EQUAL BEFORE GOD
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Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that your path for me is perfect. You have promised to go before me; thank you for surrounding me with love and protection.
Read ROMANS 3:9—20
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Romans
Romans 3
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
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.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Reflect
‘… there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who … never sins.’1 Come before God in penitence, acknowledging your sin ‘in thought and word and deed.’2
Born into a particular race, religion, family… given a particular education, afforded a particular status and career… others in my society respect me. Does all this give me special status before God? The Jewish believers were thinking: ‘We have the Law… Aren’t we better than the gentiles?’ Paul gives his devastating answer. Before God, we are all equal: no one is righteous before him (vv. 9, 10). Whoever we are, whatever our background, we are all ‘under the power of sin’ (v. 9)
For Jewish believers, this would have been a particularly difficult teaching. Paul drives home his point by explaining that their own Scriptures consistently pointed to the sinfulness of humankind. ‘There is no one righteous, not even one … All have turned away’ (vv. 10—12).3 With his expert knowledge of Scripture, Paul illustrates how all have sinned through their words (vv. 13, 14), their actions (vv. 12, 15—17), and their inner attitude toward God (v. 18). In truth, there is ‘no fear of God’ and it is this fundamental failing which leads to all the sinful behaviors of human beings which Paul has enumerated, whether of Jew or gentile.
The revolutionary truth is that the law—keeping the rules—doesn’t save you (v. 20). It speaks to all of God’s holiness; it teaches all of us that we are sinners and how far we have fallen short of his glory (v. 23). In fact, along with every other person in the whole world, before God we have no defense; we stand in silence, knowing that we are accountable only to him (vv. 19, 20). It seems that we are in a hopeless situation. Paul wants all his readers to understand this before hearing the good news of Jesus (v. 22).
Apply
Be silent before God for a few minutes. Allow the Holy Spirit to show you your sinfulness. Remember that Jesus stands before the Father, interceding for you.4
Closing prayer
Father, keep me ever mindful that nothing but your love and mercy has given me all I am and have, that, without the gift of your Son’s blood shed for me, I could never be pleasing to you.
1 Eccl 7:20 2 The Book of Common Prayer 3 cf. Ps 14:3 4 Rom 8:34.
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