We Are All Under Sin's Power

We're talking today about sin, and I’ve got so much to say about that, we may not get through it all today.  I don’t claim to be like the visiting Pastor who was invited to give a talk on sin.  The senior elder introduced him, giving him glowing bona fides, and brought the Pastor forward with the question, “Pastor, what do you have to tell us about sin?”  The Pastor approached the pulpit and replied, “I’m agin’ it!”  and sat down.

Well, I have just a little more than that to say about sin.

Scripture: Romans 3:9-20 - English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ What then? Are we Jews^[a] any better off?  No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰ as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So before we go any further, we need to turn inward, to ourselves, and answer an important question.  Do we believe what the Bible tells us, about sin and salvation?  It’s like the story about Jack, who was a little too clumsy for his own good.

A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet. 
He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him, maybe lower a rope or something. 
HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!" 
He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice: “Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?" 
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!" 
"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?" 
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you? 
"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere." 
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?" 
"That's Me." 
"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life." 
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk." 
"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully." 
"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do." 
"Okay. Let go of the branch." 

"What?"

"I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go." 
There was a long silence. 
Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?" 

Of course we trust God ….. until we don’t.

Many years ago there was a famous Letter to the Editor in New York Times under the subject “What is wrong with the world today?” The best letter of all was also the shortest.  It read — “Dear Sir, I am. Yours faithfully, G. K. Chesterton.”

That devastating declaration showed a profound insight into man’s universal problem, and understanding it can teach us a deeply challenging lesson.  Experience tells me that throughout the Christian church there are problems, difficulties and frustrations that would begin to dissolve immediately if only some Christians would be honest enough to answer the question—“What’s wrong?” with the words “I am!” 

This is precisely Paul’s point in Romans 3:9-20. In this passage we are faced with the reality of our sin against God and other people. In short, we are the problem; I am the problem. Something I cannot escape; the apostle makes it clear—with a litany of Old Testament citations carrying the full authority of “thus says the Lord.” The passage as a whole stands as a fitting climax to this entire section which began in Chapter 1, verse 18. Paul says that human beings are sinners—all of us—and held accountable to God. Here we stand, guilty and convicted. The somber weight of this passage should not be missed.

But do not run to the peace and forgiveness of the gospel too quickly, lest you cheapen its message. First, take a good and prayerful look in the mirror of scripture and see if you are not in there. Then, look to God for mercy. Perhaps God will see fit to give us the same attitude we see in Copernicus, who wrote: “I do not ask for the grace thou didst give to St. Paul; nor can I dare ask for the grace which thou didst grant to St. Peter; but, the mercy which thou didst show to the Dying Robber, that mercy, show to me.”

If you and I, then, can come to see ourselves against the infinite holiness of God and His immutable law, then next week we may be eager to welcome the message of that week’s lesson of grace preached in Chapter 3:21-31.  This week, admitting ourselves drenched in the drek of sin, we will be so much happier next week to walk in the light of His forgiveness.

How many of you have visited a cavern, like the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, or the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico?  That’s “cavern”, not “tavern”, now.

As I prepared this lesson regarding the natural sinfulness of the human race, I felt as though I were descending deeper and deeper into the darkness of those underground caverns.  So before we get any deeper or darker into this lesson, let me put a bright candle into your hand.  And that would be Ephesians the second chapter, verses 4, 8 and 9: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved —  and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

And allow me to further put today’s lesson in context by reminding you of Hebrews 10, verses 4-6 which tells us, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.  “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” 

The Law of Moses required that they make a good faith offering for their sins, but God took no pleasure in their offerings.  Those ritual offerings were for their benefit, not God’s.  It was to get them ready for God’s plan of salvation that involved the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Paul is making the point that while all are under the power of sin, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that drives God’s salvation of all human beings.

So let us light that candle, hold it high, and continue onward as we get inside these verses and seek understanding.

In Romans 3:9, Paul juxtaposes the Jew and the Gentile and asks the question, “So what then?”  Or in some translations it comes out “Are we better off?”  The Jew has the Law and the covenant with God, the Gentile has only his new knowledge of a God who loved him first.  But standing before God, Paul makes the point that neither is superior to the other.  The great equalizer, he says, is simply sin.

Now the Greek word Paul uses for “sin” here is the noun “hamartia”; uses it 50 times, seven times as a verb.  Paul uses it for an individual act, for sin as a state and quality, and for sin as an almost personified malignant power.  The origin of the word “hamartia”, and the reason I bring it up, comes from the language of hunting.  Specifically, to shoot an arrow, or to throw a spear or javelin, and miss the mark.  Sin is missing the mark of what it means to be human, to be created in God’s image. 

Like a soccer player who can’t make a goal.

The quarterback who can’t hit his receivers.

It’s like what you call a chicken at the North Pole – lost!

But sin is no laughing matter.  Sin is a failure to reach the high mark God has established for creation.  And for Paul, this failure is equally the condition of Jew and Gentile before a holy God.

Next we have a series of passages from the Old Testament strung together like links in a chain in support of Paul’s position on sin.  Some Bible commentators call this section in Romans a “catena”, the Latin word for “chain.”  Each of these links supports Paul’s teaching points.

What Paul is doing here – remember Paul is a learned Pharisee and very familiar with the Pharisaical obsession with keeping the Law – Paul is building what he believes to be an ironclad case against Jewish presumption, and in support of, the claim that Jew and Gentile are both under the power of sin. 

Now, I want to note that Steve in a previous class made a point of our Lesson book giving us background text, which I had not used.  And his point is a valid one.  The background text will help us put the lesson into context.  And in today’s lesson that is especially true, because you see, Paul got all his scripture quotes in the form of a previously compiled chain of excerpts from the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint.  The reason this matters is because it allowed Paul to emphasize the way a Greek version translated Hebrew text, or if he wanted to paraphrase or edit certain phrases himself for effect.

For example, Anthony Benton’s 1851 English translation shows that in Romans 3:10, Paul used a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7:21: “For there is not a righteous man in the earth, who will do good, and not sin.”

In Romans 31-12, Paul uses Psalm 14:2-3 – “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any that understood, or sought after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become good for nothing, there is none that des good, no not one.  Their throat is an open se3pulchre; with their tones they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And from Psalm 53:1-3 – “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God…. All the way down to …there is none that does good, there is not even one.”

From Psalm 10:7 – “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and fraud….”

From Isaiah 59:7-8 – “And their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood….”

And finally we find in Romans 3:18 the gist of Psalm 36:1 – “The transgressor, that he may sin, says within himself, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.”  This is Paul using proven passages to make his point.

Now Paul, all through these excerpts uses an array of body parts: looks of the eyes, the throat, tongues, lips, mouth, feet, to show that sin is insidious, taking over the whole body, all human speech and action.  Paul’s use of body parts seems to make explicit the ways in which human beings express their powerlessness to resist sin in our speech and actions. 

We’ve all seen people saying things and doing things that are wrong, and cruel, and even inhuman, just like Paul did.  He was clearly speaking out of his experience, just like our own.  Highlighting some of the most “human” of scriptural voices, voices and experiences that Paul’s audience would have recognized and valued.  The difference between being trapped in sin and living in the freedom of God’s grace would have been clear to them.

Now, I’m not going to ask for any personal confessions of wrongdoing,

but let me ask you, how do we prove what Paul is saying about sin in our world?  In what ways have you seen evidence of sin’s power in our world today?

What evidence do you have that we are held in sin’s power?  Or has the Law – especially in terms of Biblical Law, like the Ten Commandments, for example – have they brought about the knowledge of sin for you?

The reason for asking these questions is to bring about some level of self-awareness.  For if we cannot recognize ourselves in Paul’s indictment, then we cannot be ready to receive Paul’s invitation, coming in just a few verses?  In the last paragraph of your study book, the writer says, “Yes, we live in a world where the power of sin is present and active.  Yet we do not have to live under that power.”  Then the question becomes, how are we to live, as Christians, in a world of those two affirmations – sin and salvation?

“Loving God, help us resist the power of sin.  Let us grow in our knowledge of You.  Let us reflect the love of Christ in all that we do; in Jesus’ name.  Amen.”