Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: New to the Bible – God’s Plan of Salvation
Post Topic: We’re Not Worthy
Post in Thread: #1
Next: The Sacrificial Blood of Christ
Scripture: Romans 3:5-23
Key Verse:
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Note on this series of posts
This post fits within a continuing series meant for readers who are less familiar with Scripture; specifically those searching to understand how to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. All of the posts in this thread are necessary to understand the steps in God’s plan.
This page introduces Romans 3:23, a favorite verse you’ll hear in Christian circles to describe how all of us, Christians and non-Christians, are trapped by sin.
Observations
Context
- Paul wrote the letter of Romans to the church in Rome, which was mostly a Gentile church, but also contained some Jewish Christians.
- At this point in the letter, he is spelling out the differences between God’s perfect righteousness and mankind’s unrighteousness (regardless of whether we are Jews or Gentiles).
Notes
- Our unrighteousness reveals God’s righteousness. (v5)
- God is just in bringing his wrath / judgment upon us. (v5-6)
- We are condemned as sinners, and that condemnation is just. (v7-8)
- There is not a single person who can be counted as righteous. (v10)
- There is no one who truly understands God or seeks him. (v11)
- By God’s standards, there are no good people. (v12-18) We are full of bad words and deeds.
- We are not capable of fulfilling God’s laws, which leaves us condemned. (v19-20)
- There is no way for us to achieve righteousness through the law. But there is righteousness available to us through Jesus. (v21-22)
- Summary statement: We fall short of perfection that God requires. (v23)
Interpretation
Our Sinful State
- We are cursed with a condition of unrighteousness (v10-12)
- We don’t fear God as we should (v18)
The Law and Righteousness
We understand morality and often try to do what is right. Non-Christians understand morality just as much as Christians. We all attempt to justify our actions – often comparing ourselves to others. “I would never do what they did!” If we’re being honest, though, we have to admit that we don’t always live up to even our own moral standards.
Should we be regarded as good enough? If that was God’s standard, how could we ever know if we’ve met it?
God gave us the laws, like the Ten Commandments to guide us. In addition, he’s written moral laws on our hearts. Instead of comforting us that we are good enough, the written laws and the moral laws do the opposite. These laws shine a light on our failures. The laws help us understand how utterly far we are from the righteousness that Jesus displayed on earth.
We might say “Hey, everyone fails! Not just me! God should just accept me!” But where then, is the cutoff? If God accepted everyone, there’d be no justice for the evil doers. So we’re back to the same quandary. How will I ever know if I’ve come close enough to God’s standards?
God gives us the answer in Romans 3:23. None of us live up to God’s standards. We are condemned to die in our sins because God is just.
Imagine…
The massive angel slashed his flaming sword through the air. One slash is all it took. Adam took off running, crashing through the underbrush. He could hear Eve right behind him. As thorns tore at his flesh, he knew he’d never see the beloved garden again.
“Stop,” Eve called. “He’s not following us. I can’t keep going.”
Gasping, Adam dropped to his knees. Feeling exposed, he hitched the sheepskin to better cover his waist.
Eve dropped next to him. She was still beautiful as ever, but he couldn’t look at her. Why had she taken that fruit? How long would she blame him for not stopping her?
“Ow!” Eve slapped at her neck. “What was that?”
Something buzzed past. Adam finally turned his head. A welt was forming where she’d been stung. And she was glaring at him.
“Tree of knowledge,” she said sarcastically. “Now what, genius?”
The pain in her eyes stopped him from lashing out. Her anguish pierced him deeper than the thought of leaving the garden behind. He’d been fighting the crushing guilt for hours, but it finally broke him. Only one commandment to obey, and he’d failed. He now had the knowledge of evil. He’d done evil in the sight of God.
Adam reached for Eve’s hand. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Correlation
- Psalm 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20 – Paul references this passages in verses 10-12 when he says that there are none who are righteous or good. This idea of sinful mankind is not unique to the New Testament.
- Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
- Sin entered the world through Adam, and the result of that sin is death.
- Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death. This refers to both a physical death and a spiritual separation from God.
- Note – if you read the 2nd part of this verse, there is hope!
- Revelation 5:8-12 – When the apostle John receives his vision of heaven, the only one deemed worthy to open the scrolls is the Lamb of God (Jesus). Thousands and thousands of angels and elders and living creatures sang loudly: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!”
Application
Generic Applications
- Both the Old and New Testaments state clearly that we are unworthy on our own. Even the greatest of the prophets and men of God had their failings that are well-documented in Scripture.
- The New Testament shouts about The One who is worthy. It essentially closes with this picture in Revelation. The Lamb of God is declared as worthy by the angels and the prophets.
- But before we can be saved by his love, we must be capable of admitting our failings.
Personalize it
- Are you able to recognize our sinful state? To recognize our inability to even approach the required level of righteousness?
Keep Reading!
The righteousness of Jesus shines a bright light on our sin. But we know God loves us. So how can we be reconciled to him?
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.