- Romans 3:12-21
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- Rom 3:12 (KJV)
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Paul continues by stating that every human being has “gone out of the way.”
This carries with it the meaning of “turning away from or turning aside.”
All humans because of the sin of Adam have imputed to them a sin nature
which has caused them to turn aside or away from God. Man now chooses his
own ways and attempts to keep God out of the picture. There is no person on
earth, before salvation, who walks in the paths of righteousness. Humanity
has turned away from God and we can see that in our society as people
attempt to quash any mention of God. Then God states that together they are
unprofitable. This means the entire human race has become worthless at the
same time. When Adam fell, the human race fell out of fellowship with God.
Now the only thing the humans can do is to sin against God and rebel, which
is tantamount to a useless existence. Then God is saying that there is not
one human who does any good and He emphasizes here also, “no, not one.” All
humans which are not redeemed by God’s grace cannot do anything good, which
means they cannot bring themselves to a point of salvation.
- Rom 3:13 (KJV)
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Then God brings in the poison of the tongue of the unsaved. He states
plainly that our words are akin to an open sepulchre or grave. An open grave
will stink with the odor of dead bodies. This is how God views the words of
the unsaved as equal to a stench of a dead body. The only thing that unsaved
people can spew out is death, decay, and stench. This is how reprehensible
the words of unsaved man are to a thrice holy God. He also states that we
are deceitful in our speech. It is impossible for an unregenerate person to
speak without being deceitful in some manner. He likens the deceit of our
tongues to the poison of the Asp, which is a very poisonous snake found in
Egypt. Notice that God uses a snake found in Egypt because in Scripture
Egypt is one country which represents the unsaved world.
- Rom 3:14 (KJV)
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Man is born with a bitterness in his tongue and they are always cursing and
swearing. All one has to do is listen to a conversation between two unsaved
people and you will hear curse words with taking of God’s name and the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain. (Psa
10:7 KJV) His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his
tongue is mischief and vanity. Notice that the
verse uses the word “full” which means that the tongue of the unsaved is not
given over partially to cursing and bitterness but totally. That is how
totally depraved the tongue of the reprobate is but that comes out of a
heart which is totally depraved. (Prov
4:23 KJV) Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of
life.
- Rom 3:15 (KJV)
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
In the previous verses God described the sins of the heart and mouth, now He
tells us that the heart and tongue is not the completion of the sins but the
actual sinful activity which comes out of the heart of the reprobate. Man is
always ready and willing to commit sin, even to the point of murder. Murder
was the second major sin recorded in the Bible, as disobedience to God was
the first. Cain rose up and murdered his brother Abel. If we look around
today in our world, we will see people killing other people without
conscience. Suicide bombers have no qualms about taking their own lives with
the lives of their victims. They view human life as cheap. This is how
anybody views human life who murders another. God already gave Isaiah good
insight into human nature. (Isa 59:7
KJV) 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.
- Rom 3:16 (KJV)
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
Man’s sinfulness has brought nothing but ruin and misery to this present
world. All one has to do is look back in history and you will find that it
is written in the blood of millions of people. Empires rose and fell, and
with it the deaths of many. In our modern world, we see the same things.
Countries put their own citizens to death so the wealthy and powerful can
remain in power. Not only countries suffer from misery but individual lives
are ruined by sin and wreak misery. All one has to do is look at the
conditions in many lives, even in our own communities. Drugs, alcohol,
cigarettes, and many other things are looked to by unbelievers as ways out
of a seemingly inescapable world.
- Rom 3:17 (KJV)
And the way of peace have they not known:
The reprobate does not know the way of peace. With murder always lurking
around in a person’s heart coupled with bitterness and cursing, peace is
something which eludes this person. (Isa
57:21 KJV) There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
The peace that these people need is the peace with God which comes through
salvation. Those whom the Lord saves, will have peace in their hearts and
will have no need for the failed gimmicks of this world to bring about some
type of temporary escapist personal peace. The true way of peace is the free
Grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Unbelievers may try to find
peace in a religious system but religion can drain a person as much as the
ways of the secular world.
- Rom 3:18 (KJV)
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
If there is one glaring characteristic of the reprobate, it is that they
have no fear of God. Partly, because they have done what they could to
expunge any and every reference to God in our society. Man exudes no fear of
God when they use the name of God and the Lord Jesus Christ as swear words.
This is the height of the depraved arrogance of man. David know of this
problem three thousand years ago because some things never change.
(Psa 36:1 KJV) The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
On the last day there will be trembling fear in all the hearts of the
unbelievers as they stand before the holy God they have mocked and scorned.
- Rom 3:19 (KJV)
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.
No matter what sin a person commits, there will be no defense for it at the
Great White Throne Judgment. Every mouth will be stopped, in other words,
all will be guilty and self-justification will not be a defense strategy.
Those people in the world who do not become saved and remain reprobates,
will be judged by the law of God but the fact that they are at this Judgment
is already pre-trial evidence of their guilt. Even the Elect of God were
guilty of disobedience to the law of God but the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ on behalf of the Elect, allowed them to escape the judgment of God
and upon salvation, go from death to life.
(Mat 5:25 KJV) Agree with thine adversary
quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and
thou be cast into prison. This verse speaks of the
adversary. Now in this instance it is not speaking of Satan because God
never counsels anyone to agree with Satan. In this instance it is speaking
of the law of God. We are to agree with the law of God that we are sinful
and accountable to God for breaking the law. A person can be delivered
anytime to the judge, which teaches us that if a person dies anytime in
their life, the next thing they will know is that they are being raised to
be judged for their sins. When a person agrees with the law of God, they
realize their sinfulness and will have become saved because only those who
are saved can understand that they have been an adversary to God and his
righteous law.
- Rom 3:20 (KJV)
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
No person in the world will ever be saved by doing works or by attempting to
keep every tenet of the law of God.
(James 2:10 KJV) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all. Salvation only
comes through the free Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and no one can ever
work their ways to Heaven. Even if a church teaches 99% Grace and 1% works,
it is an adulterated gospel and will lead a person to Hell. The law was
given for the purpose of showing us that we, as sinners, could not keep the
law of God. The knowledge of sin came through the law. For example, if a
person knows that God has said stealing on any level is sin, then they may
attempt to not steal anything. This means they have a knowledge of the fact
that stealing is against the law of God. Those that stole have broken the
law of God which means they now possess the knowledge that they have broken
the law of God. So the law of God gives us knowledge in two areas: 1) It
tells us what we must do to obey it; 2) it tells us that we are unable to
obey it because all have transgressed the law of God by sinning in some
manner. (1 John 3:4 KJV) Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of
the law.
- Rom 3:21 (KJV)
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
The Apostle Paul has been discussing the fact that all men are sinful and
unrighteous and are unable to be justified by keeping the law of God. He is
now declaring there is a way one can become justified before God. If one
becomes saved through the Lord Jesus Christ, then they need not keep the
tenets of the law for salvation, since Christ has already done that.
Justification is imputed to those who are under Grace. Justification is the
act whereby a person is declared not guilty. A true Christian is declared
not guilty concerning the keeping of the law since Christ already fulfilled
the demands of God’s holy law. Now this Grace is not only manifested in the
Lord Jesus Christ but has been prophesied in the Old Testament. The thread
of Grace runs through the entire Bible and not just the New Testament.
(Gen 15:6 KJV) And he believed in the
LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
(Gen 22:18 KJV) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
(Isa 45:25 KJV) In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified,
and shall glory.
(Jer 31:31-34 KJV) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah: {32} Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the
LORD: {33} But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall
be my people. {34} And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me,
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
(Ezek 34:22-23 KJV) Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more
be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. {23} And I will
set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant
David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
(Dan 9:24 KJV) Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the most Holy.
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