Sermon Tone Analysis



Romans 3:9-17.

"Law Breakers"

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday August 28th, 2022.

Romans 3:9-17.

What then?

Are we better than they?

Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

13 "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive."

"The venom of asps is under their lips."

14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known."

(ESV)

People generally like to believe they are basically good.

That belief is continually reinforced by psychologists, counselors, and a great many religious leaders.

But deep in the human heart people know there is a problem.

No matter whom or what people may try to blame for that feeling, we cannot escape it.

There is the evident reality of guilt, not only about things we have done that we know are wrong but also about the kind of person we are on the inside.

As the Apostle Paul has already forcefully declared in the first two chapters of Romans, both the pagan Gentile and the religious Jew are sinful and stand condemned before a holy God.

But human nature strongly resists that truth.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse said, "It is only stubborn self-pride that keeps man from the confession to God that would bring release, but that way he refuses to take.

Man stands before God today like a little boy who swears with crying and tears that he has not been anywhere near the jam jar, and who with an air of outraged innocence, pleads the justice of his position, in total ignorance of the fact that a good spoonful of the jam has fallen on his shirt under his chin and is plainly visible to all but himself" (Donald Grey Barnhouse.

God's Wrath: Romans 2-3:1-20 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953], p. 191).

People feel guilty because they are guilty.

The guilt feeling is only the symptom of the real problem, which is sin.

All of the psychological counseling in the world cannot relieve a person of heir guilt.

At best it can only make them feel better, superficially and temporarily, by placing the blame on someone else or something else.

That, of course, only intensifies the guilt, because it adds dishonesty to the sin that caused the guilt feeling in the first place.

Human guilt has only one cause-our own sin-and unless our sin is removed, our guilt cannot be.

That is why the first element of the gospel is confronting people with the reality of their sin.

The word gospel means "good news."

But the good news it offers is the way of salvation from sin, and until a person is convicted of their sin, the gospel has nothing to offer.

The gospel therefore begins by declaring that all people in their natural condition are fundamentally sinful and that the greatest need of our lives is to have that sin removed through trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul was well aware of the human disposition to deny sin.

Therefore, from creation, from history, from reason and logic, and from conscience, Paul has already presented powerful testimony of human sinfulness.

Now he presents the ultimate testimony, the testimony of Scripture.

Paul introduces before the court, as it were, the testimony of God's own Word as revealed in the Old Testament.

The charge in verse 9 begins with two questions.

The first is simply, What then?

The idea is, "What is the point of further testimony?"

Paul has already condemned the immoral pagan, the moral pagan, and then both the moral and immoral Jew.

Anticipating what some of his readers would think, his second question asks rhetorically, Are we better than they?

That is, "Do we have a better basic nature than those who have just been shown to be condemned?

Are we made from a different mold, cut from a different piece of cloth than they?"

It seems that the "we" here directly refers to Paul himself and his fellow believers in Rome, both Jew and Gentile.

The question would then mean, "Are we Christians, in ourselves, better than the other groups of people already shown to be condemned before God? Are we intrinsically superior to those others?

Were we saved because our basic human nature was on a higher plane than theirs?"

Immediately answering his own question, Paul unequivocally asserts, Not at all.

"No, we are not in ourselves any better than others," he says.

He has already pointed out the condemnation of everyone, from the most reprobate, vice-ridden pagan to the most outwardly moral and upright Jew.

In other words, the entire human race, with absolutely no exceptions, is arraigned before God's court of justice: For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

Proaitiaomai (already charged) was often used as a legal term to designate a person previously indicted for a given offense.

Hupo (under) was a common Greek term that frequently meant not simply to be beneath but to be totally under the power, authority, and control of something or someone.

That is obviously the sense Paul has in mind here: Every unredeemed human being, both Jews and Greeks are all under, completely subservient and in bondage to, the dominion of sin.

Therefore, the problem with people is not just that they commit sins; their problem is that they are enslaved to sin.

What is needed, therefore, is a new power to break in and set people free from sin-a power found in, and only in, the gospel of Jesus Christ (Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans (p.

201).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)

Paul now in verse 10, presents an appalling thirteen-count indictment against fallen humanity.

To reinforce the inclusiveness of the indictment, he reiterates the fact that all of fallen humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, is under sin (cf.. v. 9).

The indictment comes directly from Old Testament Scripture, to which it is written refers.

It is written translates the Greek perfect tense, indicating the continuity and permanence of what was written and implying its divine authority, which every faithful Jew and every faithful Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, acknowledged.

The thirteen charges of the indictment are presented in three categories-the first concerning 1) The Character (Romans 3:10-12), the second concerning 2) The Conversation (Romans 3:13-14), and the third concerning 3) The Conduct (Romans 3:15-17) of the accused.

As Law Breakers, God's charge against sinful humanity is seen through:

1) The Character (Romans 3:10-12) of the accused.

Romans 3:10-12.

What then?

Are we better than they?

Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

(ESV)

In verses 10-18, he uses the term none (and its equivalent, not even one) six times in referring to humanity's absolute lack of righteousness before God.

Under the heading of what could be called character, Paul lists the first six of the thirteen charges.

Because of the unredeemed fallen nature, people are universally a) evil (v.

10b), b) spiritually ignorant (v.

11a), c) rebellious (v.

11b), d) wayward (v.

12a), e) spiritually useless (v.

12b), and f) morally corrupt (v.

12c).

First, humanity is universally evil, there being absolutely no exceptions.

Quoting from the Psalms, Paul declares, None is righteous, no not one.

The full text of Psalm 14:1 is, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'

They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good."

Paul here is using the term righteous in its most basic sense of being right before God, of being as God created people to be.

Obviously, people are able do many things that are morally right.

Even the vilest person may occasionally do something commendable.

But the apostle is not speaking of specific acts or even general patterns of behavior, but of people's inner character.

His point is that there is not a single person who has ever lived, apart from the sinless Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Cor.

5:21), whose innermost being could be characterized as righteous by God's standard.

To prevent some people from thinking that they might be exceptions, Paul adds, no not one.

There are obviously vast differences among people as to their kindness, love, generosity, honesty, truthfulness, and the like.

But no not one person besides Christ has come remotely close to righteous perfection, which is the only standard acceptable to God.

God's standard of righteousness for humaniy is the righteousness that He Himself possesses, which was manifest in Christ.

"You are to be perfect," Jesus declared, "as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt.

5:48).

In other words, a person who is not as good as God is not acceptable to God.

Human righteousness is like Monopoly money.

It has its uses in the game we call life.

But it is not real currency, and it does not work in God's domain.

God requires divine righteousness (Boice, J. M. (1991-).