Romans 3: 9-19. Jews and Gentiles are both under sin. 3:9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way, for we have proved before that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. Having answered his Jewish opponent, Paul now closes his dialogue with him. Paul returns to his theme that Jews and Gentiles stand on equal footing before God.
When Paul asks," Are we better than they?" He means" We Jews." This is clear because he immediately goes on to say," No, in no way, for we have proved before that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin." So Paul is saying that we Jews are no better than the Gentiles because Jews need salvation through faith in Christ just as much as do the Gentiles. Theodoret comments," Paul began his letter by speaking about those who were strangers to the law." He then addressed those who were under the law.
He convicted the Gentiles of having transgressed natural law, and he convicted the Jews of transgressing the Mosaic Law. They all had become worthy of the severest punishment. In this manner, Paul imitates a skillful physician. The physician first points out to his patients the dangerous nature of their disorders. But then he offers the assistance of his healing remedies. Paul does likewise. He demonstrated the sin of both parties, and he proved they both deserved punishment.
However, he next produces his medicine of faith, and he reveals the loving kindness of God's arrangement, an enumeration of the sins of mankind. Romans 3:10 through 18." As it is written, there is no one righteous, no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all gone astray. All of them together have become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they have practiced deceit.
The poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. After stating that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, Paul now enumerates some of these sins by quoting the long passage found in Psalm 14:3 in the Septuagint. Sadly, almost this entire passage is missing from the Masoretic text.
It only contains the words:" They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one." Does this mean that there are no righteous humans? Beginning with Augustine, various theologians have pounced on this isolated verse to proclaim the utter inability of man to do good. However, the early Christians did not fall into such an unreasonable interpretation. That is because they weighed this verse against the totality of Scripture.
They noted that the statement," There is no one righteous stands almost alone in the entire Old Testament." There are one or two other verses, such as Psalm 143:2, which says," Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous." In contrast, there are at least 240 verses in the Old and New Testaments that specifically refer to fallen humans as righteous, blameless, or upright. 240.
Here's a small sampling." The Lord said to Noah,' Come with all of your household into the ark, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. The Lord's eyes are towards the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous man forsaken, nor his children begging for bread. The labor of the righteous leads to life. The increase of the wicked leads to sin. No mischief shall happen to the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil.
The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him. The soul who sins, he shall die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father. Neither shall the Father bear the iniquity of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous man shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked man shall be on him. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the priestly division of Abijah.
He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. Most certainly, I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, but did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah.
Then the righteous will answer him, saying," Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you a drink?" By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous." Little children, let no one lead you astray.
He who does righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous." So, we have a verbal contradiction in Scripture, Psalm 14:3, and a couple of other verses say," No one is righteous." Against that, over 240 passages in the Old and New Testaments say just the opposite. How do we harmonize this seeming contradiction? Obviously, it is spiritually dishonest to dismiss the 240 verses and pretend that two or three verses represent everything that Scripture has to say about man's righteousness.
Instead, anytime a few verses go against the great weight of Scripture, we need to scrutinize the few verses. We should ask ourselves, what is the context of these verses? What is the point the writer is trying to get across? To be sure, we do not ignore the few verses, yet neither do we elevate them over the many, which is what Augustine and Luther did. So in what sense is it true that no human is righteous? It is true in the sense of absolute righteousness. That is, in contrast with God Himself.
Compared to God, even the most godly human would be unrighteous. Commenting on Psalm 143:2, Origen writes," This passage declares that before God, no living person will be declared righteous." This shows that in comparison to God and the righteousness that is in Him, no one will be justified, not even the most perfect of saints. As an illustration, we could say that no candle can give light before the sun. By that, we would not mean that the candle will not give out any light whatever.
Rather, we would mean that the light of the candle will not be visible before the brightness of the sun. So in an absolute sense, no humans are righteous before God. In fact, neither are the angels. As Jesus said," No one is good, but one that is God." Thankfully, God kindly deals with us according to our weakness. So, as can be seen in the verses quoted above, God does not hesitate to call various men and women righteous when they live godly, obedient lives.
They are not righteous in an absolute sense, but they are yet righteous in a relative sense. They maintain the righteousness that is possible for an imperfect human to possess. Also, as we have seen, God praises such people for their righteousness. That is because few humans are righteous even in a relative sense. When Paul quoted Psalm 14:3," He was not building a new theological system.
He was not creating so-called Pauline theology." Paul was not an abstract theologian, but someone who dealt with practical problems. As we have discussed, when writing to the Romans, Paul was addressing the real-life problem of the Judaizers who imagined they had obtained a righteous standing before God through the law. So Paul quotes Psalm 14: 3 to establish that no one is sufficiently righteous to save himself, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul is not teaching that fallen humans are unable to do anything good.
There is no one who does good, no, not one. This verse is a continuation of Psalm 14:3 in the Septuagint. It is like the earlier assertion there is no one righteous. No one does good in an absolute sense. Yet in the previous chapter of Romans, Paul had said that God gives eternal life to those who by perseverance in good work seek for glory, honor, and immortality, glory, honor, and peace to every man who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So once again, we have a verbal contradiction between passages of Scripture. Yet this too is easily harmonized. The good we humans accomplish always falls short when measured against absolute perfection. Yet man can do good in a relative sense. In fact, God requires us to persevere in good works if we are going to inherit eternal life. In addition to the passage in Romans 2, there is an abundance of scriptures that talk about humans doing good.
Paul himself counsels the Galatians," Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we do not give up." So then, as we have opportunity, let us do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith. Jesus says," If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners do the same." He also says," The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things." Peter writes," This is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." 1 Peter 2:15 NKJV. Some more examples are Romans 13: 3. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you wish to be unafraid of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from Him.
1 Timothy 5:25," The good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden." Hebrews 13:16," Do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." Psalm 112:5," A good man deals graciously and lends." So the early Christians weighed the statement:" There is no one who does good against the rest of Scripture." Origen comments about the subject verse," This is a difficult statement that is not easy to interpret." Does it seem possible that there could
be found absolutely no one among either the Jews or Greeks who has done good?
Are we to believe that no one has ever taken in a stranger? Has no one given bread to the hungry, or clothed the naked, or rescued the helpless from the clutches of the powerful? Has no one done any such good work? It does not seem credible that Paul wants to claim such a thing. Origen uses the following illustration to explain Paul's meaning. Suppose a person were to lay a foundation for a house and brought some of the building materials to the site.
Furthermore, suppose he had even built some of the walls in other parts of the house. Would anyone credit such a person with having built a house? No. We would not say he had built a house until he had finished the entire structure. Origen concludes, so I think that it is in this sense that here the apostle says that no one has done good. He means that no one has done it perfectly or brought it to total completion.
Tertullian adds," Who is so faultless among men that God would be required to include Him among His chosen ones, and would never be able to reject Him? There is none, on the other hand, who is so devoid of any good works that God would be forced to reject Him forever and would never be able to choose Him." Their throat is an open grave, etc.
Concerning the long list of sins enumerated in this Psalm in the Septuagint, Origen comments," I think that these statements should be understood in this manner." Paul is not saying that every individual is guilty of all these things. Rather, one vice is found in one person, another vice is found in someone else, and so on. As a result, the totality of humanity is filled with these vices. All the world is guilty. Romans 3:19.
Now we know that whatever the law said, it said to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Paul has just quoted a series of denunciations from Psalm 14. Since that passage is from the law, Paul now argues that the various condemnations in that Psalm are written against the Jews, not the Gentiles. For whatever the law said, it said to those who are under the law." In other words, David is talking about the sins of his fellow Israelites.
As Chrysostom expresses it, Paul is saying," Why would a prophet who is sent for your correction end up accusing other people?" It is not that Paul is singling out the Jews for condemnation. As we have said, none of his readers doubted that the Gentiles were also steeped in sin and idolatry. In fact, in the first chapter of Romans, Paul had already shown the Gentiles to be under sin. Rather, Paul is emphasizing that the Jews stand on no better ground than the Gentiles.
Their own prophets accuse them of being unrighteous. So both Jews and Gentiles need salvation through faith in Christ. They are both guilty before God. Theodoret writes," Paul doesn't say these things merely for the sake of accusation. Rather, he is paving the way for faith." The Old Testament has a close relationship with the New. For even the accusations and reproofs in the old were written with the following view in mind that the door of faith might open brightly upon those who hear it.
Romans 3:20: No one is justified by the works of the law, 3:20. Therefore, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Here Paul reiterates one of the main themes of Romans, that no one can be saved by the works of the Mosaic Law. What are the works of the law? They are circumcision, dietary requirements, sacrificial obligations, Sabbath laws, hygienic restrictions, and the like.
These are the kinds of regulations the scribes and Pharisees kept fastidiously. However, as Paul declares, fulfilling those kinds of regulations do not make a person righteous. That is why Jesus told the religious leaders," Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to man, but inwardly, you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
It was also for this very reason that Jesus told His disciples," Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no way enter the kingdom of heaven." Back in chapter 2, Paul had made a distinction between the works of the law and the righteousness of the law. Paul said there is great value in maintaining the righteousness of the law. That is, in keeping the eternal moral precepts contained in the law. These precepts are repeated in the New Testament.
As Jesus explained, the primary two righteous requirements of the law are loving God and loving our neighbor. To be sure, by themselves, without the blood of Christ, even keeping the righteous precepts of the law cannot save us. However, after we have been washed by the blood of Christ, these righteous requirements are part of the godly fruit we must produce. In contrast, the works of the law, the external regulations, play no part in either our initial salvation or our final salvation.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. The Mosaic Law taught the Jews how they should live, and it condemned many ungodly practices as being sinful. As a result, the Jews were generally more aware of sin than were the Gentiles. The Gentiles did not know that idolatry, premarital sex, abortion, and so many other acts were sinful. The Jews did. The Jews also knew that there was a coming day of judgment when God would punish sin.
However, since the law could not impart power to fulfill its commandments, this knowledge of sin only made the Jews that much more guilty before God. Clement of Alexandria writes," How is it that certain Gnostic heretics say that the law is not good? They noisily appeal to the apostle who says," By the law is the knowledge of sin." We reply to them that the law did not cause sin. Rather, it revealed sin. By instructing us in what should be done, it condemned what should not be done.
Now, to teach what is beneficial and to point out what is harmful is the role of something good. It is likewise good to exhort men to practice what is beneficial and to avoid what is harmful. So these heretics do not understand the apostle. For what Paul is saying is that the law made us aware of sin. He is not saying that sin derived its existence from the law.