Romans 3:9-20 (New American Standard Bible)

First Baptist Church, Oak Hill - Sunday Night Bible Study (October 26, 2008)

Verse 9

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

This is Paul’s concluding statement to the previous chapters (1:18-32; 2:1-3:8) in which he had laid out a “legal” basis for the condemnation of “all”, from the moral and immoral pagan, to the moral and immoral Jew - all being sinful, therefore guilty, and “without excuse” (1:20, 2:1) whether the knowledge that they had of God was only from general (natural) revelation (the pagan) or the full, though limited, knowledge of God based on the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament, inclusive of the Mosaic Law, the Prophets, etc.)

“What then?”, the question is asked rhetorically by Paul. “Are we better than they?” The understanding of “we” and “they” while not contested heavily by scholars, there is some disagreement as to the intended group defining the “we” and therefore guiding and defining the group of “they”. The majority opinion seems to be that the “we” Paul references here are the Jews, though MacArthur makes the case that the first eight verses of Chapter 3 deal with the questions that the Jews would have asked in refuting or defending their “righteousness”. In contrast, MacArthur offers up the understanding of “we” as Paul’s statement of the Christians, both Jew and Gentile, in Rome making up the group of “we”. Thus changing the understanding of who “they” would be somewhat in that it would be no longer all Gentiles (whether immoral, or moral), but also Jews, (whether moral or immoral, or even law-observant).

The distinction between the two interpretations are seemingly minor, though significant in the understanding of the historical context of the Jewish belief of their own righteous position with God simply due to their ethnicity or their privilege simply by birth, law-keeping (or in the case of so many Pharisees, the traditions of man rather than the “law of God”), and circumcision. A key part of the art of biblical interpretation is knowing the audience to whom a letter is written. Romans is no different, and it is important to realize that Paul is writing to a mixed ethnic group of believers, Jews and Gentiles, who held a common belief in Christ, but in culture and background differed greatly. Spiritual snobbery, or the belief of the Jews in their spiritual superiority due to their assumed privileged position because of their familial connection with Abraham by birth was something which apparently Jesus and Paul both dealt with in the first century among their contemporaries whom they preached to.

From my perspective, the importance of the interpretation held forth by MacArthur and perhaps others is that it is important to Christians to not become spiritual snobs (or perhaps spiritual elitists) being presumptuous of our salvation as though we were somehow better than others who have not been saved (elect, etc.) which is a danger from which we must always be on our guard for as we understand the workings of God’s grace and our faith, and their respective roles in the provision of our salvation being wholely from and by God through the means of the death of Jesus on the cross, and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit as he awakes us to our sinful state, and opens our eyes to look upon ourselves as God sees us, which causes those so awakened to cry out to the only hope for which there is to rescue us from this despair - Jesus Christ.

Thus concluding the understanding of this verse brings us to the terms “already charged” and “under sin”. As Paul states clearly, all - Jew and Gentile - are all under the control or power of sin, thus making it such that we are guilty as charged, and it is now just a matter of his reading the indictment. (See verses 10-18)

[“Already charged” is the legal term used to indicate a previous indictment on other charges, but bringing it full circle to demonstrate the seriousness of the idea of being “under sin” - the Greek word hupo, means to be totally dominated by the subject of this verb, which in this case is “sin”. The NLT (New Living Translation) translates this as “are under the power of sin”.]

Commentary (on verses 10-18)

“If the quotations were examined one by one, it would be necessary to relate them to their historic contexts; some at least of them had a particular rather than a universal reference. But the general picture which they here present rounds off the case which Paul has been building up. And if he supposes an objection to his use of these quotations, the objection is not that he has detached them from their historical contexts, but that they refer to the wicked Gentiles only, not to Israel. ‘No,’ he replies, ‘these quotations are taken from the Jewish Scriptures, and therefore the people whom they have primarily in view are Jews.’ What is written in the law (here meaning the Hebrew Bible as a whole) applies naturally to the people of the law. The law brings out men and women’s sinfulness but does nothing to cure it.” [Romans, F.F. Bruce, 92-93.]

“The Jews’ commitment to truthfulness of their Scriptures would have made it extremely difficult for them to deny the obvious testimony of the Old Testament that all are under condemnation as a result of sin. ‘As it is written’ translates a Greek verb in the perfect tense (gegrapai), emphasizing the authoritative character and permanent nature of the verses cited. The verses quoted by Paul are not always exactly as they are found in the Hebrew Old Testament. Several factors may explain the variations. Some quotes are taken from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament in use at that time), which differs somewhat from the Hebrew text. Also a New Testament author would quite often, under the inspiration of God and to accentuate a specific point, adapt an Old Testament verse to serve his immediate purpose. Furthermore, the practice of precise citation and scholarly acknowledgment is a modern phenomenon. It was not all customary practice in antiquity.” (The New American Commentary: Romans, Robert H. Mounce, 108-109.)

“Paul used the Old Testament Scripture to prove the lamentable state of those outside of Christ. You will not be able to find even one just or righteous individual. No one has genuine understanding. If they fully understood the consequences of sin, they would not live as they do. By nature people simply do not seek out or search for God. This insight will come as a surprise for many moderns. People throughout the world are often pictured as seeking God through the various paths offered by different religions. Paul would not agree. It is true that they may be seeking some sort of religious experience, but that is not at all the same as seeking God. Scriptures teach that it is God who takes the initiative. He is the one who seeks us; not the other way around. All have ‘swerved from the right path’. That their failure to seek God is more than an accidental omission is seen in the fact that they have deliberately turned away from God. In the end their lives turn out to be useless and unprofitable. “Not one of them acts honorably, no, not one.” (The New American Commentary: Romans, Robert H. Mounce, 108-109.)

Quote from John Stott regarding the presentation of the various passages as being a “string of pearls”, a Jewish rabbinic tradition of presenting an argument with some latitude in the quotation and use of the passages selected for use.

John MacArthur itemizes verses 11-18 as a thirteen point indictment of fallen humanity, and further breaks this down into three categories: (1) the character of the accused, (2) the conversation of the accused, and (3) the conduct of the accused. Under character, he lists the first six of the thirteen charges: (1) mankind is universally evil, (2) mankind is spiritually ignorant, (3) fallen man is rebellious, (4) mankind is naturally wayward, (5)mankind is spiritually worthless, (6) mankind is charged with being corrupt (a repeat of the first charge and perhaps even a summary of the previous five).

Under the second of the first six charges MacArthur goes into greater detail of the level of mankind’s “spiritual ignorance” by stating, “man’s spiritual ignorance is not due to unfortunate outward circumstances or lack of opportunity. It is due solely to his own innate sinful nature that does not want to know and understand, much less obey and serve God. Unsaved persons are ‘darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart (Eph. 4:18). Men are not sinful and hardened against God because they are ignorant of Him, but, to the contrary, they are ignorant of Him because of their sinful and hardened disposition. People have a certain sense of God through their testimony of creation, as already noted, and also through the witness of their consciences (Rom. 2:15). But their willfully sinful nature blocks out that testimony and witness. The natural man is thereby hardened in his heart and darkened in his mind. He not only does not understand God but has no inclination to do so.” (pp. 183-184)

However, in anticipation of those who would challenge this thought, MacArthur further writes these follow-up statements regarding those who would somehow come to the Father diligently “seeking” Him. “God has given absolute assurance that anyone who seeks Him with his heart will find Him (Jer. 29:13). Jesus offers the divine promise that everyone who sincerely seeks Him will find Him, and that everyone who sincerely knocks on the door of heaven will have it opened to him (Matt. 7:8). But the Lord knows that man’s sinful inclination is not to seek Him, and He therefore seeks individuals out to draw them to Himself....Every person who comes to Jesus Christ for salvation has been sent to Him through the divine initiative of God the Father (John 6:37). ‘No one can come to Me,’ Jesus goes on to say, ‘unless the Father who sent Me draws him’ (v. 44). The only person, therefore, who seeks God is the person who has responded positively to God’s seeking him.” (pp. 184-185)

The conversation of “fallen man” is made up of the charges of: (7) man is by nature spiritually dead, (8) man is deceitful, (9) uncoverted man has “the poison of asps under his tongue”, (10) the ungodly are those whose mouths “are full of cursing and bitterness.”

The conduct of fallen man lists the last three of the charges as being: (11) innately murderous, (12) general destructiveness, (13) condemned man’s lack of peacefulness.

[The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 1-8, John MacArthur, 177-195.]

Verse 10

as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;

✝ “Universally evil” (MacArthur)

Verse 11

There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;

✝ “Spiritually ignorant” (MacArthur) - “none who understands”

✝ “Rebellious” (MacArthur) - “none who seeks for God”

Commentary (on Verse 11)

This is rightly concluded, from what the Psalmist says, Psa_14:2, "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men", on all the children of men, Jews and Gentiles, "to see if there were any that did understand"; and it appears, upon this survey of them, there was not one understanding person among them: man thinks himself a very wise and understanding creature, though he is born a very ignorant one: true indeed, he has not lost by sin the natural faculty of the understanding, so as to become like the horse and mule, which are without any; and it must be allowed, that natural men have some understanding of things natural, civil, and moral; though there is none that understands even these, as Adam did: but then they have no understanding of things spiritual; no spiritual knowledge of God; no true sense of themselves, their sin and misery; nor do they truly know the way of salvation by Christ; nor have they any experience of the work of the Spirit of God upon their souls; nor any experimental knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel: no man can understand these of himself, by the mere strength of reason, and light of nature; nor can even a spiritual man fully understand them in this life; in consequence of this account and character of men it follows, that there is none that seeketh after God; that worships him in Spirit and in truth, or prays to him with the Spirit, and with the understanding; who seek him chiefly, and in the first place, with their whole hearts, earnestly, diligently, and constantly; who seek him in Christ, and under the assistance of the Spirit; who seek after the knowledge of God in Christ, communion with him through the Mediator, or his honour and glory. (John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, Dr. John Gill, E-Sword, v 7.5.0)

See also comments above taken from MacArthur in greater context than just this section of the passage. The citation from MacArthur is most extensive when regarding this particular verse of “spiritual ignorance and rebelliousness”, though mostly regarding the idea and charge of “spiritual ignorance”, on which he dwells on the severity of the charge, but though without saying it alludes to the statement of the Apostle Paul mentioned twice in previous passages that the moral and immoral Jew and Gentile are all “without excuse”, so that even “spiritual ignorance” is not even an excuse for demanding justice from God for their lack of knowledge.

Verse 12

All have turned aside; together they have become useless; there is none who does good;

There is not even one.

✝ “Naturally wayward” (MacArthur) - “All have turned aside”

✥ “turned aside” - Greek: ekklino (G1578, Strongs)- the basic meaning is leaning in the wrong direction (MacArthur); to incline, bend, turn aside or away, recline. To avoid, used metaphorically of those who turn away or swerve from piety and virtue (The Complete Word Study Dictionary, Dr. Spiros Zodhiates, E-Sword v.7.5.0)

✝ “Spiritually worthless” (MacArthur) - “Together, they have become useless”

✥ “Become worthless” - Greek: achreioo (G988, Strongs) The Hebrew word means to go bad, become sour like milk (Lightfoot).

✥ they are together become unprofitable; the word נאלחו, in Psa_14:3 and Psa_53:3; is translated, "they are become filthy"; which R. Aben Ezra interprets by נשחתו, "they are corrupt"; and R. Solomon Jarchi by נהפכו לקלקול, "they are turned to corruption"; the metaphor is taken from stinking flesh, which is tainted and corrupted, and so good for nothing, hence here rendered "unprofitable"; for so men being corrupted by sin, are of no use, service, and advantage to God, to men, or to themselves; but, on the contrary, nauseous to God, and to all that are good, and hurtful to themselves and others:(Gill)

✝ “Natural Man is corrupt”

✥ “does good” - Greek: Chrestotes (G5544, Strongs) - From G5543; usefulness, that is, moral excellence (in character or demeanor): - gentleness, good (-ness), kindness.

Verse 13

“Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving,”

✝ In the times of Christ and John the Baptist the religious leaders taught “spiritually damning false doctrines” and were known for their “deceitful character” causing Christ and the Baptist to refer to them as “broods of vipers”.

Verse 14

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;

✝ “Cursing” - Greek: Ara - “Carries the idea of intense malediction, of desiring the worst for a person and making that desire public through open criticism and defamation.

✝ “Bitterness”- Greek: Pikria - “was not used so much in regard to physical taste as to describe openly-expressed emotional hostility against an enemy.

Verse 15

“There feet are swift to shed blood,

✝ “Scripture makes clear that the seed of murder is one of a multitude of evil seeds that are universally found in the human heart and that, to some degree, inevitably grow and bear fruit.” (MacArthur, 191)

✝ “Will Durant wrote in his Lessons From History: ‘In the last 3,241 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.” (Romans; Righteousness From Heaven, R. Kent Hughes, 77)

✝ Gen.4:8 (Cain and Abel)

Verse 16

Destruction and misery are in their paths,

✝ “Destruction” - Greek: Suntrimma - “is a compound word that denotes breaking in pieces and completely shattering, causing total devastation.”

✥ “In modern society victims are often robbed or raped and then beaten and murdered for no reason other than sheer brutality.”(MacArthur, 191)

✝ “Misery is a general term that denotes the resulting harm that is always in the wake of man’s acts of destruction against his fellow man. His destructiveness inevitably leaves a trail of pain and despair.” (MacArthur, 191)

Verse 17

And the path of peace they have not known.”

✝ “The apostle is not speaking of the lack of inner peace - although that is certainly a characteristic of the ungodly person - but of man’s essential inclination away from peace.

Verse 18

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

✝ Has positive and negative elements.

✥ “Positive - Every true believer has reverential feat of God - an awesome awareness of His power, His holiness, and His glory. Proper worship always includes that kind of fear of the Lord. Reverential fear of God is the beginning of spiritual wisdom (Prov. 9:10). That kind of fear is a necessary element in one’s being led to salvation, as with Cornelius (Acts 10:2), and motivates new believers in their spiritual growth.” (MacArthur, 192)

✥ Negative - Has to do with dread and terror. Even believers should have a measure of that kind of fear, which acts as a protection from sinning. The writer of Proverbs observed, “By the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil (16:6). For the very reason they are God’s children, believers are subject to His chastisement (see Heb. 12:5-11)....Ideally, Christians should live holy lives out of love for God and gratitude for His grace and blessings. Unbelievers, however, should have fear of God in its most intense and terrifying sense. (MacArthur, 192-193)

Verse 19

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

✝ “Oida” (know) refers to knowledge that is certain and complete. This declaration allows no exceptions. Every unredeemed human being, Jew or Gentile, is under the “Law of God” and accountable to God. As Paul has already declared, the Jew is under God’s written law, delivered through Moses, and the Gentile is under the equally God-given law written in his heart. (Rom. 2:11-15). God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of the entire universe, and it is therefore impossible for anyone or anything to be outside His control or authority.” (MacArthur, 194)

Verse 20

because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

✝ “There is no salvation through the keeping of God’s law, because sinful man is utterly incapable of doing so. He has neither the ability nor the inclination within himself to obey God perfectly. As Paul goes on to say, apart from the law, through the grace of God acting through the sacrifice of His Son, salvation and eternal life are made possible (Rom. 3:21-22). But under the law there can be no sentence but death.” (MacArthur, 195)

Stott comments:

Regarding verses 12-18, Stott summarizes them (or categorizes) them as: (1) declaring the ungodliness of sin, (2) teaching the pervasiveness of sin, (3) having the Old Testament teaching the universality of sin, both negatively and positively. Regarding sin, Stott states, “Sin is the revolt of the self against God, the dethronement of God with a view to the enthronement of oneself.” He further states that in the passages of verses 13-17 is found the Reformed doctrine of “total depravity”. (The “T” in TULIP), for which he elaborates in helping the uninformed to better understand what this doctrine means. “It has never meant that human beings are as depraved as they could possibly be....No, the ‘totality’ of our corruption refers to its extent (twisting and tainting every part of our humanness), not to its degree (depraving every part of us absolutely). As Dr. J.I. Packer has put it succinctly, on the one hand ‘no one is as bad as he or she might be’, while on the other ‘no actions of ours is as good as it should be.’” On the third point of the universality of sin and the concept of none being righteous, Stott quotes Martin Lloyd-Jones from Romans: The Righteous Judgment of God, (Vol. 2, p. 198), “For to be ‘righteous’ is to live in conformity to God’s law, and ‘the best man, the noblest, the most learned, the most philanthropic; the greatest idealist, the greatest thinker, say what you like - there has never been a man who can stand up to the test of the law. Drop your plumb-line, and he is not true to it.’”

Questions for pondering - “Take home”

1. Are you a sinner aware of your separation from God before salvation?

2. Is it possible for those separated from God, and apart from Christ to do good?

3. Why does this not help them get into heaven if they are truly good, and even morally upright people?

4. Is it possible that people are really as bad as verses 11-18 indicate? If so, what hope is there for them (us)?

5. Do you understand the condition of the human heart, even from birth, being corrupt and sinful?

6. Is it possible for one to “seek” after God if he has no desire to do so? What causes someone to desire to seek after God?