Romans 3:9–20 (ESV)✞: No One is Righteous
Over the last few passages of Romans Paul has been showing the unrighteousness—that is, the sinfulness (because “sin” is easier to type than “unrighteous”)—of humans.
- In 1:18–32 he showed that everyone is unrighteous, regardless of how much or little they know about God;
- in 2:1–11 he pointed out that nobody has a right to feel morally superior to anyone else (i.e. to judge) since we’re all guilty;
- in 2:12–29 he showed that even the Law can’t make us righteous; and
- in 3:1–8 he pointed out that, even though we haven’t been faithful to Him, God has been faithful to us.
So it would seem that Paul has done a pretty thorough job of showing that all humans are sinful—unrighteous—regardless of whether they come from Jewish or Gentile backgrounds.
He isn’t quite done, however. Paul knows that the human heart is not only sinful, it’s desperately eager to avoid thinking about the fact that it’s evil. But he needs us to really understand the “bad news” before we can properly comprehend the “good news,” so he’s taking one more opportunity to articulate it.
In the last passage Paul mentioned that Jewish Christians have an “advantage” over Gentile Christians in that they know more about God and have had thousands of years of history in which to explore the writings He has given them. When Christianity is about having a relationship with God, it is of course better to know more about him. (The Gentile Christians can still learn, of course! They just don’t have as much rich background in learning about Him as their Jewish brothers and sisters.)
But what did Paul mean by “advantage?” Did he mean that Jewish Christians are somehow less sinful than Gentile Christians?
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
We’re going to have to pay careful attention to context here, because Paul sometimes uses words in a particular context to make a point, and when we try to compare them situation-by-situation things can get confusing. What does he mean when he says that Jewish Christians have “an advantage,” and yet “are no better off?” Isn’t “advantage” a synonym for “better off” – couldn’t we reverse those terms and get practically the same meaning? (i.e. Jewish Christians are “better off” because they have the Scriptures but have no “advantage” because they’re just as sinful as others?)
If we try to parse Paul’s words this closely we’re going to miss his point, which is actually kind of obvious when we don’t get lost in those games:
- Jewish Christians have God’s Scriptures and a long history of getting to know Him, which is good, but
- Despite that they’re still just as sinful as everyone else
And now Paul launches into a famous passage—which the ESV Study Bible tells me is “citing Ps. 14:1–3 and perhaps echoing Eccles. 7:20”—in which he brings it all together:
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
For reference, here are those references, which aren’t exact one-to-one quotations:
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
And:
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
As I keep harping on, Paul had pointed out in the previous passage that there are “advantages” to having a Jewish background (though those advantages don’t make you more righteous), and now he’s using the Jewish Scriptures themselves to make that point! Who, after all, was the Psalmist talking to in Psalm 14 if not God’s people the Jews? Just as the author of Ecclesiastes was writing to a Jewish audience.
This is very, very common with Paul: neither he nor the other leaders of the early Christian Church considered Christianity to be a new thing, it was the same God as always, but now with us having a better understanding of His plan. When Paul makes a theological point it’s always a point that he argues from Scriptures—that is, the Old Testament, from our perspective—even when that point is “we’re all sinners.”
Speaking of the Scriptures, and the Law in particular:
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
I don’t want to get confused by that point about every mouth being stopped and the whole world being held accountable; Paul isn’t saying that the whole world is condemned by the Law. In fact, he argued against that exact point in 2:12–29. But it’s also true that part of the way God revealed Himself to His people was through the Law, so we can’t say it’s unimportant, either. And I think that’s what he means by that last phrase: “through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
All of Paul’s thoughts are being tied together: no, those who didn’t have the Law aren’t being judged according to the Law, but yes those who have had the Law have had an “advantage” in knowing more about God (even though they’ve ended up just as sinful as everyone else). That “advantage” is why Paul doesn’t advise us to forget the Law. If the Law condemns me, wouldn’t it be better to throw it out? No, because I’m condemned regardless—again, that’s been the main argument Paul has been bringing for the last few passages—but as a Christian I want to know more about the God I serve, and the Law is one of the ways I’ll get to know Him.
None of this answers the question of how we can have that relationship with God in the first place, if we’re so unrighteous. In the next passage he’ll [finally] get to that.
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