Rom 3:10 No One
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, 10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Paul masterfully stings a series of seven OT quotations together like pearls to bear witness in different ways to human unrighteousness: verses 10 -11 is from Ec 7:20, verse 12 is from Ps 14:1-3 and Ps 53:1-3, verse 13 is from Ps 5:9, 140:3, verse 14 is out of Ps 10:7; verses 15-17 are out of Is 59:7f, Prov 1:16, and verse 18 is taken from Ps 36:1. (Stott) This portion of the text can be divided into three sections: The Condition of those under sin 10-12, The Conduct exhibited by those under sin 13-17, The Cause of being under sin 18 (Lloyd Jones)
The Condition of those under sin
10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Paul paints a vivid devastating picture of the human race from scripture. It portrays human beings as unable to do even a single thing either to please, understand or seek after God. He express their total depravity or inability. This doctrine is hard to accept because most people take sin lightly. Most people will admit that they are not perfect . . . but this is far different from admitting that we are utterly depraved so far as having any natural ability to please God. We are willing to admit that we are not perfect, but not that we are not righteous. We are willing to admit that there are things not known to us, but not that we are devoid of all spiritual understanding. We willingly admit that we wonder off the true path at times, but not that we are not even on the right path. Instead of admitting that we are running away from God, we pretend that we are seeking him. Without an accurate knowledge of our sin we will never know the meaning of grace. Like an illness, As long as we are convinced we are well we will not seek medical care. If we do not see our spiritual condition we have no need of the Great Physician (Boice). Paul here exposes the deeps of our depravity that we might hope for and find deliverance in the gospel. Boice suggests three ways to look at the human condition: Man is well, man is sick and man is dead. Those who think men are well find no need for a savior. And for those that might be somewhat “unhealthy” they prescribe a little spiritual exercise to find their inner light again, a motivational challenge to assure them they are ok or even a psychological check up to bring them in tune with themselves. Those who think men are sick look at the general optimism of the past believing the human race is ascending like a rocket and within a reasonable time all human problems will be solved. They think wars will cease, starvation will be eliminated, and disease will be conquered if people would learn to live and work together in a spirit of universal brotherhood and cooperation. In their view man is sick, but not dead. Men can change and evolve so we must work hard, tackle our ills and defeat them But the Bible presents a
different picture. Man is not spiritually well or sick spiritually, but spiritually dead. We are dead (Eph 2:1) as far as our being able to do anything to please, understand, or find God is concerned (Boice). Because for all this bad news about my true condition, there is a remedy. And the only reason for telling me the bad news is so that I will understand the remedy and take it - namely, the righteousness of God, freely given to those who really trust in Christ. (Rom 3:21) . . . sin is mainly a condition of rebellion against God, not mainly a condition of doing bad things to other people. This is why it is so sad and so pointless when people argue that they are pretty good people, and so don't need the Gospel. What they mean is that they treat other people decently: they don't steal, kill, lie much, or swear much, and they give to some charities. But that is not the main question. The main question is: Do you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? Do you love his Son, Jesus Christ? God is the most important person in the universe. It is not a mark of virtue to do nice things for people while having no love or reverence or passion for God. (Piper) There are three aspects of who we are that characterize man’s hopeless condition apart from God: our actuality, our aptitude and our ability
Actuality v. 10 None is righteous, no, not one
One of the most important truths to hold up in the world is that all human beings, even though created in God's image (Gen 1:27), are corrupted by the power of sin. We are not morally good by nature. We are morally bad by nature. . . . we are all "by nature children of wrath."(Eph 2:3) The attitudes and thoughts and actions that deserve the wrath of God come from us by nature. . . . we are called "sons of disobedience." (Col 3:6) We don't just do sins, we are sinful. We are "under sin,"(v 9). Sin is like a master or a king, and reigns over us and in us. Not that it coerces us to do what we don't want to do, but makes us want to do what we ought not to do. We are not innocent victims of sin. We are co-conspirators with sin against God. (Piper) Man is unrighteous. He is not less righteous then he needs to be to please God he is utterly and completely unrighteous.(Boice) To be righteous means you are blameless with respect to God and fellow men . . . it doesn’t mean being good or moral or respectful it means you are righteous before God.(Lloyd Jones) It is not a comparison of the righteous of others, saying well I’m more righteous then them, but a comparison to the righteousness of God. The standard for our righteousness is his righteousness (Matt 5:48). You say, "Well, how does God expect us to get there?" He doesn't. That's the whole point of the gospel. He just expects you to recognize you can't get there. And then He'll take you there through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. (Mac Arthur) There are no levels of righteousness. There is either perfect righteousness in Christ or perfect sinfulness apart from Christ. People are able to do things that are morally right. But it is not speaking here of specific acts or even general patterns of behavior, but of man’s inner character. There is no single person (apart from Jesus) who has ever lived, whose innermost being could be characterized as righteous by God’s standard. (Mac Arthur). 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 (apart from Jesus (2 Cor 5:21) who could stand the test of the law. Drop your plumb-line (Amos 7:7) and he is not true to it, he is not straight, he is not upright, he is not pure, he is not blameless. (Lloyd Jones) Paul scours the pages of history to see if there is one who is righteous before God, someone who is able to stand in God’s presence on their own merit, by their own works right before him. He drives the nails into all of our coffins of self-sufficiency concluding there is no one no not one. (Ferguson). No human being (apart from Jesus), when judged by the standard of the law of God, can rightfully be called “righteous” (Sproul) Paul condemns us in sin and cast us upon a perfect savior (Rom 3:21, Rev 5:1-5).
Aptitude 11 no one understands;
Not only is man bad but he doesn't even understand what good is. Man has no innate ability to fully comprehend God’s truth or His standard of righteousness . . . apart from seeing natural creation (Rom 1:20), man has no spiritual capacity to understand God, because “the natural man does not accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them” (1 Cor 2:14). Man has no organ of perception, so that he cannot understand the truth. He has no right understanding of God. He has no right apprehensions of God. He has no ability in his humanness to perceive truth about God on his own. Man is utterly cut off from any understanding of God. (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. (Mac Arthur). Here is a lack of spiritual perception and not merely a lack of human knowledge. Human wisdom has shown itself bankrupt so far as coming to know God (1 Cor 1:18-21) Spiritual matters can only be known by God’s Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). I person can rationally understand Christianity, unbelievers can teach the knowledge of the Bible, but without the illumination of the Spirit the will not fully understand what they are teaching (1:21) (Boice) Paul said, “They're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim 3:2-9) (Mac Arthur)
Ability 11 no one seeks for God.
The problem is that there are a lot of people seeking after “God”. Through religions or a pilgrimage they are trying to seek God, The Bible say that men are to seek God (Matt 7:7, Heb 11:6, Acts 15:16, Matt 6:33) This isn’t contradictory. To the text. The people told to seek God are believers (Duet 4:29, Ps 105:4, Is 55: 6, Amos 5:4, 2 Chron 15:2, 19:2), who have the capacity to seek God, but outside the faith, nobody seeks God (Ps 14:2) (Sproul). The people involved in false religion are seeking something other than God. They're running from God to their own man-made system. The people who seek God, who truly seek God, do not seek God on their own initiative. On their own initiative they seek other gods, blinded to the truth. If they seek the true God, it is because God has taken the initiative (John 6:44, 65; Hos 11:4, ). So men who go through the religious route are running from God and people who are truly seeking God are not doing it because of their own natural initiative, they're doing it because the Father has begun to draw them. The only person therefore, that seeks God is the person who has responded positively to God’s seeking him. But men do not seek God, they seek their own will and their own way (Phil 2:21, 2 Tim 3:2). And they may seek it in religion but it is not the true God. It is the gods that they have manufactured. They turn their back on the true God and they make an image like corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. (Rom 1:21f). Men naturally don't seek God. How could they? Does a corpse seek anything? It doesn't seek anything. A corpse doesn't seek anything at all, and they're dead and they're blind and they're deaf and they're dumb and they're ignorant and that's the way it is with man. (Mac Arthur). When we see people searching for such things as truth, peace of mind, eternal life or happiness, they are searching for relief from their guilt. These are things that Know only God can give them. So we leap to the conclusion that since they are searching diligently for those things which only God can give them, they must therefore be searching for God. But it is precisely this in which man’s sinfulness consists that man seeks the benefits of God, while fleeing from the person of God. (Thomas Aquinas). Adam sinned turning his back and fled from a holy God. God had to take the place of a seeker (Gen 3:9), so it has ever been. God takes the place of seeker, convector, persuader, give, and final perfecter of all man’s salvation (Newell). Throughout the Bible God is searching for and seeking to save the lost (Ezek 34:10-16; Luke 15:4-6, 19:10). God is pursuing us, while we are fugitives fleeing from him (Sproul). We really do not seek God at all, making his glory our supreme concern (Ps 14:2-3), that we have not set him before us (Ps 54:3), that there is no room for him in our thoughts (Ps 10:4) and we do not love him with all our powers. Sin is the revolt of self against God the dethroning of God with a view of enthroning one’s self. (Stott)
To seek God doesn't mean only to come and ask for salvation, it means that in everything we seek God. "I have set the Lord always before me." (Ps 16:8) This means that my focus in everything is God. It's as if we put the Lord in front of us and God becomes a grid through which we perceived everything, through which he received everything. Going and coming, God was the filter of everything. Seeking the Lord is to see that God is the focus of everything. God is the source of everything. God is the beginning and the end of everything. It is to desire the full manifestation of all of God's wondrous perfections. It is to respect and adore His sovereign majesty. It is to feed on His truth. It is to live in His presence, to obey His commandments, to speak to Him in prayer, to trust Him in everything and to spend your life declaring His glory. It is to seek God not only for salvation but to seek that God should be glorified in everything, and men do not do that. They run from God in the seeking of their own ends and their own desires. (Mac Arthur)
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