Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Cost of Sin | New Testament | Romans 3

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Do you see yourself as a good person? Or maybe you see yourself as sick with sin? In today's episode, Keith explores Romans 3 where Paul shares that you aren't good or sick, you're dead. Find out what that means and the hope that Jesus brings. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Everyone agrees that there's something wrong with human beings, but that's pretty much where the agreement ends. Some people have what I call the optimistic approach to the human condition. They think that human beings are essentially good, but their environment has corrupted them. Then you have what are called the realists.

They look around and see war and racism and greed and corruption and all kinds of other problems, and they conclude that human beings are sick. In other words, it's not just our environment that has corrupted us. There's something wrong with us. In the book of Romans, Paul says something different than the optimist or the realist. He says that human beings are not good or sick. Instead, he says they're dead. Erwin Lutzer retired from being the pastor of Moody Church in downtown Chicago. While he was a pastor there, he used to teach a class on preaching at the seminary I attended. I heard that he would take his senior preaching classes out to a cemetery and tell the students to preach to the people. Well, for obvious reasons, they were very reluctant and kind of refused to do so.

So after a while of encouraging them, Dr. Lutzer would just do it himself. He grabbed his Bible and he started preaching right there among the tombstones. The students thought he was crazy. I mean, they thought he'd absolutely lost it. And when Dr. Lutzer saw that concerned look on their face, he would stop and ask him what the problem was. Well, the students told them, these people can't hear you. They are dead. Dr. Lutzer, of course, agreed with them, but then Dr. Lutzer said something that I thought was pretty profound. He said to these seminary students that unless God moved in the lives of their future listeners, those people wouldn't respond either. In other words, the people in the cemetery are physically dead, but the people in the pews, apart from God's grace, are spiritually dead. Today we're in Romans

chapter three and we're going to pick up paul's argument in verse nine he asks this what shall we conclude then so what he's getting at is the conclusion of an argument that he began all the way back in chapter one here's the rest of verse nine for we have already made the charge that jews and gentiles alike are all under the power of sin as it is written there is no one righteous not even one paul says the religious jews and the irreligious Gentiles are all under sin. This doesn't mean that every person is as sinful as every other person. It means that our status before God is the same. We are all lost. Maybe some are more lost than others, but if you're far from God, it doesn't matter that some people might even be further away from him. Imagine people trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. Some might be able to jump further

than others, but no one is making it all the way across. Even the world record holder in the long jump has no chance. No matter how religious you are, you aren't going to make it to God on your own. The gap between God and us is infinite. We are all under sin. And now Paul begins to list the effects of sin. And the first we find in verse 11, he says there is no one who understands. What he means is that no one understands spiritual truths. Now, this isn't saying that people are ignorant of spiritual facts. I mean, if that were the case, then all we would need is better education. But his statement isn't addressing a lack of knowledge. It's saying that while people can know spiritual facts, they don't have spiritual perception. He continues on by saying there is no one who seeks God.

Of all the things Paul says in this chapter, this is the hardest one to believe, because it appears to us that there are people all around the world who are seeking God. Our experience seems to contradict this verse. Here's what R. C. Sproll said. We see people searching desperately for peace of mind, relief from guilt, meaning and purpose to their lives, and loving acceptance. We know that ultimately these things can only be found in God. Therefore, we conclude that since people are seeking these things, they must be seeking after God. But as Paul says, people do not seek God. They seek after the benefits that only God can give them.

The sin of humanity is this. We seek the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God himself. We are by nature fugitives. By nature, Paul says, no one seeks God. We don't seek His glory. He is not our supreme concern. We are not committed to do His will. He is not central in the thoughts of our minds or the affections of our heart.

Sin is the revolt of self against God. We push God off the throne of our lives so that we can enthrone ourselves. Paul continues in verse 12 to describe people apart from Jesus. He says, all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Here Paul focuses on our wills, and he says we have all turned away from God. This sounds a lot like what Isaiah wrote in chapter 53, verse 6.

We are all like sheep who have gone astray. We have turned to our own way. There is a willfulness about our wandering. Sin can be defined as our demand for self-determination, for the right to choose our own paths. Paul continues to describe people apart from Christ. He says, their throats are open graves, their tongues, practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Paul says our tongues give away the darkness inside of us. And the image he uses is that

of a grave with rotting bodies in it. Sinful words are signs of decay. Jesus says out of the overflow of our heart our mouths speak. Our words of anger, judgment, complaining, jealousy, lust, pride and more. Well, those words condemn us because those words reveal what is in our heart. Back to the Apostle Paul in Romans 3. He says, their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. Our relationships with others are marked by strife and dissension. There are people we murder with our thoughts and people whose reputation we steal through gossip. Paul concludes the section in verse 18 by saying, there is no fear of God before their eyes. That's a summary of everything we've been looking at in Romans 3.

Where do the ignorance of God and willful independence from God and selfishness and hurtful words and actions come from? Well, they're all rooted in this. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The fear of God is a central concept in the Bible. We are repeatedly told, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the starting point for everything else, and it can also be the stumbling block, which prevents everything else. So what is the fear of God? The psalmist says something surprising. He said, if you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, oh Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness. Therefore, you are feared. In other words, he fears God because God forgives sins. So the fear of God does not mean some cringing fear of punishment. It means rather an inner attitude of awe, respect, and sober, trembling joy before the greatness of God. So what's the condition of human beings apart from Christ? Well, Romans 323 puts it like this,

for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3 describes all of us as sinners who are spiritually dead and in need of Christ. Are you an optimist who sees yourself as being a good person whose environment or other people have corrupted them? Are you a realist who sees in you a sickness? or are you someone who believes what Paul wrote in Romans 3 that you aren't good and you're not sick but you're dead? How do you see yourself?

In a London newspaper, there was a debate about what is wrong with human beings. Different people wrote letters to the editors suggesting different sources of our problems. Then G.K. Chesterton wrote in. He was a brilliant Catholic thinker. And this is what his letter to the editor said. What is the problem with human race? I am. After that, no one wrote in any more letters to discuss this issue. But what G.K. Chesterton had said had ended the debate. What is wrong with the world? Well, it's me. The problem isn't

outside of me. The problem is in me. Once I see that I am dead apart from Christ, once I see my true condition apart from Christ, and that apart from him, I have no hope. Well, now I am ready to hear the good news that in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness. I think this is what John Newton was thinking of when he wrote the song Amazing Grace and said, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

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