Romans 3.11-The Second and Third Charges in a Thirteen Count Indictment Against Mankind
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 16, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:11-The Second and Third Charges in a Thirteen Count Indictment Against Mankind
Lesson # 82
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:10.
Last Thursday, we began a study of the third part of the second major section of the book of Romans, by noting Romans 3:9.
This second major section in the book of Romans is contained in Romans 1:18-3:20 and deals with the universal need of the righteousness of God.
The third part of this second major section in the book of Romans is contained in Romans 3:9-20, and can be treated like a court room trial.
Romans 3:9-20 can be divided into four parts: (1) The Arraignment: The entire human race is brought before the Supreme Court of Heaven to answer to the divine indictment (Romans 3:9). (2) The Indictment: The entire human race faces the charges of crimes against a holy God (Romans 3:10-17). (3) Motive: The motive for man’s crimes against God (Romans 3:18). (4) The Verdict: The entire human race stands condemned before a holy God (Romans 3:19-20).
So last Thursday, we studied the arraignment of the entire human race in the court of heaven, which is contained in Romans 3:9.
In Romans 3:9, Paul states that both Jew and Gentile are under the power of the old Adamic sin nature and thus under eternal condemnation.
On Sunday morning, we began a study the thirteen count indictment brought against the entire human race by God, which is contained in Romans 3:10-17.
In Romans 3:10-17, the apostle Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit employs six Psalms and Isaiah 59:7-8 to present a thirteen count indictment against the entire human race, which demonstrates that they are enslaved to the old Adamic sin nature and thus totally depraved and in need of salvation in the eyes of a holy God.
On Sunday, we studied Romans 3:10, in which Paul lists the first of these thirteen charges, which states emphatically that there is absolutely no one in the human race that is righteous in the eyes of God.
This evening we will note Romans 3:11, which contains the second and third charges in this thirteen count indictment against man.
Romans 3:10-11, “As it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE. THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.’”
In Romans 3:11, the apostle Paul is quoting Psalm 14:2 and Psalm 53:1.
Psalm 14:2, “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.”
“WHO UNDERSTANDS” is the suniemi (sunivhmi) (soon-ee-ay-mee), which literally means, “to bring or set together,” and figuratively means, “to understand, to comprehend,” or “to perceive” in the sense of gaining insight into something.
In Romans 3:11, the verb suniemi means, “to comprehend” in the sense of gaining insight into the character and nature of God and His will and His ways.
This verb suniemi indicates that there is absolutely no one in the human race that comprehends God in the sense that they have no insight into His character and nature, His will and His ways.
The nation of Israel was destroyed because of a lack of knowledge of God because they rejected the Word of God (Hosea 4:6).
Jeremiah 4:22, “For My people are foolish, they know Me not; They are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.”
The nation of Israel rejected the truth of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ when they rejected Him as their Messiah, thus they were ignorant of God (See Matthew 13:1-23).
“WHO SEEKS” is the verb ekzeteo (e)kzhtevw) (ek-zay-teh-o), which means, “to seek after” God in the sense of exerting considerable effort and care, to be diligent in seeking to learn about His character and nature, His ways and His will.
Therefore, in Romans 3:11 Paul is saying that the entire human race without exception does not diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His ways and His will in the sense of exerting considerable effort and care in doing so.
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and ways involves growing to spiritual maturity meaning to become like Jesus Christ.
Matthew 6:33, “But above all else (number one priority in life), all of you make it your habit to diligently, earnestly and tenaciously seek after the kingdom of the God and His righteousness (grow to spiritual maturity), sparing no effort or expense, and as a result all these things will be provided for all of you.”
In order to grow to spiritual maturity and to diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and ways, the believer must learn and obey the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.
The Word of God is the believer’s spiritual food.
Matthew 4:4, “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”
The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures.
2 Peter 1:20-21, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Therefore, the Scriptures are God-breathed.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
The Holy Spirit reveals the Father’s will, character, and provisions to the believer through the communication of the Word of God by the man with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.
This is why John says in Revelation chapters two and three “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (See Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
The believer is sanctified by the Word of God.
John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
Learning and obeying God’s Word constitutes experiencing fellowship with God, which the believer has been called into (1 Corinthians 1:9).
Learning and obeying God’s will as it is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God also constitutes walking by faith and worshipping and serving Him (Hebrews 11:6).
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and ways demands confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary in order to be restored to fellowship and which fellowship is maintained by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
1 John 2:5, “But, whoever, at any time does observe conscientiously His Word, indeed, in this one, the love for the one and only God is accomplished. By means of this we can confirm that we are at this particular moment in fellowship with Him.”
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and His ways involves experiencing eternal life, which is accomplished by learning and obeying the Father’s will, which is again revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature and thus grow to spiritual maturity also involves the believer experiencing sanctification, which again is accomplished by learning and obeying the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and ways and thus grow to spiritual maturity also involves the believer experiencing the righteousness of God, which is also accomplished by again learning and obeying the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God (Romans 6:11-13).
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His ways and will and thus to grow to spiritual maturity also involves the believer experiencing deliverance from the sin nature, the devil and his cosmic system.
You guessed it, this too is accomplished by learning and obeying the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
To diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and ways also involves prayer.
Matthew 7:7, “Ask repeatedly, and it will be given to you; seek repeatedly, and you will find; knock continuously, and it will be opened to you.”
The believer diligently seeks to learn about His character and nature, His will and His ways by prayerfully learning and obeying God’s will as revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.
Therefore, we can see that diligently seeking to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and His ways involves experiencing fellowship, eternal life, sanctification, divine righteousness and deliverance from sin, Satan and his cosmic system as well as prayer.
All of these are obviously interrelated and connected with each other since all are based upon learning and obeying the will of the Father as it is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God and will result in growing to spiritual maturity, i.e. Christ-likeness.
The believer has the capacity to diligently seek to learn after God’s character and nature, His will and ways because he has the nature of Christ and the Spirit.
However, unregenerate mankind has absolutely no capacity to diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will or ways since they are spiritually dead, enslaved to the lies of the devil, his cosmic system and the sin nature.
The reason why the entire human race does not comprehend and diligently seek to learn about God’s character and nature, His will and His ways is that they have rejected the truth of God.
Adam and the Woman rejected the Word of God by disobeying the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-7).
They disobeyed the Lord’s command because the Woman was deceived by the devil’s lies and Adam chose his relationship with the Woman over his relationship and obedience to God.
This bad decision resulted in their acquiring a sin nature, which made them spiritually dead meaning they had no capacity to understand or comprehend truth of God.
Adam’s sin in the garden brought a curse not only on the entire human race of which he is the “federal” head but it also brought a curse on the earth itself (Romans 5:12).
Therefore, like Adam and the Woman in the Garden of Eden, the entire human race has been deceived by the devil, accepting his lies and program to live independently of God and as a result do not comprehend God’s character and nature, His will or His ways (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Therefore, man’s ignorance of God is a choice that all of mankind has made to reject the truth of God.
Not only is the entire human race ignorant of God because they have a sin nature passed down from the first Adam but also because they have rejected the truth or the reality of God’s existence in creation as we noted in our studies of Romans chapter one (Romans 1:18-32).
Also, by entering into sin, mankind rejects God’s truth that is written on their souls by the Lord Jesus Christ when He created mankind (Romans 2:14-15).
Therefore, we can see that the entire human race is responsible for the fact that they do not comprehend God’s character and nature, His will and His ways or diligently seek after these things.
They chose the lies of Satan and have rejected the truth of God as revealed in creation, the human soul, the incarnate Word of God and the written Word of God!