By Audrey Bauman

“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.” (Psalm 14: 1-3; Psalm 53: 1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20)
13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.” (Psalm 5:9)
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.” (Psalm 140:3)
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” (Psalm 10:7)
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.” (Isaiah 59: 7,8)
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Psalm 36:1)

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.”

The Bible is very clear on this point.  Using quotes from the Old Testament, Paul repeats what God thinks of sin.  There is no one holy like God – no one.  People don’t even seek God.  If left to their own devices, they would carry on without a thought of God. No one even does anything good.  Now you might take exception to that.  But when you compare our idea of doing good with God’s standard of complete unselfish motivation for doing good, then we don’t do so well. We lie.  You might say that you are honest and value integrity, but can you honestly say you have never lied?  Or kind of bent the truth a little? We so easily deceive ourselves; we tell ourselves stories to justify wrong behaviour. We tend to be fighters rather than peacemakers. Misery and bad decisions tend to be part of our lives.  Really – we don’t fear God at all.  We say we do, but if we were really afraid of God’s wrath, we’d likely smarten up a lot.  

Verse 20 stands out to me. “Through the law we become conscious of our sin”. If you read the Old Testament laws in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, or even just read the Ten Commandments, you would see how far short of God’s expectations we come.  The Law is not there so we can measure our behaviour and decide we’re doing well.  If we didn’t have that standard available to us, then we really wouldn’t know the seriousness of what we are doing.  So Paul sums up those first chapters with these verses. “There is no one righteous, not even one”.

In our culture, we don’t like to talk about sin. It seems so harsh and dogmatic.  Old fashioned people who see things in black and white might talk about sin.  But our more educated, progressive population understands that things are really grey – not black and white.  In churches today, you don’t often hear preachers mention the word sin either.  They talk about mistakes and disappointment, but sin seems too severe.  

If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’re not perfect, not by a long shot.  Even when we do good things, it often has the motivation of wanting people to like us, to think we’re nice people. But do I lose my temper sometimes?  Do I say things I wish I could take back? Am I jealous of those around me, even my friends?  Do I mutter angrily at other drivers on the road?  Would I cheat in financial issues if I thought I could get away with it?  There are so many areas where our thoughts and behaviour fail miserably, and we try to cover it up with excuses.  I was having a bad day, it was only a little white lie, I had a headache, etc..  So if we’re honest, we have to agree with Paul.  Sin is something each one of us has to admit to – like it or not.  

But, I’m sooooo thankful it doesn’t end there.  See you tomorrow with some good news.