Last week, we explored God’s patience with us as sinners. We can think, ‘hey, we are not as bad as that guy or those people,’ but the truth is ALL sin ends in death. One of the hardest things for people to come to grips with in our world today is who they are. Men want to be women, women want to be men, the older people wish they had their youth, the youth wish they were older, and on and on we go. In this passage in Romans 3, Paul clearly states what and who we all are. We are sinners, every single one of us is a sinner.
Beginning in verse 10, Paul lays out the depth of the sinner that we all are. IN verse 11, no one seeks God. In fact, it is God who comes seeking us.
In verse 12, we are all ‘unprofitable’; we have no value. It may surprise you to know that God does not need us. We do not add value to God when we are saved, and we do not remove value from God if we reject His grace. God is sufficient without us. Our very mouths are evil; our mouths are full of evil and filled with threats.
In verses 16-17, our feet are swift to do evil. In verse 16, we destroy all that we come into contact with.
In verse 18, there is no fear, no ‘respect’ for God in our eyes. Paul concludes that ALL are sinners and fall short of God’s glory.
We live in a world, even in the ‘church’ world that no longer calls out sin, no longer acknowledges that we are all sinners, evil to the core, and have no value at all. We have broken all of God’s laws, and we have done so without remorse and without even the slightest hint of hesitation. Yet, in churches all around us, sin is no longer called out; rather, it is affirmed. Sexual perversion is called ‘love,’ laziness is called all manner of disorders, and we make excuses for people to steal from others and from stores. We reclassify what God calls sin and rebrand it to appease people. But we are sinners, and without Jesus, we are all going to Hell.
Jesus will not judge from an updated, progressive writing of the Books when we stand at the judgment. Oh yeah, I forgot; people don’t fear judgment anymore because we have told them that God is okay with their sin now; He has learned a few things over the millennia. If that is the case, then Jesus was a fool, and His death was for nothing. God negated His sacrifice by reclassifying sin. Sorry, Son, times change.
BUT we know the truth; sin is sin. It was sin 4,000 years ago in the Old Testament, and it is still sin now. Stealing is sin, lying is sin, murder is sin, rebellion towards parents is sin, adultery, making false accusations against your neighbor, and on and on. Yes, you got it; all of it is sin. To sin is to fall short of God’s perfection. That is us; you and I.
Even as saved people, we are sinners. However, in Jesus, we have hope. In Jesus, we can be saved from the penalty of sin, saved from God’s judgment, and restored to right relation with God. Jesus’ perfection makes us perfect, and He welcomes us as His family. This was then and still is the only solution for sin and the sin nature that plagues us.
Take an honest look at yourself and see the sinfulness in your own life, even as a child of God. Let us never grow weary of thanking God for redeeming us, for saving us, and for sending His beloved Son to pay for our sin.
For a brief moment in history, Jesus looked like us, sinful, unable to meet the perfection of God, and then it was completed. But because of that brief moment in history, you and I can look like Jesus for eternity and be perfect and have loving, joyful, friendship-based relationships with God. Sin is our problem, and Jesus is still the only solution.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario
The post Romans 3:10-26 – The Problem of Sin/Solution for Sin :: By Sean Gooding appeared first on Rapture Ready.
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