Romans 3:1-20: The Audacity of Hopelessness

  • Lance Lefler
  • Feb 28, 2010
  • Series: the Gospel

In Romans 3, Paul the Apostle offers the most devastating critique of human nature, showing how extensively sin has affected us.  He begins the chapter showing that Israel had the distinct advantage of receiving the very word of God, but ultimately they did not respond properly to it.

Paul's heart naturally goes out to his fellow Jews.  In chapter 9 he says that he has "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" in his heart over Israel's lost condition (9:1-3).

Later he says: "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to  knowledge.  For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:1-3).

But we can't establish our own righteousness before God because by the works of the law nobody will be justified in his sight.  The Law of Moses confines all under sin.  The whole world becomes guilty before the Judge of all the earth.

We have burned our spiritual bridge to God; we have rejected him, we break his laws and bow down to ourselves.  If this is the story of the world, then there appears to be no hope.  Romans 1:1-3:20 is like the first act of a grand play.  At 3:20 the curtain falls, the theater is smothered by darkness.  All is lost.  There is no way to solve the problem of sin.

But Act Two opens with a bang!  The lights blaze to back to life, the curtain flies open and we see Jesus, racing to the rescue, offering himself as a sacrifice for us, spreading a new bridge across the chasm of sin that separated us from him.

We discover something vital about ourselves: that we needed to learn just how miserably corrupted we are by sin!  And unless we lose all hope in ourselves, we will not understand the gravity of our spiritual condition, or the greatness of God's solution to it: the cross of Christ.

Dive into this chapter, but beware!  You must arrive at hopelessness before you can appreciate the hope that anchors our souls.