ROMANS 3
9 What then? Are we Jewsany 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; 11no 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 beingwill be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. – Romans 3:9-19
ROMANS 3 NO ONE DOES GOOD
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
Can anyone claim that they are good at what they do?
Does anyone truly understand or comprehend God?
He who thinks he is good is a liar because only God is good
Even Jesus himself didn’t claim that he was good.
We live in a world system that is plagued by standards of perfection. This system focuses on the “self” in relation to the world around it. The standard it follows is to be accepted as “good if not better or best.” The system propagates comparisons which generates envy and power struggles including all sorts of conflicts of various kinds. He says it very clearly in James 3:16: For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. In this letter, Paul points out to both the Jews and Gentiles that there is no one who does good. In Mark 10:18, Jesus corrects someone who called him good. Only God is good according to our Lord Jesus Christ. He humbled himself to become human and doesn’t claim anything else that the Father hasn’t given him.
REFLECTION
- What does the idea of “being good” do to believers and unbelievers alike?
