THE WHOLE WORLD NEEDS THE GOSPEL

Romans 3:9-20

Part one

The Evidence Of Universal Guilt - verses 9-18

We now come to the section in Romans where Paul deals with the guilt of the whole world before God. He gathers all people together – the heathen in chapter one; the hypocrite in 2:1-16 and the Jew is chapter 2:17-3:8. He shows that the sinful disposition and characteristics of everyone is the same, regardless of ethnic background. This section is God’s divine X-ray of the human heart.

The Statement v.9 Paul begins his exposure with a question that would be asked by the Jews, “What then? Are we (Jews) better than they (Gentiles)? Paul, are you telling us that we Jews are better than the Gentiles? He had already told them in verse 2 that being a Jew had great advantages. This question, no doubt led to the question in verse 9, “are we better than they?” Although the Jews had a great advantage over other people, this did not give them preferential treatment. The apostle lists the following characteristics:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” ”There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The Scriptural Proof vs. 10-18 The traits listed above are fairly self-explanatory. I will treat each one briefly. The Scriptural proof is as follows:

Proved by the absence of righteousness - v.10

• The Heathen didn’t think they needed to be righteousness.

• The Hypocrite believed themselves to be righteous based on their good works or

self-righteousness.

• The Hebrew believed themselves to be righteous based upon the fact that they were

Jews and had advantage over everyone else.

However, this is all just human righteousness.

The overall theme of Romans is the Righteousness of God – (Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 4:3; 8:4). What is the righteousness of God? How do we define it? Righteousness comes from a root word that means “straightness.” It refers to a state that conforms to an authoritative standard. Righteousness is a moral concept. An acceptable definition of the righteousness of God might be “God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and He, Himself is the final standard of what is right.” Human righteousness can in no way approximate God’s righteousness. In fact Isaiah 64:6 tells us “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Dr. Stuart Briscoe gives us a very effective illustration of the righteousness of God in relation to human righteousness. “God’s righteousness has to do with His always being in the right and, therefore, always doing that which is right because He, Himself, is the only criterion of rightness. In the same way that there is and can be only one magnetic North and that all other points of the compass find their identity in relationship to North, so righteousness is found solely in the character of God, and all other standards of righteousness must be determined with reference to Him.”

That master of illustration, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse gives us a graphic illustration of this truth:

A young man who had been brought up in one of the worst slums in New York, rose to fame and fortune in the theatrical field through his literary talents. He bought a yacht, and although he hired a man to run it for him, he assumed the title “Captain.” He got himself a resplendent uniform- complete with gold braid and brass buttons –and invited his old mother to go for a cruise. His mother had come to the United States from Eastern Europe, and she had retained the native common sense that many such immigrants have. The boat stood out from the harbor, and the young man went below to change into his uniform. A few moments later he came out on the deck to parade before his mother. ”Look Momma,” he said, “I’m a captain.” The old lady surveyed him calmly and then, as accustomed to deflating the ego of a bumptious child she answered, “Sammy, by you, you is a captain, by me you is a captain, but by captains you is no captain!”

Many people need to realize the importance of this illustration. By you you’re a good man; by your neighbors, you’re a good man; but by God, you have no goodness “..…All our righteousness are as filthy rags…Isaiah 64:6).” However, we glory in the fact that true believers stand perfect and complete in His righteousness. Ephesians 1:6 tells us

“… to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJV)

So until our next pen pulpit, God bless!