Week 7 - Tuesday

Useless People

all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." (Romans 3:12)

The fourth charge Paul makes against man is that they have all have turned aside. Here Paul is quoting from Psalm 14:3. Turned aside is from the Greek word ekklino, which means to turn away (to deviate) from the right course or way. It was sometimes used to refer to a soldier running away in battle. Man by his very nature is sinful, spiritually ignorant, and naturally tries to avoid God. As a result, every person is naturally inclined to turn aside from God's way and go their own way. People are rebellious by nature. They don't like to be told what to do. When they are told, their natural response is to do the opposite and then convince themselves that their way is the right way. Unfortunately this it what leads to their ultimate destruction. What if you were on a trip. You want to go to Canada but after traveling for some time you discover you are headed the wrong direction. Every mile you go takes you further from your destination. What you need to do is turn around and go the other way. If you don't you will end up in the wrong place. In life, every person is on their way to one of two destinations. Man's way leads to destruction and God's way leads to eternal life. Every person's natural tendency is to want to go their own way. In order to go the right direction (God's way) a person needs to turn around. They need to humble themselves, admit they are going the wrong way, and turn around to follow Christ.

Paul's next charge against man is that they have become useless. Those who reject God's way are worthless to God. In John 15:5-6 Jesus used an analogy to demonstrate this truth. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Unless a person has a saving relationship with Christ, nothing they do is pleasing to God. They are worthless to God and fit only for destruction. This leads into a sixth charge against man. Continuing to quote Psalm 14:3, Paul says that there is none who does good, there is not even one. Most unsaved people believe they are basically good people. They may admit that they sometimes do bad things, but they usually think they do more good things than bad. For the most part, they see themselves as good people who sometimes do bad things. But if perfection is the true standard of judgment, what they really are is bad people, who sometimes do good things. By the world's standards, unsaved people do things that are good. However by God's standard, even the good things they think that they do are not truly good unless they are done for God's glory. In addition, unless a person has come to Christ, the good they may do is still corrupted by their sins. In order to be able to do anything that is truly good, a person first must come to Jesus Christ and have their sins washed away. When a person comes to Christ they are also given a new heart by God. They are given a heart that wants to obey God and seeks to honor Him. It is only then that their deeds are truly good and pleasing to God.

Readings for today: Isa. 53:6; Prov. 14:12; Isa. 64:6; John 6:28-29; John 14:6