Romans 1 - 3:20: Condemned by Sin

Today in our reading journey we enter the land of Romans - surely one of the most interesting and important books in all of the Bible - not just for its deep theology, but for its practical application to our lives.

These first three chapters display a large emphasis on the wrath and judgment that is earned by the sin and rebellion of mankind.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

 Paul goes on to talk about how God's power and divine nature are instinctively known by men, and that they have knowingly dishonored the Creator and traded the glory of God for something less. As a result, they were given up to their wicked passions; homosexuality, murder, gossip, jealousy, etc.

Paul initially refers to the earned judgment of the Gentiles, but has much to say of the Jews' situation as well:

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Paul anticipated that some of the Jews would see themselves as exonerated from the judgment of the Gentiles since they had the Mosaic law given to them as a sign of their covenant. Paul tells them that the price of sin is the same with or without the law, and that it is not the hearers of the law that are justified but the doers.

Again, the Jew is not to see himself as privileged because of the law:

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, 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."

The state of the Jew and the Gentile are therefore quite similar - no one is righteous, and no one is justified by the law:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul makes it perfectly clear in the beginning of his letter to the Romans that we are all dead in our sins and stand condemned before the perfect God, who because of His perfect and loving nature, abhors our sin.

Many people have gone astray in thinking that they can try hard enough to earn their salvation. It is the subtle but immensely consequential falsehood behind many cults and other religions. The notion that we can do enough good to warrant standing justified before God of our own doing is an attractive but baseless idea. If we think about it, it's actually incredibly self-righteous and arrogant - do we really think that our pitiful acts of goodness, those dim glimmers amidst a life of rebellion and selfishness, somehow wash us white as snow and remove the all-pervasive effects of sin?

Fortunately, the story doesn't stop there. While we are dead in our trespasses and unable to be reconciled by anything we could ever do on our own, God had a plan full of love and grace to rescue us. We'll have to get to the rest of Romans to hear what Paul has to say after establishing our status as condemned by sin.

Until then, let us not forget the depth of our depravity or the futility of our meager deeds. Left to our own, we have separated ourselves from the Holy and loving Lord and nothing we can do can ever change that.

Alright Paul, finish the story! What hope do we have?