To the zealous and faithfull of Jefus Chrift, my very much valued friends and brethren in the work and patience of the Gofpel.
__________________
In Genesis we read the narrative account of the fall of Adam. As we read through the Holy record, we find sinful man, not seeking God, but hiding from God. How true a statement “there is none that seeketh after God!†The very first thing that sinful man did was hide from God and since that time God has been the seeker of man, “Adam, where art thou?â€Â
____________________
A depiction of man in his natural, unregenerated state is clearly given in Romans 3:9-20 where we read: (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; (10) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. (19) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
There are 10 quick facts to highlight about man from Romans 3:
v.9 all are equal in sin
v.10 no one is righteous
v.11 no one understands or seeks God
v.12 all have abandon God’s way
v.13 moral stench
v.14 internal decay
v.15 impulsive
v.16 full of violence [Gen. 6:11]
v.17 violence is our nature, not peace
v.18 the reason for all of the above problems, “there is no fear of God before their eyesâ€Â
In verses 9-12 we see a universal unrighteousness “they are all under sin,†“there is none righteous,†“there is none that seeketh,†and “they are all gone out the way.†One of the worst exegetical errors I’ve ever read, which finds its roots in self-righteousness, is to deny the plain meaning of Romans 3 by interjecting a division into the chapter between the Jew and Gentile. Paul is attempting to explain that we are all in the same boat, Jew and Gentile, we are all sinners. To object we must conclude the Jews and the Jews only fit this description. To add injury to insult we are instructed to understand this passage as it was originally quoted in the Old Testament text. Before you start looking up these passages we have a few problems.
First, revelation is progressive, which means we are given more prophetic knowledge and understanding in the New Testament then the Old. We find types and shadows in the Old Testament, with explanation and fulfillment in the New.
Second, just because the Old Testament is quoted doesn’t necessary mean that context of the quote remains the same. A good example is found in Acts 15:16 where the original context was Israel [Amos 9:11] but is now being applied to the Christ.
Those who object to a plain reading of Romans, as it applies to all man, are using a literalistic theological grid to support there presuppositions instead of a literal, historical and grammatical method interpretation. For instance, Psalm 14 is quoted by Paul in Romans 3, but the literalistic grid ignores “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.†They understand “children of men†as children of Israel only. This is foolish and unstable reasoning especially in light of Paul’s further explanation of the text with “for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin…â€Â
No fancy footwork, no twisting of scripture, no false dichotomy, no self-righteous interjection, we are all in the same boat. It only shows a lack of consideration of the Bible as a whole to deny this. [see also Psa. 14:1-3; Psa. 5:9; Isa. 59:7-8]
The context has been established but is it consistent with the rest of what the apostle Paul has written on the subject? Absolutely!
Romans 8:5-8 KJV For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Showing the internal consistency of the Holy Spirit we find in this section two groups of people…those according to the flesh and those according to the Spirit. There is no third option, no neutral group, no middle ground. This cannot be two groups of Christians because the “carnal mind is death†and “enmity against God.â€Â
We now need to consider the rest of the scripture [as I posted before].
The heart of fallen man as a result of the fall:
Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Comment: This point is important for those who believe man desires to be saved, they don’t. Men are slaves to sin and love to sin, they harden their hearts to the Gospel offer for the reason stated above.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: [The fallen mind of man is hostile toward God] for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Comment: Fallen man cannot discern spiritual things, this point is made above.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: [And what is the reason for their blindness? Vanity of their mind, the understanding was darkened.] 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Before God enables fallen man to respond, we belong to the Devil:
John 8:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Rom. 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
2 Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
If man is left dead in sin, they are unable to repent:
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Comments: If we have the ability to see the Spiritual offer of the Gospel as fallen in sin, it is impossible to bring the clean spirit out of the unclean. Our nature is dead in and cannot respond to the Gospel offer, it is by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that man is brought to repentance.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Comment: Evil man cannot change on their own.
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
John 6:44 [This is a classic passage demonstrating importance of God the Father drawing the saints to Christ.] NO MAN CAN COME TO ME, EXCEPT THE FATHER WHICH HATH SENT ME DRAW HIM: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Comments: Those and only those who are called will be raised up, not all mankind is drawn or all mankind would be raised up as the passage reads. We also find the teaching of eternal security for the true believer, being raised up is a fact. Man’s inability to choice the good, the spiritual is because of our nature. God the Father must call them.
John 6: 65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. [Notice, ‘except.’ One cannot even see the Kingdom without the new birth.]
As you can see the Bible teaches people are by nature, not inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength to fulfill what God requires. We do see in Scripture how mankind is inclined to serve their own interests and to reject God, but this does not mean people are as bad as they could possibly be, it means that even the good we do usually has a false motive. We shouldn’t view this Biblical teaching to be fatalism or cynicism, but true optimism because God’s love will bring about the ulimate good that He intends for mankind and His creation.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Romans, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.â€Â
~JM~
__________________
In Genesis we read the narrative account of the fall of Adam. As we read through the Holy record, we find sinful man, not seeking God, but hiding from God. How true a statement “there is none that seeketh after God!†The very first thing that sinful man did was hide from God and since that time God has been the seeker of man, “Adam, where art thou?â€Â
____________________
A depiction of man in his natural, unregenerated state is clearly given in Romans 3:9-20 where we read: (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; (10) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. (19) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
There are 10 quick facts to highlight about man from Romans 3:
v.9 all are equal in sin
v.10 no one is righteous
v.11 no one understands or seeks God
v.12 all have abandon God’s way
v.13 moral stench
v.14 internal decay
v.15 impulsive
v.16 full of violence [Gen. 6:11]
v.17 violence is our nature, not peace
v.18 the reason for all of the above problems, “there is no fear of God before their eyesâ€Â
In verses 9-12 we see a universal unrighteousness “they are all under sin,†“there is none righteous,†“there is none that seeketh,†and “they are all gone out the way.†One of the worst exegetical errors I’ve ever read, which finds its roots in self-righteousness, is to deny the plain meaning of Romans 3 by interjecting a division into the chapter between the Jew and Gentile. Paul is attempting to explain that we are all in the same boat, Jew and Gentile, we are all sinners. To object we must conclude the Jews and the Jews only fit this description. To add injury to insult we are instructed to understand this passage as it was originally quoted in the Old Testament text. Before you start looking up these passages we have a few problems.
First, revelation is progressive, which means we are given more prophetic knowledge and understanding in the New Testament then the Old. We find types and shadows in the Old Testament, with explanation and fulfillment in the New.
Second, just because the Old Testament is quoted doesn’t necessary mean that context of the quote remains the same. A good example is found in Acts 15:16 where the original context was Israel [Amos 9:11] but is now being applied to the Christ.
Those who object to a plain reading of Romans, as it applies to all man, are using a literalistic theological grid to support there presuppositions instead of a literal, historical and grammatical method interpretation. For instance, Psalm 14 is quoted by Paul in Romans 3, but the literalistic grid ignores “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.†They understand “children of men†as children of Israel only. This is foolish and unstable reasoning especially in light of Paul’s further explanation of the text with “for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin…â€Â
No fancy footwork, no twisting of scripture, no false dichotomy, no self-righteous interjection, we are all in the same boat. It only shows a lack of consideration of the Bible as a whole to deny this. [see also Psa. 14:1-3; Psa. 5:9; Isa. 59:7-8]
The context has been established but is it consistent with the rest of what the apostle Paul has written on the subject? Absolutely!
Romans 8:5-8 KJV For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Showing the internal consistency of the Holy Spirit we find in this section two groups of people…those according to the flesh and those according to the Spirit. There is no third option, no neutral group, no middle ground. This cannot be two groups of Christians because the “carnal mind is death†and “enmity against God.â€Â
We now need to consider the rest of the scripture [as I posted before].
The heart of fallen man as a result of the fall:
Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Comment: This point is important for those who believe man desires to be saved, they don’t. Men are slaves to sin and love to sin, they harden their hearts to the Gospel offer for the reason stated above.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: [The fallen mind of man is hostile toward God] for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Comment: Fallen man cannot discern spiritual things, this point is made above.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: [And what is the reason for their blindness? Vanity of their mind, the understanding was darkened.] 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Before God enables fallen man to respond, we belong to the Devil:
John 8:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Rom. 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
2 Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
If man is left dead in sin, they are unable to repent:
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Comments: If we have the ability to see the Spiritual offer of the Gospel as fallen in sin, it is impossible to bring the clean spirit out of the unclean. Our nature is dead in and cannot respond to the Gospel offer, it is by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that man is brought to repentance.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Comment: Evil man cannot change on their own.
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
John 6:44 [This is a classic passage demonstrating importance of God the Father drawing the saints to Christ.] NO MAN CAN COME TO ME, EXCEPT THE FATHER WHICH HATH SENT ME DRAW HIM: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Comments: Those and only those who are called will be raised up, not all mankind is drawn or all mankind would be raised up as the passage reads. We also find the teaching of eternal security for the true believer, being raised up is a fact. Man’s inability to choice the good, the spiritual is because of our nature. God the Father must call them.
John 6: 65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. [Notice, ‘except.’ One cannot even see the Kingdom without the new birth.]
As you can see the Bible teaches people are by nature, not inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength to fulfill what God requires. We do see in Scripture how mankind is inclined to serve their own interests and to reject God, but this does not mean people are as bad as they could possibly be, it means that even the good we do usually has a false motive. We shouldn’t view this Biblical teaching to be fatalism or cynicism, but true optimism because God’s love will bring about the ulimate good that He intends for mankind and His creation.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Romans, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.â€Â
~JM~