Romans 3:9–20 — “Every Mouth Stopped”

Intro

If you have your Bible, open with me to Romans 3:9–20. Today we stand at the climax of Paul’s argument — a moment where the entire human race is summoned into God’s courtroom. Since chapter one, Paul has been laying out the evidence piece by piece. In chapter one, he charged the pagan world with suppressing truth and rejecting God. In chapter two, he confronted the moral person — the one who judges others but practices the same things. Then he turned to the religious person — the one who thinks their rituals, heritage, or knowledge of Scripture gives them immunity.

Now Paul delivers the verdict. He looks at the entire human race — pagan, moralist, and religious — and he says, “All are under sin.” He says in verse 19, “Every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world held accountable to God.” This is the moment when human boasting dies. This is the moment when self-defense collapses. This is the moment when no one can stand before God and say, “But I’m different,” or “But I tried,” or “But I meant well.”

Paul is intentionally using the imagery of a courtroom — a courtroom in which the evidence is overwhelming, the Judge is holy, and every defense has been dismantled.

To feel the weight of this moment, it helps to remember a real historical scene that mirrors exactly what Paul is describing.

After World War II, the Allied powers held the Nuremberg Trials to prosecute the architects of Nazi brutality. Among the defendants was Hans Frank, the former Governor-General of occupied Poland. He was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews and Polish civilians. When the trial began, he carried himself with confidence. He believed he could explain his actions, justify his choices, or somehow argue his way out of responsibility.

But everything changed when the prosecutors began reading from his own personal diaries — hundreds of pages he had written during the war. These were not accusations; they were his own words. They documented his orders, his ideology, and his direct involvement in the genocide. As the evidence mounted, something inside him broke. There was no argument left. There was no excuse to hide behind. There was no possible defense.

During his final statement, Hans Frank stood to speak. Instead of offering justification or explanation, he quietly said: “I have no defense.”

And the courtroom fell silent.

That is the emotional and spiritual weight Paul wants us to feel in Romans 3. When all the evidence of our lives — every thought, every motive, every action, every word — is laid bare before a perfectly holy God, the only honest response is the one Hans Frank gave: “I have no defense.”

This is the moment when every mouth is stopped. This is the moment when human righteousness collapses. This is the moment when all self-justification dies. And Paul brings us here not to crush us but to prepare us — because only when our mouths are stopped can the gospel finally speak.

As John Stott writes,

“Paul brings the whole world into God’s courtroom to hear the verdict of guilt, so that every mouth may be silenced.”

Paul is not trying to depress us or crush us. He is trying to prepare us. You cannot understand the grace of Romans 3:21–26 until you feel the weight of Romans 3:9–20. Paul must end us before the gospel can raise us.

Main Idea

Paul’s point is simple and devastating: Every human being stands guilty before God, and the Law reveals this guilt rather than removes it.

This passage gives us three truths we must face:

Every person is under the power of sin.

Sin affects every part of who we are.

The Law silences us; it cannot save us.

Let’s walk through these one by one.

1. Universal Indictment: “All are under sin” (vv. 9–12)

Paul begins with a bold thesis:

“For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”

The phrase “under sin” is the Greek phrase hypo hamartían. It doesn’t mean “people sometimes sin” or “people have sinful tendencies.” It means that humanity exists under the dominion, authority, and enslaving power of sin. This is legal language, spiritual language, and cosmic language. We are not free agents; we are enslaved.

Paul then quotes a chain of Old Testament verses—a catena—mostly from Psalms 14 and 53:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God; all have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Paul is not pulling verses out of context—he is summarizing the entire Old Testament’s diagnosis of humanity. The idea that you can be “a good person” apart from Christ is not biblical; it is cultural mythology. Scripture teaches that all people—not just notorious sinners, but respectable ones and religious ones too—are spiritually corrupt.

John Murray writes,

“All men universally, without exception, are under the reign of sin. It is bondage, not mere liability.”

We are not morally neutral. We are spiritually dead. We are not drowning and reaching out for God; we are at the bottom of the ocean, lifeless, unless God intervenes.

This echoes Genesis 6:5:

“Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

It echoes Isaiah 53:6:

“We all like sheep have gone astray.”

It echoes Jeremiah 17:9:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.”

illustrations

Psychology today

Guil is an unseeded emotion that we all must do away with as soon as we can.

``Guilt is the worst demon to bear, and it will keep you in never-ending turmoil. Learn to let it go!

It consists of a set of ten ordinary brown paper bags on which are printed the following instructions: “Place the bag securely over your mouth, take a deep breath and blow all your guilt out, then dispose of the bag immediately.” The Associated Press reports that over 2500 sets of bags were quickly sold at $2.50 per set.

Paul’s point is startling but necessary: We are not seeking God; God is seeking us.

2. Comprehensive Corruption: Sin affects every part of us (vv. 13–18)

After declaring that sin enslaves every person, Paul now shows that sin affects every part of the person. He gives us an anatomical breakdown of depravity from head to toe:

Throat: “an open grave” — death comes out of our speech.

Tongue: deceit — we bend truth for our convenience.

Lips: poison — our words often kill rather than heal.

Mouth: curses and bitterness — we speak out of our wounds.

Feet: swift to shed blood — violence and self-interest drive us.

Paths: ruin and misery — sin destroys relationships and communities.

Eyes: no fear of God — the root problem is a lack of awe.

This rhetorical device is called merismus—using body parts to describe the whole. Paul is saying that our minds, wills, emotions, relationships, and worship are corrupted by sin.

Tom Schreiner writes,

“Paul demonstrates that every human faculty is affected by sin; the absence of ‘fear of God’ is the fundamental issue beneath all moral behavior.”

This doesn’t mean humans are as evil as possible; it means sin has saturated every corner of who we are. It means we cannot fix ourselves through education, therapy, community service, or self-improvement. We need a new heart.

The root of sin is not ignorance but irreverence—a refusal to fear God. When our eyes have no awe, our lives have no order. When the fear of God leaves a culture, chaos replaces it.

3. The Law’s Verdict: The Law silences us; it cannot save us (vv. 19–20)

Paul now explains the purpose of the Law:

“Now we know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

The Law is not a ladder leading upward; it is a mirror revealing downward. The Law does not justify; it exposes. The Law does not save; it sentences.

Paul uses three critical Greek terms here:

phragēsetai — “may be stopped,” meaning “to be shut, silenced, muzzled.”

hypódikos — “held accountable,” meaning “legally liable, declared guilty.”

epignōsis hamartias — “knowledge of sin,” meaning “full, penetrating awareness.”

Douglas Moo writes,

“The Law is not a means of justification but a means of condemnation. It shuts the mouth of every human being.”

This means your morality can never earn you righteousness. Your religious performance can never justify you. Your good works can never balance the scales. The Law’s job is to show you your need for a Savior.

The Law humbles us so grace can lift us.

Pastoral Application for a Young Church in Brampton

This passage should do at least three things in our community:

1. It kills comparison culture.

We don’t get to look at other people—other families, other churches, other neighborhoods—and say, “At least we’re not like them.” Romans 3 says we are them. The ground is level at the cross.

2. It fosters confessional community.

If every mouth is stopped by God’s Law, then no one here needs to pretend. We can confess sin without fear, because none of us is better than the other. Healing begins where hiding ends.

3. It clarifies our mission.

Our city does not need moral polishing—it needs gospel resurrection. Brampton doesn’t need more religion—it needs new hearts brought to life by Jesus.

This is why we preach Christ, not self-help.

Gospel Landing: The Silence Before the Grace

Paul ends this section with humanity silent and guilty. We are shut up, condemned, and hopeless in ourselves.

But the gospel does not begin with our excuses. It begins with our silence.

Because in the silence, God speaks.

And next week, we will hear one of the greatest sentences ever written:

“BUT NOW the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law…” (Romans 3:21)

The Law condemns us. The gospel rescues us. The Law stops mouths. The gospel opens hearts.

Christ steps into the courtroom not to argue your innocence but to receive your sentence. He is the Advocate who becomes the Substitute. He is the Judge who becomes the Justifier.

When your mouth is stopped, His grace begins to speak.

💬 Discussion Questions for MCs

Why is it essential to let Scripture “shut our mouths” before we hear the gospel?

Which part of Paul’s Old Testament chain (vv.10–18) most reveals the sin in your own heart?