvation to us through grace.

Realistically, if we were to read the verses we looked at today, there ought to be something in us that says, "God, if I were You, I would say enough is enough, wipe us out, and get it over with." But God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. We were sinners — those of us who know Christ — but now we are saints. Not based on what we did, but on what Christ did.

Run Toward It, Not Away

To those of you who already know this, you are thinking, "Not bad, good effort, Tom." But to some of you for whom this is new, there is a war going on inside of you right now. You cannot wait to get out of here. You are very uncomfortable. I am telling you — do not run from it, run to it. Run to the people who will be at the front of this room when this service is over. Ask them the questions you have, because the stakes are huge.

It is not just about your eternal destination. It is about life here. Jesus said, "I have come that you would have life, and have it abundantly." That eternal life begins right now. That is who we are. And do you see — when we see this sin in our life, God gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and we get smaller and smaller and smaller. We become great sinners who need a great God, and He is there for us.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for this truth. We may not even like to hear it, but we know it is true from our experience. We know we are sinners. We may not have understood the depth of the sin, or the response or the reaction to it, but God, we hear it now. To those of us who would call Jesus Lord — God, will You deepen our love for You, for Him. And to those who are maybe angry or even confused right now, would You give them the courage to ask questions so we can share the truth. God, we love You and worship You. In Christ's name, amen.