Romans 3 - Total Depravity
Tom Shrader systematically works through Romans 3:9-20, demonstrating Paul's universal indictment of humanity. He examines how Scripture declares that no one is righteous, no one understands, and no one seeks God, addressing the human tendency to compare ourselves favorably to others. The teaching emphasizes that all people, regardless of background, stand equally guilty before God's perfect standard.
“What they're trying to find is a way to escape the one true God—they're seeking gods made in their own image.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Romans
Recorded: 2013
Duration: 37 min
Themes: sin, righteousness, guilt, pride, comparison, judgment, depravity, condemnation, struggling with pride, comparing to others, feeling superior, new believer, doubting salvation, self-righteous person, moral person, religious person
Scripture: Romans 3:9-20, Romans 3:23, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 2:1, Psalm 14:1, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 4:15, Matthew 15:18, Isaiah 53:6, Proverbs 14:12, Romans 5:6-10, John 3:16
Theological Themes: total depravity, universal sin, original sin, human nature, divine judgment, biblical anthropology, fallen humanity, spiritual deadness
Full Transcript
Romans chapter 3 is where we are. We've got about 40 minutes, and what we're going to try to do today is tie together all of the 14 weeks we've looked at. Paul is driving us in chapters 1, 2, and 3 to a conclusion—the conclusion Tim will deal with next week in Romans 3:23, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. By all, Paul means all, everyone who's ever lived.
Paul's Question About Human Standing Before God
Romans chapter 3 really begins where Paul Artino left off last week. Paul asks a question: "What then, are we better off than they?" He's speaking of the Jews. Are we better off than the pagans? No, we're not. We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin.
Ray Stedman writes that it would be better to change the phrase "are we better off" to "do we have better standing at all," for that's what Paul's really saying. He looked over all mankind and said, "Is there any ground by which a man or woman can please God apart from faith in Christ?" This is a key question for us here. Is there any way that you can try to be good and make it? Paul's answer is no. That's what he's done leading up to this.
The Suppression of Truth
Beginning back in chapter 1, verse 18, Paul has dealt with at least two groups of people, maybe three. "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" is an act of holding down.
I've always used this illustration. When the kids were small, they had two particularly annoying toys. One was that popcorn popper—the clear dome with those hearts. I hated that thing. The other one was a jack-in-the-box. But it was perfect in that once it came out, they 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 that box, you could keep it from popping out. That's always the picture I've used for that verb in verse 18, to suppress. It's that holding down.
He tells you why. He says it's evident—God's made Himself evident. Verse 20: through creation, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature, are clearly seen, they're understood, so you're without excuse. He says even though they knew God, they didn't honor Him or give thanks to Him. They became futile in their speculation, and their foolish hearts were hardened. The rest of chapter 1 discusses the pagan, blatantly sinful person. Paul's conclusion there is obviously they're sinful, they're sinners.
The Good People Who Judge Others
When he gets to chapter 2, he speaks to a group. There's some debate about whether these are non-Jews, Gentiles who are good people, or if they're Jews. In one sense it really doesn't matter. Whoever they are—and I think most likely they're good pagans—they look at those people in chapter 1 and say, "God, I don't blame You. I'd get them too."
Paul deals with them in 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's saying the minute you start this process of judging, you're acknowledging that there are rules that apply. You're acknowledging that they fall short, but Paul's saying here's the problem: so do you. You're comparing yourself to them.
That's one of the favorite things we do: "Well, I'm not that bad. Look at them." It's by comparison. When Sandy was cleaning some stuff out in the house, she said, "I found a picture. It's an amazing picture." So I look at it, and she said, "You look so thin and tall in this picture." Well, let me give you some context. It's me with a team of eight and nine-year-olds that I was coaching. So I look big compared to the eight and nine-year-olds, but compared to Shaq, not so big.
Someone asked me the other day, "Are you a good golfer?" I said, "I am compared to you." Am I a good golfer? No, not based on a lot of people I play with. See, it's all relative, and that's what the people in chapter 2 are doing. They're going, "God, get those guys. I understand it, but we're okay." And God says no. The minute you start this game of judging them, you've judged yourself, because you've acknowledged that there's a law and a judgment. No one—forget the law of God—no one even lives up to the cultural law perfectly. So you're condemned.
The Jews Fall Short Too
Then when you get to chapter 3, the section that Paul Artino looked at last week in those first eight verses, he looks at the Jews and says they fall short too.
Paul's Universal Indictment
Here's what we pick up today: Are we better than they are? No, not at all. In other words, the entire human race, without exception, is guilty before God. "We have already charged"—that idea "already charged" is a legal term used to designate a person who's been previously indicted. That's what he's doing here. He's saying all mankind is guilty. All mankind falls short. Verse 23: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Now Paul's going to deal in a systematic way. This is his concluding, his summation argument. He's going to issue this blanket indictment. 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 even one."
The Indictment Against Humanity
Their throat is an open grave, their tongue, with their tongue they keep deceiving, the poison of Asp 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 path, and the path of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
He begins to issue this indictment, and he breaks it out really, John MacArthur breaks it this way, most guys do really, in three categories. Verses 10, 11, and 12, he indicts their character. Verse 13 and 14, their speech or conversation. Verse 15, 16, and 17, he talks about their conduct.
So let's take some time here and break it apart. There is none righteous. It's a partial quote from Psalm 14 verse 1. Here's 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's not a single person on earth. There's not one person. This is an amazing statement.
The Challenge to Our Experience
It challenges even our own perspective, and in a lot of ways our own experience, doesn't it? Some of you have been around Gilbert, maybe in the old East Valley Bible Church days, or around Gilbert for the last couple of years, and you've been taught this passage, and similar passages over and over again. So to some degree, it's lost some of its wow effect.
Some of you maybe for the very first time are being exposed to this, and immediately you object. Immediately when you hear "none righteous, none understands, none seek for God," you think, "No way." And you begin to fire a litany of people. You have a neighbor who does good.
Our house next door to us was vacant for almost four years, and then a couple moved in, and I went over to introduce myself. Not hospitable necessarily, but to find out what I was dealing with. So I knock on the door and the guy comes and he introduces himself and his wife. I said, "Well, 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, good, good start.
I said, "Do you have any loud animals or anything in your house?" He said, "We are quiet drunks." Perfect. He said, "Tell me about you." I said, "Well, I'm quiet too and live next door." He said, "What are you doing today?" I said, "Well, there's a toilet in our master bedroom and there's something wrong with it." He said, "Are you fixing it?" I said, "Well, no. I'm surveying it to figure out who's going to fix it."
About 20 minutes later there's my quiet neighbor with a tool belt saying, "I came to fix your toilet." I said, "Well, this is the perfect neighbor. This is the guy we've been waiting to meet." And so you'd stand back and say, "Certainly that's a good deed. He doesn't even know you. If anything, all you did was offend him by trying to survey him to see what you were going to get out of it. And there he is. That's got to be good."
We drive around town and we see car washes to benefit various causes. You see all sorts of different things. And you're saying, "Wait a minute. There has to be. I know people who do good."
None Who Understand
He goes on to say there's none who understand. Understand what? He means understand the depths of the attributes of God. Sin makes that impossible. There's none who understand. He's not talking about maybe even comprehending the truths of Christianity.
I had heard this said before, but I never thought I would experience it, but I have. I've met many people who understand basic Christian doctrine as well or better than many of you, but don't believe it at all. They can repeat it back, but they don't comprehend it. They don't understand it. They don't have the ability to comprehend God's truths.
1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. It's a key verse, and our understanding of this is that natural man can't understand spiritual things. Ephesians 4:15: "Darkened, these men, these unsaved people, are darkened in their understanding. Excluded from life, the life of God, because of the ignorance that sin has in them, the hardness of their heart."
None Who Seek for God
There's none who seek for God. You know, wait a minute. Stop. There's all these religions. There's churches on every corner. There's people who aren't even part of churches who are on some sort of spiritual journey. Clearly, they're seeking God.
And what He's saying is no. What they're trying to find is a way to escape the one true God. They're seeking gods made in their own image. Gods that they've created. They're not looking for the God and the truth of God and the justice of God. They're seeking for gods created in their own image.
Let me acknowledge the tension there humanly, but this is one of those times where God's speaking to us not from our perspective, but from His. There may be people who are doing what we would call good things, but even then, not doing them for the right reason.
God's Perspective on Good Works
When Jesus is with the disciples and He's teaching them in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Here's the Pharisees. Don't give like they give. Don't pray like they pray. Don't fast like they fast." He's not saying don't give, pray, fast. They did that. They were doing that. Is praying a good thing? Well, in this case, God's saying no because they're praying with the wrong heart.
This is Paul's assessment based not on his impression or experience, but based on the word of God. What he does in verses 10 through 18 is quote from Psalm 14 and Psalm 51 in the book of Isaiah, and he's saying this is God's assessment. As God looks down, He doesn't look at the action. He looks at the heart of the actor, and He understands that his motives are different.
A Personal Illustration
God saved me in 1980, and about the time He saved me, He saved a guy who I knew, a guy by the name of Tom Woods. And Tommy was this wonderful guy. Big family. He was one of these guys. They played tennis together, and he worked with his dad. Tommy was just a good guy.
So after a year of being followers of Christ, we decided to have lunch and celebrate. Went to a place called Chubb's, which isn't there anymore.
had an incredible cheeseburger. We're there talking, and I said, "Tommy, it's been an amazing year. The change in my life has been so radical." He said, "The year really hasn't changed much." And he taught me a great lesson. He said, "I've had a radical change, but it's a change within my heart. I was doing a lot of really nice things, so people would look at me and say, 'Tommy does a lot of really nice things.'"
So that's exactly what Paul's speaking to here. You may look at it, and you may 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.
All Have Turned Aside
As a result, verse 12: 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's running away from the battle rather than to it. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 6: "All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way." Each of us have done what we think is right in our own minds.
Proverbs 14:12 - the way we've operated as natural men, we operate in a way that seems right to us, but whose way ends in destruction. Jesus says, "I'm the way, the truth. No one comes to the Father but through me."
It's kind of His mini conclusion here. Based on verse 10 and 11, verse 12 is that they turned aside. They're headed in the wrong way. Consequently, they have become useless. It's a word that's used to describe milk that's gone sour. They're no longer of any value.
And bringing it all together, there's none who does good. The idea of doing good means literally to do what is upright, morally upright, measured by God's standard. He's already said no one does what's righteous. No one does that. He said there's no one who does good.
God's Standard vs. Human Comparison
And again, I understand the flinch to this. Do you see what He's saying? He's saying you and I stand guilty before God based on our actions. God's standard is not measured in comparison to one another.
I was in a very, in my mind, rigid Catholic high school. 93 to 100 was an A. If you got a 92.999, what was that? B. 85 to 93 is a B. I remembered 75 to 85, something like that was a C. 70 to 75 was a D. Under that, they'd just beat you. They didn't get lower than that.
Well, I got to college, and I was not emotionally equipped for college. I was not equipped for the freedom. I mean, I got there and found out every class was different. But we had a psychology 101 class, and he said the first day, "All you have to do, there's not any tests. There's not any quiz. There's not any attendance. There's a final. That's it."
And all I heard was you didn't need to go to class. And I went in. I took this test. I know I did poorly. I got it back, and as I remember, it said something like 62, B. And I was introduced to a concept that we didn't have in high school. What was it? Grading on a curve.
What Paul's acknowledging is that humanly, we tend to turn to God and say, "I'm grading out at 62, but I expect an A. I expect a B because I'm better than all these other people." And what God is saying is some act obviously worse than others. But all have sinned and all fall short, and consequently, all are in the same place. See that?
The Evidence of the Heart: Speech
Now He talks about your speech. And look at the progression there. He talks about your throat, then your tongue, then your lips, then your mouth. There's a basic principle we learn in Matthew 15:18. Things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. This is evident as what's deep down inside of you. It's an open grave. You speak in a way that's destructive, tear people apart.
Sandy and I were on a cruise to Hawaii. You all, whether you realize it or not, sent us on that, and it was an amazing time. Designed, kind of chosen, so we'd spend a lot of days at sea. I wanted to see what that would be like. Five days over, six days back. People said, "Did you see any whales?" Every day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were lined up four deep. We saw a lot of them. Is that bad? You just got a little delayed reaction there. It was too clever for you. You're not used to that, huh? Out of practice.
Well, but I mean, these people, and I was stunned. I was stunned at a lot of things. They seemed to think - you can't out-sin God's grace. You can't out-eat a cruise, but they felt they did. And the way, what I saw that astounded me was the way they talked to one another. The way they treated each other. What came out of their mouth.
And by the end, and I'm not exaggerating, there was a lot of conversation early on. By the end of the cruise, you had a lot of people - there could have been a divorce lawyer that sponsored this cruise, passing out cards when you got over, because there were a lot of people who couldn't take 11 days together with the person they said, "for better or worse, rich or poor, sickness and health, till death do us part."
And the things they'd say, and it's not just that. It's the way they talk to each other. It's what you hear as you navigate your way around life. And the character assassination, and the caustic words that are spoken, and the cursing, and the bitterness.
The Evidence of the Heart: Conduct
And then the conduct. He gets into the conduct, beginning in verse 15: "The feet are swift to shed blood." They're quick for war and violence. In the entire history of mankind, there's only been 268 years of worldwide peace. We want it, but we shed blood.
Destruction. Destruction is a compound word that denotes the breaking up in pieces, completely shattering, devastation. Misery is a general term that denotes the result of harm that is always in the wake of man's acts of destruction.
You look around you, and you see it everywhere. Countries can't talk to one another. You see it within the country. Person against person. Race against race. Economic groups. Class warfare. Race warfare. Intelligentsia warfare. You see it within homeowner associations. You see it within families. That's who we are. Yet, the way to
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. Nevertheless, 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 path to peace, verse 17 tells us, is not known to them.
The result of all of this is caused by verse 18: there's no fear of God before their eyes. The motive for man's sinfulness is his built-in godlessness. There's no fear of God on either a positive or negative side.
The Absence of Godly Fear
There's no fear on the positive side, meaning the reverential awe of God. I was talking to somebody this week who was away on vacation meeting some friends. Their friends brought other friends along, and they were going to meet for dinner. The friends called and said, "Listen, our friends can't go to dinner yet. They want to go to mass at five, and then go to dinner." My friend said, "We'll go. We'd love to go."
So they went to mass and then to dinner afterwards. They were talking to the guy who wanted to go to mass about different issues, including a couple of social issues. He raised one issue, and the guy said, "Well, I believe this. I believe that's a civil rights issue." My friend said, "But your church doesn't teach that." The man replied, "It doesn't. I don't care what the church teaches. This is what I believe."
That's that lack of fear—no fear of any authority. "I'm my own God" is what he was saying at that point. There's no fear of God in reverential awe, no understanding of the Bible and who He is. As long as we talk in broad terms about spiritual things, everybody's fine. But the minute we begin to give it definition, we get the pushback.
The fear of God, as God presents Himself in the Bible, involves reverential awe. The other side is the negative side—the fear and dread and terror of the punishment of God. It feels as though, as a culture, we've lost any sort of shame or fear of judgment. Even those of us who are Christians sometimes lack this. Ideally, God wants you to be motivated to live a holy life based on your love for Him, but even when you can't, it should be out of duty and fear of discipline.
God's Verdict: Universal Condemnation
That's the blanket indictment. That's what Paul's been driving toward for the thirteen weeks we've been studying. Now here's his conclusion, here's 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."
He's saying all of you are under that, and when you hear that, there's just dead silence. You don't even try to argue with that. You're guilty. Your head drops. "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes knowledge of sin."
He's saying, those of you who want to say "I'm going to be good enough," those of you who want to be judged by the law, you're condemned. There's no justification for you before God if you're pointing to what you did or what you didn't do. God says, "Here's the standard. The standard is perfection, and you fall short of that." By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. There's no salvation for you apart from grace. There's no salvation for anyone.
The Challenge of Teaching Bad News
Now, the good news—and this is one of the downsides of the way we're teaching Romans by breaking it up in sections—is that week after week we give you bad news. Somebody this week said, "Well, I finally got the point. I'm a sinner." But you really didn't get the point, because it's bigger than that. The point is, we're all sinners. We're all in that same condition and under judgment before God.
I had a chance about two months ago to teach at Scottsdale Bible Church to a group of about 100 men in their leadership training. I'm starting to see a pattern here. 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, "I want you to teach on June 30th." I said, "All right, that's my brother's birthday. I can do that. What's the passage?" He said, "Depravity." I don't know if I'm closely associated with this topic out of reputation, because I teach it well, or more likely because I lived it.
Understanding the Depth of Sin's Effect
Here's the summary, and this is really important. This is the way I ended the session up at Scottsdale Bible Church: to talk about sin, how sin came into the world, what sin does, but especially to talk about the depth of its effect on us. That's the issue—how much does it affect you?
There are arguments all over. Is man basically good? Is man basically good but he screws up a little bit? Is man in his soul just sick a little bit, like having the flu? Or does he have a deep fatal disease—sick, but as long as he's alive, there's hope?
That's 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 totally understand if you're sitting here today and pushing back on this, saying, "That's not my experience." Well, I'm not that concerned about your experience. I'm concerned about what God says.
I can relate to you. When I say I understand it, it never occurred to me as a non-believer that there was no one who did good. But what God does here is say, "I want to give you the accurate perspective—My perspective on this. I don't want you to go with your hunches and your impressions."
I want you to know what I say. There's none righteous. There's not even one. It's not that we have a disease.
The Life Preserver Illustration
When I became a believer in 1980, I was in church and church-related activities as often as I could be. Everything was new to me. There was an illustration that they used about the condition of lost man. It's as though he's fallen into the sea and there's nothing he can do. He's hundreds, thousands of miles away from shore and he's 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'll be saved.
That illustration is well-intended, but is it true? No, the Bible says no. It's not that you're flopping around in the water. You're dead. It's not that you're laying in a hospital bed very sick and here's the vaccine that'll save you - all you have to do is open your mouth and swallow it. It's Jesus.
What the Bible teaches is you're dead. Too late for a vaccine. You're dead. And if you were alive, the Bible says, you'd take that vaccine and spit it out.
While We Were Still Helpless
Turn to chapter five and we'll be there in three or four weeks, but I'm not teaching it, so I'll steal it now. Chapter five, verses six, eight, and ten. Paul describes God's saving us. He actually begins the chapter by telling us we've been justified by faith. Therefore, we have peace with God.
Look at verse six. It's one of those places to underline in Bibles or circle. Circle the phrase, "while we were still helpless." Verse eight, "while we were yet sinners." Verse ten, "while we were enemies."
Look at this. "While we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly." That's us. "God demonstrated His love for us," verse eight, "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Verse ten, "while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His son."
The Condition of Hopelessness
The condition of man is hopeless. On your own, you're helpless. There should be a sense, as you listen to this, that you have this overwhelming, as it begins to sink in, this overwhelming sense of desperation. But don't let it be 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. You may be thinking, "I'm going to come before God." It doesn't work this way, but imagine He did. If God said, "Why should I let you into heaven?" You'd go, "Because I'm basically a good person. I've done some good things. I'm not perfect." We acknowledge that. I don't know anybody who's bold enough to say they're perfect. Virtually everyone will acknowledge that they've fallen short.
What God calls that is sin. That sin has separated you from Him. The provision He has for you is Jesus Christ and Him alone.
God's Provision
The law comes along, and all the law does is point out this sin. But God seeks people. God takes that ability that is not there to understand spiritual things, and He puts the Holy Spirit in your life so you can understand these things. He offers to us salvation through grace.
Realistically, if we were to read those verses we looked at today, there ought to be something in us that says, "You know what? God, You want to say enough is enough, and You're totally just - wipe us out and get it over with." But God so loved the world, 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 saints. Not based on what we did, but on what Christ did.
A Personal Appeal
Now, it's time. The guys are going to come and lead us in worship and then communion. Here's what I know. I've done this a long time. Here's what I know. To those of you who already know this stuff, you're thinking, "Not bad, but good effort, Tom." To some of you whom this is new, there's a war going on inside of you right now. You can't wait to get out of here. You're very uncomfortable with that.
But I'm telling you, don't run from it, run to it. Run to the people that will be in the front of this room when this service is over. Ask them the questions you have. Because the stakes are huge. It's not just about your eternal destination. It's about life here. Jesus said, "I've come that you'd have life and you'd have it abundantly and you'd have eternal life." And that eternal life begins right now.
But that's the condition. That's who we are. When we see this sin in our life, God gets bigger and bigger and bigger. We get smaller and smaller and smaller. We become great sinners who need a great God. And He's there for us.
Let me pray as the guys come to lead us in worship. Father, thank You for this truth. God, we may not even like to hear it, but we know it's true from our experience. We know we're sinners. We may not have understood the depth of the sin or the response or the reaction of 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 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.