The Righteous and the Law

Romans 3:9-20

What shall we conclude then?  Do we have any advantage?  Not at all!  We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are alike under the power of sin.  As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“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.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

            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.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of our sin.

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This passage stirs a few things in my heart.  I read it a few times yesterday and I was really challenged by Paul’s use of the Psalms to describe the lack of righteousness and God-seeking people.  Mostly because as I read the words I felt like I was being described in one way or another. 

The first thing that speaks to my heart is the very fact that I am not righteous!  I try hard to be – but truth is, I’m not.  Truth is I am quite unrighteous and I try to find my satisfaction in being good and right.  But I am not – I constantly struggle with pride, selfishness, and fear of what others think of me.  So I try to be good, I try to look pretty, I attempt to be perfect. 

But I fall short.

Every time.

Every time.

And that is why Paul tells us that “through the law we become conscious of our sin.”  There is no perfection in the law – only observance of imperfection.

Yet, the other thing that stirs in my heart is to be the opposite of the first Psalm, Psalm 14, that Paul quotes:  There is one who is righteous, there is one who understands – but only because he seeks God.  He does not turn away, and he does good because his only pursuit is that of God.  And in God, he finds satisfaction and wholeness.

:My goal::Our goal:
to acknowledge that righteousness by pursuit of the law is not righteousness at all.

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