Romans 3:9-20 – Everyone Guilty

The third objection is: “If our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, is God unrighteous who takes vengeance?” This implies that God needs sinners to demonstrate His righteousness. Paul rejects this absurd idea, affirming that God doesn’t need us to be righteous. If God were unrighteous, how could He judge the world?

 

In verse 7, Paul turns the argument to himself personally: “If my lie enhances God’s truth, why am I judged as a sinner?”

If so, Paul should be praised for lying.

But he clarifies, “I speak as a man,” exposing the absurdity.

 

Then in verse 8, he condemns those who slander him by saying that he teaches, “Let us do evil that good may come.” He affirms, “Their damnation is just.”

This objection, as stupid as it seems, is constantly used against the gospel of the grace of God right up to today.

People say, “If you could be saved just by faith in Christ, then you could go out and live in sin. Since God’s grace superabounds over man’s sin, then the more you sin, the more His grace abounds.”

Paul simply answers by saying that the condemnation of people who talk like that is well-deserved.

 

The final objection in verse 9 asks: “Are we better than they?”

Paul would be hated so much by Israel for what he’s about to answer that they picked up stones to stone him, because he’s going to make statements that’re far removed from Israel’s belief system.

 

Paul answers, “No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” This challenges both the Jewish belief and all human tendency to think, “I’m better than others, so God’s judgment shouldn’t apply to me.”

But sin is measured by God’s standard, not ours.

 

As we’ve shown, Paul’s addressing objections from a hypothetical religious Jew, the same one condemned in Romans 2, who rests in the law and believes in his own moral superiority.

These objections stem from a belief that, because Israel’s a nation chosen by God, that should exempt them from judgment. But Paul insists that God’s judgment is righteous.

The “they” in verse 9 includes unbelievers (verse 3), the world (verse 6), Gentiles (verse 9), and sinners (verse 7).

 

Paul’s answer to the verse 9 question, “Are we better than they?” is that he’s already proven in Romans 1 and 2 that all people are under the power of sin.

This means that Jews are no different from Gentiles in this respect.

 

In chapter 1 he dealt with Gentiles, covering thousands of years of human history and in chapter 2 he addressed Israel’s failure despite having the law, God’s promises, and His revelation.

Paul’s argument is airtight: all are under sin, all are guilty, and all need salvation.

 

As we continue on in Romans 3, we’ll see that Paul’s going to absolutely lay waste to Israel. Remember, they had every advantage but the point of this section is they’re losing every advantage. They’re being identified right alongside the Gentiles rather as having no hope and no standing.

 

You and I might say, “But we’re better than those sinners.” Well friends you and I are still a sinner.

So what’s the question? Am I a better sinner? A worse sinner? I’m still a sinner. Sin is still all in the same category of not being holy and not being worthy of God.

This leads us to define the word “sin,” and we note that this is the first time the word “sin” in the singular appears in the book of Romans.

We saw “sinner” in verse 7, and “him that sinned” in chapter 2, but so far, not “sin” singular.

 

So how do you define sin? Well, go back to Romans 1 and 2. We won’t find the word “sin” there, but we’ll find the definition. We’ll find “sinner,” we’ll find “sinned,” but what we really find is a drastic description of what sin is, and Paul proves that we’re under it.

 

So what is sin? There’re many definitions, but from Romans 1 and 2 we see that sin is disobedience to truth.

It’s an offense to righteousness. If what we do, or think, is an offense to righteousness, that’s sin and it’s a transgression of the law.

Sin is anything unworthy of God.

 

Romans 3:23 says,

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

 

That’s an impossibly high standard, the glory of God, and if we don’t meet that, we’re sinners. Who can reach that standard? Nobody, and that’s exactly the point.

And it’s not just what we do that constitutes sin. Our very thoughts are sin!

In Genesis 8:21, God said that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

Genesis 6:5 has this,

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 

1 Chronicles 28:9 says,

for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts:

 

Psalms 56:5,

Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.

 

Isaiah 66:18, 

For I know their works and their thoughts:

 

Matthew 9:4,

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

 

1 Corinthians 3:20,

And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

 

Hebrews 4:12,

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

We see that the actions, the outworking of sin is because it first takes place in the thoughts of the heart.

 

Matthew 12:34,

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

 

Human sin is not new, and standards of morality fall as people become more willing to give in to their worst desires of the heart.

People now celebrate acts of evil that should bring shame and much of the population competes to see who can take evil to its most bizarre extremes.

 

It’s not that God wants to condemn us, He’s always wanted to show us His grace. But to know grace, we first have to know our relationship to Him. And that relationship is: I am a sinner and I’m unworthy of Him. Anything He gives me, life, righteousness, peace, joy, I don’t deserve.

That should produce gratitude.

 

But back in Romans 1, that’s not what happens. People receive from God and don’t thank Him or glorify Him. His standard is too high, so they lower His standard to their own and that’s the problem.

 

Sin is that which is unworthy of God and it’s self-condemning. “Are you telling me I’m unworthy of God?” Yes, exactly.

That’s the problem with modern Christianity, which flips the tables and says, “I’m so worthy that God died for me.” No, we’re unworthy, so Christ had to die for us to commend God’s love to us. There was no other way. Modern Christianity’s got it backwards.

We tend to see good people and bad people. But God sees only sinners. And that’s what’s going on here.

 

There’s no worth in the sinner.

There’s value in human life only because God gave it. There’s value in the earth because God made it. There’s value in wisdom and knowledge—even outside Scripture—because God made things to be known and gave us minds to understand. All worthy things come from Him.

Nothing man’s ever created is independent of God’s creation.

 

So sin is what’s unworthy of God. It’s what’s contrary to what’s right and true.

That’s what Paul proved in Romans 1 and 2, that we’re all under sin,  Jew and Gentile alike. Everybody. “Gentiles” means nations while “Jews” refers to the people God created as His nation.

 

Israel, in this the dispensation of the grace of God, is counted as uncircumcised in heart and ears as Romans 2:25-27 states and Stephen in Acts 7:51 charges, and we read,

Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 

 

So Israel needs the same gospel of the grace of God as you and me.

All are under sin and so we all deserve God’s wrath and righteous judgment.

Israel no longer has an advantage.

One of the greatest errors made in the church, the body of Christ today is to think that in some way it’s Israel’s replacement.

 

Now, a couple of things we should be aware of before we continue on to Romans 3:10.

Romans 3:9-20 consists of 12 separate verses but, remember that chapter and verse divisions weren’t added to the Bible until around 1227. In fact these 12 verses are actually one paragraph.

We also need to always be aware of 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

 

The epistles of Romans through to Philemon are where we find the doctrine for the church, the body of Christ today, given to us by Jesus Himself through Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

Doctrine means the teaching of principles or truths.

As we look at every verse in this passage we see Paul doing exactly what he tells us to do in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. He uses all scripture, in this case the Jewish books we call the Old Testament.

 

Of course, if we’re going to deal with Israel, then it’s common sense to use Israel’s scriptures to demonstrate their condition and this is exactly what Pauls going to do, prove to the Jews that they’re no different from the Gentiles in that they’re under sin, just as he’s stated in Romas 3:9, and he’ll prove it using scripture, Jewish scripture, and he’ll lean very heavily on Isaiah and Psalms.

 

Notice that Paul doesn’t quote the chapter and verse of scripture he refers to. Two reasons for this are that there were no chapter and verse divisions in his day and secondly, he didn’t need to. His Jewish objectors already knew the scriptures. They were bought up on them virtually from birth. They knew them intimately even though they couldn’t obey them.

It was the same when Jesus quoted scripture during His earthly ministry. The most Jesus ever did was mention the prophets name when He quoted them such as Isaiah in Matthew 15:7–9 and in multiple other places.

 

Romans 3:10,

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 

 

Paul answers the question of Romans 3:9 saying that the Oracles of God that were given to you say that there’s none righteous no not one.

Pauls drawing from Psalms 14:1 here and we read,

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 

 

We see that Psalm 53:1 says almost the exact same thing and it’s one of those places in the Bible where God repeats himself.

The fool says “There is no God.”

He doesn’t want there to be a God, therefore he denies His existence.

It’s not a rational position because firstly it’s a claim that says, “I know everything. It’s not possible that a God could exist beyond my knowledge.”

This position ignores the wonders of God in creation, the immensity of the universe, the amazingly precise movement of the planets, the marvellous ways that the earth sustains life, the intricate design of the human body, the fantastic complexity of the human brain and the extraordinary properties of water and soil and the endless other proofs of a great and mighty Creator.

The reason why it’s a fool there is not because he’s name calling. A fool is defined in the Bible as one who doesn’t have wisdom.

 

There’s none that doeth good. They are corrupt, they’ve done abominable works.

Their works are not abominable because they’re Psychopathic killers or something.

It’s because they’re not doing the work that God would have them do. They’re doing the work that they want to do and that’s why it’s abominable.

It’s corrupt because they weren’t made for that sort of work they were made for a different type of work and so he says there’s none that doeth good and this is what Paul’s quoting.

 

Romans 3:11,

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

 

This is a reference to Psalms 14:2. Let’s read,

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 

 

This is David in the Psalms where the nation of Israel has already been created.

God had gave these people the law by the time David writes this Psalm and He already gave them prophecy.

 

If left to himself, fallen man would never seek God. It’s only through the work of the Holy Spirit that anyone ever does.

David’s declaring the wickedness of humanity, even Israel, even the writer of these Psalms, King David himself was guilty of abominable sins.

Some might say, “That’s obviously not true. There are people in the world that understand things.”

But Paul’s not talking here about the understand of anything.

He’s talking about those who understand God and spiritual things and he says people don’t understand those things.

 

Look at 1 Corinthians 2:14-16,

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

The unregenerate man, the unsaved man, the unbeliever cannot understand the spiritual things that God’s given us to understand. We can only understand them if we’re saved, if we believe the gospel, which doesn’t make any sense to unbelievers.

lt’s the same words on the page the same messages for both believers and unbelievers, but it’s simply that the spiritual things must be spiritually discerned to actually understand and if we don’t believe in the spiritual things we won’t understand what those things mean.

Sure, we can play around with them like ideas and philosophy, a kind of fantasy world, but when we believe it to be true suddenly the message changes and it says things about us that we never knew before we believed.

 

To Romans 3:12,

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

 

All have gone astray from God. All mankind has become corrupt. Unprofitable means to render useless or bringing no glory to God.

 

Here Paul’s quoting from Psalm 14:3,

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 

 

Filthy in this verse means to turn morally corrupt, defiled by sinful practices.

There’s none that do good.

That flies in the face of the pop psychology and psychobabble of today’s world, where everything is about self-actualisation and tripe such as “living in alignment with your highest values” and “realizing your fullest human expression”.

People are all into loving themselves. Most live in a fantasy world where their efforts, their actions, are mistakenly believed to be making them good and making them acceptable to God.

But, the reality of human history is that men don’t seek God and that’s what Romans 3 says and what Psalm 14 says.

 

Ephesians 5 17 says this,

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

 

People say they want to know the will of the Lord.

Then you tell it to them and show them in the scriptures in black and white such as 1 Timothy 2:1-4

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 

For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 

 

Then, people say, “No that’s not what I meant. I want something else.”

We really want our own will with God’s Authority behind it! That’s the natural sinful reaction.

Paul’s answer to these religious Jewish objections is based also on Isaiah 31:1. Isaiah’s referring to Israel, not the Gentiles,

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! 

 

Then we move to Romans 3:13,

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 

 

Here Pauls referencing Psalms 5:9 and Psalms 140:3.

Psalms 5:9,

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. 

 

Psalms 140:3

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.

 

A Sepulchre is a tomb that’s full of dead things. There’s no life in a tomb, but people make tombs look very pretty from the outside.

In fact that’s the purpose of a sepulchre; to make something full of dead things look pretty.

Paul’s idea here is that they may look pretty on the outside, all whitewashed and everything, until they speak and you really see the dead and the stench coming out.

As we’ve just pointed out, it’s not just the outside, it’s the inside. It’s not what people see. It’s what’s inside because out of the heart the mouth speaks. There’s no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward parts are full of wickedness.

 

With their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Deceit is described in Websters Dictionary like this, “a catching or ensnaring. Hence, the misleading of a person; the leading of another person to believe what is false, or not to believe what is true, and thus to ensnare him; fraud; fallacy; cheat; any declaration, artifice or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false.”

 

By the way, who is the figure in the Bible who’s the greatest pattern of a deceiver, the number one most notorious deceiver of all time from one end of the Bible to the other, apart from Satan  himself.

We find him in Daniel Chapter 11:21. He’s the Antichrist and his deception lies in the use of flattery.

 

Today deceit is everywhere.

We’ve got a deceitful system of government, of news media, within education and even within traditional and not so traditional churches, from Roman Catholicism and their appalling traditions right through to the mega Pentecostal churches that place music, emotional love, friendship and self-improvement above the unadulterated gospel.

Pastors and supposed teachers are raised to celebrity status, often amassing great wealth and privilege, while Paul, our apostle to the body of Christ today and his epistles are ignored.

Few people see through the hype to Paul’s lonely walk in the truth as he explains in 2 Timothy 1:15,

This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. 

 

and in 2 Timothy 4:16 where he writes,

At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. 

 

We’ve got so much confusion out there. We can go years and never hear of anybody who agrees with the apostle Paul while the mega pastors receive homage and glory from their followers who’ve fallen in to the 2 Timothy 4:3-4 trap,

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.   

 

Now it’s interesting that the best chapter on the tongue is not in Romans, our doctrine for the dispensation of the grace of God, but in James Chapter 3.

Now, we need to be encouraged and reminded that the doctrine in the book of James is not our doctrine for the body of Christ in the Dispensation of Grace, however, we can gain definition and learn from every page of the Bible cover to cover.

James has a lot to say about the tongue that gets us into so much trouble.

James 1:26,

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

 

James 3:5,

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

 

James 3:6,

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

 

James 3:8,

But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

 

On to Romans 3:14 now and remember this passage from verse 9 to verse 20 is all one paragraph and it’s Paul using scripture to prove that the Jew is no better than the Gentile where sin is concerned.

Romans 3:14,

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 

 

Here Pauls using Psalms 10:7. Psalm 10 is all about the wicked person who does evil from his pride. Verse 7 reads,

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. 

 

People talk don’t talk a lot about what God hates but He tells us clearly what He hates in Proverbs 6:16,

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 

A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 

An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 

A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. 

 

Notice how many of the things that God hates have their seed in the pride of man which works through the heart and thoughts first, then through the mouth and then to the physical actions.

 

Then we have Romans 3:15 and 16,

Their feet are swift to shed blood: 

Destruction and misery are in their ways: 

 

Paul refers to Isaiah 59:7 here,

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 

 

Romans 3:17,

And the way of peace have they not known:

 

Paul again refers to Isaiah 59 here, this time verse 8 (Isaiah 59:8),

The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

 

Rom 3:18,

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

 

Here’s Psalms 36:1,

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 

 

It’s Israel’s sin that held God back from delivering them when they needed it most. It wasn’t God’s fault.

Their hands, fingers, lips, and tongue are all active in murder and lying. There’s widespread perversion of justice and dishonesty. People conceive evil which leads to crime.

Their activities are as deadly as the black plague and as useless as a solar-powered torch.

Sin controls every area of their lives—what they do, where they go, and what they think. They care nothing for peace and justice, preferring what’s crooked. What was true of Israel is also true of the entire human race.

 

So Paul’s point is that no, Israel, you’re not better than them Gentiles.

 

To Romans 3:19 now,

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 

 

Now remember, you and I as believers today under the dispensation of grace are armed with the progressive revelation given to Paul directly by Jesus Christ.

Paul’s passing on this revelation to us through the Book of Romans. You and I today are not under the law but under Grace.

Paul in Romans 3 is talking to and about people who had a relationship with the law. So don’t be confused and don’t use Romans as a kind of book full of one line memes and miss what Paul’s dealing with here.

Now we know that whatsoever things the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped.

See the law basically tells them to shut up justifying and reasoning themselves out of guilt, that all the world, Jew and Gentile may become guilty before God.

Here’s where Paul’s been heading since Romans chapter one, verse 20.

At the outset he’s demonstrating the error and the failure of the Gentile. Then from Romans 2:17 he moves to Israel and concludes that they’re also without hope that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God, as we are right now.

 

Then, from this point in Romans, Romans 3:19 and 20, we’re at a point of transition.

From here we’re going to move into the solution to the problem that’s been highlighted in the first 3 chapters.

Paul’s going to move from condemning everything and everybody to showing Christ as the solution, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

We’ll see that as we press on with our study of Romans.

 

So, we note now in verse 19 everybody’s guilty just as back in Romans 1:20 everybody’s guilty.

Romans 1:20 deals with the time from the creation while Romans 3 deals with those under the law, Israel.

Everybody’s guilty at the beginning of it and everybody’s guilty up to here.

 

Now Paul’s about to release the revelation of the mystery, the Gospel of the Grace of God and he’ll do that, starting from Romans 3:21. So we’ve come a long way and we’ve got some important doctrines under our belt.

We’ve added to our understanding and now we’re ready to press on in the next episode with the understanding of where we are and what’s going on now, here, today.

 

We’ve got a lot of issues to deal with in the future, many of which are controversial, but all those issues will come from the Bible and a rightly divided bible at that. So be patient. We’ll get there. Remember, my point of view and your point of view don’t matter, only the word of God presents us with the truth.

 

I hope this is all useful and helpful to you and I’m enjoying bringing it to you as it helps me as much, even more, than I hope it helps you.

Thank you.