Romans 3:9 "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;" And what’s synonymous with sin? Death! Everybody, both Hebrew and Gentile are under the curse of sin and death. All man kind was originally created in Adam an angelic being and receptive of God's nature but with the fall man became human, earthy or carnal and retained the receptive portion in his soul and is therefore became governed by Satan until such time as the Light of God is invited in to regenerate mans condition of sin to holiness. Consequently, we find in verse 10:
Romans 3:10-11 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; 11. There is none that understands, there is none that seek after God." "Man never goes looking after God, but rather it’s God Who always seeks the sinner." Go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After they had sinned and had sewed their fig leaves, and they knew God was coming down the path - did they run to meet Him? No! But rather, what did they do? They hid. But God came looking for them, not that He didn’t know where they were, but the whole idea was, to show us that God seeks that which He had lost, the sinner. Well, when we get to John’s gospel, that’s exactly what it says. In fact come back to John’s gospel chapter 3 so we can see it with our own eyes, because this is the mental makeup of sinful men, women, boy and girls, we’re all alike, and this is the true picture.
John 3:19-20 "And this is the condemnation, (this is mankind’s problem) that light is come into the world, (see how that fits with what we read a moment ago?) and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20. For every one that does evil (anything contrary to the will and word of God) hats the light, neither come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." Now in your mind’s eye, can you picture Adam and Eve? This is the perfect picture. They had sinned, they sewed fig leaves, but were they ready to meet their righteous Lord? No! So instead of running to meet Him and get right with Him, what did they do? They ran and hid, because their deeds were evil, they had been disobedient, and this is the perfect picture of it. So, since they had done evil, they hated the Light, they didn’t want to come to the Light, they ran and hid. Now come back to Romans and this is just an extension of all of this. Evil men are what they are because they’ve rejected the Light and embraced darkness, Satan's nature. Now reading on in Romans chapter 3, and verse 10.
Let's do a word study by getting the meaning of “light, redemption, and salvation” from Thayer's Greek Definitions: an we'll shorten it to just the biblical meaning:
G5457 Strong's numbering: light
Thayer's definition #2) metaphorically
2a) God is light because light has the extremely delicate, subtle, pure, brilliant quality
2b) of truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity associated with it
2c) that which is exposed to the view of all, openly, publicly
2d) reason, mind
2d1) the power of understanding especially moral and spiritual truth
G3083, 3084, 3085
Thayer Definition:
1) the price for redeeming, ransom
1a) paid for slaves, captives
1b) for the ransom of life
2) to liberate many from misery and the penalty of their sins
3) to deliver: from evils of every kind, internal and external;
metaphorically, to overthrow, to do away with
G4991, 4990, 4992
1) deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
1a) deliverance from the molestation of enemies
1b) in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the souls safety or salvation
1b1) of Messianic salvation
2) salvation as the present possession of all true Christians
3) future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God.
Romans 3:10-11a "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understands,…" Why? Because we are a fallen race, we are bent to sin, because of Adam. Remember: "We’re not sinners because we have sinned, we’ve sinned because we’re sinners." Well, this is what these verses are telling us, that the human race is just bent to sin. Living under a veil of blindness of eyes and deafness of ears, our thinking is only worldly because we pay more attention to the worldly things. Verse 12.
Romans 3:12 "They are all (the human race, not just the Hebrews, not just Gentile) gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one." And then the Word goes on to describe the human nature, and the culmination of it is in verse 18.
Romans 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now that seems like a harsh statement, but it’s true, as they really don’t fear Him. And even if they do want to recognize that there’s an eternity out there, we know what they rationalize? "Well, I don’t think I’ve been that bad, I think God will be good to me, I think He’ll let me in." And they cannot comprehend that God cannot tolerate their sin when He had done everything that He has done to bring about their redemption which brings us to salvation, if we falter not while on the way or path. Now we think we can now come all the way down to verse 23 here in Romans chapter 3. And here is the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit’s conclusion.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:24 "Being justified freely (not because of our works, not because of what we can do, or even some religious action but) by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"(again this is positional) Well that’s enough for that portion - let’s look at another in Romans chapter 5, and let’s start with verse 1.
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