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Benjamin Tangeman 01.05.2025
Romans 3:9–18 (ESV)
9What 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, 10as it is written:
“There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks Yahweh.” (Ec. 7:20)
12 “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” (Ps. 14:1–3 = Ps. 53:1–3)
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit.” (Ps. 5:9)
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.” (Ps. 140:3)
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” (Ps. 10:7)
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” (Is. 59:7f.; cf. Pr. 1:16)
18 “There is no fear of Yahweh before their eyes” (Ps. 36:1)
“The National Christian School Athletic Association's mission statement claims it is, ‘Committed to the pursuit of Christ-centered excellence in athletics, as well as ministering with the love of Christ to youth, schools, and communities nationwide.’ At some point in the fourth quarter of the organization's girls basketball national championship game, both teams lost sight of the "Christ-centered" part of that mission statement, instead giving in to tension during a full-out brawl that disqualified both teams, leaving the NCSAA without an official champion.
According to ESPNRise, the NCSAA title game between national powerhouse Potter's House (Fla.) Christian Academy and Riverdale Baptist (Md.) School was halted with 3:23 remaining, when both benches cleared as an argument on the court quickly expanded into a brawl, albeit a relatively tame one (no players were hurt in the fight). Because all the players who ran on to the court were disqualified for doing so, neither team could field a team after the incident, leaving referees and the NCSAA no choice but to rule the game as a rare double disqualification.”
Most of you know that I don’t pay much attention to “Sports-ball”—so why, might you ask, am I aware of this rare example of a double-disqualification in the NCSAA High School girls basketball tournament of 2011?
You know that is the only example of double-disqualification in a sporting event that I could find. Either that or Google really let me down.
I’m sure someone will come up to me after the sermon and give me another example—probably a better one.
The key to this story is the double-disqualification.
One of the main reasons for the letter of Romans is Paul exhorting the church in Rome to unite. The Jews had been forced out of Rome due to some ruckus caused by one of their leaders—or at the very least a misunderstanding in that direction.
In their absence the church’s only constituency was Gentile. After a few years the emperor allowed the Jews to return to Rome and what they found when they went back to their very first Lord’s day gathering was not a building of dusty pews and dried out hymnals, but a thriving, robust congregation of “the bad guys”.
In the name of Jesus they were trying to get along, but of course the Gentiles were put off by the holier-than-thou attitude of the Jews and the Jews couldn’t imagine worshiping with the uncircumcised Gentiles who weren’t taking their Faith in Yahweh seriously enough.
Paul is trying to unite the Jews and Gentiles around their commonality in Jesus, but by way of getting to unity, he breaks down all their superiority complexes and uses their situation to teach them about the power of the Gospel of Jesus. It is better than any of them think!
Just like these two NCSAA teams, Paul as referee declares—None of them are championship material, they have disqualified themselves. In addition, it wasn’t a skill/capability issue—it was a character issue.
You know that I like to give you the sermon in a sentence—something you can call to mind later.
“Regardless of religious, ethnic, or cultural affiliation, everyone is morally worthless; our bodies reveal our souls’ sinfulness.”
All Humanity is Totally Devoid of Any Goodness
Our Bodies Testifies to Our Soul’s Sinfulness
“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,”
“There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks Yahweh.” (Ec. 7:20)
12 “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” (Ps. 14:1–3 = Ps. 53:1–3)
Last week Philip created a wonderful image for us to categorize what has been happening in the last several weeks of sermons; the courtroom motif as he presented to us (from Rom 1:18-Rom 3:20) has Paul leveling the severity of the Gentiles and Jews position to Yahweh.
We’ve been sitting in the gallery witnessing Paul’s argument of the depravity of man.
According to the natural law—the Gentiles condemn themselves as they do what “they know to be right” and it then becomes a judgment against them when they do not obey.
The Jews—are exposed to the realization that neither their biological affiliation with Abraham, their religious practices, nor possession of the Oracles of Yahweh, does anything to change their status before Yahweh when it comes to the quality and state of their souls.
Paul addresses the Jew’s potential counterclaims—proactively dismantling them.
With that he returns to his previous question—”So does the Jew have an advantage.?”
Really, we are picking up in the middle of his climactic argumentation—leaving Daniel with closing arguments next week
This question, “Are we Jews any better off?” is probably best understood as “Are we excelled?” or “Do we put forward (anything) in our defense?”
Paul’s answer is emphatic: “Altogether, by no means, in no respect, unequivocally, absolutely, NO!”
The Gentiles may have had a breather from his address to them 1:18-2:24, but now he’s dragging them back into the dock.
All are under sin. This is a unique and important phrase. It means to be in sin’s dominion and under its rule. Other places in scripture describe being slaves to sin—helplessly bound to its effects. From Adam onward mankind has been “under sin”. But Paul doesn’t leave us with just that phrase—no he digs in deep; deep in to the Old Testament
Most of us are used to seeing Old Testament passages quoted in-line as we read the apostles’ work.
This practice is very important for us as Bible students, because when an apostle does this, he is in fact revealing the truest meaning to the work he’s quoting, as well as bringing the full force of Scripture to his argument.
Before Jesus brought fulfillment and clarity to the Law it was always pointing forward into the mystery of the prophetic. Now in Christ’s reign we look back and see even more clearly what everything in the Old Testament was pointing towards—it was pointing towards Jesus the Messiah.
In this passage we see Paul do something rather unique.
You may have noticed that there are in fact seven sets of quotation marks in verses 10-18.
What Paul does here is forge together from seven unique passages, one cohesive billet that he draws into a two edged sword and uses to deliver one final death-blow to any last semblance of hope or counter-claim the Jew and the Gentile may have.
This passage is in essence the definitive statement that “All Humanity is Totally Devoid of All Goodness.”
Those of you familiar with the Romans Road—a method for using Roman’s to deliver the whole gospel message to someone—this passage is often referred to as “The Problem” and it’s where you start the Romans Road.
In your notes you could draw a little sign-post from our passage to Rom 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Yahweh.” and from there to Rom 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death…”
To call what Paul says here a “Problem” is insufficient. It’s more than a problem; it is the worst news yet.
Let’s examine the first two Old Testament passages Paul draws from.
There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks Yahweh.” (Ec. 7:20)
12 “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” (Ps 14:1-3; 53:1-3)
Paul uses vs 10-12 as the foundation of his previous emphatic statement “All are under sin”.
A term for “entirety”, in this case “no-one” or “all” or “together” is used 8 times in these two verses—thus reiterating his emphasis on all.
Some commentators believe Ps 14:1-3 and Ps 53:1-3 are the basis of verse 10-12, however if that is the case Paul is summarizing parts of vs 1-2.
Interestingly, these two psalms are almost identical to one another, both written by David and it is assumed that they were written with different musical tunes for different occasions.
Either way, both open with this:
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after Yahweh. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”—Ps 14:1-3
Another commentator offers that vs 10-11 are Paul’s paraphrase of Ecc 7:20
“Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
Either way all of these texts leave us with the definitive statement that no-one exists on earth who has not sinned—who is truly good”
Here is what John Murray says in regards to Paul’s point here:
“There need be no question as to the propriety or the purpose of this initial summary statement. It is the precipitate of the biblical teaching and it is particularly relevant to the charge made in verse 9 that all are under sin. The most direct biblical support is that “there is none righteous, no, not one”. Righteousness is the criterion by which sin is judged and the absence of righteousness means the presence of sin.” — John Murray
So no-one being righteous, according to Paul, means that there is no-one who isn’t affected by sin.
At this point it’s probably helpful to define what scripture means by “righteousness” or the words “good” and “sin”.
Here are a couple definitions of “good” as adjectives:
“To be desired or approved of” (he did a good job)
“Having the qualities desired for a particular role” (a good school, or book)
As a noun:
“A benefit or advantage to someone or something.” (for the good of mankind.)
As scripture refers to it: “That which is morally right; righteous.”
By contrast sin is “any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the commandments of God.”
So when we attribute “goodness” as a quality of someone who is not submitted to Jesus as their Lord—we can only mean that they have done something that we approve of, perhaps something that meets a particular standard or acceptance or maybe even beneficial.
It can’t mean we ascribe moral righteousness to him.
Here’s an example of Jesus using this in his teaching.
“You who are evil know how to give good gifts…” Matt 7:11
Here Jesus is making a distinct point—you are evil, but you know how to do beneficial things.
Yet, here is the kicker. If evil men can do things that are approved of by men, and even in accordance with the commands of Scripture—can they not actually do goodness all the time—theoretically isn’t it possible that man could only do good?
Let’s look at another example from gospel account we call “the Rich Young Ruler”:
“And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except Yahweh alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’
And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”—Mark 10:18; Lk 18:10
According to this young man, he kept the whole law of God. Doesn’t that make him good?
He calls Jesus “Good” as a sign of respect, but perhaps he’s also thinking to himself, “This Jesus character isn’t really any better than me.”
Jesus pulls a real dad move; he gets technical. Rather than accepting the salutation for what it was, he makes a point—”no one is good, except Yahweh alone!”
Making that point, and flipping the trick back on the trickster (declaring that he is God) he allows the proud man his moment of hope. Keep the commands and you’ll inherit the kingdom.
I’ve done that, it’s easy! Very well, if you are so “righteous” then come and follow me as my disciple. Stop relying on yourself and follow me.”
At this, the young man left because he didn’t want to forgo his wealth and status to be a disciple of Jesus.
This ties right back to Paul’s argument that there are none who understand, none who seek after God; and in fact that they don’t honor him as God.
The Trinity Confession of Faith has a helpful statement summarizing this for us:
“Although works done by unregenerate men may be things which God commands and of good use to both themselves and others,322 yet because they do not proceed from a heart purified by faith,323 nor are done in a right manner according to the Word,324 nor to a right end, to the glory of God,325 they are therefore sinful and cannot please God. Nor can they make a man ready to receive grace from God,326 and yet the neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.”—TCF 18.7
Throughout Scripture the Lord rebukes people pointing out that their religious activity doesn’t please God—honestly it makes him sick.
One famous passage is Isaiah 64:6:
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”—Isaiah 64:6
All the righteous deeds of the unbeliever are like used medical bandages or menstrual clothes.
Isaiah 65:3-5:
“I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels; who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.” —Isaiah 65:3-5
Just like the rich young ruler, who did all the religious activity, and held himself up as righteous, when he was offered the true path of righteousness, surrendering to God’s Salvation through his Messiah—he went away sad.
And so you see—even the best that man can muster is not truly good, or morally righteous.
I’ve been around the world a few times and everywhere I’ve been I’ve met very dedicated and extremely religious people.
Most are more religious than I am, but regardless of their devotion to following the things that they think are pleasing to God—they cannot please him because their best is vile compared to his holiness.
The category of good we commonly use can only mean those actions that reflect divine excellence, but it cannot mean it’s own manifestation of excellence.
The unregenerate man doing good is only like the light we see from the Moon—the dirty reflection of the radiance of the Sun…; the moon is dark, one side is literally called the dark side.
The theological term for this doctrine of man’s fallen state, and inability to do good is often referred to as Total Depravity.
Total depravity doesn’t mean that man is as wicked or sinful as he possibly could be, nor does it mean that man is without a conscience or any sense of right or wrong. Paul has already demonstrated that man knows of God and simply rejects him. It doesn’t mean that man does not or cannot do things that seem to be good when viewed from a human perspective or measured against a human standard. It does not even mean that man cannot do things that seem to conform outwardly to the law of God.
What the Bible does teach and what total depravity does recognize is that even the “good” things man does are tainted by sin—because until we are regenerated we are under it.
St. Augustine from the 4th century had a helpful way of explaining man’s relationship to sin.
4 Fold State:
Posse non peccare: Able to not sin (Adam & Eve before the Fall).
Non posse non peccare: Not able to not sin (Everyone since the Fall).
Posse peccare, posse non peccare: Able to sin and able to not sin (Those regenerated by the Holy Spirit).
Non posse peccare: Unable to sin (Those who are with Christ).
So back to the Jew’s and Greeks—effectively all humanity; all are judged based on how they act in relation to Yahweh himself and his commands as revealed in his Word. He is the authority on Goodness—He is the very definition of it.
Coming back to vs 10-11; you’ll notice two things about man’s position and posture towards Yahweh.
When the phrase Yahweh looks down from heaven is used it is most used to communicate how inferior man is to him.
When God came down to Bable it was as to say, the best that you can do is so miniscule and irrelevant that I have to actually leave heaven so as to even catch a glimpse of it.
The same is true here. He has to inspect, as with a microscope, to see if he can find even one person who understands, who seeks after him.
The answer is the second observation; that all have turned away.
This turning away harkens back to the beginning of the trial motif—to verse 1:21— “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God…but they became futile in thinking and foolish hearts were darkened.”
Here’s Murray again: “...this verse is more specific and particularizes respects in which universal sinfulness appears. In the noetic (area of intellect) sphere there is no understanding; in the conative (the aspects of behavior that are connected to an intention, wish, or effort to do something) there is no movement towards God. With reference to God all men are noetically blind and in respect to Godward aspiration they are dead.”—John Murray
This leads us into our second point…
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” (Ps. 5:9)
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.” (Ps. 140:3)
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” (Ps. 10:7)
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” (Is. 59:7f.; cf. Pr. 1:16)
18 “There is no fear of Yahweh before their eyes” (Ps. 36:1)
Paul has laid his foundation from scripture that no-one is righteous. He couldn’t have been more clear. All Humanity is Totally Devoid of Any Goodness
But from here Paul moves to 5 more quotations each one having to do with a specific part or member of the body that demonstrates our corruption, or as the good old KJV translates is “concupiscence” (Desire for sin).
We have the throat, the tongue, the lips, all connected to the mouth; then the feet and finally the eyes. Let’s look at each in turn.
Notice how Paul starts with throats, then tongue, then lips. It’s as if he’s leading his listeners from the innermost man to the last member before exposure.
The throat is an open graves; one translation has open sepulchers—an opening in a hillside, leading to where people would bury their dead. It is the pathway to the dead, but it being open means that it isn’t hidden and the smells and corruption of death comes out.
The tongue practices deceit. It forms it and in a way makes the death from the throat “palatable”. The tongue forms words, but also tastes.
Our tongue reveals who we are. What are lies that we believe? “If God is real, why doesn't he prove himself?” “If there is a God, he’s holding you back?”, “Such and such isn’t really sin.” “You’re better than that guy.” “If you do this religious activity, you’ll be safe from his judgement.”
From the tongue he moves the lips. The lips are the gate to our folly, and from them we open and spit poison. “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent” —Proverbs 17:28:
Here what Isaiah—one of the most prolific prophets to Israel said when he met God in a vision: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”—Isaiah 6:5
Verse 14 summarizes everything that he’s described in vs 13; their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
James put it well:
“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”—James 3:10-12
Jesus said it best:
“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person….” — Matt 15:18-20
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” —John 8:43-45
Children of the Father of Lies—Man believes lies and makes lies
Adam—Did not correct the lie
Eve—Stretched the Truth & Believed the Lie
Man’s action comes from his nature—to transgress the Word of Yahweh.
The last couple weeks has had a lot of talk about the Incarnation—The Word become flesh—The Word lived among his people, they didn’t receive him, believe him, obey him, they twisted, they rejected, they disobeyed.
We’re still doing the same thing today.
Jesus manifested Truth in Action, living a perfect life, accomplishing the work of the Word, recreating, renewing, giving life, demonstrating the salvation and love of the Father.
The Feet passage alludes to a portion of Isaiah 59:7-9. Describing feet that are quick to shed blood points to a desire for ill gotten gain, preying on the innocent, weak and vulnerable. Not only violent/destructive techniques for personal gain, but also roads that don’t know peace. A certain basketball game that turned bad was because many feet were not looking for peace, but instead retribution, quick vengeance, and self vindication.
Interestingly from a body-language perspective our feet give away our desire often. If you are talking with someone and their feet are pointed away from you, it could be because they are making moves to leave. The direction of our feet are important and the unrighteous feet are not directed at God.
As so in the final body part—the eyes—the final body part. In a way Paul uses this verse from Psalm 36:1 to draw his audience back to the beginning of final exhibit—the last bit of evidence before he makes his closing statements:
Like verse 10 and 11 our man’s posture toward God is one of avoidance. We look away—because we do not want to be confronted with righteousness.
One final quote from Murray:
“The eyes are the organs of vision and the fear of God is appropriately expressed as before our eyes because the fear of God means that God is constantly in the center of our thoughts and apprehension….The absence of this fear means that G/od is excluded not only from the center of thought and calculation but from the whole horizon of our reckoning; God is not in all our thoughts. Figuratively, he is not before our eyes. And this is unqualified godlessness.”—John Murray
Not too long ago at homegroup I asked what the easiest way to start a conversation about the gospel. The answer was “talking about Sin.”
As a group of mostly Reformed people we come from a tradition that loves to talk about sin—not revealing in it—rather bemoaning it. We talk about sin so that God’s grace towards us is magnified.
Our sin, our total depravity is the worst news yet—the most clear case made for all of mankind being doomed.
It’s also a lived experience. We all recognize sin—even if we don’t admit it. We all feel that something is wrong with us and we usually try hard to hide it.
Paul’s final verse is actually a wonderful psalm, contrasting the Righteousness of God with the depravity of man:
“Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.
“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart! Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise. —Ps 36
You see, the rich Young Ruler—before Jesus answered him it said that he looked on him with love. Jesus saw this proud, confused, potentially manipulative and closeted idolater and he loved him. He invited him to leave any attempt at his own merit, his perceived security and his misidentified status—he invited him to lay down his life and follow the Savior.
That same invitation is open to all of us today. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”—Ac 2:38.
Many of us have taken it and we rejoice that our sins have been forgiven, cast into a sea without bottom or shore, as far as the East is from the West.
If you don’t know that peace and that joy, the rest from your depravity and hope for eternity, but you want to be released from your doom and redeemed from your depravity, or maybe you simply have questions about what that even means please don’t let today go by without having a conversation with Jesus. You can certainly start with me, one of the other pastors or someone on the prayer team—who will be up front after the service.
Here are some other recent messages.
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