All People; All of People

OSS: [Evangelistic] {I want the hearers to acknowledge that they are totally sinful and incapable of anything to warrant justification.} Cognitive: I want the hearers to know that all, even themselves, are totally sinful. Affective: I want the hearers to feel the great weight of their sinfulness and helplessness within their sin. Psycho-Motor: I want the hearers to acknowledge that they are totally sinful and incapable of anything to warrant justification.

PQ:

Who, What, Why?

Intro.: [AGS]: Have you ever had an argument with your child or perhaps responded to their questioning something you said by saying, “Because I am (mom or dad) and I said so!” The understanding behind the statement is that “because I am your superior, whom you are subject to authority given to me”; [TS]: This is what Paul does in this text, essentially. He brings the argument to a conclusion by appealing to the authority of the law of both the Jews and Gentiles (one, that of the written revelation, two, that of conscience and laws of nature) which suggested both groups (and by nature all people) are guilty of in need of righteousness. [RS]: This includes us, too. The Bible, which is our authority, supports that we are wretched sinners who are incapable of justification on our own.

TS: Let us examine the text now to answer three questions from Paul’s conclusive argument: Who, what, and why?

Who is guilty? [vv. 9-12]

All humans are guilty.

This continues the dialogue between Paul and those whom he is writing- not direct dialogue, but rather almost an imaginary one whereby Paul is answering anticipated questions and objections.

Responding to the objection that the Jews should have some sort of advantage over the Gentiles, Paul said they did not. Barnes explained, “No, in no wise. Not at all. That is, the Jews have no preference or advantage over the Gentiles in regard to the subject of justification before God. They have failed to keep the law; they are sinners; and if they are justified, it must be in the same way as the rest of the world.” [1]

He cites Psalm 14:1-3 to strengthen his assertion. This is important since the Jews were the ones having particular issue with hearing and accepting their depravity. Thus, Paul used their own Scriptures to support his assertion. Barnes commented, “Instead of being righteous, as the Jews claimed, because they were Jews, the testimony of their own Scriptures was, that they were universally wicked.” [2]

William Barclay commented on the word rendered “have become worthless” writing, “The word is achreioo, which literally means to render useless. One of its uses is of milk that has gone sour. Human nature without Christ is soured and useless.” [3]

Commenting on Verse 12, Adam Clarke wrote, “They have all diverged from the right way; they have either abandoned or corrupted the worship of God; the Jews, in forsaking the law and the prophets; and the Gentiles, in acting contrary to the law which God had written on their hearts. And the departure of both from truth proves the evil propensity of human nature in general.” [4]

Additionally, Clarke noted that in verse 10, the assertion is that there is not a “righteous principle” whereas in verse 12, the assertion is that there is “no acts of goodness without” expressing the “necessary consequence” of having no righteous principle. Thus, no righteous principle results in no righteous acts. [5]

As a matter of helpful note, Barnes wrote, “The design of the apostle, however, is not to prove that there were few or none pious. He is treating of the impossibility of justification by works, and alleges in proof that, according to the judgement of God in the 14th Psalm, there were none righteous, &c., in regard to their natural estate, or the condition in which man is, previous to his being justified. In this condition, all are deficient in righteousness, and have nothing to commend them to the Divine favour. What men may afterwards become by grace is another question, on which the apostle does not, in this place, enter. Whatever number of pious men, therefore, there might be in various places of the world, the argument of the apostle is not in the least affected. It will hold good even in the millenium!” [6]

APPLICATION: All humans, for all of time since the fall of man, are guilty of sin.

What is guilty? [vv. 13-18]

All of humans are guilty.

What I mean by this is that all of humans- ever part of humans- are guilty of sin and void of any good that warrants justification.

Warren Wiersbe commented, “Paul gave us an X-ray study of the lost sinner, from head to foot...”:

Human speech, vv. 13-14: the throat, tongue, lips, and mouth are mentioned in these verses. His words are deceitful. Their speech is of no good- it is deadly, pestiferous, and seeks to destroy the happiness of man. [7]

Sinner’s feet, vv. 15-16: His ways are destructive.

Sinner’s mind, v. 17: Peace is absent from the path of the sinner. Contrastingly, they focus on selfish needs/pleasures even if it means destroying others.

Sinner’s pride, v. 18 [I would call this the sinner’s attitude]: having no regard to God influences the lack of peace in v. 17. [8]

Many are the Scripture citations in these verses. Psalm 14:1-3, Ps. 5:9, Ps. 140:3, Ps. 10:7, Is. 59:7-8, Ps. 36:1.

C. J. Vaughan is quoted by Barclay suggesting “these Old Testament quotations describe three things- a character whose characteristics are ignorance, indifference, crookedness, and unprofitableness; a tongue whose tones are destructive, deceitful, and malignant; and a conduct whose marks are oppression, injury, and the inability to be satisfied.” Concerning this, Barclay responded “these things are the result of disregard of God.” [9]

Barnes commented on Paul’s use of the many different Scriptures- though not direct quotations and merely references or paraphrases- he suggested that each were from different periods of history in the life of the nation Israel- thus supporting that, it was not a Jew could be secure in salvation simply for being Jew. [10]

APPLICATION: There is no part of human, apart from the redemption of Jesus Christ, that warrants justification. Every part of humans deems them condemned unworthy, wretched, guilty sinners. This includes you and me. There is nothing good in us, by nature of who we are.

Why are all humans guilty? [vv. 19-20]

All humans, every part of humans, are incapable of fulfilling the law.

Wiersbe wrote, “No flesh can obey God’s law and be justified (declared righteous) in His sight. It is true that ‘the doers of the law shall be justified’ (Rom. 2:13), but nobody can do what the law demands. This inability is one way that people know they are sinners. When they try to obey the law, they fail miserably and need to cry out for God’s mercy.” [11]

Regarding the word law- based upon what is established earlier in Rom. 2:12-16, Adam Clarke commented, “That the word law, here, does not mean the pentateuch, is evident from the preceding quotations, not one of which is taken from that work. Either the term law must here mean the Jewish writings in general, or that rule of moral conduct which God had given to both Jews and Gentiles: to the former in their own Scriptures; to the latter in that law written in their hearts by his own Spirit, and acknowledged in their written codes, and in their pleadings in every civil case. Now, according to this great law, this rule of moral conduct, whether given in a written revelation, as to the Jews, or by the secret inspiration of his Spirit, as in certain cases to the Gentiles, every mouth must be stopped, and the whole world, πας ὁ κοσμος, both Jews and Gentiles, stand convicted before God: for all mankind have sinned against this law.

The law was not intended to save; however, without the law, one would not understand sin and thus understand the need for salvation. “Thus, the law is properly considered the rule of right; and, unless God has given some such means of discovering what SIN is, the darkened heart of man could never have formed an adequate conception of it. For, as an acknowledged straight edge is the only way in which the straightness or crookedness of a line can be determined, so the moral obliquity of human actions can only be determined by the law of God; that rule of right which proceeds from his own immaculate holiness.” [12]

APPLICATION: Humans are guilty because of their inability to keep the law- to live righteously according to the demands of the law of righteousness. That’s you and me, too. We are helpless and incapable to be justified.

Takeaways:

[1] This seems rather depressing and altogether weighty. When we are faced- firsthand- with our own inability and helplessness realizing we are GUILTY.

[2] Do you realize the weight of your sin? Do you acknowledge that you are completely helpless as it pertains to salvation or to being justified?

Bibliography:

[1] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Romans, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 78.

[2] Ibid.

[3] William Barclay, “The Letter to the Romans” in The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: The Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 64.

[4] Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes, New Edition., vol. 6 (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014), 55.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Barnes, 79.

[7] Ibid., 80-81.

[8] Warren W. Wiersbe, “Romans” in Be Right: How to be Right with God, Yourself, and Others, 2nd Edition (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2008), 39-40.

[9] Barclay, 65.

[10] Barnes, 81.

[11] Wiersbe, 40.

[12] Clarke, 56.

[13] Ibid.

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