Week 7 - Monday

The Character of Man

as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; (Romans 3:10-11)

So far in the book of Romans, Paul has spent most of his time trying to convince his readers that every single human being is guilty before God. It doesn't matter whether they are Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter if they are the most moral person who ever lived, or the least moral. Every person is guilty and deserves to be condemned by God. To finally prove this point; Paul calls upon the greatest witness of all, the word of God. Whenever Paul uses the phrase, as it is written, it means that he is going to either quote, or make reference to, the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul often used the Scriptures to defend his teaching because He knew the Jews believed they were the words of God. In the next several verses (Rom. 3:10-18) Paul, by quoting Scripture, lists 13 charges that God has against man. The first charge Paul makes is that "there is none righteous, not even one". This is a reference to Psalm 14:1. The word righteous means to be right before God, by doing what is right, according to God's standards. However, in order to be seen as righteous by a perfectly holy God, a person would have to be perfect themselves. They would have to be perfect in all their thoughts, all their words and all their deeds. This isn't humanly possible though. Man by his very nature is naturally sinful. They are corrupt on the inside. God knows what the character of man is like. God sees everything we do. He hears everything we say. He knows all of our thoughts. God knows the things we would like to do, but don't, because we are afraid of what people would think or of getting caught. God knows the character of man and He knows that none of us are righteous.

Not only are people naturally sinful, but they are also naturally ignorant of the things of God. Quoting Psalm 14:2 Pauls says, "there is none who understands". Paul isn't saying that people are totally ignorant of God. God has revealed Himself to man through creation and by putting a basic knowledge of Himself in man's heart. But because people love their sin, they choose to suppress the knowledge of God . When a person doesn't respond to the natural revelations God has given man, God allows their heart to become darkened. Consequently they never come to understand the deeper things of God. If they would seek to know God, God would reveal more to them. Still quoting from Psalm 14:2, Paul says that there is none who seeks for God. God has promised that those who seek to know Him, will find Him. However no one, on their own, truly seeks for God. In fact the opposite is true. Not wanting to acknowledge their sin, people try to avoid God. One might think that with all the thousands of religions in the world, people were seeking God. The only religion acceptable to God though, is when a person turns from their sin to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If that isn't the case, a person may think they are seeking God, but in reality they have created their own god. Most religions then, are not an effort to seek God. Instead, they are an effort to avoid the true God by substituting false gods. Because people do not naturally seek to know God, God seeks them. In spite of our sinfulness, God still loves us and is working in our hearts, to draw us to Himself. If you have come to know Jesus Christ, it is because God was seeking you. Take time now, to let Him know how grateful you are for that.

Readings for today: Rom. 1:18-23; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:18; Jer. 29:13-14; John 6:44; Jer. 31:3