No Human Can be Righteous. Romans 3:14-20
Romans
Psalm 10
speaks of the wicked. It is a psalm wherein David as the psalmist is calling upon
God to intercede in the midst of adversity in his life. The way this psalm
begins is to articulate two questions, questions that are commonly asked by
people we know and there are times when we ask these questions. As we go
through life we face injustice—from people, from systems that are unfair and
unjust. So we ask questions related to the fact that it seems like there’s no
justice, and where in the world is God with all this injustice going on? So
these two questions express the fact that we all ask where God is in times of
difficulty.
Psalm 10:1 NASB
“Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide {Yourself} in times of trouble?” That doesn’t
mean that God hides or that He is not there, it just seems that way to us
because we do not always understand what God is doing in our life. And as we go
through various circumstances and situations we think God ought to be there
doing something, we shouldn’t be going through this. Scripture teaches that we
do go through difficult times; we expect that. We live in the devil’s world, a
fallen world; life is not what God intended it to be; life in not what it ought
to be because of sin.
In vv. 2-7
David pictures the characteristics of the wicked person who oppresses the
righteous. He uses very graphic terms to express this, terms like proud and
boastful, people who are blasphemous, arrogant, careless about God, deceitful,
destructive; and he paints an extremely dark but accurate picture of the basic
orientation of the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 NASB “The heart is
more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
The
negatives in Psalm 10:2-7. The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. [2] “In
pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots
which they have devised.” Every verse in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New
Testament that indicts the culture for failing to take care of the poor and the
widows and the orphans is indicting not the government but the individuals. The
Bible emphasizes that it is the responsibility of the individual, the
responsibility of the family unit to take care of the poor and the orphan and
the widow, and that it is not the responsibility of the government. The wicked
here is talking about an individual and in his arrogance he persecutes the
poor, and David prays that they may be caught in the plots that they have
devised.
This brings
in an interesting idea that is found in a number of psalms called imprecatory
psalms—a psalm where David is petitioning God to bring judgment upon his
enemies. Some people say we can’t do that today. Why not? What is wrong with
it? As we have seen in Romans chapter thirteen the Old Testament principle is
quoted: “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” The idea of vengeance isn’t the
idea of personal vendetta, getting personal revenge. The core meaning of the
Old Testament word translated “vengeance” has to do with the execution and
application of justice. And in these imprecatory psalms that is exactly what
David is doing. He is calling upon God in His justice to bring judgment and
discipline upon those who are in rebellion against Him. It is not some personal
vendetta.
He explains
further why he is calling upon God to allow the wicked to be caught in their
own traps. Psalm 10:3 NASB “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s
desire, And the greedy man curses {and} spurns the LORD.” He is boastful, arrogant; his heart’s
desire is wicked. Greed in Colossians 3 is tantamount to one form of idolatry.
It is worshipping the things that money can buy rather than worshipping God, so
it is a violation of the first commandment in the Torah. [4] “The wicked, in
the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek {Him.}…” He is hostile to
God, negative toward God. “… All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’” God is in
none of his thoughts, he never thinks about being grateful to God. We need to
thank God for everything that we have and to focus upon that and be grateful
for what He has given us. [5] “His ways prosper at all times…” This is the
sense of injustice that David has. The wicked seem to be getting away with it.
“… Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he
snorts at them.” That is, You are so far away he doesn’t experience divine
judgment. No matter how people try to deal with this wicked person, no matter
what enemies there are they never seem to be able to take him down and he just
looks down upon them. Then we see the motivation of his mental attitude. [6]
“He says to himself, ‘I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will
not be in adversity.’” He thinks he is above it all.
Psalm 10:7
is the quote we have in Romans. “His mouth is full of curses and deceit and
oppression… ” When Paul quotes “His mouth is full of curses and bitterness” he
is not just saying “his mouth,” this is what rolls off the end of his tongue—a
manifestation of the arrogance and the wickedness of his heart, which is what
is the focal point of vv. 2-6. So when Paul talks again about the sins of the
tongue here in verse 14 he is talking not only about the overt sins of the
tongue but also about his mental attitude state. The word for cursing here is a
word that can be used in a positive sense or a negative sense. Here it is used
in a negative sense where he is probably using God’s name in an invalid way in
relation to some sort of oath, so his mouth is full of this wrong oath-bearing,
as it were, and bitterness. That is the content of his speech. It is always
bringing forth bitterness. “… under his tongue is mischief and wickedness”—a
metaphorical way of saying that this is what he produces as a result of the
sins of the tongue. So again, we see that Paul develops the indictment of the
wicked, i.e. who is not righteous—all mankind.
Rom 3:15-17 NASB “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT
KNOWN.” This is a quotation
from Isaiah. Isaiah 59 is focusing again on the indictment that God is bringing
through Isaiah to the southern
Isaiah 59:1 NASB
“Behold, the LORD’S hand
is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot
hear.” His focus initially is on the character of God, on who God is. God is
always the standard, so we have to step back and think about who God is. The
first phrase “the Lord’s hand” is a negative way of saying that God’s power is
not limited; the hand of the Lord represents His power. His omnipotence is no
limited so that He cannot save. In other words, he is saying through the use of
these negatives that God’s power is still capable of saving. “Nor is His ear so
dull That it cannot hear.” In other words, it is not that God isn’t listening.
There is a
point that is clear from the Scriptures; it is clear from the psalms. Psalm
66:18 NASB “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not
hear.” Think about this. This is a passage that comes out of the Old Testament
Scriptures; it is a clear statement of David that if a person regards sin, if
they are the wicked and not the righteous, then God doesn’t hear their prayers.
It doesn’t mean that God isn’t aware; in His omniscience He is certainly aware.
It means that God is not going to efficaciously listen to that prayer. It is a
prayer that will be known to God on one level but God will not respond to that prayer.
There is only one prayer that God responds to from the wicked, the unrighteous,
from the unbeliever, and that is a prayer that God would give them more
knowledge about Him so that they could have a relationship with Him.
That is what
God is saying here in Isaiah 59. It is not that God isn’t listening but He is
not listening to you because of your sin. Isaiah 59:2 NASB “But your
iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have
hidden {His} face from you so that He does not hear.” This is what Paul is
talking about in Romans 1-3. Because of sin every one of us is separated from
God. It happens legally from the moment we are born. We are born spiritually
separated from God and every human being is born in that state. Only the grace
of God can change that status, and it can only be changed by God as the one who
removes the barrier. That barrier is composed of sin. Sin is what separates us
and without that problem being solved we can’t, as unrighteous, be in the
presence of righteousness.
Then we have
an explanation. Isaiah 59:3 NASB “For your hands are defiled with
blood …” This is an overt sin related to violence and murder; they are
responsible for death one way or the other. “… And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue mutters wickedness.” The fingers
stand metaphorically for the things that you have produced, the things you have
done in your life. All of these different body parts—fingers, lips, tongue—come
together to represent the totality of a person, and they have all yielded sin,
iniquity, the violation of God’s laws. [4] “No one sues righteously and no one
pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief
and bring forth iniquity.” There is in the culture not a concern about
righteousness. There is a false concern about righteousness. Among some
religious people in different religious communities they are hyper-sensitive to
righteousness and morality and are just up tight in trying to get into
everybody else’s business and dictate a strict moral code. That is the other
extreme. There is one extreme of licentiousness and the other of legalism.
Over the
last fifty years the judicial system has become so focused on the rights of the
criminal that they have ignored justice for the victim. It has swung the
pendulum bar to the other extreme. We all recognize that it is better to let a
guilty man go free in some cases than to punish an innocent one. That is true
in a theoretical sense, but we have gone far beyond that and let criminals go
on the most inconsequential minutia instead of punishing them. Punishment is
now built on a concept of rehabilitation rather than punishment and so that
fails as well. As a result there is a massive explosion within prisons. We are
not concerned about justice for the victim, we are concerned about a pseudo
justice for the criminal.
“No one sues
righteously and no one pleads honestly [for truth].” We live in a culture that
has rejected the concept of truth, a culture that says there is no truth. Your
truth is your truth and my truth is my truth, so let’s just all let one another
go and live their life however they think it ought to be lived. If everybody’s
truth is truth then how do we know that that is true? That is a self-refuting
syllogism; it is just pure irrationality. This is what was happening in
“They trust
in confusion and speak lies…” This is typically what happens every year in an
election cycle. Most people in the country are going to trust in empty words of
politicians and the lies of politicians. It is amazing the things that are said
by politicians that are knowingly said and known to be untrue when they are
said. This says something about the population of the nation that is gullible.
It will believe what it wants to believe as opposed to what is right or true,
because they have lost any sense of absolute truth or absolute knowledge. “… They conceive mischief and bring forth
iniquity.” Conceiving evil has to do with the mental attitude state; bringing
forth iniquity is the overt sin, sins of the tongue.
Again,
relating it to the serpent. Isaiah 59:5 NASB “They hatch adders’
eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And {from}
that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.” It is using the imagery of viper’s
eggs and a spider’s web to indicate that which produces disaster within the
culture and brings death to the culture. [6] “Their webs will not become
clothing,…” You can’t dress yourself up in a cloak that is like the emperor’s
robe that doesn’t exist. You can’t manufacture a fantasy world and then go live
as if it is true. “… Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their
works are works of iniquity, And an act of violence is in their hands.” What
they are engaged in is insufficient because.
Verse 7 is
the first of the quotes in Romans 3:15. Isaiah 59:7 NASB “Their feet
run to evil…” This indicates a propensity to evil, a desire to be engaged in
evil, an attraction to evil that is not restrained through self-discipline. “…
And they hasten to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity, Devastation and destruction are in their highways.” The apostle Paul
picks up two phrases: “they make haste to shed innocent blood,” which has to do
with overt sin and bringing violence, murder into the life; “wasting and
destruction are in their highways” is the result of this. It brings emptiness,
it is a waste of resources and it destroys the life.
Isaiah 59:8 NASB
“They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks;
They have made their paths crooked, Whoever treads on them does not know
peace.” So Paul pulls from this. In Romans
Romans
So the fool
has no fear of God. This is characteristic of the fool in Romans chapter one
who has rejected God, who has professed himself to be wise. He has become a
fool. He has rejected the truth of God and the wisdom of God, and this is the
standard orientation of the human heart as Paul said in Ephesians chapter two:
we were born dead in our trespasses and sins. But Paul is not going to stop
here because this just paints that negative picture. He is going to go on,
starting with verse 21, dealing with the fact that even though we are hopeless
and helpless in achieving the kind of righteousness that God demands, God has
provided the solution. He has a way to give us righteousness. And it is a free
gift, and the only way we can ever be right before God is to accept His free
gift of righteousness which comes when we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our
savior.